This Week In Candy

Christmas is certainly approaching.  We've got all of our decorations up, and we're now just trying to figure out what kind of candy we'll have around the house for this holiday season.  While I'm always a sucker for a candy cane (no pun intended), I do like chocolates too, in fact I like almost every holiday treat.  The two exceptions are figgy pudding and some fruit cakes.  We have lots of fun things planned for Candy Critic over the holidays, so stay tuned.

Not only is this month going to be full of holiday cheer, but every Wednesday we're also featuring some really cool jewelry from our friends at KanDi Jewelery.  They take the great shapes, colours, and designs of the candy world, and turn it into funky cool wearables.

We're also going to be posting a new entry of our dessert club.  For the holidays we've decided to make gingerbread cookies.  Later this week we'll post our recipe, as well as our experiences making this classic Christmas cookie.

This week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're looking at the history of cocoa.  It's one of the most prevalent ingredients in the candy world, second only to vanilla and sugar.  So check our Instagram feed every day for a new fact, if you don't use Instagram, you can also follow Snack Facts on our Facebook page and Twitter feed as well.

This week's new review was decided by you, the candycritic.org followers.  I asked you guys all week on our social media sites (including Periscope) which flavour of Fla-Vers you wanted me to review.  It was close, but lime chipotle won. So click here to find out what I thought.

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Monday's Candy Links

Tomorrow is National Peanut Day, and if you can get to Solana Beach California, you can get some free peanut treats.

"Women think about going on a diet and think they have to deprive themselves of their favorite foods, but really that's not the case if you incorporate them in a portion-controlled way". Good advice.

So how much cocoa is produced in the world on an annual basis?  How about "4.2 million metric tons".

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Cocoa Lady

If I ever had to lie to a small child about the origins of chocolate bars, this is the image I would use to illustrate my point.

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Do You Want Healthier Chocolate?

Well then eating dark chocolate isn't good enough, neither is eating straight up roasted cocoa beans.  Apparently, according to this article, if you want the most nutrition out of your cocoa, you have to eat the beans raw.

Click here to read more.

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Two Interesting Articles About How Great Chocolate Is For You

I'm thinking with all of the articles written about how great chocolate is for you, that I should maybe start a blog that simply talks about the health benefits of cocoa and chocolate.  Maybe I could call it, "Chocolate, it'll treat your right" or "Let me tell you something about chocolate".

Click here to read about the chocolate health compounds.

Click here to find out why chocolate is a "Super Food".

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Chocolate Might Get Expensive

Of all of the news article I get sent to me the ones I tend to post less are the stock news. Although I am aware that stock market trends affect candy prices and quality, I just find that it's pretty dull reading. However every once in a while I see such a trend that I figure it's at least worth mentioning. The trend now is the increase in the price of chocolate on the stock market. It's going up pretty high and with the crazy weather we've been seeing around the world cocoa crops might be affected and the prices may continue to rise. You might start to notice an increase in the price of chocolate treats, or even worse, you might start to notice that some chocolate companies will use more fillers and less cocoa.

Click here to read about the chocolate price increase.

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Everything You'd Ever Want To Know About Chocolate

At least everything that you can read on the internet from a technical standpoint. I mean frankly the most important thing about chocolate is how good it tastes and how much you're planning on giving me.

Click here to learn a lot of technical knowhow on the subject of chocolate.

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This Is Not A Chocolate Bar

The article bellow is not about a new coffee flavored chocolate bar, no that wouldn't be original. Instead what someone has created is the worlds first (maybe I don't really know for sure) coffee bar. Instead of using cocoa for this bar the creator has used coffee. Other than that it's pretty much the same process as a regular chocolate bar. It sounds intriguing, and now I want one.

Click here to learn more about KA-POW

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Chocolate Bonds

In the past cocoa was used as a currency by the Mayans, today the tradition returns with chocolate bonds. A British candy maker is offering chocolate bonds for sale that will allow members of a chocolate club to receive the sweet treat in a profitable manner. It's a brilliant way not only to promote a company but also an interesting way to look at money.

Click here to read more.

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See Computer Nerds Are Smart

If you look at the high end candy market today you'll notice a little trend. This trend is that people who used to work at successful high end (and high profit) computer related places are starting to try out the chocolate market. I'm not saying a boom is in sight but... well actually I am saying just that.

Click here to read about an executive from Yahoo.

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High Quality Beans

Cocoa beans that is. Malaysia wants to have the highest quality cocoa beans ever and they plan on using science to prove it.

Callebaut To Boost Cocoa Quality - Candy & Snack TODAY

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What is this UTZ Thing Anyways

On of my biggest pet peeves is people who write using an acronim and just assume everybody knows what they're talking about. I assume that UTZ is some kind of sustainably harvest chocolate program but as far as details go after reading this article I'm still in the dark. Sure I should probably know this kind of thing, being the candy critic, but I'm remarkably lazy when it comes to research.

Cargill Produces First Sustainable UTZ Certified Chocolate - FoodIngredientsFirst

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Speculators Are Making Chocolate Expensive

Or at least that's what a bunch of chocolate manufacturers are saying in Europe right now. Basically from what I can understand (and this comes from a mind that knows more about cartoons, candy, and toys) speculators said that the price of chocolate was probably going to go up, so people adjusted their prices to make sure they wouldn't lose money. Then as it turns out it didn't go up as much as was thought, but the prices still stayed high. It makes no sense to me really but I'm sure to someone it does.

Click here to read, and attempt to understand.

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Cocoa Forecast For This Year

I knew that we (as a population) consume lots of cocoa but 3,597 thousand metric tons is ridiculous. I'm not even sure that's a real measurement.

Click here to read more about the forecast.

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Just Say No To Drugs and Yes To Chocolate

Apparently in Peru a small group of farmers have decided to stop growing coca (for the production of cocaine) and decided instead to grow cocoa (for the production of chocolate. These cocoa plants have apparently been awarded high ranking as some of the worlds best. It’s good to see that chocolate really can change the world into a better place.

Click here to read more.

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