| February 2007 News |
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February 28, 2007 - We here at eChocolateNYC are always surprised at the wide variety of information available that it never crossed our
mind to collate in the first place but which seems extremely useful. While reading an article about the recipe for the Olive Garden's
Chocolate Lasagna Dessert we learned of the book "Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2" by Todd Wilbur. Being in New York City, our
exposure to many of the chain restaurants is somewhat limited, we love the idea that the home cook can produce clones of their favorite
dishes and even tweak them to make them fit personal preferences. Marieke Chocolatier has come under new ownership - that of Roseen
Enterprises. Roseen has a few different confectionary companies in its family including Harmony Sweets. Read the Press Release here.
The Fairtrade movement has been picking up considerable steam in the UK in the last year with Fairtrade firms showing a 46% growth in
2006. Fairtrade goods are still a tiny fraction of the goods sold in the UK but with firms like the retailing giant Sainsbury jumping on board it
seems that the demand for such products will only grow. Deborah Markus of Bellaonline has an excellent review of The Essence of
Chocolate, the new book about chocolate, written by Robert Steinberg and John Scharffenberger . Some of the recipes are amazing and
you come away from the book with a deeper understanding of chocolate and how to use it. The Center for Science in the Public Interest
(CSPI) has issued a statement complimenting the British government's new policies towards limiting "junk food" advertisements geared
towards youngsters. The tougher British restrictions are geared towards Television programs for children under 16 years of age. The flip
side is British food producers are claiming the new restrictions are to onerous and would like them to be changed. The industry after initial
consultations with the regulatory body involved had agreed to changes affecting very young children but believe the ban on advertising to
those 16 and under goes to far.
February 27, 2007 - Chocolate is taking over Japan, judging by the varied chocolatey photos that we have links to. The first is a Japanese
couple sharing a chocolate bath at a spa in Hakone, west of Tokyo. A neat photo of chocolate made to look like gold bars on display at
The Amusement Expo in Chiba, east of Tokyo, Japan. Here is a photo of a Valentine's window display from a chocolate shop in Belgium.
Chocolate is being used by Greenpeace to try to save the whales. This photo shows protester outside the special meeting of the
International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Tokyo February 14, 2007. She is holding up a chocolate whale while another protester is in a
whale costume. A cool photo of Executive Pastry Chef Sherry Yard. Ms. Yard is shown holding a bunch of individually wrapped caramels
and an Oscar statuette made of Valrhona organic bittersweet chocolate and coated with 24k gold leaf that decorated the Governor's tables
at the Academy Award presentations. Probiotics, bacteria that lives in the stomach and have healthful benefits, may be more easily
delivered into the human system through chocolate mousse a new study from Brazil has found. UK speciality chocolate maker Venture
Foods, makers of the Organica line of chocolate, has added three new bars ti its product line. The new bars are the Tangiers bar, 65%
cocoa with orange oil and zest. The Marrakesh bar, nutmeg, cinnamon and chocolate and the "Food Of The Gods" bar which is solid
chocolate mixed with cocoa nibs. Purdue University students have eaten school produced Hillenbrand Chocolate Crinkles and Double
Chocolate Cookies. School chef Chef Grace Brutsman has released the recipes for the cookies. Cadbury Schweppes had a promotional
stunt go awry when they hid a gold coin in the historic Old Granary Burial Ground in Boston. The 347 year old graveyard, the place of burial
of such notables as Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and John Hancock was forced to close as people started to gather at the cemetery to
search for the coin. Their was a fear that the searchers would damage the graveyard while hunting for the coin. Natalie Smith, the features
editor of the Daily Local News out of Chester, Pennsylvania, has an interesting piece about women and their relationship with chocolate.
We have yet to sample their wares but we found holy chocolate's website interesting. They produce different varieties of hot chocolate and
supposedly have every batch blessed by a priest although we could find no mention of that on their website. If you are looking for a copy of
"The Frango Cookbook: Simple Recipes & Sweet Ideas," the Detroit Free Press has a contest with the book as the prize. The contest is
fairly simple, you just email them your favorite chocolate's name. The Domestic Abuse and Rape Crisis Center's 6th annual "Art of
Chocolate," scheduled for Sunday, April 29 in the The Skylands at Randolph, New Jersey. This year Sharon Cooper and Karen Martin have
been named the co-chairs. It sounds like and excellent event with tastings, a wine pairing, cooking demonstrations and live music all for
$35. If you happen to be in the area of Garden City, New York on Wednesday, March 28th at 7:00 PM you might want to check out the
library's presentation of Chef and Chocolatier Lee Perrotta who will conduct a demonstration and tasting. You need to register in advance
and there are residency requirements for this event. Hershey has announced they will definitely be closing their Smith's Falls, Canada
plant sometime in the near future. The 44 year old plant will stay open through 2007. You can see a photo of the plant here.
