Candy Dish Blog

I spent the week in Albuquerque, where my wife attended the annual conference of the System Dynamics Society. One of the benefits to being married to a brainy Ph.D., as I am, is first of all, she can help me with the Sunday crossword, because let’s be honest, I am usually only good with the easy clues, but also that there are a million societies and organizations that have meetings in various beautiful locations. As a spouse, I am an automatic add-on for any trip. The company pays for her to go, so my coming along is often just the cost of a plane ticket.

The great thing about this particular society is that they do the food part of their banquet very well. Look at this chocolate cake. The cake part was rich, almost gooey chocolate and the icing was rich, almost gooey chocolate. Put those two ingredients together and you have a cake that is worth traveling two-thirds of the way across the country for. I wanted to save some for Susan but thought of no good way to preserve it, so I had to do the hard work of eating it myself. Plus, I let my lovely wife have a bite as well. I guess she earned it by putting up with me and letting me come along and meet her brainy colleagues.

Let me do my own little system dynamics model here. If you are not an SD person, feel free to skim this. If you are an SD person, feel free to mock my simplistic model and likely misuse of key terms and ideas. It’s fair game, as long as I get the cake. Taking a stock of hungry people and feeding them delicious chocolate cake encourages retention of members and encourages new members as the as yet uninitiated hear about the great cake. These are two reinforcing loops that will maintain and increase the membership, or at least attendance in the annual meeting. Let the mockery begin.

Where is the last place you had really delicious chocolate cake?

Have you heard the news that NCA is launching a new Web site?  It’s a massive project that has involved lots and lots of late night and, quite frankly, it’s taken its toll.  I’m in serious need of a spa day, ya’ll.  Sadly, having taken my vacation earlier in the summer means that I will be here in the office for the foreseeable future.

That’s why I was so excited to see this article in the Washington Examiner about creating an at-home chocolate milk skin mask.  How does one actually apply it to the skin when it must smell so darn good?  Well, it doesn’t have any sugar … so one little taste might be enough to keep you on task.

Chocolate Milk Mask
1 tbsp milk (whole)

1 tbs cocoa powder

Brush  

 

Begin with cocoa powder in a small bowl and slowly add milk (a little at a time) while mixing. Mix until you have a smooth consistency.

Using a fan brush, foundation brush or thin makeup sponge, apply the paste to your face, avoiding the eyes. If you have none of these, your fingers would work also.

Let sit on skin for 15 -30 minutes or until dry.

Wash with warm water.

According to the article, the mask is great because of the cocoa butter content.  It’s true, that cocoa butter is pretty great for lots of different reasons.  Because cocoa butter is solid at room temperature, when applied to the skin it forms a thin protecting barrier that locks in moisture and blocks out harsh outside elements. That’s why cocoa butter is commonly referred to as the “ultimate moisturizer” and used as a key ingredient in many lotions, lip balms, cosmetics and even anti-aging and scar reducing topical treatments.

Keep in mind, however, that this mask is made with cocoa powder.  Cocoa powder is what is left after removing about 75 percent of the cocoa butter from cocoa solids. So, while this mask may have some of the healing properties associated with cocoa butter, it may not be as effective a moisturizer as some other cocoa butter products out there.

Nonetheless, it sounds absolutely delightful and I’m anxious to try it out.  Has anyone used a mask like this before?  Have you taken even one step further and had one of those awesome spa treatments involving chocolate or cocoa butter like ones at the Hershey spa or others?

Chocolate Milk, HILO Milk  by heleo

Let me start off by saying that I don’t like mushrooms.  It’s a sore point in my marriage, but then again my husband doesn’t like pickles so we all have our flaws (perhaps we need the help of Reggie, the Marriage Saver).  Nonetheless, I recently mentioned mushrooms in a series of radio interviews about the future of candy, and mushrooms may feature more prominently than you might imagine.

Susan S. told you that we had some media folks in the office a couple of weeks ago to talk about trends in chocolate and confectionery.  We actually had two reasons to assemble this group of folks.  The first was that we came back from the ALL CANDY EXPO with lots of information about what is happening in confectionery RIGHT NOW.  The second reason is that we just completed a big survey to find out what’s going to happen with candy and chocolate in the next three to five years. 

Before we had the media folks in, I participated in about 25 radio interviews around the country to talk about the future of candy. Here’s what I had to say:

Click to play

Yup.  You heard me.  Chocolate and mushroom.  I’ll probably pass on that one, but I love chocolate and cheese AND chocolate and bacon. My love for salt and chocolate is well documented on the blog here and here and even on the Author’s Page. I’m mildly obsessed.

But chocolate is only part of the story.  Flavors are going to have a major impact on every level of the confectionery industry.  The reporters who came to the luncheon sampled Chili Spiced Mango from Trader Joe’s and then sampled the new Chili Mango Jelly Belly.  They tried dried, candied ginger and then sampled Naughty Ginger, a ginger and lemon lollipop from Das Foods.  If you think these flavors seem to have an international influence, you’re right.  That’s another major trend coming down the pike.

