Oser Communications Group

8 SNACKINGNEWS Sneak Peek Chocolate Companies Do Good Deliciously BY LORRIE BAUMANN Guilt is not among the ingredients for this year's introductions of specialty choco- lates. Along with interesting flavors, chocolatiers are bringing products to the market that have a good story to tell to consumers with a wide range of concerns about which chocolate treat they can enjoy in good conscience. Chuao Chocolatier's new Enamored line of organic Fair Trade chocolates comes in three fruit-forward flavors with floral notes: Raspberry Rose, Coconut Hibiscus and Blueberry Lavender. As their names suggest, Raspberry Rose is made with ra- diant raspberries sugared with rose petals, Blueberry Lavender is made with blueber- ries lightly infused with lavender, and Co- conut Hibiscus offers creamy coconut with a hint of hibiscus. The line was created by the brand's Master Chef and Co-Founder Michael Antonorsi as a tribute to women. "With the Enamored Collection, we wanted to create a product that celebrated 'you,' because who you are is enough," said Antonorsi. "Spreading joy is the intention behind everything we do, and with this new col- lection we hope to bring a moment of joy to every person who experiences it." The Enamored line launched in June, and a percentage of sales goes to Girls, Inc., which shares the brand's ideals of empowering women. "Girls Inc. is focused on empowering girls to discover their strengths and thrive," said Judy Vreden- burgh, President and CEO of Girls Inc. "This includes helping them build confi- dence and a positive self-image. We are thrilled to partner with Chuao Chocolatier as they launch this new line that celebrates women and inspires them to do just that." Chuao Chocolatier's new line of bars are made with non-GMO ingredients. The suggested retail price is $7.00. For more information, visit Chuao Chocolatier's booth at the Summer Fancy Food Show or visit www.chuaochocolatier.com. Abdallah Chocolates is at the Summer Fancy Food Show with flavors we've seen before from the company, in- cluding its Caramel Almond Coconut, Sugar Free Caramel, Pecan Grizzly and English Toffee chocolates. The ab- sence of a new flavor is due to the company's construction this year of a new 90,000 square foot facility that's been taking at- tention away from product development for the past several months, said National Sales Manager Madonna Schmitz. The company is expecting to move into its new facility late this summer and to have the production lines running by the first of September, she added. For more in- formation, visit the company's booth at the Summer Fancy Food Show or visit www.abdallahcandies.com. Sulpice Chocolat is a start-up company that's sticking with the traditional flavors of a high-quality peanut butter cup but adding a boost of nutrition. A three-piece serving includes 7g of protein and 3g of fiber – attributes we associate more with nutrition bars than with candy, but this is very definitely a treat that feels like an in- dulgence. "We're trying to make the candy aisle better for you," said Anne S h a e f f e r , half of the husband and wife team that founded S u l p i c e C h o c o l a t . For more in- formation, call 630.301.2345 or visit www.sulpicechocolat.com. Laima Chocolates' Cheese Chocolate is made in Latvia with white chocolate and real cheese. The company also makes a full line of dessert-flavor chocolates, in- cluding Creme Brulee, Key Lime Pie and Tiramisu covered with dark chocolate. A 3.5-ounce bar of the Cheese Chocolate re- tails for $4.99. It's been sold in the U.S. for many years in ethnic markets, and it's been more widely offered by Aero-Cos for the past four or five years. Distributed in the United States by Aero-Cos Interna- tional, the Laima Chocolates products are made by Orkla Confectionery & Snacks. Heavenly Caramels Coconut Caramels, Pecan Caramels and Vanilla Sea Salt Caramels covered with chocolate are the newest product introduction from Utah- based J. Morgan's Confections. A 4.2- ounce bag retails for $3.49 to $3.99. The Heavenly Caramels line also includes several products that aren't covered in chocolate and that feature flavors you wouldn't necessarily associate with caramel, including Cinnamon Caramel, Old English Licorice Caramel, Coconut Caramel, Caramel Apple, Vanilla Sea Salt Caramel and Butter Caramel. Each 4.7-ounce bag of these varieties retails for $3.49. For more information, call 801.688.4999 or visit www.jmorgan confections.com. n Inspired Handcrafted Chocolates from the "Soon to be Famous" BY LORRIE BAUMANN Chocolate Inspirations is a mom and pop company that makes artisan and vegan confections run by a family who's proud to call themselves a "soon to be famous family of chocolatiers." Our big family