February 25, 2007 - I'm not quite sure where Interstate 10 near Roland Avenue is but the smell must have been quite chocolatey last
Thursday when an 18 wheel rig caught on fire and a truckload of Nestle Crunch bars went up in flames. An update on the previous story it
looks like Interstate 10 runs through San Antonio, Texas. Congratulations are in order for the folks at Noka, long one of our favorite
chocolate companies. The Nikkei, Japan's largest business paper, recently conducted a taste test here in New York
City. A panel of experts sampled chocolates from 23 different companies and picked Noka as their favorite.
February 22, 2007 -We usually don't print "Press Releases" verbatim here at eChocolateNYC but we can't find a link to this event and would
like to make you our readers aware of it. So here goes ... A Special Evening of Dark Chocolate Tasting with David Siegel. David Siegel,
chocolate impresario, will take us on a 90-minute tasting tour of the world of high-end chocolate. As we savor the best chocolate on earth,
he'll explain about the various species of cacao, where it is grown, and how it goes from bean to bar. You'l learn a lot, you'll taste some of
the finest chocolates in the world, and you'll leave saying "I never knew
there was so much to know about chocolate!" Unfortunately, you'll then be addicted to high-end chocolate, which will cause you to spend all
your hard-earned money on chocolate rather
than other things like rent, food, and fashion accessories. Village Pourhouse - 64 Third Avenue at 11th street. Please eat before coming to
this event! Cost is $35.00 per person and includes all the chocolate you can taste, and 2 glasses of Red Wine. After the tasting, you'll be
able to purchase the chocolate you
liked. Reservations Required- limited seating! 212.979.2337 or email info-at-pourhousenyc.com. The Press release is above and italicized
and I would call for further information before showing up. The event is scheduled for February 23rd which is tomorrow.
A car dealer in Qingdao, China covered a Volkswagen Beetle with about 200kg of melted chocolate as a publicity stunt recently. The
American Association of University Women held their 8th Annual Feast Of Chocolate fundraiser and around 250 people feasted on
chocolate while raising around $3,000 for the group. The South Bend Chocolate Cafe is expanding their operation. They hope that
construction will be completed by September 1 st which is Notre Dame's first home football game of the season and of course the town will
be jammed. Scientists, speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco
presented new research on the healthful benefits to the brain from the flavanols found in cocoa. Alicia Arce, 29, was picked up at the
Santiago, Chile Airport with 17 pounds of cocaine concealed in boxes of foil wrapped alfajores which are chocolate coated cookies. In an
article with a real international flair Ms. Acre was from Argentina, the cocaine from Bolivia, the arrest was in Chile and the cocaine was
headed to Spain. No mention though of where the chocolate was from. Out of Canada is a recipe we'll be trying out well in advance of
Thanksgiving Day. The recipe is for Double-Layer Chocolate Pumpkin Mousse Pie. Food ingredients manufacturer Cargill has launched a
new fine cocoa powder for use in the confectionery industry which can be marketed as a 'pure chocolate'. The chocolate is a semi-sweet
chocolate ground powder that can be used to make drinking chocolate among other things. Chocolatier Images in Chocolate out of
Houston, Texas has announced they will be marketing poker chips made from chocolate that can be imprinted with a companies, casinos
for example, message. These sound like they will become a popular promotional item in venues where gambling is popular.
February 17, 2007 - Divine Chocolate the British fair trade firm has opened up an American branch. The company pays a "social premium"
over and above the price of the cocoa beans which allows the villages where the cocoa is grown to invest in schools and clean water
supplies. The farmers are also guaranteed a minimum price for their beans which protects them from market fluctuations. Laurie Walker,
owner of Laurie's Homemade Candies in Wayne, New Jersey has some information to impart about working with chocolate molds.
Researchers at the University of Hertfordshire in England had women view pictures of chocolate and magazine ads of non food items.
