'Cicada Mania': Chocolate-Covered Bugs The Craze In Gaithersburg

GAITHERSBURG, MD — The weeks after Mother's Day are usually pretty slow for chocolatier Sarah Dwyer. Business slows down at her Gaithersburg shop, Chouquette Chocolates, and she typically takes some time off.

This year, though, she's experiencing an influx of orders and attention. That's because she's selling cicadas covered in chocolate.

“I was just trying to think of something that would work," Dwyer said in an interview with Patch. "And I came up with cicadas.”

Maryland is at the epicenter of the emergence of billions of cicadas from Brood X, known as the Great Eastern Brood, which began pushing their way through the ground in May. They have filled the trees as they sing mating songs, give birth and die.

She heard of a local chef who was cooking cicadas and wanted to give them a try in chocolate. Dwyer collects live cicadas near her kitchen, brings them back, freezes them (which she said is the most humane way to go about the process, according to a scientist she talked to), and then places them in boiling water to clean them.

From there, she air fries them with a bit of cinnamon and then dips them in milk chocolate or dark chocolate.

"It's so much fun," Dwyer said of collecting cicadas. "Everyone in the kitchen, even the ones that don't like bugs, are having a good time.”

Dwyer suspects that a lot of people buy them as a joke or a gift — but then they try them, realize they are actually good, and come back for more.

Something to know about the chocolate-covered cicadas: people with shellfish allergies should not eat them, according to the FDA. Dwyer says they are not for everyone — people particularly squeamish about bugs might want to pass. Still, she says people have been surprised.

"If you're a little curious but hesitant, I would say just try it," said Dwyer. "People are very surprised at how good they are. I've been a chocolatier for 10 years — if they tasted terrible I never would have put them on my website for people to buy. Never.”

Another project Dwyer has in the works is a chocolate puzzle, which she just got the provisional patent for.

"I haven't been able to do anything with it because I’m in chocolate-covered cicada mania," said Dwyer.

She joked that she worked on the idea for the edible puzzle for six months and the chocolate-covered cicadas for 30 minutes. She's working quickly to keep up with orders, shipping them overnight to make sure the chocolate doesn't melt.

The success of her idea has taken Dwyer by surprise, and some people have not been too receptive to it. People have told her that she's harming animals, that she's upset their children and plenty have left disgusted comments on her Facebook posts. Dwyer doesn't mind — she said she's too busy dipping bugs in chocolate to pay attention.

“It’s just very 2021," said Dwyer of the success. "You never know what’s going to happen.”

To order chocolate-covered cicadas, visit Chouquette Chocolate's website.

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• Should You Worry If Your Pet Hacks Up A Cicada?
• The 17-Year Cicadas Are A Call To Citizen Scientists