Hershey Canada has been named the official candy and chocolate of the NHL in Canada. That’s a fine how do you do, isn’t it? I don’t think we are going to see the Hockey Night in Canada song is going to be changed to Chocolate Night or Chocohockey Night but we can hope.
The Hershey’s Chocolate Stanley Cup was created in Toronto, Ontario and made its debut appearance at the Hockey Hall of Fame on March 10. It weighs 150 pounds and is made from – you guessed it – solid chocolate. I think the chocolate version is genetically superior first, because it is made from chocolate, which is more delicious than the nickel-silver alloy of the original, and also because of the weight. The Stanley Cup weighs in at a measly 35 pounds. Come on, Stanley, whoever you are. Can’t you build a more robust cup? Granted, the chocolate one would be tougher for a winning team to drink champagne from, but maybe we can change the drink of choice to the chocolate piña colada and maybe put a spear of pineapple in there too.
The whole chocolate Stanley Cup took more than 12 hours to make. Look at the video below to get an idea of how it was built:
I picked up these snowballs at a candy store in Ottawa when I was in Canada a couple weeks ago. Something neat about Canadian candy – really just about any product purchased in Canada – is that it is printed in two languages. Canada’s national languages are both French and English, which offers a great opportunity for me to try to relearn some of the French I have forgotten over the years since tenth grade.
Truth be told, I probably never knew that “dessicated coconut” in French was “noix de coco desséchée,” so perhaps it’s even better than relearning. How could my French teacher have failed to teach us this? Is it really less important than other key phrases such as, “Mon pantalon est dans la machine à laver,” and, “Où est le saucisson?” I think coconut trumps all of it.
Do you also delight in seeing packages with foreign languages? What languages do you enjoy exploring with the assistance of candy?
I was with my lovely wife, standing in line at the duty free store, telling her about something I had tried and enjoyed at the All Candy Expo. I did mention that I was going to Canada, right? Anyway, the guy behind us in line asked if I was in the candy business.
“Why yes, verily I am, good sir,” I responded, or something equivalent in the affirmative. I explained a bit about what NCA does and he told me that he works for a new company called Healthy Chocolate. They have a patent pending on their product and manufacturing process, but the big thing they do is sweeten the chocolate with Xylitol, making it safe for diabetics and others desiring a low-sugar sweet. The packaging even has information on the chocolate as a dietary supplement because of the “proprietary herbal formula” listed as an ingredient.
The gentleman met us in the parking lot and gave me a sample bag. I just tried a piece and really liked it. It tastes different from other chocolates I have had but that could be for many reasons. Every manufacturer has its own processes and ingredients that make its product unique. It definitely had a pleasing cocoa taste and melted in my mouth well.
Keep your eyes out for this. It looks to be an interesting product! I can’t wait to get in touch with the company and learn more about it.
The NCA’s position is clear: any candy product, regardless of its country of origin, must meet the same stringent safety standards that U.S. products meet.
Candy imported from China accounts for less than one percent (0.7%) of all confectionery sold in the United States.
Chocolate products produced in North America do not contain milk or milk products imported from China.
NCA recommends consumers:
Discard any White Rabbit confectionery product imported from China (White Rabbit is the brand name of a white, chewy, taffy-like candy).
Be aware that a small shipment of chocolate gold coins in Canada was found to contain melamine. At this time, the product appears to have been only available in Canada where a recall is underway and the majority of the product has been reclaimed.
Remember – the source of this issue is contaminated Chinese milk products. One good way of dealing with the uncertainty of whether your favorite product is safe is to go to the manufacturer’s web sites to see if they have product news that might address your concerns. If you still have doubts about a particular product, you can contact the company and they will be happy to give you the full scoop. Not all chocolate products from China are bad or tainted. Many have been tested already and been shown to be fine.
Hershey Canada has been named the official candy and chocolate of the NHL in Canada. That’s a fine how do you do, isn’t it? I don’t think we are going to see the Hockey Night in Canada song is going to be changed to Chocolate Night or Chocohockey Night but we can hope.