They found that women who were dieting or had dieted in the past had negative emotions when they saw the chocolate pictures. The
researchers postulate that these feelings can lead to cravings for chocolate making the dieting more difficult. MSNBC weighs in with an
interview with John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg the men behind Scharffen Berger Chocolate. They have a lot to say about the
democratization and demystifying of fine chocolate over the last decade. We here at eChocolateNYC can still remember when Godiva was
the end all and be all of fine chocolate with only a few other suppliers of fine chocolate here in New York City. The Tokyo-based Peace Boat
, a Japanese civic group presented welfare minister Hakuo Yanagisawa, with a chocolate heart that had inscribed upon it "I love you who
quits gracefully,". The Minister drew the wrath of the group by declaring that women are "birth-giving machines." Chocoholics here in New
York City are proud to report that New York exports $234,000,000 worth of specialty chocolate every year making it the cities number one
specialty food export. The Mayor's Office of Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses compiled the statistics. The New Republic has a
fascinating article about the use of child labor on cocoa plantations in The Ivory Coast. The author Jeremy Kahn traces the problems the
industry has in policing the use of child labor in the country during a civil war. He also argues that a boycott of cocoa products is counter
productive to the cause of helping the children who work in the industry. In Yucaipa , California Malissa Grinnal has been running classes
in chocolate making. Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Inc. has announced a Quarterly Cash Dividend of $0.09 Per Share. The company
now has over 300 stores in 38 states, Canada, Guam and the United Arab Emirates. Orr, Minnesota held its first ever chocolate bake off to
raise money to help the town. There were 26 entrants in all.
February 15, 2007 - In Japan women are discovering the joy of getting chocolate massages. The massage takes the form of a thick cocoa
paste rubbed over the body. Cadbury has recalled Chocolate Easter Eggs in Britain and Ireland for incorrect allergy labeling. The eggs
have traces of nuts and were not labeled as such making them a danger to those who are allergic. Patti Brockel's family have been
selling handmade chocolate sin the Billings, Montana for the last 30 years. Operating from equipment and recipes the family had
purchased they have noticed little change except their customers are more interested in dark chocolate. The Lake Park Pavilion in
Coshocton Ohio, on Saturday , was the scene of The Annual Chocolate Extravaganza. The event is a fund raiser for The Pomerene Center
and for an admission fee guests get to pick chocolate. The Seattle Times has an interesting article about the history of chocolate and the
state of the market today especially in regards to high end chocolate. Singer Kylie Minogue is reportedly getting over her break-up from
Olivier Martinez by eating lots of chocolates. According to her friends she's on a chocolate binge but also working out extensively so that she
doesn't gain any weight. 300 people attended the chocolate sampling at the Levee House Cafe in Marietta, Ohio Sunday to help raise
money for local victims of domestic violence. Fran Bigelow has owned Fran's Chocolates, Seattle Washington, for almost twenty five years
and has found this year with media overage from the likes of The New York Times and Oprah Winfrey's O List that her business is growing
and she hopes this year it will grow by 11%.
February 11, 2007 - If you have a free moment between now and Wednesday definitely get down to 350 Bleecker Street and check out the
Chocolate Altoids guerrilla marketing shoppe. The staff are great and the shop will be up until Wednesday. Load up on free samples of the
chocolate covered Altoids in their various flavors and they are also serving free hot chocolate and espresso. It's located right off West 10th
in the old "Kim's Video" site. As a bonus the decor is really neat and our recent visit there was a lot of fun. With chef's experimenting with
chocolate in all sorts of new and different ways the landscape of cooking is changing all the time. Everything from bison to eel has been
showing up in chocolate based recipes. Elsa , Texas is the home of Berrydelicious the brainchild of Yvonne Sandoval. Dipping fruits is her
specialty and she currently dips 40 different kinds of apples. If you need advice for tempering chocolate this piece from Boston.com. File
this story under Y for Yikes. A German man made a grisly discovery when while eating a chocolate and nut Italian treat he realized the bar
contained the tip of a human finger. The German police have yet to publicly disclose the brand of chocolate. Hershey stock's price has
dropped 23% since mid 2005. There seems to be a variety of reasons, most of which center on the companies rapid expansion into new
lines. The company has diluted the amount of advertising dollars spent on existing products as they have used the money to pay for ads for
the new product launches instead.
