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January 1, 2009 - First off a Happy New Year to all our readers.
December 27, 2009 - With the bidding dragging on in the Cadbury situation, Kraft has bid who knows about
Hershey, Ferrero is saying that it's still thinking over a bid themselves. Ferrero makers of Nutella and Tic tacs
among other confectionery items is large enough to make such a move. Chicago-based Mintel International
reports that the recession has not slowed the growth in the demand for chocolate. While a mature economy
like the United States only posted a modest 2.6% increase in consumption. Emerging countries like China,
18% gain and the Ukraine 12% gain are really pushing world wide consumption to new heights.
December 16, 2009 - The BBC has an excellent piece about the differences in American mass produced
chocolate like Hershey and British mass produced chocolate like Cadbury. Of course there is some residual
fear that a Hershey takeover of could lead to a gradual changing of the Cadbury formula. Hershey uses more
sugar and different cocoa beans for starters. BBC also has five nice pictures from the past of the Cadbury
factory at Bournemouth. The factory dates back to 1879 and the pictures are from the 1930s. One interesting
little factoid was that Cadbury was a major employer of women and when they got married the company
would present them with a bible and a carnation. Things are heating up a bit in Kraft's bid for Cadbury. Kraft
has announced they wont raise their offer even though Cadbury stock prices have been trending up.
Peterbrooke Chocolatier franchise owner Ronnie Barnes and her staff outdid themselves recently and
concocted a beautiful chocolate house. Ms. Barnes didn't want to sell the house but didn't want it to go to
waste either. As fate would have it she learned that the grand daughter of a customer was battling Hodgkin’s
lymphoma, and her family could use some help with the cost of care. Therefore she's taking contributions for
the family and is going to raffle off the house with the proceeds going to help the child. The Shanghaist has a
small piece about Chinese made chocolate bars that are available in Shanghai. Nestle sees little
improvement in the United Kingdom's chocolate market in the upcoming year. With record high cocoa prices
the company doesn't feel profits will increase in the near future.
December 12, 2009 - With the current round of consolidation hitting the chocolate business and everyone in
the industry focused on what may end up happening to Cadbury, Lindt & Spruengli felt obligated to deny
rumors that they were being acquired by Nestle. Kraft Foods has offered concessions in its possible
acquiring of Cadbury. The company has come under fire by some regulators in Europe as they fear that the
combined Kraft/Cadbury firm will stifle competition. Out of Australia comes this easy to prepare recipe for
chocolate rum balls. Creative Loafing has quick but insightful reviews on three of the better hot chocolate
spots in Atlanta. Worth a look if you're in the area. In the Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, a
committee appointed by the government has recommended that the cocoa industry be reorganized with the
role of the private sector cut back The government would set prices paid to farmers according to the source
interviewed in the article. Bellaonline has a recipe for whipping up a quick batch of Chocolate Spritz cookies.
We've never tried them before but they look delicious. In Germany a chocolate company is ramping up to
produce 22 pound chocolate Santas that will retail for $300.
December 06, 2009 - Mary Ann O'Brien, the founder and managing director of Lily O'Brien's Chocolates, has
won the Irish Enterprise of the Year Award at the 2009 Business and Finance US Awards in New York.
Britain's Economy Minister Peter Mandelson has warned US food conglomerate Kraft against trying to take
over British chocolate manufacturer Cadbury only to make a "fast buck".
December 04, 2009 - In Colorado two business women have created their own new chocolate and popcorn
company in the teeth of the recession. The company was founded by Amy Tarrant and cake designer Deanna
Liebl to form "Too Haute Cowgirls." They've already have 20 wholesale accounts and their wares have been
featured at the Governor's house. Karen Hancock BellaOnline's Desserts Editor has posted a recipe
Chocolate Pecan Bourbon Balls that looks promising. We here at EchocolateNYC have been big fans of
Hershey's Bliss line, the chocolates with the melt away centers, and we're curious to try Hershey’s Bliss
White Chocolate with a Meltaway Center. You can read the press release here. Phillips Candy House, the
venerable shop that's been selling chocolate since 1925 is running a 10% sale off all Internet orders sale.
You can read the press release here. It's raining press releases here at the eChocolateNYC headquarters
and next up is Nestle Canada where the celebration is on for the Nestle Turtle who's celebrating his 60th
Birthday. Whom ever thought up the idea of mixing caramel, pecans and chocolate was a visionary of sorts.
The press release has some nice pictures and video of Mr. Turtle and his friends. In the United Kingdom
chocolate companies have been receptive to customer's complaints and have been flexible in fixing them.
Nestle UK received more than 8,000 complaints when it changed the packaging in 2007 on its Black Magic
chocolates from black and red to white. They also changed some of the chocolates in the mix. Switching back
the company picked Linda Christian, commonly known as the Denby Witch, to host it's relaunch party. The
company sent her chocolates and balloons to hold the party. Stars and Stripes has a nice piece about "
Cadbury World" in Birmingham, England. We've been to Hershey World and have added a trip to Cadbury
World on our things to do list.
