In addition to the traditional Easter Bunny sitting in paranoid profile, the landmark Blasius Chocolate Factory on Venango Street in Kensington stocks 150 varieties in its 21,000-square-foot warehouse.
"The skateboard bunny seems to be going fast," said Phil Bernick, whose family-owned business will go through about 10,000 pounds of chocolate this holiday to keep the bunnies reproducing.
The famous Lore's Chocolates on South 7th Street in Center City stocks 20 different varieties: Names like "Rocket Bunny," "Farmer Bunny," "Pot Belly Bunny," "VIP Bunny" (in a suit holding carrots), "Motorcycle Bunny," "Rooster & Rabbit" (a rabbit riding a rooster) and the "Big Big Bunny."
A few blocks away on Market Street, legendary Shane's Candy offers "Pistol Pete Bunny," "Soccer Bunny," "Hockey Pete," "Rabbit on Toadstool" and "Rabbit with Eggs."
As Easter Sunday fast approaches the rabbits are flying off the shelves faster than they can multiply.
And few places are more fertile for the candy critters than Pennsylvania, which leads the nation in the number of candy-making stores and factories, and is second behind New York State in chocolate-making factories, according to the Chocolate Manufacturers Association in McLean, Va.
The Philadelphia region in particular once boasted some 100 chocolate makers, including some of the nation's oldest, for whom the Easter holiday is the busiest time of year.
Despite the rush to get bunny to basket, there is more to the chocolate rabbit than meets the sugared eye.
There is history and tradition. Nuance and art. Controversy over impostors. And debate over matters of taste, religion and philosophy.
Issues that must be considered before you blithely bite the head off Peter Cottontail (the chocolate version, that is).