February 06, 2007 - We here at eChocolateNYC would like to extend our condolences to the family of writer Bob Carroll Jr. who recently
passed away at the age of 88. Mr. Carroll along with his writing partner was involved with the writing of all of the I Love Lucy shows including
Vitameatavegamin and the episode where Lucy and Ethel work on the out of control chocolate assembly line. Bankrate.com has a short
quiz about chocolate which you can take at Bankrate.com. Woodmark Chocolate is located in the garage of Paul Dederich. Dederich
entered the chocolate business working at Nestle and then developed chocolate ideas for New York Chocolate. With the closing of New
York Chocolate he has started his own company and you can buy his product online. United Kingdom retailer Sainsbury has partnered
with the Divine Chocolate Company to produce Chocpix a fairtrade product. The company has ordered 40 tonnes of cocoa from Ghanian
farmers co-operative Kuapa Kokoo to produce over eight million white chocolate squares. Masterfoods the producers of Mars and
Snickers bars has announced they will no longer have advertisements targeting consumers under the age of 12 in the United Kingdom. A
recipe for chocolate soufflé from St. Louis Today.
February 05, 2007 - Master chocolatier Fritz Knipschildt will be making an appearance at the BridgeMarket branch of the Food Emporium
on Saturday, February 10th from noon until 2 pm. The store is located directly under the Queensboro(59th Street Bridge, Manhattan side).
He will personalize your very own handmade chocolate heart which will be available for purchase. Noka Chocolate has announced they
are opening a Dallas, Texas retail store. Close to the W Hotel in the Victory Park area the store is scheduled to open in late March. The
Ithaca Journal is running a contest " Chocolate Is For Lovers" . You have to drop off a sample of your dessert with the recipe to the offices
of the paper at 123 W. State St., Ithaca, New York by February 21st. The winner will be announced February 26th. Barry Callebaut AG
commissioned a survey in Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and the U.K. in November and December. They found a third prefer
chocolate with health benefits and 38% would pay a 10% premium to obtain such chocolate. If you are in the Houston, Texas area you
might want to check out The Chocolate Lounge which has recently opened in the Woodlands. The shop is located at located at 9595 Six
Pines Drive. Cerreta’s Candy Co of Glendale, Arizona offers tours of their facilities Monday through Friday. The tours last thirty minutes.
February 03, 2007 - Jaime Pressly the star of My Name Is Earl is pregnant and craving chocolate. She was seen at the Sundance Film
Festival purchasing five boxes of Serendipity Chocolates Hades which is a spicy piece of chocolate. Ethel's Chocolate Lounge has
opened a branch in the Las Vegas Fashion Show Mall. They received a positive review in the Las Vegas Business Press which you can
check out here. Sensational Stevia Desserts cookbook author Lisa Jobs has issued a Press Release which has some recipes for cooking
with stevia a low sugar chocolate substitute. Read the Press Release here. Carvel, the ice cream makers, have signed a deal with
Hershey to make Hershey products available for hand dipping and for use in Carvelanche Blended Beverages. If you find yourself
anywhere near Somerville, New Jersey on Wednesday, February 7th, the shop All in One Basket will host a chocolate tasting with live harp
music. "For the Love of Chocolate" is the event's name and shoppers can sample chocolate dipped strawberries and a chocolate fountain
and place orders for Valentine's Day. Laura Waitze Zuckerman of Yummie Handcrafted Confections will be conducting two tastings of her
products February 8th and 9th. The tasting on the 8th will be held at the BeadLuxe’s studios, the Bedminster, New Jersey store, 428 Route
202-206, between 6 and 9 p.m. The tasting on the 9th will be held at Summit store, 319 Springfield Ave., between 6 and 9 p.m. Zuckerman
has appeared on The Food Network’s Roker on the Road show. Business is so good for the Seattle Chocolate Company, the makers of
Frangos, that they are moving nine miles down the road to Tukwila, Washington. The company has actually hoped to slow the pace of
growth to just 20% this year as Chief Executive Officer Jean Thompson felt the company was growing to fast. Apparently the New York
Chocolate & Confections Company is still hanging in although they have not been producing chocolate lately. We covered their financial
machinations a few months back and it's hard to believe there is all of that excess chocolate manufacturing capacity that isn't being utilized
while the market for chocolate is growing by leaps and bounds. Godiva has added a new drink to its lineup. The drink is hot and a mix of
mint dark chocolate pieces with dark chocolate flavoring. Over 2,500 people showed up for the 22nd Annual Chocolate Fest at the Knoxville
Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. 200 volunteers and 24 vendors serviced the crowd and around 50,000 dollars was raised for the National
Kidney Foundation of East Tennessee. The inventor of Freddo The Frog, an Australian favorite that sells over 100 million pieces in
Australia alone every year, has died at the age of 94. The event took place 76 years ago and Freddo is currently manufactured by Cadbury.
mind to collate in the first place but which seems extremely useful. While reading an article about the recipe for the Olive Garden's
Chocolate Lasagna Dessert we learned of the book "Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2" by Todd Wilbur. Being in New York City, our
exposure to many of the chain restaurants is somewhat limited, we love the idea that the home cook can produce clones of their favorite
dishes and even tweak them to make them fit personal preferences. Marieke Chocolatier has come under new ownership - that of Roseen
Enterprises. Roseen has a few different confectionary companies in its family including Harmony Sweets. Read the Press Release here.
