November 30, 2007 - A no brainer for Christmas arrived yesterday, The Sweet Riot Santa Gift Bag. Three tins of
Sweet Riot Chocolate Covered Cocoa Nibs in a nice little Santa Bag. If you haven't tried these yet they are great,
sweet and crunchy. The bag is a quality item and at $16.99 you can't beat the price. If you're looking for something a
little different this year for the office Christmas Party we heartily recommend taking a look at the catering services
provided by Trois Crepes Patisserie. Their retail location on East 75th is on the small size but when it comes to
catering and serving up some great eats they do a tremendous job. We spot them all over town, a set up at the
French Institute, making crepes at The Chocolate Show etc. For the service and quality they provide the prices are
extremely reasonable. John & Kira's has a sweet little deal. Order more than $75 worth of chocolate, per address,
and you can get free shipping through December 4th. The price of cocoa went down a bit in October, about $23 a
tonne, with an influx of beans from the Ivory Coast. The market is still volatile with high demand and uncertainty in
some bean producing countries. A unique opportunity has presented itself for the serious chocoholic. Katrina
Markoff from Vosges Haut - Chocolat will be leading a cruise tour through the ports of Greece and Turkey. She will
be conducting on board chocolate making classes as well as leading a Turkish Chocolate & Greek Pastry tasting
excursion. Blommer Chocolate is launching a sustainable cocoa farming programme in the Ivory Coast. They had
success with a program in Indonesia and found that as farmers incomes grew crop yields grew. This created a win
win situation for both sides. Increased income for the farmers and an increased supply for Blommer.
November 29, 2007 - Hershey's Cacao Reserve has some new interesting products for the Holiday season. One
item of note is The Holiday Collection Gift Bags which have 35% Cacao Holiday Spice Milk Chocolate Truffles and
65% Cacao Mint Dark Chocolate tasting squares. They also are producing Truffle Sharing Boxes and Holiday Gift
Boxes. The Cacao Reserve products we've tried in the past have been pretty tasty so even though we've yet to try
these we feel they're worth picking up if you see them. In Canada the country's Competition Bureau has received
documents from Nestle, Hershey, Cadbury and Mars explaining their respective pricing strategies. The Bureau has
not accused the companies of colluding in pricing but is investigating complaints they've received. While the
investigation is currently focusing on chocolate bars it could be expanded in the future to include other confectionery
products. In the race to increase market share in the fast growing eastern European market Nestle has purchased
Ruzskaya Confectionery Factory. The company is one of Russia's leading chocolate companies and produces
chocolate under the Comilfo and Ruzanna brands. Nestle already has 13 factories and 10,000 employees in
Russia as well as other operations throughout Eastern Europe. Longtime visitors to our site know we are big fans
of DeBrand chocolates. We've sampled them a few times and found them to always taste fresh. This year for
Christmas they have an interesting item - The Chocolate Truffle Wreath. This looks like a great centerpiece or a nice
item to place on a buffet table. It's a box, circular and wreath shaped composed of chocolate. Open it and it contains
19 truffles. Eat the truffles then eat the container, it couldn't get any greener than that for Christmas.
November 22, 2007 - Happy Thanksgiving - Now on to the news. Credit Suisse has studied the situation and in a
research note issued recently has announced that Cadbury by decoupling its beverage and confectionary
businesses will see margins in the confectionary end grow 4.6%. The company will have to absorb almost 2 billion
US Dollars in initial costs but overtime the deal will be a good one for the company. A study from the University of
North Carolina of post menopausal women who are diagnosed with breast cancer has found those with the highest
intakes of flavones and isoflavones have the highest rates of survival. With chocolate being loaded with flavones it's
just more good news for chocoholics. Cargill is expanding its production in Brazil. With the growth in chocolate
consumption in the country and the region Cargill is ramping up output in its Sao Paulo plant. Nestlé, Bunge,
Danisco, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, and Tyson Foods are joining together to create a program of reporting
on sustainability in conjunction with Global Reporting Initiative. Joseph Schmidt has announced their 2007 Holiday
Truffle Collection. The lineup looks both interesting and promising. Flavors include Sea Salt Caramel. Premium
milk chocolate , organic caramel and sea salt. Mexican Chocolate, dark chocolate ganache with Mexican
cinnamon, allspice and a hint of habanero. Mandarin Zest. A combination of sweet and tart tangerine zest and dark
chocolate. Vanilla Cognac. Real vanilla and cognac with a dark chocolate center surrounded by a milk chocolate
shell. Meyer Lemon. A dark chocolate ganache is paired with Meyer lemon and surrounded in dark chocolate.
Pomegranate. Pomegranate blends with a dark chocolate ganache and a rich dark chocolate shell. For those of you
with leftover turkey Hershey has provided an interesting recipe at their site allchocolate.com. The recipe is for
Enchiladas with Chocolate Mole Sauce. Another recipe they've recently posted is for Bittersweet Chocolate Pecan
Pie. I like to whip up a Pecan Pie around Christmas every year so there is a good chance I'll be reviewing this recipe
in about a month but it does look promising. Barry Callebaut has announced it has finalized their sale of Brachs,
their American subsidiary, to Farley's & Sathers. Brachs never performed in the way that Callebaut had hoped for.
