Zzang Candy Bars and Passion

The Fancy Food Show really was awesome.  The best part was getting to meet people who are really passionate about food and chocolate in particular.  One of them was Charlie Frank with Zingerman's Candy Manufactory (http://www.zingermanscandy.com).


Zingerman's (http://www.zingermans.com/) makes all kinds of amazing things.  But these candy bars are over the top.  Charlie and his team make them almost entirely BY HAND.  It's always so cool when you get to meet the chocolatier!!  And Charlie is so excited about these bars!  They actually have ingredient lists you can read - not a bunch of added weirdness.

The boxes are very cool - that's a collectible Christmas card in the purple box (love the peanut in a Santa hat!).

The Cashew Cow is described as milk chocolate cashew butter gianduja, cashew brittle and roasted cashews dipped in dark chocolate.

OMG - this is amazing!  Fantastic texture and if you like cashews - you'll be in heaven!  Not too many bars have cashews so this is a real treat.  Also some puffed rice, so it has a really light feel to it. Wow!!!

The original bar is described as butter-roasted peanuts, caramel and peanut butter honey nougat dipped in dark chocolate.  Holy God - how great does that sound?

How great does that look?

And the bar is awesome - a nice salty taste and loaded with peanuts.  Great chewy texture.  Awesome. I wish it were covered in milk chocolate rather than dark chocolate, but that's just my super sweet tooth talking.

The Wowza is described as creamy raspberry-chocolate ganache, raspberry preserves and fresh raspberry nougat in a crisp dark chocolate shell.

Again with the textures!  Wow!  The preserves have a grainy, sugary quality that plays perfectly off the nougat and the chocolate.  Super sweet and totally made for lovers of raspberry!

The What the Fudge? bar is described as milk chocolate fudge, Muscovade caramel and malted milk cream dipped in dark chocolate.

If you like fudge, this is the bar for you!  So rich and coated in chocolate!  It's WAY too rich and sweet for me, but if you can handle fudge - you will love this.

The great thing about all these is they are candy bars!  Not weird excursions into la-la land - they are gorgeously rich, decadent bars of candy!  Charlie isn't messing around - these are delicious, rich celebrations of classic flavors.  Different from any of the classic candy bars, but comforting like the best of them.  Yummy!!!

The best thing (besides the awesome flavors and quality ingredients) is Charlie's passion. It is really contagious. Are you passionate about your work?  If not, is there something in your life you're passionate about?  It could be a hobby or other pursuit.  If nothing comes to mind - get on it!  What do you like?  What are your dreams?  What would you regret not doing or experiencing? 

You have to find your own passion - no one else can bring it to you. 

While you're mulling it over, make sure you eat some chocolate. 

Fancy Food Show 2010 Continued

The first night I was in NY, my friend Ruth (she makes fabulous jams and wanted to go to the Fancy Food Show to learn about selling them on a larger scale) joined me and we went to Junior's for cheesecake.  Look at this beauty:

Oh yes, that's cheesecake with chocolate cake, amazing chocolate frosting and chocolate chips and chocolate shavings.  It was absolutely fresh, moist and delicious.  And HUGE!

We also hit Hershey's Time Square store (as I mentioned) and I found these:

Macadamia nut Kisses!  I love how the paper tag says Aloha!  These are wickedly addictive.  I haven't seen them anywhere else, but I highly recommend them.  I ate almost a whole bag one night in my hotel room.  It was the nuts - crunchy, delish.

Here we are at the show (see how big it all is?):

You weren't supposed to take any pictures, but my buddies at Walkers let me.  Look at this amazing booth:

Rich wood, thick carpet - and it was packed the whole show.  The gang was doing some SERIOUS business.  This is the booth right before the award celebration:

They gave the guests these great Walker's goodies:

I love the paragraph on the back of the gorgeous black tin - Walkers is still owned by the founding family.  And they do make some simply amazing shortbread:

And eight cookies were packed in there!

We'll be reviewing them in upcoming posts = sooooo good!!

Now, since one of my readers (thanks, Perry!) recommended these, I had to try some:

These cookies contains real bits of ginger:

Now, here's the deal - if you like ginger - these are amazing!  I think real ginger tastes weird, so I am not crazy about these.  My heart belongs to shortbread.

It was so fun to be part of the Walkers' celebration!  And to play in NYC!  More to come!!!

Fancy Food Show 2010 Update

Greetings from New Yawk City!  After two full days at the Fancy Food Show I can say I need to spend some serious time at the gym.  Dear God.  I have literally eaten my way around the world.  Some facts:

2,400 exhibiting companies
331,000 square feet (makes Candy Expo look tiny)
24,000 attendees

There were companies and attendees from all over the world.  I've spent time with the folks from Belgium at the Leonidas booth - where they told me in Belgium there are more Leonidas chocolate shops per person than there are Starbucks per person in the US.  After I had one of their hazelnut praline chocolates, I could see why.  I want to move to Belgium.

Last night the crew at Walkers Shortbread had a lovely champagne reception to celebrate winning their fourth Queen's Award for Enterprise for International Trade.  A pretty big deal and I was THRILLED to be invited to celebrate with them.  I can't tell you how great the team at Walkers is - Steve - thank you for a wonderful time!!  Maybe I should move to Scotland - I do love shortbread.  And that whole kilt thing is pretty cool.....

Today I spent time with the crew at Seattle Chocolates (my new BFFs!).  It's so awesome to meet people who are passionate and creative - and some of their latest creations are amazing!  I want to move to Seattle.

There were lots of other great people I met and fabulous chocolate I tasted - but there were some challenges too.  The vast majority of the samples were tasting samples - meaning there's not much you can take home.  (It's not packaged and usually is just a piece of something.)  This means no photos for the blog - I wasn't allowed to take pictures in the exhibit area.  A real challenge for doing reviews.  Several of the vendors said they would mail things, so we'll see how that goes. 

Another challenge is New York City in the summer.  I forgot how much I hate NYC in the summer.  Temp in the 100s, high humidity, a bizillion tourists, and the stench of garbage everywhere.  GLACK!!!  I do NOT want to move to New York.

I didn't visit any high end chocolate shops because whatever I bought would have melted.   Did go to Macy's (the bus stopped me from going in in Chicago, but I made a comeback) and found some great deals.  Also visited M & M World - so packed with people I wanted to gouge my own eyes out.  And had to hit Hershey's Times Square store where I found macadamia nut Kisses!  How exciting - I had no idea!  Review to come.

It was great to connect with so many people who are passionate about chocolate and food.  I ate a lot, laughed a lot, learned a lot, and lived a lot.  Life is too short to spend it any other way.