November 26, 2009 - Happy Thanksgiving. We are quite behind in our postings so bear with us as we catch
up. With Nestles SA now getting involved with the bidding for Cadbury the firms shares have jumped to a five
year high. It will be interesting to see who ends up with what with Hershey, Kraft and Ferrero all previously
showing interest in Cadbury.
November 22, 2009 - TCHO out of California has introduced a new product to their lineup, TCHOPro Baking
Drops. The drops range from 66 - 68 % and are flat, quarter sized which saves you slicing up slabs of
chocolate when baking. A neat little factoid about Thomas Jefferson from a letter he wrote to John Adams in
1785, courtesy of the Coeur d'Alene Press. "The superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, will
soon give it the same preference over tea and coffee in America which it has in Spain...". He was talking
about drinking, hot chocolate and he missed the mark a bit. Central Jersey.com has an interesting piece
about the forming of Madecasse, the company that imports all of its beans from Madagascar. The company
was founded by Tim McCollum and Brett Beach who met each other when serving in the Peace Corps. The
partners claim to pay more than twice the fair trade price for the beans and get in return the ability to influence
the quality. It looks like rumors that Hershey is preparing to bid on Cadbury may be coming true. The
company which is usually very conservative in its outside investments has been talking to JPMorgan Chase
and the Merrill Lynch unit of Bank of America to obtain financing for the bid according to recent press reports..
November 20, 2009 - If you happen to be around the Jensen Community Center in Amherst, Wisconsin
tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. take a peek at The Festival of Chocolate. It's twelve dollars at the door and
you get numerous local vendors plus the opportunity to enter your goods in a chocolate Cook Off. We're not
quite sure why but a car dealer at the Porsche Centrum Gelderland dealership in Holland had a Porsche 911
Carrera S coated in chocolate by chocolatier Jan Blanckelt.
November 17, 2009 - The Orange County Register has an interesting piece about the new million dollar
campaign to sell chocolate and other flavored milks as healthy alternatives to soft drinks. Jo Fairley the co-
founder of Green & Blacks, the English organic chocolate firm, speaks about her fears of Cadbury being
taken over by Kraft.. Her firm was acquired by Cadbury, a company that she feels is socially conscious. A
takeover by Kraft is a whole other matter in her opinion. Every year around this time the Royal British Legion
raises money through its poppy appeal to help the cause of uniformed men and women in the country. This
year Alan Edwards, the owner of Minerva Chocolate Shop in Colchester, is raffling off a chocolate Santa he
had especially commissioned in Belgium. He says he would charge 700 pounds for the Santa but you can
enter the raffle for 1 pound with all of the proceeds going to the poppy appeal.
November 12, 2009 - Sunil Kochhar of the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, conducted
clinical trials and has concluded that people that consume 40 grams of dark chocolate a day suffer less from
stress. Bloomberg reports that with cocoa stockpiles shrinking the cocoa futures may start trending further
upward. Owatonna, Minnesota is the home of Costas’ Candies & Restaurant. The business has been
turning out sweets in town since 1919. In October Grant Schultz, a long term resident of the town,
August 26, 2009 - William Curley the 37-year-old chocolate king, being the three-time winner of the Best
British Chocolatier Award with 20 years in the business has some tips for aspiring chocolatiers. Nestle UK is
attempting to make more of its packaging green. They have cut back on the weight of the packaging for this
years Christmas boxes as well as getting rid of the plastic inserts and making the actual box recyclable.
August 22, 2009 - While strolling through SOHO earlier today we came across Kiteya Soho, a shop with a
beautiful selection of Japanese products. The store is a pleasure to visit, well laid out with a very friendly staff.
While there we espied boxes of Matcha Tiramisu Chocolates. The boxes themselves make for nice
presentation pieces and we've sampled the chocolates in the past and they're pretty tasty. Matcha is
powdered green tea that is used to flavor many products and the combination works out surprisingly well. So
if you're visiting Marie Belle or Kee's take a look at Kiteya Soho, you'll be happy you did. Maureen Hirsch, of
Aspen, Colorado, was banged up by a bear who forced open her house's locked french doors and headed for
the kitchen. Ms. Hirsch ran for safety as the bear settled in for a meal of chocolate toffee. The bear high tailed
it out of there when law enforcement showed up. Mars Snackfood US announced that it will return for its fifth
consecutive year as the official chocolate sponsor of the 61st Primetime Emmy® Awards Governors Ball, with
its DOVE® Chocolate and FLING(TM) Chocolate brands. You can read the press release here. We've
reported on the product, camel's milk chocolate, of Al Nassma Chocolate LLC before. The company located
in Dubai is producing and retailing their chocolates with locally sourced camel's milk. We had wondered with
the hot temperatures in Dubai how they planned on shipping their product to other countries as the company
has plans to make their product available world wide. In partnership with UPS they've devised a method to get
their chocolate to you safe and sound. John Tansey, General Manager, UPS UAE LLC, stated:
'It has been a fantastic challenge to understand and manage the cultural and logistical issues presented by
transporting Al Nassma's camel milk chocolates. Using temperature controlled packaging and strategic
routing enables the chocolates to be transported at optimal temperatures and spend the shortest possible
time in transit. This way, we ensure timely, safe and quality-controlled delivery of what can be considered as
the signature chocolate of Arabia.' We wish Al Nassma Chocolate the best and look forward to the day their
chocolate is available here in NYC so that we may finally sample it. It's a shame we heard about this a little
to late or we would have been heading to Beaufort, South Carolina last night. Local shop The Chocolate Tree
in downtown Beaufort held its 25th "All You Can Eat Night". For a paltry $15 hundreds of people stayed in the
store for two hours after closing and gorged themselves. Pat Green, the shop's founder got the idea when a
customer commented that they would love to be locked in at night so they could eat away. In Belgrade, Serbia,
the commutes a big much for us otherwise we would throw our hat in the ring, the chocolate company San
Marina posted an ad looking for Serbia's first chocolate taster. Twenty thousand people applied for the job
which requires nothing more than keeping away from smoking, alcohol and having " that special something".