November 5, 2007 - Prestat out of the United Kingdom is releasing a new chocolate bar Choxi+. The company
claims the bar has more flavonol antioxidants than any other food source and that two squares have more anti
oxidants than 1lb of Brussels sprouts or over 5lb of apples. Divine Chocolate has been named The Best Social
Enterprise at the Enterprising Solutions Awards in the United Kingdom. The company is a partnership of Ghanaian
cocoa farmers. The $20,000 prize will help the company further its goals and raise awareness of the plight of small
producers. The Jamaican Cocoa Industry Board has created a chocolate bar that can either be eaten as a
chocolate bar or put in hot water to make hot chocolate.
November 4, 2007 - The Sainsbury stores in the United Kingdom have issued a recall of their Belgian Chocolates.
The chocolate was improperly labeled and contains casein which could be a problem for anyone with a milk allergy.
A new company Crummy Brothers has announced that their organic chocolate chip cookies will be sold in Whole
Foods in four different flavors Original Chocolate Chip, Lemon Ginger Chocolate Chip, Orange Blossom Chocolate
Chip, and Chocolate Chocolate Chip. It has been two months since Cadbury announced they would be bringing
back the Wispa Bar after a campaign was launched on peer to peer site Facebook. Now a new campaign has
begun on the same site for Wispa Gold. The growth of these sites has allowed an avenue for disgruntled
consumers to let companies know how they really feel about a product.
November 3, 2007 - Skittles, those hard chewy little candies, is expanding from just fruit flavors to chocolate flavors.
They will be the same price as regular Skittles but will be chocolate inspired flavors. An Australian paper has an
article about the possible human cost of cocoa production that may employ child labor. The children are enslaved
and worked hard. The industry has been banding together to try to
eradicate these practices but are not moving fast enough for some. Tonight In North Tahoe there will be crowned a
new People's Choice Award winner for Chocolate. The winner the last two years, Aaron Zendner, owner of Mr. Z's
Candy Co., is not defending his title so six local chocolatiers are vying for the honor. The event raises money for
local charities. In what seems like a bit of heavy handed police work in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England six
police officers were sent to arrest a local boy, 15, who had vandalized a local community center by writing his name
on it with a Twix bar. After he cleaned up the mess he had made charges were eventually dropped.
Sweet Riot Chocolate Covered Cocoa Nibs in a nice little Santa Bag. If you haven't tried these yet they are great,
sweet and crunchy. The bag is a quality item and at $16.99 you can't beat the price. If you're looking for something a
little different this year for the office Christmas Party we heartily recommend taking a look at the catering services
provided by Trois Crepes Patisserie. Their retail location on East 75th is on the small size but when it comes to
catering and serving up some great eats they do a tremendous job. We spot them all over town, a set up at the
French Institute, making crepes at The Chocolate Show etc. For the service and quality they provide the prices are
extremely reasonable. John & Kira's has a sweet little deal. Order more than $75 worth of chocolate, per address,
and you can get free shipping through December 4th. The price of cocoa went down a bit in October, about $23 a
tonne, with an influx of beans from the Ivory Coast. The market is still volatile with high demand and uncertainty in
some bean producing countries. A unique opportunity has presented itself for the serious chocoholic. Katrina
Markoff from Vosges Haut - Chocolat will be leading a cruise tour through the ports of Greece and Turkey. She will
be conducting on board chocolate making classes as well as leading a Turkish Chocolate & Greek Pastry tasting
excursion. Blommer Chocolate is launching a sustainable cocoa farming programme in the Ivory Coast. They had
success with a program in Indonesia and found that as farmers incomes grew crop yields grew. This created a win
win situation for both sides. Increased income for the farmers and an increased supply for Blommer.
November 29, 2007 - Hershey's Cacao Reserve has some new interesting products for the Holiday season. One
item of note is The Holiday Collection Gift Bags which have 35% Cacao Holiday Spice Milk Chocolate Truffles and
65% Cacao Mint Dark Chocolate tasting squares. They also are producing Truffle Sharing Boxes and Holiday Gift
Boxes. The Cacao Reserve products we've tried in the past have been pretty tasty so even though we've yet to try
these we feel they're worth picking up if you see them. In Canada the country's Competition Bureau has received
documents from Nestle, Hershey, Cadbury and Mars explaining their respective pricing strategies. The Bureau has
not accused the companies of colluding in pricing but is investigating complaints they've received. While the
investigation is currently focusing on chocolate bars it could be expanded in the future to include other confectionery
products. In the race to increase market share in the fast growing eastern European market Nestle has purchased
Ruzskaya Confectionery Factory. The company is one of Russia's leading chocolate companies and produces
chocolate under the Comilfo and Ruzanna brands. Nestle already has 13 factories and 10,000 employees in
Russia as well as other operations throughout Eastern Europe. Longtime visitors to our site know we are big fans
of DeBrand chocolates. We've sampled them a few times and found them to always taste fresh. This year for
Christmas they have an interesting item - The Chocolate Truffle Wreath. This looks like a great centerpiece or a nice
item to place on a buffet table. It's a box, circular and wreath shaped composed of chocolate. Open it and it contains
19 truffles. Eat the truffles then eat the container, it couldn't get any greener than that for Christmas.
