Welcome to Camp Week! From August 6 to August 10, CNBC Make It is celebrating all things related to camp and camping, from the best budget destinations to a summer retreat for adults interested in financial independence. Come back every day for more camp-related fun.
August 10 marks a little-known American holiday: National S'mores Day.
Though the exact date s'mores were invented remains a mystery, the first formal recipe for the treat, then called "Some Mores," is recorded in the 1927 book, "Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts." The original recipe calls for 16 graham crackers, 16 marshmallows and eight bars of chocolate broken in two.
"Though it tastes like 'some more,' one is really enough," the book says of the dessert's cheeky name.
Back in the 1920s, it would have cost less than a dollar — $0.81 to be exact — for a pound of graham crackers, a pound of marshmallows and eight Hershey's bars. Here's the price breakdown, using data from Food Timeline and Hershey's:
- 16 oz. worth of marshmallows: approximately $0.25
- 1 lb. graham crackers: approximately $0.16
- 8 Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars: $0.40 ($0.05 each)
The total for a full haul of ingredients comes to $11.66. Adjusted for inflation, s'mores ingredients cost around the same today as they did for Girl Scouts in 1927. Here's what the prices would be in 2018 dollars:
- 16 oz. worth of marshmallows: $3.60
- 1 lb. graham crackers: $2.30
- 8 Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars: $5.76
If you're planning to celebrate National S'mores Day today with a batch of the chocolate-y treats, it will cost you about $12.50 to gather the traditional ingredients. Here's the price breakdown, with all values from Target:
- 1 bag (16 oz.) Kraft Jet-Puffed marshmallows: $2.09
- 1 box (14.4 oz.) Nabisco Honey Maid graham crackers: $3.29
- 8 Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars: $7.12 ($0.89 each)
That's only 6.7 percent off from today's prices, which is surprising when you consider than almost everything has gotten much more expensive over the past hundred years.
Don't miss: 77 million Americans go camping—and 22 percent spent nothing to get started
Like this story? Subscribe to CNBC Make It on YouTube!