Good luck to all involved and we hope the company finds the right person for the job. Time has a fascinating
article by photojournalist Tomas Van Houtryve who visited North Korea in 2007 by infiltrating a communist
solidarity delegation. When he found out North Korea was looking for investors for a chocolate factory he
posed as someone in the industry and returned. His plans went awry when he found his marketing plan was
not needed and that the North Koreans were looking to produce only small quantities of chocolate to sell to
South Korean tourists.
August 21, 2009 - Hershey is expanding the Bliss line, chocolate with a melt a way center, with Hershey’s
Bliss Dark Chocolate bars and Hershey’s Bliss Milk Chocolate bars and in celebration has launched an
essay contest for women. Following the concept from the best selling book "The Necklace", well we think its
best for Hershey to speak for themselves for the rest. " Beginning August 25 through December 2009,
consumers can visit www.hersheysbliss.com to enter the Share the Bliss contest by submitting their stories
(150 words or less) of why they want to experience or be “blissed” the Hershey’s Bliss diamond necklace.
Five lucky women will be selected to share the 16.5-carat diamond necklace for two weeks and will receive
the necklace, delicious Hershey’s Bliss chocolate and a signed copy of “The Necklace.” Each winner will be
asked to share their experience with the necklace through a blog on the Hershey’s Bliss chocolate Web site
and to help select the next winner, thus connecting women nationwide. The winners will be invited to meet in
person for the first time at the Young Survival Coalition’s (YSC) spring 2010 charity benefit in New York City
where the necklace will be “blissed” for the last time. Hershey’s Bliss will continue the company’s long-
standing support of the YSC and raising awareness for breast cancer by donating the 16.5-carat diamond
necklace to the organization’s annual fund raiser." Kristin Hard is busy grinding cocoa beans and then
turning them into chocolate. She claims to be the first female bean-to-bar, small-batch chocolate maker in the
country. She calls the resulting product The Love Bar. You can purchase her bars through Cocoa Atlanta. In
June a new chocolate shop that sounds promising, Windmill, opened up in the Alrehab City section of Cairo,
Egypt. They are producing their own chocolate on machinery imported from Holland.
August 18, 2009 - After a public campaign, Cadbury in New Zealand has agreed to stop using palm oil and
go back to using cocoa butter in their formulations. Besides the difference in taste palm oil harvesting has led
to the altering of native habitats in Indonesia and Malaysia. Bespoke Chocolates wants you to know that the
City of New York has finally placed a street sign marking Extra Place making the store easier to find. In what
we here at eChocolateNYC think is a brilliant marketing move Hotel Chocolat in London has a party going on
in five of their London stores. The parties set for August 21st. Check their Moorgate store for details.
August 17, 2009 - The MN Sun has an interesting piece about John and Jan Stinchfield who are entering
their 20th year selling watermelon at the Minnesota State Fair. The couple is introducing this year chocolate
covered watermelon on a stick to their array of fruit products that they sell. The South Bend Chocolate Co.,
South Bend, Indiana, was burglarized and their safe, which was empty, was taken into the parking lot. A
passerby observed someone in a car ramming the safe, probably trying to steal it. When he told the driver to
stop the driver tried to run him down.
August 16, 2009 - Bespoke Chocolates down on Extra Place has introduced some ice cream inspired
flavors for the Summer. The flavors are White Chocolate Toasted Almond Truffles and Blood Orange
"Creamsicle" Bonbons. As with everything that comes out of Bespoke they're pretty darn good and are a
pleasant break from "serious" truffles composed of exotic ingredients. With the success of his ice cream
shop, right next door to his DUMBO chocolate shop, Jacques Torres, has added ice cream carts to his King
Street and Amsterdam Avenue stores. Sounds like a perfect place to cool down.
