Yesterday in his NYT column, Mark Bittman covered the raw basics of tempering chocolate for dipping. There’s a video. It’s, um, yeah. If you’ve never tempered chocolate before you should probably look for better instructions. And if you have, you’re not missing anything.
If you’re looking for inspiration for the upcoming gift-giving season, look no further than McCormick . Their Flavor Forecast ™ trend report is out with the latest on what’s hot. This year’s flavor of choice? Red food coloring.
Seriously, someone got paid to write a report that included “Vanilla & Red Food Color” as an exciting flavor trend. (more…)
Oh Hershey. What the hell is wrong with you? You strike a deal with Barry Callebaut so that you don’t have to bother making chocolate any more. You move your candy production to Mexico. You buy two small artisan companies, then shut down their factories and lay off their staff. You can’t keep a Sharffen berger company store open in NYC despite it being a well-respected brand…even after you bought it. And now you’re shutting down your online store. (more…)
So apparently Hershey released a limited edition dark chocolate Reese’s peanut butter cup when Dark Knight came out. I guess I was too busy watching Dark Knight to notice. Lucky for me, they’re making it a full time addition to the Reese’s lineup. (more…)
Valrhona has given their Grand Cru retail line (that’s single origin chocolate bars, for any rookies out there) a makeover. Personally I prefer oblong bars to squares, but otherwise this is a pretty sexy design. Valrhona’s retail bars have gotten kind of scattered in terms of marketing and packaging; it would be nice to see the whole line given a unified identity. It’s worth noting that these 70g bars appear to be replacing their 100g bars, with the same (or greater) price tag.
Chicago can say goodbye to Mars’ Ethel M’s chocolate cafes. Actually, they already have, which is why Ethel’s is closing down. Five of six cafes in the Chicago area are closing by the end of April, with #6 to follow. (more…)
Well, we all knew it was coming, right? Hershey has demonstrated how much the Scharffen Berger name means to them: they’re closing the Berkeley plant and moving all Scharffen Berger operations to Illinois. (more…)
Well, we are all recovering from the holidays and looking ahead. Now that the hubbub has died down, are you ready to start enjoying the magic of the Easter season? Yes, you are, starting January 1.
This illuminating press release arrived a few weeks ago, with a clear message for retailers: unless you want to crash and burn this Spring, buy lots of Cadbury products and put ‘em up front. (more…)