The Fairtrade movement has been picking up considerable steam in the UK in the last year with Fairtrade firms showing a 46% growth in
2006. Fairtrade goods are still a tiny fraction of the goods sold in the UK but with firms like the retailing giant Sainsbury jumping on board it
seems that the demand for such products will only grow. Deborah Markus of Bellaonline has an excellent review of The Essence of
Chocolate, the new book about chocolate, written by Robert Steinberg and John Scharffenberger . Some of the recipes are amazing and
you come away from the book with a deeper understanding of chocolate and how to use it. The Center for Science in the Public Interest
(CSPI) has issued a statement complimenting the British government's new policies towards limiting "junk food" advertisements geared
towards youngsters. The tougher British restrictions are geared towards Television programs for children under 16 years of age. The flip
side is British food producers are claiming the new restrictions are to onerous and would like them to be changed. The industry after initial
consultations with the regulatory body involved had agreed to changes affecting very young children but believe the ban on advertising to
those 16 and under goes to far.
February 27, 2007 - Chocolate is taking over Japan, judging by the varied chocolatey photos that we have links to. The first is a Japanese
couple sharing a chocolate bath at a spa in Hakone, west of Tokyo. A neat photo of chocolate made to look like gold bars on display at
The Amusement Expo in Chiba, east of Tokyo, Japan. Here is a photo of a Valentine's window display from a chocolate shop in Belgium.
Chocolate is being used by Greenpeace to try to save the whales. This photo shows protester outside the special meeting of the
International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Tokyo February 14, 2007. She is holding up a chocolate whale while another protester is in a
whale costume. A cool photo of Executive Pastry Chef Sherry Yard. Ms. Yard is shown holding a bunch of individually wrapped caramels
and an Oscar statuette made of Valrhona organic bittersweet chocolate and coated with 24k gold leaf that decorated the Governor's tables
at the Academy Award presentations. Probiotics, bacteria that lives in the stomach and have healthful benefits, may be more easily
delivered into the human system through chocolate mousse a new study from Brazil has found. UK speciality chocolate maker Venture
Foods, makers of the Organica line of chocolate, has added three new bars ti its product line. The new bars are the Tangiers bar, 65%
cocoa with orange oil and zest. The Marrakesh bar, nutmeg, cinnamon and chocolate and the "Food Of The Gods" bar which is solid
chocolate mixed with cocoa nibs. Purdue University students have eaten school produced Hillenbrand Chocolate Crinkles and Double
Chocolate Cookies. School chef Chef Grace Brutsman has released the recipes for the cookies. Cadbury Schweppes had a promotional
stunt go awry when they hid a gold coin in the historic Old Granary Burial Ground in Boston. The 347 year old graveyard, the place of burial
of such notables as Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and John Hancock was forced to close as people started to gather at the cemetery to
search for the coin. Their was a fear that the searchers would damage the graveyard while hunting for the coin. Natalie Smith, the features
editor of the Daily Local News out of Chester, Pennsylvania, has an interesting piece about women and their relationship with chocolate.
We have yet to sample their wares but we found holy chocolate's website interesting. They produce different varieties of hot chocolate and
supposedly have every batch blessed by a priest although we could find no mention of that on their website. If you are looking for a copy of
"The Frango Cookbook: Simple Recipes & Sweet Ideas," the Detroit Free Press has a contest with the book as the prize. The contest is
fairly simple, you just email them your favorite chocolate's name. The Domestic Abuse and Rape Crisis Center's 6th annual "Art of
Chocolate," scheduled for Sunday, April 29 in the The Skylands at Randolph, New Jersey. This year Sharon Cooper and Karen Martin have
been named the co-chairs. It sounds like and excellent event with tastings, a wine pairing, cooking demonstrations and live music all for
$35. If you happen to be in the area of Garden City, New York on Wednesday, March 28th at 7:00 PM you might want to check out the
library's presentation of Chef and Chocolatier Lee Perrotta who will conduct a demonstration and tasting. You need to register in advance
and there are residency requirements for this event. Hershey has announced they will definitely be closing their Smith's Falls, Canada
plant sometime in the near future. The 44 year old plant will stay open through 2007. You can see a photo of the plant here.