August 15, 2009 - NPR has a 97 second piece from the Grand Sablon in Brussels Belgium. The area has
many of the world's great chocolate businesses. Apparently even with the recession tourists are buying
chocolate and taking it home. The Indian children's store chain, Toon Kidz, closing in on it's hundredth store,
is planning on launching its own line of chocolates and candies. The chocolate will be branded with thier
name and be available in their shops across India. Patchi, the chocolate firm based in Lebanon is looking to
list their stock on the Dubai exchange with a secondary listing on the London Exchange to raise money to fuel
expansion. It seems that the company wants to create a chain of shops that will sell their chocolate along
with coffee and snacks. They would be like a "high end" Starbucks. The company had a rough year and
closed 14 shops in the US, Canada, Australia and Nigeria. With incomes growing, the chocolate business
has been expanding quickly in the Middle East. It's estimated the market for confections in the region has
grown by 15% in the last 3 years. To encourage further growth the co-located exhibitions, Sweets Middle East
and the inaugural Sweet & SnackTec Middle East, will take place from 2 – 4 November 2009 at Dubai
International Convention and Exhibition Centre. Exhibitors will include manufacturers and also equipment
makers. Sam the koala suffered second- and third-degree burns to her paws in the February fires that
ravaged Victoria, Australia. She became iconic after being fed from a water bottle by a fire fighter who has
helped rescue her. She passed away the other day and now it looks like Sam's image may live on in a line of
chocolates that will be sold in Australia. The September 2009 issue of the Journal Of Internal Medicine has
the results of a study that finds that those who have suffered a heart attack cut their risks of dying from a future
heart attack three fold if they consume chocolate at least two times a week. The study was conducted in
Stockholm, Sweden. Tipton Mills, which makes chocolate syrup and hot chocolate mix, is investing 1.2
million dollars in equipment and renovation in a factory they are taking over in Columbus, Indiana. Raj
Kansal, was looking for chocolates for his wedding 14 years ago. He became so interested in chocolate from
the experience he went to Belgium and studied chocolate making. Then in the United Kingdom he started his
own chocolate firm, Exclusive Chocolates. Located in Southminster he's been visiting schools to teach about
chocolate. He's now hoping to renovate some abandoned chicken barns so that he can use them as a facility
to give children a more hands on experience. World sugar prices keep trending upwards. At 21 cents a
pound we are fast approaching prices not seen since the early 1980s. There seems to be a variety of
reasons for the uptick including weather and investor speculation.
August 11, 2009 - File this under why are all the good jobs in other countries. Nestle is advertising in
England for chocolate tasters. No overtrained, sophisticated palate. Just a love of chocolate and the ability to
communicate what you're tasting is all that's required. NPR has a nice, little piece with Timothy Childs, co
founder of San Francisco's TCHO.
August 7, 2009 - Things are looking up for chocolate lovers in Belleville, Canada. The Donini Chocolate
Factory, on Bell Boulevard, has opened a retail outlet. The factory has been in town since 1979 and their
previous retail shop closed three years ago.
August 6, 2009 - Just a reminder August 10th is national S'mores Day. Over the years we here at
eChocolateNYC have seen some pretty creative S'Mores recipes involving homemade marshmallows and
high caliber chocolate. Even still call us old school, call us crazy, we loved the big old regular gooey
marshmallows on a slab of Hersheys chocolate on top of a graham cracker. With that in mid Hersheys has
some good S'Mores info posted on line and you can take a look at it here. Cocopotamus previously only
available online has inked a deal with FamilyQuest Marketing which will make their product available in
Colorado, Wyoming, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mississippi. You can take a look at the
companies press release here.
August 5, 2009 - With the fan inspired relaunch of the Wispa Gold Bar Cadbury has made a unique one of a
kind bar to raise money for charity. Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet introduced the bar to the world at
Selfridges in London where it will be on display. The bar costs $1648 US and will be on display for one week.
It is a Wispa bar coated with gold leaf and the wrapper is also gold leaf. If the bar sells the money will go to
the UK Lowe Syndrome Trust. A nice interview with Thierry Muret the master chocolatier for Godiva in the NY
Post. He's held the post for 21 years and responsible for a lot of the development in the modern commercial
chocolate world.
August 4, 2009 - If you are going to be in York, Maine on August 14th you might want to check out the annual
Chocolate Fest at St. George's Episcopal Church in York Harbor. It will run from 6 - 8:30 pm and proceeds
will benefit the church's library. The Morning Call a Pennsylvania site has a nice piece about the Hershey
Museum with a minute or so of video footage. Whatever you may think of Hershey chocolate today without
pioneers like Milton Hershey there never would have been the market in the United States that there is today.
He was also a generous man giving away his money to help children as freely as he made it. Its possible
chocolate prices may be rising soon. Chocolate futures have reached their highest price in ten months with
uncertainty in the Ivory Coast topping the list of possible glitches in the world's cocoa supply.
August 3, 2009 - In Great Britain Cadbury has nearly tripled their net profit over the first half of the year
compared to last year. That comes out to a cool 513 million US dollars. The company pocketed a nice piece
of change divesting their soft drink arm and they've found sales increasing in Great Britain as the recession
continues. The Dubai Festival City has an interesting display running through August 14th. It's called
Chocovilla and it leads its visitors through a chocolate house where they learn all about chocolate. Nestle
has put together gift bags for the visitors.
