chocolate in the news
Mood Food
August 16, 2011
We all have our fair share of sickness and sadness. And more often than not, at those certain points in our lives, we cling to our go-to food, our comfort food, and everything just seems better. They make us feel calm, relaxed, and of course, comforted, as they touch our palate.
Chocolates are known to be the universal comfort food. And chocolate's reputation as a mood-booster makes it a common and appreciated gift, especially to those who are going through tough times, say, breakups.
The term “comfort food”, which was added to the Webster’s Dictionary in 1972, is defined as “food that gives a sense of emotional well-being,” or “any food or drink that one turns to for temporary relief, security or reward.”
Science explains that the brain releases feel-good hormones into the body to compensate for the bad vibes that overpower us in our everyday life like stress, illness, fatigue, among many others. The said hormones are also released in our brains during happy times such as when we hug someone, as bizarre as it may sound.
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Hershey’s Air Delight
July 29, 2011
Yesterday (July 28) was National Milk Chocolate Day. Did you do anything special to celebrate?
Other chocolate manufacturers have had aerated chocolate for some time. For example, I wrote about the 75th anniversary of the Nestle Aero bar last October. Overall, aerated chocolate accounts for about $500 million of annual global confection sales.
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Printing with Chocolate
July 8, 2011
Throw away those old ink cartridges. It's time to load your printer with chocolate. That would be neat wouldn't it? Load some rice paper, spray a message in dots of chocolate, and then eat your words.
That description may still depict a future scene. For now, there's a 3D chocolate printer that has just come out. It prints gobs of chocolate into shapes by adding layers of chocolate on top of previous layers of chocolate.
I saw a story a couple years ago about a 3D printer that printed parts in plastic to make the parts for a new, identical, 3D printer. It could make the parts to replicate itself. I thought that was really neat.
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Edible Music: Chocolate Record
July 1, 2011
OK, this is interesting... Ben Milne, a baker from Fife, Scotland, has developed what is believed to be the first chocolate record that can actually be played on a record player. Wow!
At first he just poured some chocolate onto the single, peeled it off, and attempted to play the grooves left in the chocolate. But he soon realized that this actually recorded the reverse of the song.
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Chocolate as Favorite Food
June 17, 2011
Is chocolate your favorite food? Recently a study was completed that asked an open-ended question of people from 17 different countries to name their favorite food. Chocolate made the published list of top 15 favorites in only 5 of those countries.
Today we can celebrate with the Australians. Australia was the only country on the list that named chocolate as its number 1 favorite food! A total of 8.9% of the surveyed population gave that answer. I'm going to have to visit Australia and hang out with the abundance of chocolate lovers.
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Crio Bru
June 10, 2011
If you've known me for a while you might know that I enjoy a good cup of coffee. While it's not chocolate, it's still a flavor I look forward to.
And, according to a press release I read, "Crio Bru delivers the same intense, complex flavors of the finest cocoa beans found in artisan dark chocolate."
Chocolate Covered Cicadas?
May 31, 2011
A popular candy and peanut shop has been around Nashville for more than 80 years. But just recently, the well-known store created a buzz all over town. They started to offer chocolate covered cicadas for their consumers. From then on, customers went in, and out, of their shop.
Insects have long been enjoyed as a culinary delicacy all over the world. The owner thought of giving cicadas a shot in her own kitchen.
According to the owner, Olivia Swallows, the popularity of her very own chocolate covered cicadas started when the people behind their peanut shop posted a message about it on the store’s Facebook page. The word of mouth and social media really made a lot of people get curious enough to have a taste of this confection.
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Farewell To Chocolate Exhibit
May 27, 2011
Anniston Museum is known for their collection of historical artifacts like fossils, mummies and wide selection of plant and animal exhibits. But Last January 29, 2011, Anniston Museum of Natural History opened their sweetest and tastiest exhibit for the public eye to see.
The museum featured a chocolate exhibit dedicated to the history and science revolving around chocolate. The huge exhibit almost occupied the entire lobby area of the museum.
People could take a look and explore the featured life story of chocolates with the use of videos, replicas, antique chocolate tins, and copies of old promotional magazines, wrappers and leaflets of different brands like Milky Way, 3 Musketeers and more. You could even smell the sweet aroma of beans and chocolate all over the place.
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New Flavors of Chips Ahoy!
May 24, 2011
Chips Ahoy is a popular cookie product that many of us grew up with. These cookies were a blessing for those of us who desire to eat chocolate chip cookies but lack the time to make them ourselves.
In 1963, Nabisco started manufacturing this wonderful product. With a genius slogan of “Betcha bite a chip,” this cookie product gained popularity all through out America, and the road to fame later spread all throughout the world. Through the years, Nabisco kept on producing Chips Ahoy varieties like reduced fat, snack packs, peanut butter flavored, chunkier chips, and more.
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Reunite M&M’s Milk Chocolate Candies
May 20, 2011
“The Milk Chocolate Melts In Your Mouth - Not In Your Hand”
You can definitely guess where this slogan came from. M&M’s® milk chocolate candies are one of the most loved chocolate brands. With a splash of different colors such as green, yellow, blue, brown, violet and orange, M&M’s instantly became an all time favorite for the kids and even those who are still kids at heart.
M&M’s not only satisfy one’s craving for sweets but it has also become a very entertaining tool for fun interactive games. There are a number of virtual games spreading all over the Internet with the use of M&M’s as major characters. These cute M&M’s characters are navigated in a number of virtual adventures games.
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