November 22, 2007 - Happy Thanksgiving - Now on to the news. Credit Suisse has studied the situation and in a
research note issued recently has announced that Cadbury by decoupling its beverage and confectionary
businesses will see margins in the confectionary end grow 4.6%. The company will have to absorb almost 2 billion
US Dollars in initial costs but overtime the deal will be a good one for the company. A study from the University of
North Carolina of post menopausal women who are diagnosed with breast cancer has found those with the highest
intakes of flavones and isoflavones have the highest rates of survival. With chocolate being loaded with flavones it's
just more good news for chocoholics. Cargill is expanding its production in Brazil. With the growth in chocolate
consumption in the country and the region Cargill is ramping up output in its Sao Paulo plant. Nestlé, Bunge,
Danisco, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, and Tyson Foods are joining together to create a program of reporting
on sustainability in conjunction with Global Reporting Initiative. Joseph Schmidt has announced their 2007 Holiday
Truffle Collection. The lineup looks both interesting and promising. Flavors include Sea Salt Caramel. Premium
milk chocolate , organic caramel and sea salt. Mexican Chocolate, dark chocolate ganache with Mexican
cinnamon, allspice and a hint of habanero. Mandarin Zest. A combination of sweet and tart tangerine zest and dark
chocolate. Vanilla Cognac. Real vanilla and cognac with a dark chocolate center surrounded by a milk chocolate
shell. Meyer Lemon. A dark chocolate ganache is paired with Meyer lemon and surrounded in dark chocolate.
Pomegranate. Pomegranate blends with a dark chocolate ganache and a rich dark chocolate shell. For those of you
with leftover turkey Hershey has provided an interesting recipe at their site allchocolate.com. The recipe is for
Enchiladas with Chocolate Mole Sauce. Another recipe they've recently posted is for Bittersweet Chocolate Pecan
Pie. I like to whip up a Pecan Pie around Christmas every year so there is a good chance I'll be reviewing this recipe
in about a month but it does look promising. Barry Callebaut has announced it has finalized their sale of Brachs,
their American subsidiary, to Farley's & Sathers. Brachs never performed in the way that Callebaut had hoped for.
November 5, 2007 - Prestat out of the United Kingdom is releasing a new chocolate bar Choxi+. The company
claims the bar has more flavonol antioxidants than any other food source and that two squares have more anti
oxidants than 1lb of Brussels sprouts or over 5lb of apples. Divine Chocolate has been named The Best Social
Enterprise at the Enterprising Solutions Awards in the United Kingdom. The company is a partnership of Ghanaian
cocoa farmers. The $20,000 prize will help the company further its goals and raise awareness of the plight of small
producers. The Jamaican Cocoa Industry Board has created a chocolate bar that can either be eaten as a
chocolate bar or put in hot water to make hot chocolate.
November 4, 2007 - The Sainsbury stores in the United Kingdom have issued a recall of their Belgian Chocolates.
The chocolate was improperly labeled and contains casein which could be a problem for anyone with a milk allergy.
A new company Crummy Brothers has announced that their organic chocolate chip cookies will be sold in Whole
Foods in four different flavors Original Chocolate Chip, Lemon Ginger Chocolate Chip, Orange Blossom Chocolate
Chip, and Chocolate Chocolate Chip. It has been two months since Cadbury announced they would be bringing
back the Wispa Bar after a campaign was launched on peer to peer site Facebook. Now a new campaign has
begun on the same site for Wispa Gold. The growth of these sites has allowed an avenue for disgruntled
consumers to let companies know how they really feel about a product.
November 3, 2007 - Skittles, those hard chewy little candies, is expanding from just fruit flavors to chocolate flavors.
They will be the same price as regular Skittles but will be chocolate inspired flavors. An Australian paper has an
article about the possible human cost of cocoa production that may employ child labor. The children are enslaved
and worked hard. The industry has been banding together to try to
eradicate these practices but are not moving fast enough for some. Tonight In North Tahoe there will be crowned a
new People's Choice Award winner for Chocolate. The winner the last two years, Aaron Zendner, owner of Mr. Z's
Candy Co., is not defending his title so six local chocolatiers are vying for the honor. The event raises money for
local charities. In what seems like a bit of heavy handed police work in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England six
police officers were sent to arrest a local boy, 15, who had vandalized a local community center by writing his name
on it with a Twix bar. After he cleaned up the mess he had made charges were eventually dropped.
| November 2007 News |
| Any comments or suggestions, contact us and let us know what you're thinking. |