December 27, 2009 - With the bidding dragging on in the Cadbury situation, Kraft has bid who knows about
Hershey, Ferrero is saying that it's still thinking over a bid themselves. Ferrero makers of Nutella and Tic tacs
among other confectionery items is large enough to make such a move. Chicago-based Mintel International
reports that the recession has not slowed the growth in the demand for chocolate. While a mature economy
like the United States only posted a modest 2.6% increase in consumption. Emerging countries like China,
18% gain and the Ukraine 12% gain are really pushing world wide consumption to new heights.
December 16, 2009 - The BBC has an excellent piece about the differences in American mass produced
chocolate like Hershey and British mass produced chocolate like Cadbury. Of course there is some residual
fear that a Hershey takeover of could lead to a gradual changing of the Cadbury formula. Hershey uses more
sugar and different cocoa beans for starters. BBC also has five nice pictures from the past of the Cadbury
factory at Bournemouth. The factory dates back to 1879 and the pictures are from the 1930s. One interesting
little factoid was that Cadbury was a major employer of women and when they got married the company
would present them with a bible and a carnation. Things are heating up a bit in Kraft's bid for Cadbury. Kraft
has announced they wont raise their offer even though Cadbury stock prices have been trending up.
Peterbrooke Chocolatier franchise owner Ronnie Barnes and her staff outdid themselves recently and
concocted a beautiful chocolate house. Ms. Barnes didn't want to sell the house but didn't want it to go to
waste either. As fate would have it she learned that the grand daughter of a customer was battling Hodgkin’s
lymphoma, and her family could use some help with the cost of care. Therefore she's taking contributions for
the family and is going to raffle off the house with the proceeds going to help the child. The Shanghaist has a
small piece about Chinese made chocolate bars that are available in Shanghai. Nestle sees little
improvement in the United Kingdom's chocolate market in the upcoming year. With record high cocoa prices
the company doesn't feel profits will increase in the near future.
December 12, 2009 - With the current round of consolidation hitting the chocolate business and everyone in
the industry focused on what may end up happening to Cadbury, Lindt & Spruengli felt obligated to deny
rumors that they were being acquired by Nestle. Kraft Foods has offered concessions in its possible
acquiring of Cadbury. The company has come under fire by some regulators in Europe as they fear that the
combined Kraft/Cadbury firm will stifle competition. Out of Australia comes this easy to prepare recipe for
chocolate rum balls. Creative Loafing has quick but insightful reviews on three of the better hot chocolate
spots in Atlanta. Worth a look if you're in the area. In the Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer, a
committee appointed by the government has recommended that the cocoa industry be reorganized with the
role of the private sector cut back The government would set prices paid to farmers according to the source
interviewed in the article. Bellaonline has a recipe for whipping up a quick batch of Chocolate Spritz cookies.
We've never tried them before but they look delicious. In Germany a chocolate company is ramping up to
produce 22 pound chocolate Santas that will retail for $300.
December 06, 2009 - Mary Ann O'Brien, the founder and managing director of Lily O'Brien's Chocolates, has
won the Irish Enterprise of the Year Award at the 2009 Business and Finance US Awards in New York.
Britain's Economy Minister Peter Mandelson has warned US food conglomerate Kraft against trying to take
over British chocolate manufacturer Cadbury only to make a "fast buck".
December 04, 2009 - In Colorado two business women have created their own new chocolate and popcorn
company in the teeth of the recession. The company was founded by Amy Tarrant and cake designer Deanna
Liebl to form "Too Haute Cowgirls." They've already have 20 wholesale accounts and their wares have been
featured at the Governor's house. Karen Hancock BellaOnline's Desserts Editor has posted a recipe
Chocolate Pecan Bourbon Balls that looks promising. We here at EchocolateNYC have been big fans of
Hershey's Bliss line, the chocolates with the melt away centers, and we're curious to try Hershey’s Bliss
White Chocolate with a Meltaway Center. You can read the press release here. Phillips Candy House, the
venerable shop that's been selling chocolate since 1925 is running a 10% sale off all Internet orders sale.
You can read the press release here. It's raining press releases here at the eChocolateNYC headquarters
and next up is Nestle Canada where the celebration is on for the Nestle Turtle who's celebrating his 60th
Birthday. Whom ever thought up the idea of mixing caramel, pecans and chocolate was a visionary of sorts.
The press release has some nice pictures and video of Mr. Turtle and his friends. In the United Kingdom
chocolate companies have been receptive to customer's complaints and have been flexible in fixing them.
Nestle UK received more than 8,000 complaints when it changed the packaging in 2007 on its Black Magic
chocolates from black and red to white. They also changed some of the chocolates in the mix. Switching back
the company picked Linda Christian, commonly known as the Denby Witch, to host it's relaunch party. The
company sent her chocolates and balloons to hold the party. Stars and Stripes has a nice piece about "
Cadbury World" in Birmingham, England. We've been to Hershey World and have added a trip to Cadbury
World on our things to do list.
