chocolate in the news
Chocolate, A Rising Star In Japan
October 28, 2011
Japan’s confectionery world may be centuries late in regards to using cocoa, but they sure are keeping up and doing very well at it. “Japanese chocolate” may still come off as strange, but cocoa is definitely a rising star in Japan. The once foreign flavor is now starting to become a staple.
Japanese chocolatiers and pastry chefs were the star guests at the 17th Salon du Chocolat which was held in Paris. One of them, Susumu Koyama, even won as the "Best Foreign Chocolatier". Japan was able to outshine other renowned chocolate-making nations such as Belgium and Switzerland. Susumu was born to a family of pastry chefs and claims to be relying on “instinct” and “nature” in practicing his passion.
Since chocolate made from the cocoa bean has reached the Land of the Rising Sun 250 years later than the West, almost all of Japan’s famous and well-loved pastries have zero chocolate content. But today, the number of Japanese chocolatiers is on the rise, and Susumu says he is doing his part to heighten the interest of his fellowmen in chocolate even more.
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Sweet Tooth Equals Sweet Personality?
October 25, 2011
According to a new study, those having a sweet tooth tend to be friendlier. Volunteers who preferred chocolate over a non-sweet food item were found to have a joyous character.
It was found that the most dominant trait these chocolate lovers have is the fondness for helping others in need. However, it is still arguable whether it was due to chocolate’s mood-enhancing effect or just a natural inclination of the recipient. So don’t get too frantic about having chocolates just yet.
"Our taste studies controlled for positive mood so the effects we found are not due to the happy or rewarding feeling one may have after eating a sweet food," said Brian Meiers, a psychology professor at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania.
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Daintree Estates: Chocolate from Down Under
October 24, 2011
"My dad makes chocolate" blurts out my 5 year old son to his school-mates at class assembly one morning. I'm not sure if that makes me Willy Wonka or just a really cool dad. But launching a brand new chocolate company is no walk in the park.
My friends are a little less enthusiastic; "aren't there enough chocolates already?" Their assumption is that we're trying to compete with the Cadbury's and Lindt's of the world by making something cheaper. Truth be known, there isn't any margin worth getting out of bed for in supermarket chocolates.
So what would make me think I have a snowball's chance in hell at making any profit at all in the chocolate game?
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Chocolate Milk on Halloween
October 21, 2011
It’s nothing different from the regular white milk, only cocoa-flavored! It has the same nine essential nutrients but with a taste children dearly love. To have a healthier celebration of Halloween this year, the California Milk Processor Board (CMPB) which created ‘Got Milk?’ is encouraging families across all California to make chocolate milk the treat of choice on Oct. 31, instead of the usual unhealthy counterparts. Got Milk?, by the way, is an American advertising campaign encouraging the use of cow's milk. The campaign has been recognized as of great help in milk sales in California.
A little piece of candy here and there may not be harmful, but an average Jack-O-Lantern bucket pretty much holds about 250 pieces of candy, which altogether approximately totals 9,000 calories and have about three pounds of sugar. Imagine that going into your system. Even for adults, it’s a heck of a lot!
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Chocolate Is 2011’s Top Specialty Food
October 18, 2011
Consumers of all ages (especially those 24-35 years of age, mostly women) across all USA are embracing specialty foods this year, according to a new report from the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT). Needless to say, chocolate has always been popular. But now, chocolate has already triumphed over coffee as the top specialty food purchase.
For the time being, Chuao Chocolatier in San Diego County has won a sofi Gold award from the NASFT in the hot-beverage category for its Spicy Maya Hot Chocolate. The just-add-water hot chocolate drink is a blend of cinnamon, pasilla chile and cayenne pepper, giving a spicy finish to it. They all come together with a blend of premium 58 to 72 percent Venezuelan chocolate to make this particular beverage gourmet.
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The Chalk & Chocolate Art Tour
October 14, 2011
Eighty students of Royal Oak, Michigan, had a field trip downtown last October 12 and turned a pedestrian plaza on Washington Avenue into a work of art which will be used for the Chalk & Chocolate Art Tour scheduled this weekend. There will be a tent set up at Fifth Street just in case it rains.
Shop curators and restaurant owners downtown will be hanging chalk art masterpieces done by 100 elementary school students in their windows. Also, they will be offering their confectionaries for the first-time affair in Royal Oak.
An opening night party starts at 6 p.m. Friday with a benefit at Fifth Avenue for the Royal Oak Neighborhood Schools art curriculum. The door charge is $40 which includes live entertainment and food from six restaurants and all sales incurred go directly to district art programs.
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Chocolate Week
October 11, 2011
It's not very often that you get to devote one whole week just for a particular food. Suffice it to say, if the subject is chocolate, we get all the more devoted, and craving, so to speak.
Chocolate Week, UK's favorite themed week, or should I say, favorite week, is here again for its seventh consecutive year to celebrate the foodstuff that has its origins in ancient Aztec and Mayan culture. Even though we know we can enjoy it any time of day and any day of the year, it's the time of year when we can ultimately celebrate chocolate... for a week! Imagine that.
Chocolate week 2011, starting October 10, has a plethora of events lined up for everyone, over 350 events happening across the whole of Britain, from chocolate art workshops and tasting to hot chocolate sampling and dessert-making demonstrations, indulge yourself in chocolate madness.
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Chocolate: Around the World
October 7, 2011
If you are a self-proclaimed true blue chocoholic and want to satisfy your need for anything chocolate, then why don’t you head to the Field Museum in Chicago?
“Chocolate: Around the World”, a smash hit exhibit which sold more than 360,000 tickets in its first Field run in the year 2002 is back not only to entertain you, but also give you juicy and interesting information.
In the past nine years, “Chocolate” has already been to 22 other American museums and will go international when its present Field run is done in January, said the Field president and chief executive officer, John McCarter.
“Chocolate” is a combination of both the Field’s focus on anthropology as well as natural history and its attention to the origins of cacao beans and the role chocolate played in the past centuries. “This is one of the great combination stories,” McCarter said.
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BitterSweet: Beer+Chocolate
October 4, 2011
As you may have read in the earlier blog posts, one of the things that makes a chocolate and beer tasting great is the fact that it is unusual, yet it works! Even people who say they don’t like beer, often do like chocolate so everyone can enjoy the event.
Last week’s Craft:Beer+Food event was a huge hit, the pairings were sublime. If you weren’t able to attend, fret not, as a sequel to this delightful affair is anticipated. After Craft:Beer+Food comes the next big thing, BitterSweet:Beer+Chocolate. It is a non-profit happening that enables local breweries to showcase their beers along with the remarkable chocolates of Seattle’s own Theo Chocolate.
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Choco-Laté Festival
September 30, 2011
People who come to pay a visit at the Bruge’s Choco-Laté Festival, held in the Belfort bell tower, can relish their much loved dessert in whatever shapes & forms possible! So all you chocoholics, listen up and unite. Succumb to your every chocolate craving and indulge in your favorite sweet treat!
Choco-Laté is the annual festival of our favorite guilty pleasure. The vibes that chocolatiers give off at several stands lure the customers and magically bring them to a chocolate haven.
The festival will be hosting an array of activities to make visitors drool with tons of interesting and fun interactive programs such as body painting, chocolate recipe exhibitions, creations such as sculpture by chocolate artists and sculptors, a chocolate village for the little ones, and a “chocolate walk” through the town of Bruges, among many others.
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