Fudge Kitchen, A New Kind Of Fudge

I am by no means a fudge expert, I have tasted hundreds of different varieties of fudge in my life, but for the most part they all seem pretty similar.  From the little knowledge I have on the subject, fudge is pretty much butter, sugar, some milk, and flavorings melted together into a lump.  I'm not putting down fudge makers by any stretch.  It takes a great deal of skill to blend these simple ingredients perfectly, and a great deal of knowledge to know how to work with these ingredients to get this wonderful treat.  The thing is, for years now I've never really heard about people making any kind of deviation from this recipe.

That was until my trip to York, there I found a place that's changed the ingredients a little in order to make a different kind of fudge.  The main difference the Fudge Kitchen has in their recipe is the use of whipped cream.  They also seem to use a little more sugar than other fudge places I've seen.  According to them it creates a slightly healthier fudge, but frankly I can't really see that.  While there may be a little less fat in the whipped cream, the fudge is still loaded with sugar.  I can tell you however that their recipe doesn't take away any of the flavour or texture at all.

I was lucky enough to be visiting the Fudge Kitchen in York just as they where starting off a demonstration on how they mixed their fudge.  It seemed to need a bit more work then regular fudge, and after setting for a while it had to be folded and kneaded into a tasty log.  The great thing about this demonstration was the free sample you got after watching, warm fudge is about as good as it gets.

While I might argue that their fudge isn't healthier than regular fudge, I will say that it is unique.  Best of all they've capitalized on their unique fudge and created something that probably wouldn't work with regular fudge.  They've created something called drinking fudge.  Making a few changes to their fudge recipe, they are able to make a chocolate like sauce that you can add to hot milk.  They call it drinking fudge, and what you get is a warm cup of fudge, instead of just plain old hot chocolate.

It's really great to see a company not simply changing a recipe for the sake of changing it, but also innovating something new out of this special recipe.  Fudge is a classic treat that I love, but I didn't feel for one second that the Fudge Kitchen was ruining it.  Instead I felt like the Fudge Kitchen was branching out into something new.  While I don't want to see every fudge maker go this direction exactly, it would be nice to see them explore something other than adding different nuts or flavours to the classic recipe.

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Greek Food Show In Athens

Food shows can really be hit or miss for me.  Sometimes you pay to go into a food show, only to have to pay again and again just to get a bite sized portion of anything.  Other times you pay your entry fee and the food show is full of samples, and nibbles, enough to make you forget about dinner entirely.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm a sample hog.  I'm not the guy who walks up to a pile of sample bread sticks and walks away with 20 of them.  I believe in only trying one of each thing available, and if you like it, then maybe go in for another flavour if it's available.

This food show was pretty good on the free samples, and sadly full of people taking handfuls of samples at every opportunity.  I walked behind a few people with their hands full of little cups, tiny spoons, and mini squares of assorted foods.  If you wanted to eat more than a little sample, all of the vendors at this show offered to sell you larger quantities of whatever they had on sample.  So the idea of going in and taking more than a bite came off as really cheap.

Candy wise there was a few offering available, including several sugar free chocolate makers, a couple of traditional Greek sweets, hundreds of spoon sweet makers, and a few tasty cookies.  There wasn't too much that I would call "new" or unique treats available at the show.  Most of the treats I'd seen around town, or at least something very similar.

The one exception to this rule was a halvas that I sampled.  For the most part halvas comes in plain, chocolate and occasionally filled with various nuts.  At this show I had the opportunity to sample cranberry halvas.  It had a really nice tart texture that blended so nicely with the sesame and cocoa flavour of the traditional halvas.  I'd never thought about including juice flavours or even dried berries into a halvas, but I think it's something well worth trying again.  I think a raspberry halvas might work, as might I citrus halvas.  This sample really opened my eyes to some flavour combinations I'd never thought about before.

I had a really good time at this food show, I discovered a few new flavours I'd never sampled before, and I got to enjoy a few flavours that I was very familiar with.  I'm hoping that the large amount of people overindulging didn't put a damper on the show for the exhibitors.  I've been to a few shows that started off with many free samples, but had to change their policies because people visiting got greedy.  It changes the show, and most often not for the better.

Although I did sample a lot, Allison and I picked up a few treats as well, including this selection of sugar free chocolate bars which I hope to review very soon.

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Sweet Gifts

Whenever I meet new people, and I tell them I write about candy, they're always interested in asking me about the places I've taste tested.  There's always a list of local stores suggested to me, and I really appreciate all of the information these people provide.  In fact I probably wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for the advice of others helping me find new and fun treats.  The thing is, many people expect that I've already visited their favorite place, and often that's not the case.  I do my best to visit lots of sweet places, but I'm only one man, and in many cases these places are hard to find, and impossible to know about without prior knowledge.

In other words, many of the best places in the world to buy sweet treats (or any food for that matter) are often not well advertised. The only way to find them is to be told about them, or to stumble across them randomly.  While I do my best, I find there are many holes in my "must try" candy lists.  Fortunately for me, many people also feel the need to bring me their favorite sweet treats, so they can either impress me, or at the very least get my opinion.  I can't tell you how much I enjoy this.