November 26, 2009 - Happy Thanksgiving. We are quite behind in our postings so bear with us as we catch
up. With Nestles SA now getting involved with the bidding for Cadbury the firms shares have jumped to a five
year high. It will be interesting to see who ends up with what with Hershey, Kraft and Ferrero all previously
showing interest in Cadbury.
November 22, 2009 - TCHO out of California has introduced a new product to their lineup, TCHOPro Baking
Drops. The drops range from 66 - 68 % and are flat, quarter sized which saves you slicing up slabs of
chocolate when baking. A neat little factoid about Thomas Jefferson from a letter he wrote to John Adams in
1785, courtesy of the Coeur d'Alene Press. "The superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, will
soon give it the same preference over tea and coffee in America which it has in Spain...". He was talking
about drinking, hot chocolate and he missed the mark a bit. Central Jersey.com has an interesting piece
about the forming of Madecasse, the company that imports all of its beans from Madagascar. The company
was founded by Tim McCollum and Brett Beach who met each other when serving in the Peace Corps. The
partners claim to pay more than twice the fair trade price for the beans and get in return the ability to influence
the quality. It looks like rumors that Hershey is preparing to bid on Cadbury may be coming true. The
company which is usually very conservative in its outside investments has been talking to JPMorgan Chase
and the Merrill Lynch unit of Bank of America to obtain financing for the bid according to recent press reports..
November 20, 2009 - If you happen to be around the Jensen Community Center in Amherst, Wisconsin
tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. take a peek at The Festival of Chocolate. It's twelve dollars at the door and
you get numerous local vendors plus the opportunity to enter your goods in a chocolate Cook Off. We're not
quite sure why but a car dealer at the Porsche Centrum Gelderland dealership in Holland had a Porsche 911
Carrera S coated in chocolate by chocolatier Jan Blanckelt.
November 17, 2009 - The Orange County Register has an interesting piece about the new million dollar
campaign to sell chocolate and other flavored milks as healthy alternatives to soft drinks. Jo Fairley the co-
founder of Green & Blacks, the English organic chocolate firm, speaks about her fears of Cadbury being
taken over by Kraft.. Her firm was acquired by Cadbury, a company that she feels is socially conscious. A
takeover by Kraft is a whole other matter in her opinion. Every year around this time the Royal British Legion
raises money through its poppy appeal to help the cause of uniformed men and women in the country. This
year Alan Edwards, the owner of Minerva Chocolate Shop in Colchester, is raffling off a chocolate Santa he
had especially commissioned in Belgium. He says he would charge 700 pounds for the Santa but you can
enter the raffle for 1 pound with all of the proceeds going to the poppy appeal.
November 12, 2009 - Sunil Kochhar of the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, conducted
clinical trials and has concluded that people that consume 40 grams of dark chocolate a day suffer less from
stress. Bloomberg reports that with cocoa stockpiles shrinking the cocoa futures may start trending further
upward. Owatonna, Minnesota is the home of Costas’ Candies & Restaurant. The business has been
turning out sweets in town since 1919. In October Grant Schultz, a long term resident of the town,
August 26, 2009 - William Curley the 37-year-old chocolate king, being the three-time winner of the Best
British Chocolatier Award with 20 years in the business has some tips for aspiring chocolatiers. Nestle UK is
attempting to make more of its packaging green. They have cut back on the weight of the packaging for this
years Christmas boxes as well as getting rid of the plastic inserts and making the actual box recyclable.
August 22, 2009 - While strolling through SOHO earlier today we came across Kiteya Soho, a shop with a
beautiful selection of Japanese products. The store is a pleasure to visit, well laid out with a very friendly staff.
While there we espied boxes of Matcha Tiramisu Chocolates. The boxes themselves make for nice
presentation pieces and we've sampled the chocolates in the past and they're pretty tasty. Matcha is
powdered green tea that is used to flavor many products and the combination works out surprisingly well. So
if you're visiting Marie Belle or Kee's take a look at Kiteya Soho, you'll be happy you did. Maureen Hirsch, of
Aspen, Colorado, was banged up by a bear who forced open her house's locked french doors and headed for
the kitchen. Ms. Hirsch ran for safety as the bear settled in for a meal of chocolate toffee. The bear high tailed
it out of there when law enforcement showed up. Mars Snackfood US announced that it will return for its fifth
consecutive year as the official chocolate sponsor of the 61st Primetime Emmy® Awards Governors Ball, with
its DOVE® Chocolate and FLING(TM) Chocolate brands. You can read the press release here. We've
reported on the product, camel's milk chocolate, of Al Nassma Chocolate LLC before. The company located
in Dubai is producing and retailing their chocolates with locally sourced camel's milk. We had wondered with
the hot temperatures in Dubai how they planned on shipping their product to other countries as the company
has plans to make their product available world wide. In partnership with UPS they've devised a method to get
their chocolate to you safe and sound. John Tansey, General Manager, UPS UAE LLC, stated:
'It has been a fantastic challenge to understand and manage the cultural and logistical issues presented by
transporting Al Nassma's camel milk chocolates. Using temperature controlled packaging and strategic
routing enables the chocolates to be transported at optimal temperatures and spend the shortest possible
time in transit. This way, we ensure timely, safe and quality-controlled delivery of what can be considered as
the signature chocolate of Arabia.' We wish Al Nassma Chocolate the best and look forward to the day their
chocolate is available here in NYC so that we may finally sample it. It's a shame we heard about this a little
to late or we would have been heading to Beaufort, South Carolina last night. Local shop The Chocolate Tree
in downtown Beaufort held its 25th "All You Can Eat Night". For a paltry $15 hundreds of people stayed in the
store for two hours after closing and gorged themselves. Pat Green, the shop's founder got the idea when a
customer commented that they would love to be locked in at night so they could eat away. In Belgrade, Serbia,
the commutes a big much for us otherwise we would throw our hat in the ring, the chocolate company San
Marina posted an ad looking for Serbia's first chocolate taster. Twenty thousand people applied for the job
which requires nothing more than keeping away from smoking, alcohol and having " that special something".
