Get ready for chocolate with a kick...
November 14 2005 at 06:06AM
By Anna Driver
New York - Chocolate today has bite - a kick from curry, a jolt of cumin or a crunch from sesame. And while boutique chocolatiers experiment with exotic infusions, the industry is enjoying upbeat news on health benefits.
In a word, chocolate is hot.
At the eighth annual Chocolate Show in New York, the traditional truffle made room this year for those containing coriander, curry, cumin, lavender, lime, green tea, black sesame, soy butter and balsamic vinegar.
Consumers' tastes have become more sophisticated
Consumer tastes have become more sophisticated, leading to an explosion of boutiques that specialise in hand-made, high-quality chocolate. That has helped boost the industry beyond the mass-produced chocolate bar many Americans grew up with.
"I just think that the whole food industry is becoming more focused on flavour and quality," said Gary Guittard, president of Guittard Chocolate Company in San Francisco. "We're having a food renaissance in general, and chocolate is certainly a part of that."
Americans ate 1,5-billion kilograms of chocolate in 2004. Most of it was the ubiquitous milk chocolate variety but there are signs of growth on the other end of the cocoa spectrum.
This year Hershey, the largest US chocolate maker, bought two artisan chocolate makers, Joseph Schmidt Confections, and Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker.
Consumers' interest in dark chocolate has intensified after research showing it contains healthy ingredients such as antioxidants, Guittard said.
'We're having a food renaissance'
NewTree, a Belgian company that started a US division about two years ago, sells chocolate bars infused with fruit and plant essences that promise wellbeing. For example, the company sells a "Tranquillity" milk chocolate bar flavoured with lavender from Provence that smells like soap and retails for about $4.50 (about R30).
"We try to create flavours that have a different spin," said Louis Brouillet, chief executive officer of NewTree America based in San Anselmo, California.
It was high-end chocolatiers who first experimented with spices such as chili and cardamom in sweets, Brouillet said.
Allison Nelson, who owns the Chocolate Bar shop in New York, offered a taste of her salty pretzel and key lime pie-flavoured chocolate bars to visitors at the Chocolate Show.
Next on the menu may be a bar flavoured with black pepper, she said.
Research has found that dark chocolate, like red wine, is rich in antioxidants, which benefit the heart by dilating vessels and improving blood flow. This health fact is not lost on chocolate marketers, who have introduced all manner of "good for you" confections.
Bissinger's, a St Louis-based company founded in 1863 in Paris, was at the show to tout its line of "spa" chocolates that are high in antioxidants.
They contain healthy ingredients, including dried blueberries, almonds, sunflower seeds, green tea and soy nut butter.
There's even something for the weight-conscious: Fairytale Brownies in Chandler, Arizona, has developed a sugar-free brownie but company co-founder Eileen Joy Spitalny said she sticks to proven flavours.
"It's expensive to produce our brownies so we need to know that a new flavour is going to work and it's going to be around for a long time," she said.
November 14 2005 at 06:06AM
By Anna Driver
New York - Chocolate today has bite - a kick from curry, a jolt of cumin or a crunch from sesame. And while boutique chocolatiers experiment with exotic infusions, the industry is enjoying upbeat news on health benefits.
In a word, chocolate is hot.
At the eighth annual Chocolate Show in New York, the traditional truffle made room this year for those containing coriander, curry, cumin, lavender, lime, green tea, black sesame, soy butter and balsamic vinegar.
Consumers' tastes have become more sophisticated
Consumer tastes have become more sophisticated, leading to an explosion of boutiques that specialise in hand-made, high-quality chocolate. That has helped boost the industry beyond the mass-produced chocolate bar many Americans grew up with.
"I just think that the whole food industry is becoming more focused on flavour and quality," said Gary Guittard, president of Guittard Chocolate Company in San Francisco. "We're having a food renaissance in general, and chocolate is certainly a part of that."
Americans ate 1,5-billion kilograms of chocolate in 2004. Most of it was the ubiquitous milk chocolate variety but there are signs of growth on the other end of the cocoa spectrum.
This year Hershey, the largest US chocolate maker, bought two artisan chocolate makers, Joseph Schmidt Confections, and Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker.
Consumers' interest in dark chocolate has intensified after research showing it contains healthy ingredients such as antioxidants, Guittard said.
'We're having a food renaissance'
NewTree, a Belgian company that started a US division about two years ago, sells chocolate bars infused with fruit and plant essences that promise wellbeing. For example, the company sells a "Tranquillity" milk chocolate bar flavoured with lavender from Provence that smells like soap and retails for about $4.50 (about R30).
"We try to create flavours that have a different spin," said Louis Brouillet, chief executive officer of NewTree America based in San Anselmo, California.
It was high-end chocolatiers who first experimented with spices such as chili and cardamom in sweets, Brouillet said.
Allison Nelson, who owns the Chocolate Bar shop in New York, offered a taste of her salty pretzel and key lime pie-flavoured chocolate bars to visitors at the Chocolate Show.
Next on the menu may be a bar flavoured with black pepper, she said.
Research has found that dark chocolate, like red wine, is rich in antioxidants, which benefit the heart by dilating vessels and improving blood flow. This health fact is not lost on chocolate marketers, who have introduced all manner of "good for you" confections.
Bissinger's, a St Louis-based company founded in 1863 in Paris, was at the show to tout its line of "spa" chocolates that are high in antioxidants.
They contain healthy ingredients, including dried blueberries, almonds, sunflower seeds, green tea and soy nut butter.
There's even something for the weight-conscious: Fairytale Brownies in Chandler, Arizona, has developed a sugar-free brownie but company co-founder Eileen Joy Spitalny said she sticks to proven flavours.
"It's expensive to produce our brownies so we need to know that a new flavour is going to work and it's going to be around for a long time," she said.
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