I don't enjoy it totally because of the massive amounts of great treats I get to try, but instead because enthusiasm and stories I get to hear from the people presenting me with these sweets.  It's one of the extra dimensions of the candy world that really interest me, and one of the main reasons I do what I do.

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Spooooooooooooonnnn!!! Sweets - Cherry

Every day this week I'm going to sample a different spoon sweet and let you know what I think.  For those unfamiliar with spoon sweets, they're pretty much fruit preserved in a syrup.  It's kind of like jam, only it's much juicier and the fruit is most often whole, or only sliced in half.

I decided to start this exercise with something fairly simple and straight forward, cherries.  I'm finding that most spoon sweets seem to come in more exotic and strange flavours, such as kumquat or fig. You don't really find apple, or peach spoon sweets as often.  It could be because these fruits are more common and not worth preserving, or it could be the places I happen to buy my spoon sweets.  These cherry spoon sweets are pretty good.  They're not as juicy as cherries, but the flavour is really surprising.  You would expect these to be uber sweet, since they've been soaking in syrup for a while, but they're not.  In fact they have a great tart taste that balances the sweet really well.  The best food to compare these is to a really good Chinese sweet and sour sauce.

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Are Free Samples Really a "Trend"?

I love free samples, in fact the number 1 reason I keep working on this site is the free samples, it sure as heck isn't the money it generates.  The two packages above are some free rusk cracker things I received while taking a walk around the Acropolis in Athens.  I don't review crackers or bread, but I'm sure as heck happy to get free samples.  I'm also fairly certain that I would not have tried these crunchy toast snacks had they not been given to me.  That basically means there is no way I would have ever even considered buying this product without the free sample.

Having said all of that, in the food industry there is a great deal of talk about if consumers do or do not react well to samples.  Really?.. Why in the world would people not react well to samples?  Here's some free _______, are you happy?  Taking away the free candy samples I get for this site, I have to say that samples are one of the driving forces behind me buying any new products.  If you give me something to try, and it's good, I will most likely buy it again in the future.  I'm convinced that the experts that say samples don't work, area people selling crappy products.  Sure you're putting yourself out there giving product away, but if you're not putting out something good, then you should be out of business, case closed.

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Tuesday's Candy Links

Many people like to Tweet, many people also love candy, here's the greatest way to make Twitter even better.

Gimbal's is giving away 100 lbs of candy, that's enough to consider sharing some with your friends.

There are two ways for you to get samples of new candies, start a candy website and hope it does well enough for a few candy companies to notice you, or join Zeke's Candy club.

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Sesame Seeds In Your Chocolate

The other day, Allison brought me home a couple of pieces of chocolate.  The first, was a nice dark chocolate with whole hazelnuts inside.  If you have to describe your typical chocolate pairing in Europe, hazelnuts and dark chocolate would be it.  They love the flavour combination, and frankly Europeans love hazelnuts.  I've seen hazelnuts for sale in more stores and in more ways than any other place I've ever been.  This is one trend I'd like to see more of in North America.

The second piece of chocolate that she brought home was a little bit stranger, in fact I can't say I've ever seen anything like it before.  It was a smooth milk chocolate generously sprinkled with sesame seeds.  Although this is a flavour I've never tried, I would certainly like to try it again.

The sesame seeds added a very delicate flavour that added to the milk chocolate very nicely.  You couldn't really taste sesame, but instead you just tasted a changed chocolate flavour.  The texture was also nice because of the softness of the seeds.  This is something I hope chocolatiers try experimenting with even more in the future.

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Younger Audiences Don't Want Free Candy

According to a study young folks are not interested in samples anymore when it come to new foods.  Instead, apparently, they're more interested in learning about the company and in having personal engagement with the company.  All I can say about this is "What the heck!"  Seriously free samples, that means you get stuff... free.  What's wrong with this new generation, I wish they'd just wake up and see the world in some kind of reality, and I wish they'd get off my lawn!

Click here to read more about young folks.

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Interesting Candy Event In San Fransisco

If you find yourself in San Fransisco this Friday there's going to be, what looks like, and interesting chocolate event taking place.  All proceeds for the event go towards a good cause and it looks like you might just learn a little something about chocolate while you're there.

Click here to read more.

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LA Chocolate Salon Oct 10th

I've never been to the LA Chocolate Salon myself but I've heard nothing but good things about it. I imagine if you're reading this blog and you live in LA (or you'll be around LA on the 10th of October) you're now planning to go.

Click here to read more about the LA Chocolate Salon.

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Atlantic City Candy Show Ending Today

Today is your last day to check out the 'Candy, Gift and Gourmet Show' in Atlantic city. Apparently they have all kind of treats and demonstrations guaranteed to make you drool.

Click here to read about it.