Good luck to all involved and we hope the company finds the right person for the job. Time has a fascinating
article by photojournalist Tomas Van Houtryve who visited North Korea in 2007 by infiltrating a communist
solidarity delegation. When he found out North Korea was looking for investors for a chocolate factory he
posed as someone in the industry and returned. His plans went awry when he found his marketing plan was
not needed and that the North Koreans were looking to produce only small quantities of chocolate to sell to
South Korean tourists.
August 21, 2009 - Hershey is expanding the Bliss line, chocolate with a melt a way center, with Hershey’s
Bliss Dark Chocolate bars and Hershey’s Bliss Milk Chocolate bars and in celebration has launched an
essay contest for women. Following the concept from the best selling book "The Necklace", well we think its
best for Hershey to speak for themselves for the rest. " Beginning August 25 through December 2009,
consumers can visit www.hersheysbliss.com to enter the Share the Bliss contest by submitting their stories
(150 words or less) of why they want to experience or be “blissed” the Hershey’s Bliss diamond necklace.
Five lucky women will be selected to share the 16.5-carat diamond necklace for two weeks and will receive
the necklace, delicious Hershey’s Bliss chocolate and a signed copy of “The Necklace.” Each winner will be
asked to share their experience with the necklace through a blog on the Hershey’s Bliss chocolate Web site
and to help select the next winner, thus connecting women nationwide. The winners will be invited to meet in
person for the first time at the Young Survival Coalition’s (YSC) spring 2010 charity benefit in New York City
where the necklace will be “blissed” for the last time. Hershey’s Bliss will continue the company’s long-
standing support of the YSC and raising awareness for breast cancer by donating the 16.5-carat diamond
necklace to the organization’s annual fund raiser." Kristin Hard is busy grinding cocoa beans and then
turning them into chocolate. She claims to be the first female bean-to-bar, small-batch chocolate maker in the
country. She calls the resulting product The Love Bar. You can purchase her bars through Cocoa Atlanta. In
June a new chocolate shop that sounds promising, Windmill, opened up in the Alrehab City section of Cairo,
Egypt. They are producing their own chocolate on machinery imported from Holland.
August 18, 2009 - After a public campaign, Cadbury in New Zealand has agreed to stop using palm oil and
go back to using cocoa butter in their formulations. Besides the difference in taste palm oil harvesting has led
to the altering of native habitats in Indonesia and Malaysia. Bespoke Chocolates wants you to know that the
City of New York has finally placed a street sign marking Extra Place making the store easier to find. In what
we here at eChocolateNYC think is a brilliant marketing move Hotel Chocolat in London has a party going on
in five of their London stores. The parties set for August 21st. Check their Moorgate store for details.
August 17, 2009 - The MN Sun has an interesting piece about John and Jan Stinchfield who are entering
their 20th year selling watermelon at the Minnesota State Fair. The couple is introducing this year chocolate
covered watermelon on a stick to their array of fruit products that they sell. The South Bend Chocolate Co.,
South Bend, Indiana, was burglarized and their safe, which was empty, was taken into the parking lot. A
passerby observed someone in a car ramming the safe, probably trying to steal it. When he told the driver to
stop the driver tried to run him down.
August 16, 2009 - Bespoke Chocolates down on Extra Place has introduced some ice cream inspired
flavors for the Summer. The flavors are White Chocolate Toasted Almond Truffles and Blood Orange
"Creamsicle" Bonbons. As with everything that comes out of Bespoke they're pretty darn good and are a
pleasant break from "serious" truffles composed of exotic ingredients. With the success of his ice cream
shop, right next door to his DUMBO chocolate shop, Jacques Torres, has added ice cream carts to his King
Street and Amsterdam Avenue stores. Sounds like a perfect place to cool down.
