100 Year Old Eats 6 Chocolate Bars A Day

Penny Bartow just may be the sweetest old lady you'd ever meet, literally. Mrs. Bartow says that she's eaten over five tons of chocolate in her lifetime. She recalls that her first bite of chocolate was 96 years ago when she was four years old. "The chocolate bar made by Lindt & Sprüngli was a gift from my father who had returned from Switzerland," she says. Mrs. Bartow states that single bar ignited a passion in her which remains to this day.

"When I was little, mother told me that candy is bad but chocolate is good for you," said Mrs. Bartow's 71 year old daughter, Kaitlen Edison. Mrs. Edison cannot remember a day that she and her mother didn't enjoy a chocolate bar. Mrs. Bartow's chocolate obsession didn't stop with munching, during the 1940's she opened her own sweet shop featuring her own confections in addition to name brand sweets. Mrs' Bartow found that her chocolates had became so popular that the national brand sweets were sitting on the shelves collecting dust, so she ate them.

Mrs. Bartow's shop closed shortly after WW2 thanks to the decline in the economy and the supply of ingredients for her chocolates were scarce. Kaitlen recalled that her mother preferred to use the small supply of ingredients for she and herself to enjoy rather than do without the flavor she loves more than life.

Of all the brands Mrs. Bartow has eaten, she most prefers Quality Street, Milka and Nestle brands. Both Mrs. Bartow and her daughter seem to avoid brands from America due to higher "filler" content. No matter the occasion, birthdays or Christmas, Mrs. Bartow's family and friends surprise her with various chocolate bars from around the world.