Candy Dish Blog

Much has been written and filmed about The ALL CANDY (now SWEETS AND SNACKS) Expo but the show has a new role as a supporting character in a yummy new novel by Katherine Katharine Weber, True Confections.

You may remember Katharine because she visited the 2008 and 2009 Expo where she spoke with many candy industry members.

Katharine captures well the agony and ecstasy of owning and operating the family candy business, Zip’s Candies and traces the Ziplinsky family into the 4^th generation of sweet success and disappointing failures.  A telephone conversation with Katharine revealed she gleaned the essence and history of family candy making as she spoke with members of the Born, Goetze, Karl (Annabelle), Rosenberg (Promotion in Motion), Spangler and Palmer families, among others.

True Confections is a witty novel filled with flawed characters trying to make a business out of candy.  While far from a PR piece for the industry it’s clear that several generations of the Ziplinsky family quite simply love the candy business.  They love it as immigrants to the U.S, because candy is inexpensive to produce and the variety of product possibilities easily leads to innovation.  They love it through natural and manmade, personal and professional disasters.  They love it for its do-it-yourself  possibilities.  Who can’t identify with the family working day and night to come up with a new product and packaging for a trade show only to discover that they perhaps should have done a bit of consumer research before introducing it in these modern times when a single blog, review or video can spread through the internet like wildfire—destroying a product before it is ever launched.

Now here is something really interesting.  Readers have told Katharine they remember the entirely fictional “Little Sammies” candy line.  And even better, Katherine has given Zip’s Candies a fictional candy company website and narrator Alice Ziplinsky is on Facebook (sort of).

Have you read True Confections?  Tell us what you thought.

Larry McMurtry’s Book Store by MyEyeSees.

Editor’s note (4 Feb 2010 9:54 a.m.): We regret spelling Ms. Weber’s name as Katherine when the proper spelling is Katharine. The first instance was noted with a strikethrough and following instances have been corrected.

I saw this motorcycle outside the National Gallery of Art a while back and had to wonder, since it would obviously candy-flavored in the magical world where vehicles are made from food, does it taste like orange or banana? Because, as you can tell, it just might be of a circus peanut theme happening there.

More important, it makes me think of summer and warmer climes, whose sun-drenched vistas could warm me and pull me out of this December chill. Granted, this plush carpet high-nap rug-plated motorcycle is not quite as obviously branded as the Jelly Belly bike and other motorcycles we saw at the ALL CANDY EXPO this year, but we can always take a guess. What do you think? Here’s what we saw in Chicago in May:

Jelly Belly

Sunkist

Icee

I was super excited to be selected as a guest blogger on Pop Candy today.  It’s one of my favorite blogs (ever since Pop Candy was a column and Whitney came to the ALL CANDY EXPO way back in 2003).  Pop culture is an obsession of mine – the way Tori is obsessed with Virginia Tech football and Carl is obsessed with circus peanuts.  When Whit put out the call for guest bloggers, I applied right away and sent up a silent prayer that I would be picked.

And I was!  I wrote about the top candy moments in movies and on TV.  It was blast researching all those Little Known Facts.

Here are some answers to the questions posted most often in the comment section of the blog post.

1. Why didn’t I write about Willy Wonka?
I was looking for more subtle candy moments.  Both the older movie and the newer remake are so focused on candy that you can’t pick just one stand out moment.  It’s a lot less subtle than, say, the Simpsons go to the Candy Expo or the Tweety Bird Pez dispenser (read the post if you want to know what I’m talking about).

2. What’s my job like?
Well, it’s like your job probably … only with greater access to candy.  I coordinate NCA’s public communication efforts – media campaigns, holiday promotions, trends research, this blog, our Web site, etc.

3. Are we hiring at NCA?
No.  BUT if you want to move to Washington, DC and work for free, we’ll be happy to have you.  Come on over.

4. Is there candy everywhere?
Yes, but we don’t eat it all the time.  Sure, I was enjoying some awesome salt water taffy Susan S brought me from her vacation while reading the Pop Candy comments, but I put it away.  We REALLY do believe that there is a role for candy, enjoyed in moderation, in a healthy lifestyle.  And there’s good evidence that shows it’s okay to eat candy, too.

I’m glad so many of Whit’s readers enjoyed my post.  I hope you’ll keep reading our blog, too.  Sure, we write about all kinds of cool candy news, but – even better – we give candy away from time to time, too.  You’ll have to keep reading to learn about our contests!

See you around the blogosphere!

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? 

Yes, another flashback from the All Candy Expo. This was really quite a sight – a mysterious tent set up on the show floor. I had heard mumblings from people about the Dove Chocolate display and about how I had to go check it out but, honestly, I figured it was just another great display and not anything unusual. After all, I didn’t see any Dove giant foam fingers anywhere, so how remarkable could it be?

So when I found it, imagine what I might discover within the flaps of the tent. A whole chocolate oasis, complete with a chocolate fountain, fruit for dipping and seats around the outside. The place was mobbed and I couldn’t quite get close enough to taste it but people were clearly having a great time.

And for all that, I think Dove should get an honorary giant foam finger. Wow!

Ladies and Gentleman – I’m excited to share with you that June is National Candy Month!  Get out your party clothes, it’s time to celebrate.

Actually, the hows and whys of the origins of Candy Month are lost to time.  It’s very easy to to get a national calendar of special observances to declare a day or week or month in honor of something or someone.  Just about anyone can do it (and has!).  Here’s some information about special observances and how they come to pass.  We do know that Candy Month was not originally celebrated in June.  We also why it was moved to June.

In 1998, NCA was planning the very first ALL CANDY EXPO.  It was to take place in June.  The support from the industry was overwhelming.  We’d been waiting for a trade show of our own for a long time.  Everyone wanted a central place to buy and sell candy and the event was finally around the corner.  One of the trade magazines in the industry (called, at that time, Confectioner) found out about National Candy Month and decided that with such a big celebration of candy taking place in June that Candy Month also should be in June.  So, they asked Chase’s Calendar of Events to change it. 

Yeah, it’s not the most spectacular story … but it still gives us a 30 days to celebrate this wonderful treat.

It’s time to plan your celebration. You could throw a party with gummi shot glasses (or a party for the kids), or bake a candy cake or make crafts using candy.  The possibilities are endless.

How will you celebrate National Candy Month?

This is a photo from the All Candy Expo. I think if I could have a sweet ride like that, I would even keep the Jelly Belly guy in the sidecar. Ah, if only Jelly Belly wanted someone to drive that motorcycle around, I would be first in line to volunteer, at least for the six months per year that the weather is warmish here in Washington, DC.

Would you ride a motorcycle painted like that? I would be all over it. The Jelly Belly guy could even come along in the sidecar.