August 15, 2009 - NPR has a 97 second piece from the Grand Sablon in Brussels Belgium. The area has
many of the world's great chocolate businesses. Apparently even with the recession tourists are buying
chocolate and taking it home. The Indian children's store chain, Toon Kidz, closing in on it's hundredth store,
is planning on launching its own line of chocolates and candies. The chocolate will be branded with thier
name and be available in their shops across India. Patchi, the chocolate firm based in Lebanon is looking to
list their stock on the Dubai exchange with a secondary listing on the London Exchange to raise money to fuel
expansion. It seems that the company wants to create a chain of shops that will sell their chocolate along
with coffee and snacks. They would be like a "high end" Starbucks. The company had a rough year and
closed 14 shops in the US, Canada, Australia and Nigeria. With incomes growing, the chocolate business
has been expanding quickly in the Middle East. It's estimated the market for confections in the region has
grown by 15% in the last 3 years. To encourage further growth the co-located exhibitions, Sweets Middle East
and the inaugural Sweet & SnackTec Middle East, will take place from 2 – 4 November 2009 at Dubai
International Convention and Exhibition Centre. Exhibitors will include manufacturers and also equipment
makers. Sam the koala suffered second- and third-degree burns to her paws in the February fires that
ravaged Victoria, Australia. She became iconic after being fed from a water bottle by a fire fighter who has
helped rescue her. She passed away the other day and now it looks like Sam's image may live on in a line of
chocolates that will be sold in Australia. The September 2009 issue of the Journal Of Internal Medicine has
the results of a study that finds that those who have suffered a heart attack cut their risks of dying from a future
heart attack three fold if they consume chocolate at least two times a week. The study was conducted in
Stockholm, Sweden. Tipton Mills, which makes chocolate syrup and hot chocolate mix, is investing 1.2
million dollars in equipment and renovation in a factory they are taking over in Columbus, Indiana. Raj
Kansal, was looking for chocolates for his wedding 14 years ago. He became so interested in chocolate from
the experience he went to Belgium and studied chocolate making. Then in the United Kingdom he started his
own chocolate firm, Exclusive Chocolates. Located in Southminster he's been visiting schools to teach about
chocolate. He's now hoping to renovate some abandoned chicken barns so that he can use them as a facility
to give children a more hands on experience. World sugar prices keep trending upwards. At 21 cents a
pound we are fast approaching prices not seen since the early 1980s. There seems to be a variety of
reasons for the uptick including weather and investor speculation.
August 11, 2009 - File this under why are all the good jobs in other countries. Nestle is advertising in
England for chocolate tasters. No overtrained, sophisticated palate. Just a love of chocolate and the ability to
communicate what you're tasting is all that's required. NPR has a nice, little piece with Timothy Childs, co
founder of San Francisco's TCHO.
August 7, 2009 - Things are looking up for chocolate lovers in Belleville, Canada. The Donini Chocolate
Factory, on Bell Boulevard, has opened a retail outlet. The factory has been in town since 1979 and their
previous retail shop closed three years ago.
August 6, 2009 - Just a reminder August 10th is national S'mores Day. Over the years we here at
eChocolateNYC have seen some pretty creative S'Mores recipes involving homemade marshmallows and
high caliber chocolate. Even still call us old school, call us crazy, we loved the big old regular gooey
marshmallows on a slab of Hersheys chocolate on top of a graham cracker. With that in mid Hersheys has
some good S'Mores info posted on line and you can take a look at it here. Cocopotamus previously only
available online has inked a deal with FamilyQuest Marketing which will make their product available in
Colorado, Wyoming, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mississippi. You can take a look at the
companies press release here.
August 5, 2009 - With the fan inspired relaunch of the Wispa Gold Bar Cadbury has made a unique one of a
kind bar to raise money for charity. Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet introduced the bar to the world at
Selfridges in London where it will be on display. The bar costs $1648 US and will be on display for one week.
It is a Wispa bar coated with gold leaf and the wrapper is also gold leaf. If the bar sells the money will go to
the UK Lowe Syndrome Trust. A nice interview with Thierry Muret the master chocolatier for Godiva in the NY
Post. He's held the post for 21 years and responsible for a lot of the development in the modern commercial
chocolate world.
August 4, 2009 - If you are going to be in York, Maine on August 14th you might want to check out the annual
Chocolate Fest at St. George's Episcopal Church in York Harbor. It will run from 6 - 8:30 pm and proceeds
will benefit the church's library. The Morning Call a Pennsylvania site has a nice piece about the Hershey
Museum with a minute or so of video footage. Whatever you may think of Hershey chocolate today without
pioneers like Milton Hershey there never would have been the market in the United States that there is today.
He was also a generous man giving away his money to help children as freely as he made it. Its possible
chocolate prices may be rising soon. Chocolate futures have reached their highest price in ten months with
uncertainty in the Ivory Coast topping the list of possible glitches in the world's cocoa supply.
August 3, 2009 - In Great Britain Cadbury has nearly tripled their net profit over the first half of the year
compared to last year. That comes out to a cool 513 million US dollars. The company pocketed a nice piece
of change divesting their soft drink arm and they've found sales increasing in Great Britain as the recession
continues. The Dubai Festival City has an interesting display running through August 14th. It's called
Chocovilla and it leads its visitors through a chocolate house where they learn all about chocolate. Nestle
has put together gift bags for the visitors.
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