Experts overwhelmingly agreed that products with a focus on health would be the driving force in product innovation in the years ahead.  That means we can look for more super fruits in our candy flavors, more calorie and portion control packaging, less sugar, lower calories and the addition of vitamins and minerals like Vitamin C and calcium.

What do you think the future of candy holds?  Is bacon a trend, or a fad?  What about salt?  How about in the health arena?  What would you like to see candy makers do more 0f? 

Carl’s out of the office again, leaving it up to me to choose the photo for today’s blog post.  Thankfully, I had been researching trends in chocolate when I happened across this lovely picture in the Candy Dish Blog photo pool on Flickr.

This picture was taken by zomgcandy, a frequent contributor to the photo pool, and I want to eat it right now.  The picture captures Hedonist Artisan Chocolates – Honey Ginger and Peanut Butter Cayenne.  Carl often makes his picks for Photo Wednesday based on the light or shadow or photo composition or some artistic mumbo-jumbo. This photo is probably chock-full of that stuff, too … but I picked it because it looks and sounds delish!

Do you want me to feature your picture here the next time Carl is out of town?  Then submit it to the Candy Dish Blog Flickr group. We want to see your candy photos and so does the rest of the world!

Reggie is our IT person. In essence, he is the guy who keeps our company web site running, on top of making sure the computers work, the network is functional and even steps outside his official role to help train people how to do advanced things with Word, like underlining. He’s part MacGyver, part trapeze artist and part monkey trainer, a true jack of all trades, master of many. Reggie is also my lunch buddy and the only person I have found who has had a range of types of jobs that rivals my own background. Now he can add a new title to his repertoire – that of Marriage Saver.

Last week something happened and our web site went down, so we had a quick IM interchange:

Carl: You know our site is down,right?
Reggie: yes
Carl: okay. I didn’t know if Susan had explained it as eloquently as I just did.
Reggie: back up
Carl: Thanks!
Carl: See, if you didn’t eat meat, none of this would have been necessary.
Reggie: If I did not eat meat you would have to share your house with cows and chickens
Carl: Thanks for saving my marriage, Reggie.
Reggie: you’re welcome

Reggie, I would give you a nice gift like the one in the photo here but it doesn’t quite look like the type of thing one guy gets for another, so I will just sock you in the arm next time I see you. Anyway, thanks for your help with everything. This place would be like a boat lost at sea without your kind assistance. For the record, though, the gift box would have contained something good from the candy room.

Readers: do you ever stop to thank your IT folks for all they do? A good IT person is rarely seen, just like Scotty or a Shaolin Priest. Be sure to tell them thanks from time to time and get them something sweet to savor, so they feel your appreciation long after you have left their cubes.

CNN had an article yesterday about scientists using a compound called Brilliant Blue G, the same dye used in blue M&Ms and Gatorade to help heal spinal injuries. The scientists injected the dye into lab rats with spinal injuries to gauge their reaction. According to the article, “The rats given BBG immediately after their injury could walk again with a limp. Those that didn’t receive a dose never regained their mobility.” A side effect is that the rats temporarily turned blue. No joke – blue like they were frozen or possibly dyed the color of a blue M&M. Check out the article for a photo.

This doesn’t mean that we can prevent or heal spinal injuries by eating or injecting M&Ms, but it is rather remarkable that M&Ms and Gatorade hit on this magic ingredient, independent of its chemical properties related to this healing effect.

Blue M&Ms by mag3737.

Last week we wrote about the latest trends in chocolate. We missed a trend, though, probably because none of the experts we interviewed were from Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. Dubai is home of Al Nassma Chocolate, makers of the “first and finest camel milk chocolate.” Al Nassma intends to expand beyond the Middle East into the U.K (Harrod’s) and the U.S. (San Francisco’s Chocolate Covered Company) by next year.

The camel milk for Al Nassma Chocolate will be supplied by a 3,000 camel farm in Dubai that appears to be owned by the Dubai government. That, my friends, is a lot of camels. According to media reports, the milking of camels is not for the faint-hearted. Camels don’t like to be milked and will sometimes lay down on the job, so to speak.

Now to the taste and benefits of camel milk chocolate. According to the company, camel milk contains 5 times more Vitamin C than cow milk, less fat and less lactose. Some believe it is an aphrodisiac. One American living in Dubai said the camel milk chocolates are “creamy and delicious.”

The company is marketing the chocolates as a “luxury” product which will only be sold in upscale stores and will “never be in supermarkets.” Hhhmm. I don’t know about you but I feel quite luxurious after consuming supermarket purchased chocolate bars, chips, bunnies, pumpkins, hearts, etc. Plus, what about grocery stores that cater to Mediterranean tastes?

While the dark chocolate candy category in the U.S. has been growing the last several years Americans still prefer milk chocolate slightly more than dark chocolates. Who knows? Perhaps camel milk chocolate will give the category a shot in the arm.

Are you game? Who’s willing to try it?

Camel by ANGELOUX.