February 25, 2007 - I'm not quite sure where Interstate 10 near Roland Avenue is but the smell must have been quite chocolatey last
Thursday when an 18 wheel rig caught on fire and a truckload of Nestle Crunch bars went up in flames. An update on the previous story it
looks like Interstate 10 runs through San Antonio, Texas. Congratulations are in order for the folks at Noka, long one of our favorite
chocolate companies. The Nikkei, Japan's largest business paper, recently conducted a taste test here in New York
City. A panel of experts sampled chocolates from 23 different companies and picked Noka as their favorite.
February 22, 2007 -We usually don't print "Press Releases" verbatim here at eChocolateNYC but we can't find a link to this event and would
like to make you our readers aware of it. So here goes ... A Special Evening of Dark Chocolate Tasting with David Siegel. David Siegel,
chocolate impresario, will take us on a 90-minute tasting tour of the world of high-end chocolate. As we savor the best chocolate on earth,
he'll explain about the various species of cacao, where it is grown, and how it goes from bean to bar. You'l learn a lot, you'll taste some of
the finest chocolates in the world, and you'll leave saying "I never knew
there was so much to know about chocolate!" Unfortunately, you'll then be addicted to high-end chocolate, which will cause you to spend all
your hard-earned money on chocolate rather
than other things like rent, food, and fashion accessories. Village Pourhouse - 64 Third Avenue at 11th street. Please eat before coming to
this event! Cost is $35.00 per person and includes all the chocolate you can taste, and 2 glasses of Red Wine. After the tasting, you'll be
able to purchase the chocolate you
liked. Reservations Required- limited seating! 212.979.2337 or email info-at-pourhousenyc.com. The Press release is above and italicized
and I would call for further information before showing up. The event is scheduled for February 23rd which is tomorrow.
A car dealer in Qingdao, China covered a Volkswagen Beetle with about 200kg of melted chocolate as a publicity stunt recently. The
American Association of University Women held their 8th Annual Feast Of Chocolate fundraiser and around 250 people feasted on
chocolate while raising around $3,000 for the group. The South Bend Chocolate Cafe is expanding their operation. They hope that
construction will be completed by September 1 st which is Notre Dame's first home football game of the season and of course the town will
be jammed. Scientists, speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco
presented new research on the healthful benefits to the brain from the flavanols found in cocoa. Alicia Arce, 29, was picked up at the
Santiago, Chile Airport with 17 pounds of cocaine concealed in boxes of foil wrapped alfajores which are chocolate coated cookies. In an
article with a real international flair Ms. Acre was from Argentina, the cocaine from Bolivia, the arrest was in Chile and the cocaine was
headed to Spain. No mention though of where the chocolate was from. Out of Canada is a recipe we'll be trying out well in advance of
Thanksgiving Day. The recipe is for Double-Layer Chocolate Pumpkin Mousse Pie. Food ingredients manufacturer Cargill has launched a
new fine cocoa powder for use in the confectionery industry which can be marketed as a 'pure chocolate'. The chocolate is a semi-sweet
chocolate ground powder that can be used to make drinking chocolate among other things. Chocolatier Images in Chocolate out of
Houston, Texas has announced they will be marketing poker chips made from chocolate that can be imprinted with a companies, casinos
for example, message. These sound like they will become a popular promotional item in venues where gambling is popular.
February 17, 2007 - Divine Chocolate the British fair trade firm has opened up an American branch. The company pays a "social premium"
over and above the price of the cocoa beans which allows the villages where the cocoa is grown to invest in schools and clean water
supplies. The farmers are also guaranteed a minimum price for their beans which protects them from market fluctuations. Laurie Walker,
owner of Laurie's Homemade Candies in Wayne, New Jersey has some information to impart about working with chocolate molds.
Researchers at the University of Hertfordshire in England had women view pictures of chocolate and magazine ads of non food items.