makes up most of our staff. It's cousins and aunts and my 89- year-old grandmother," says Marcy Goetz, the company's co-Owner, who's in charge of packaging, marketing and sales – all the business pieces that come after the confec- tions leave the kitchen. It's her mom, Pam Vieau, who's the inspired genius behind the product line of boozy brittles, barks, tea bars, caramels, caramel corn and tof- fees. . The business started when Vieau de- cided to go back to school a couple of decades ago. Her college classes were in- teresting, but on weekends when she wasn't studying, Vieau decided that she'd also take advantage of the wealth of culinary knowledge available to her in Chicago. "I'm a big foodie. You want to talk about food, I can talk to you for hours," she says. That led her to a week- long class by Chocolatier Elaine Gonza- lez that was scheduled during a break in her college schedule and eventually to a new career for which Gonzalez became a mentor. Gonzalez died in 2014 after a career as an internationally renowned artist in chocolate who'd been a guest instructor at leading culinary schools throughout the country, including The Culinary Institute of America, The Malley School of Mer- chandising for Retail Confectioners and The Wilton School of Confectionary Art. She caught Vieau's imagination right away with a demonstration in which she made a chocolate bow for a chocolate candy box. "I thought that was the slick- est thing," Vieau says. "Back at school, I started making things on the side and giv- ing them away." People started asking if they could buy more of her confections, and eventually, someone offered her a deal she couldn't pass up, and that turned her little hobby into the start of a real business. "I had a guy – I had a recipe of cookies that he liked a lot, and he traded me a recipe of cookies for a chocolate melting machine," she says. She started with an English Toffee that won Outstanding Confection Finalist Award in 1999 from the organization then called the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, now the Specialty Food Association, and soon after that, she was making Cinnamon Toast Toffee and Espresso Toffee and coming up with recipes for brittles. The creativity just kept flowing. Squrtle is a turtle-type candy with a square shell, and he's even got a mascot, Elmore Squrtle, whose image is molded into the top of each piece. "He's got a – notice that all of a sudden I give him a per- sonality," Vieau says. Then she started working on a range of Boozy Brittles. Those now include a range made with craft beers – one with a farm- house ale, one with a hard ginger beer and one with a hard root beer. The line made with craft beers is still expanding, and Vieau promises that varieties made with wines are also on the way. The vegan line is the latest innovation. "That was a little challenging because we wanted it to taste like it happened to be vegan. We wanted it to taste not like there was something wrong with it, but that there was something right with it," she says. "Vegan also appeals to other people because it's also dairy-free; we run into a lot of people who say they don't eat dairy any more. We're very proud of our vegan line. We want it to taste just as good and it does." All that creativity comes from an end- less search for new ideas. She gathers them from magazines covering the food industry, from visits to trade shows like the Fancy Food Shows, from conversa- tions with other foodies and makers. "There's not enough hours in the day for the amount of things I would like to try and make. When I have free time, which is not a lot, I am always looking in books. I am always looking for what's new," she says. "The whole purpose is to stay abreast of what's going on and then to take away from that what you can ac- tually use yourself." The business is growing, but it's still a family-run operation, and Vieau and Goetz say that the Chocolate Inspira- tions products work best for small retail- ers, the kind of family-owned businesses where customers expect to find the handcrafted, personally selected, lov- ingly made and lovingly offered prod- ucts that they can't find in big box stores. The vegan line, of course, is a particularly good fit for natural foods stores. "Mom and pop stores are ab- solutely the best for us. We're mom and pop and they're mom and pop, and that's where people go for the locally-pro- duced, the artisan," says Goetz. "That's part of what we are. Even if we are big and famous chocolatiers, there'll be a di- vision where mom and pop stores can call. I don't ever want to get too big to be too big for mom and pop stores." For more information, visit www .chocolateinspirations.com. n

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