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Dallas Chocolate Conference

Come read about the Dallas Chocolate Conference. Find out what it's like to spend a whole day eating chocolate, learning about chocolate, and just generally loving chocolate. It sounds like a good time, too bad it was last weekend and I missed it.

Click here to read about the conference.

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Pictures From Chicago Show

I'm not sure if you know this but there's a candy show in Chicago every year. I've posted about a 100 post with announcements and highlights from this show. If you've missed them that's ok. I've discovered a collection of photos. If you want to go next year, you better own a candy company, a candy store, or be a candy blogger, because it's pretty much by invitation only.

Click here to check out the shots and decide if it's worth starting up your own candy blog.

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Ed's Really Good Scoop

A little while ago while visiting my Mom and Sister in Toronto I discovered one of the best Ice Cream Parlors in the whole world. Actually my mom discovered it and then insisted that I would not be a complete human being if I didn't go for a scoop or two.

The place was immaculate and every single flavour of ice cream looked great. The staff was fantastic and the only problem I had was choosing a flavour.

The good news is that because of their relaxed choices per cup rule I was able to sample a whole bunch of flavours. Not to mention the fact that they are ridiculously liberal with their sampling. The two flavours I'd recommend most for someone who thinks they've tried it all: The dark chocolate and jalapeño gelato, and the burnt marshmallow ice cream. For those that aren't so daring I strongly recommend the cinnamon, it's different but not too shocking.
Allison on the other hand create something that defies words in how spectacular it was. While I was off trying the weird and wonderful, Allison simply mixed half chocolate and half hazelnut to make what I can only describe as near Nuttella. It was simple and brilliant.

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Strange Treats You Should Try

Parade Magazine has a great collection of treats you should try but where probably to afraid to sample. I've tried all but the Kool-Aid pickles, and I have to agree that most of them are pretty good. My favorite is the sponge toffee, and frankly I'd be surprised if most of you haven't tried it already.

Click here to see the list.

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Random Candy

A bunch of lucky Americans are going to get some free samples of who knows what in the mail in the near future. Apparently some of the contents may include candy, and treats. If anybody gets one of these please let me know, I'm curious about the contents.

Click here to find out more.

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Chocolate Tasting... It's Fun For All

In the last few days I've been inundated with articles about local chocolate eating conventions/meetings/events. Basically it's a bunch of people getting together (most often for charities) to taste chocolate and have a good time... Wait a minute, how can one taste chocolate and not have a good time? Well if you have a chocolate tasting event planned and you want a famous... well known... breathing candy fanatic to show up let me know.

First chocolate tasting article.

Another chocolate tasting article.

Yet another chocolate tasting article.

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Print on Paper?

I got this e-mail from a company that manufactures printers that print directly onto chocolate. This seems like an awesome idea but the price is a little steep for me. However if anybody out there has one of these things I’d love to (taste) see some samples. Most of all I think it would be the coolest thing ever to have a copy of my resume on chocolate, getting jobs would be so much easier that way.

Click here to check out the site.

If you have a cool candy invention or idea e-mail me and if it's cool I'll post it on the site. Send me a sample and I guarantee I'll post something on the site.

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Hall-t

So I was sent some treats, one of the treats included was a bag of Halls. I know that Halls are candy, but they’re not really your average candy. So I’ve decided to hold onto this bag of Halls and rather than review it let it fight a cold in the future. My next cold I’m going to go nuts on these things, and rather than review the flavour, I’ll review my condition.

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Why I probably won’t give you free candy.

I rarely mention this on the site but one of the most common questions I always get is do you have any candy? Implying that I might have candy to give to this nice person that’s taken the time to say hello. The answer is often no.
People get ticked off at this because as you can see from this site I often get a lot of candy delivered to my front door and I often don’t eat it all. Now I’m not holding out on you fine people at all, if I had candy I thought I could give you I would, and on the occasions that I do have the candy I give it out pretty freely.

So here is a list of reasons I probably don’t have any candy to give to you right now.
When I do a review and I have leftovers chances are it’s an open chocolate bar, a half eaten bag of chips, or some kind of treat with a bite taken out. Now if I gave you that would you be happy? If you would, let me know when you see me and I’ll see what I can do about setting you up with a half eaten treat.
Some treats are pretty yummy. Sometimes I eat a whole lot of a treat, and sometimes I even stash a little away for later because that treat is so good. I don’t think I’m a bad person for doing that, after all running this site is a lot of work and a nice treat that I know isn’t gross is a great reward once in a while.
I photograph candy too. Trust me after I photograph candy you don’t want to eat it. My sweaty hands have been all over it and it’s pretty gross.
There are lots of people that help this site out a whole lot. People that give their time for nothing to make things run smoothly. Sometimes it’s moral support; sometimes it’s actual work. Well these people are often first on my list to give something sweet to. If you’re wondering how you can get on board just let me know you want to help and maybe I might send you something.
Well that’s pretty much it, I think. So this is why I don’t really have much candy to give away. I hope you don’t think I’m a jerk.


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