They found that women who were dieting or had dieted in the past had negative emotions when they saw the chocolate pictures. The
researchers postulate that these feelings can lead to cravings for chocolate making the dieting more difficult. MSNBC weighs in with an
interview with John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg the men behind Scharffen Berger Chocolate. They have a lot to say about the
democratization and demystifying of fine chocolate over the last decade. We here at eChocolateNYC can still remember when Godiva was
the end all and be all of fine chocolate with only a few other suppliers of fine chocolate here in New York City. The Tokyo-based Peace Boat
, a Japanese civic group presented welfare minister Hakuo Yanagisawa, with a chocolate heart that had inscribed upon it "I love you who
quits gracefully,". The Minister drew the wrath of the group by declaring that women are "birth-giving machines." Chocoholics here in New
York City are proud to report that New York exports $234,000,000 worth of specialty chocolate every year making it the cities number one
specialty food export. The Mayor's Office of Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses compiled the statistics. The New Republic has a
fascinating article about the use of child labor on cocoa plantations in The Ivory Coast. The author Jeremy Kahn traces the problems the
industry has in policing the use of child labor in the country during a civil war. He also argues that a boycott of cocoa products is counter
productive to the cause of helping the children who work in the industry. In Yucaipa , California Malissa Grinnal has been running classes
in chocolate making. Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Inc. has announced a Quarterly Cash Dividend of $0.09 Per Share. The company
now has over 300 stores in 38 states, Canada, Guam and the United Arab Emirates. Orr, Minnesota held its first ever chocolate bake off to
raise money to help the town. There were 26 entrants in all.
February 15, 2007 - In Japan women are discovering the joy of getting chocolate massages. The massage takes the form of a thick cocoa
paste rubbed over the body. Cadbury has recalled Chocolate Easter Eggs in Britain and Ireland for incorrect allergy labeling. The eggs
have traces of nuts and were not labeled as such making them a danger to those who are allergic. Patti Brockel's family have been
selling handmade chocolate sin the Billings, Montana for the last 30 years. Operating from equipment and recipes the family had
purchased they have noticed little change except their customers are more interested in dark chocolate. The Lake Park Pavilion in
Coshocton Ohio, on Saturday , was the scene of The Annual Chocolate Extravaganza. The event is a fund raiser for The Pomerene Center
and for an admission fee guests get to pick chocolate. The Seattle Times has an interesting article about the history of chocolate and the
state of the market today especially in regards to high end chocolate. Singer Kylie Minogue is reportedly getting over her break-up from
Olivier Martinez by eating lots of chocolates. According to her friends she's on a chocolate binge but also working out extensively so that she
doesn't gain any weight. 300 people attended the chocolate sampling at the Levee House Cafe in Marietta, Ohio Sunday to help raise
money for local victims of domestic violence. Fran Bigelow has owned Fran's Chocolates, Seattle Washington, for almost twenty five years
and has found this year with media overage from the likes of The New York Times and Oprah Winfrey's O List that her business is growing
and she hopes this year it will grow by 11%.
February 11, 2007 - If you have a free moment between now and Wednesday definitely get down to 350 Bleecker Street and check out the
Chocolate Altoids guerrilla marketing shoppe. The staff are great and the shop will be up until Wednesday. Load up on free samples of the
chocolate covered Altoids in their various flavors and they are also serving free hot chocolate and espresso. It's located right off West 10th
in the old "Kim's Video" site. As a bonus the decor is really neat and our recent visit there was a lot of fun. With chef's experimenting with
chocolate in all sorts of new and different ways the landscape of cooking is changing all the time. Everything from bison to eel has been
showing up in chocolate based recipes. Elsa , Texas is the home of Berrydelicious the brainchild of Yvonne Sandoval. Dipping fruits is her
specialty and she currently dips 40 different kinds of apples. If you need advice for tempering chocolate this piece from Boston.com. File
this story under Y for Yikes. A German man made a grisly discovery when while eating a chocolate and nut Italian treat he realized the bar
contained the tip of a human finger. The German police have yet to publicly disclose the brand of chocolate. Hershey stock's price has
dropped 23% since mid 2005. There seems to be a variety of reasons, most of which center on the companies rapid expansion into new
lines. The company has diluted the amount of advertising dollars spent on existing products as they have used the money to pay for ads for
the new product launches instead.
