From Required Eating
Posted by Cybele May, September 24, 2007 at 10:45 AM
One of the fascinating things about the candy industry is that it's rather like fashion. The are the couture confectioners and the mass marketers. The coutures start the trends, create the flavor combinations, and drive the interest in the market by being daring, and, of course, the huge factories take what's up-and-coming and turn out the lowest-common-denominator versions.
The difference, however, is that although people may be interested in trying new things, for the most part they eat the same thing they've eaten since childhood, the same things their grandparents may have eaten. If you look at the top ten candy bars, every one of them has been around for 40 years or more.
I sat in on a session at the All Candy Expo on capitalizing on the hottest premium chocolate trends. Joan Steur was the moderator and the panelists were Michael Antonorsi of Chuao Chocolatier, Jean Thompson of Seattle Chocolates and Jaques Dahan of Michel Cluizel. Each were asked to list their three top three key trends.
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From Required Eating
Posted by Cybele May, September 21, 2007 at 10:00 AM
Editor's note: This is the first in a short series of dispatches from Cybele May of Candy Blog. She'll be filing notes and observations from her time at the All Candy Expo in Chicago.
If there is such a thing as too much candy, I think I may have seen it this week at the All Candy Expo in Chicago. The show is not open to the public but as a member of the media I've been able to attend the past two shows. This year's was the biggest yet as they moved into an even bigger space at the new McCormick Place West (the area of 14 football fields) which featured 480 exhibitors.
New products are usually the most interesting and there were fantastic previews of items not yet on store shelves. But it's a crowded market already so it's unlikely that you may even see more than a handful of these 2,000 new introductions. A small fraction of the candies introduced stand the test of time. As a comparison, if you look at the list of top 10 candy bars, all are at least 25 years old. With that in mind, perhaps it's the spin-off that has the brand recognition is most likely to succeed.
I sampled a lot of candies and here are a few noteworthy ones:
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Website: http://www.typetive.com/candyblog
Location: Los Angeles, CA
About: I am the candy blogger.
Favorite foods: Candy, couscous, lentils, cheezits, chicken korma, cheese naan, just about any cheese, fresh figs, fresh crisp apples, mochi, anything made with barley, NY-style pizza (the kind you have to fold in half), hot & sour soup
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