By Chris Cannon
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Peanut Shop in Nashville's downtown Arcade has been around for more than 80 years. For the first time Friday, the popular candy and nut store offered chocolate-covered cicadas to is customers.
"They've been coming in since 9:30 asking for them," said owner Olivia Swallows.
The people behind The Peanut Shop put a message on the store's Facebook page and that is all it took to get the curious in for a taste test.
"We gave away all the chocolate covered cicadas before we got rid of our chocolate covered strawberries today," according to Swallows.
One by one, people tried the popular confection.
"Oh it's good," explained customer Sarah Jane Cold.
That was the consensus among the brave-hearted who took a taste.
But all that bravery was actually in vain.
"There's a delicious surprise inside. It's actually a chocolate-covered honey toasted pecan," Swallows revealed.
That is right, it was all a Peanut Shop prank, of sorts. The owners were not comfortable serving the real thing for health reasons.
"We got punked, oh my gosh," Cold exclaimed.
"We punked you peanut style," Swallows said with a smile.
Cold's friend Lauren Lawrence looked at the experience differently.
"I'm so glad I didn't actually eat a cicada," Lawrence said.
The two ladies were among the few that found out about the cicada-pecan swap.
"If they can't decide and they can't figure it out, then as far as they know, all weekend they get to tell all their friends they had a cicada. And that's fine by us," according to Swallows.
The Peanut Shop had such a positive response to the chocolate-covered cicadas that the owners are toying with the idea of using the real thing next week.
They have a cookbook that shows them how to safely prepare the bug for human consumption
Email: ccannon@newschannel5.com