February 06, 2007 - We here at eChocolateNYC would like to extend our condolences to the family of writer Bob Carroll Jr. who recently
passed away at the age of 88. Mr. Carroll along with his writing partner was involved with the writing of all of the I Love Lucy shows including
Vitameatavegamin and the episode where Lucy and Ethel work on the out of control chocolate assembly line. Bankrate.com has a short
quiz about chocolate which you can take at Bankrate.com. Woodmark Chocolate is located in the garage of Paul Dederich. Dederich
entered the chocolate business working at Nestle and then developed chocolate ideas for New York Chocolate. With the closing of New
York Chocolate he has started his own company and you can buy his product online. United Kingdom retailer Sainsbury has partnered
with the Divine Chocolate Company to produce Chocpix a fairtrade product. The company has ordered 40 tonnes of cocoa from Ghanian
farmers co-operative Kuapa Kokoo to produce over eight million white chocolate squares. Masterfoods the producers of Mars and
Snickers bars has announced they will no longer have advertisements targeting consumers under the age of 12 in the United Kingdom. A
recipe for chocolate soufflé from St. Louis Today.
February 05, 2007 - Master chocolatier Fritz Knipschildt will be making an appearance at the BridgeMarket branch of the Food Emporium
on Saturday, February 10th from noon until 2 pm. The store is located directly under the Queensboro(59th Street Bridge, Manhattan side).
He will personalize your very own handmade chocolate heart which will be available for purchase. Noka Chocolate has announced they
are opening a Dallas, Texas retail store. Close to the W Hotel in the Victory Park area the store is scheduled to open in late March. The
Ithaca Journal is running a contest " Chocolate Is For Lovers" . You have to drop off a sample of your dessert with the recipe to the offices
of the paper at 123 W. State St., Ithaca, New York by February 21st. The winner will be announced February 26th. Barry Callebaut AG
commissioned a survey in Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and the U.K. in November and December. They found a third prefer
chocolate with health benefits and 38% would pay a 10% premium to obtain such chocolate. If you are in the Houston, Texas area you
might want to check out The Chocolate Lounge which has recently opened in the Woodlands. The shop is located at located at 9595 Six
Pines Drive. Cerreta’s Candy Co of Glendale, Arizona offers tours of their facilities Monday through Friday. The tours last thirty minutes.
February 03, 2007 - Jaime Pressly the star of My Name Is Earl is pregnant and craving chocolate. She was seen at the Sundance Film
Festival purchasing five boxes of Serendipity Chocolates Hades which is a spicy piece of chocolate. Ethel's Chocolate Lounge has
opened a branch in the Las Vegas Fashion Show Mall. They received a positive review in the Las Vegas Business Press which you can
check out here. Sensational Stevia Desserts cookbook author Lisa Jobs has issued a Press Release which has some recipes for cooking
with stevia a low sugar chocolate substitute. Read the Press Release here. Carvel, the ice cream makers, have signed a deal with
Hershey to make Hershey products available for hand dipping and for use in Carvelanche Blended Beverages. If you find yourself
anywhere near Somerville, New Jersey on Wednesday, February 7th, the shop All in One Basket will host a chocolate tasting with live harp
music. "For the Love of Chocolate" is the event's name and shoppers can sample chocolate dipped strawberries and a chocolate fountain
and place orders for Valentine's Day. Laura Waitze Zuckerman of Yummie Handcrafted Confections will be conducting two tastings of her
products February 8th and 9th. The tasting on the 8th will be held at the BeadLuxe’s studios, the Bedminster, New Jersey store, 428 Route
202-206, between 6 and 9 p.m. The tasting on the 9th will be held at Summit store, 319 Springfield Ave., between 6 and 9 p.m. Zuckerman
has appeared on The Food Network’s Roker on the Road show. Business is so good for the Seattle Chocolate Company, the makers of
Frangos, that they are moving nine miles down the road to Tukwila, Washington. The company has actually hoped to slow the pace of
growth to just 20% this year as Chief Executive Officer Jean Thompson felt the company was growing to fast. Apparently the New York
Chocolate & Confections Company is still hanging in although they have not been producing chocolate lately. We covered their financial
machinations a few months back and it's hard to believe there is all of that excess chocolate manufacturing capacity that isn't being utilized
while the market for chocolate is growing by leaps and bounds. Godiva has added a new drink to its lineup. The drink is hot and a mix of
mint dark chocolate pieces with dark chocolate flavoring. Over 2,500 people showed up for the 22nd Annual Chocolate Fest at the Knoxville
Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. 200 volunteers and 24 vendors serviced the crowd and around 50,000 dollars was raised for the National
Kidney Foundation of East Tennessee. The inventor of Freddo The Frog, an Australian favorite that sells over 100 million pieces in
Australia alone every year, has died at the age of 94. The event took place 76 years ago and Freddo is currently manufactured by Cadbury.