I’m afraid I find day two of the Winter Fancy Food Show the roughest. I’m usually still tired from day one. (In this case we got up at 5:30 on Sunday to drive from Santa Barbara to San Francisco, dumped my stuff at the hotel and then walked over to the Moscone Center and walked around for five hours to get a good perspective. Then dinner after at a nice place and a write up of that day.) Day two is usually about digging in with longer meetings with exhibitors and taking a chance on the unknown.
So today will be more about photos than tasting notes.
French Marzipan Apples - photo (c) by Manny Treeson
Al La Mere de Famille from Paris had some wonderful confections. They had callisons (marzipan leaves) and these lovely little apples dusted with sparkling sugar. I also tasted a dark chocolate bonbon with praline filling.
Sweet’s Slices - photo (c) by Manny Treeson
Sweet’s Candy of Utah has been around for over 100 years, making taffy and classic jelly candies. They have a new line of jelly slices, sour worms and bears that are all pectin based, so they’re great for vegans and made with no artificial colors or flavors. That purple-ish one in the photo ... pink grapefruit. They’re after my heart.
Hammond’s Bars - photo (c) by Manny Treeson
Hammond’s is best known for their classically pulled and twisted lollipops and candy canes. They’ve always made an assortment of chocolates, but now they’re going big with 10 new chocolate bars. Things like S’mores, a milk chocolate with popping raspberry candies, a PB&J and this dark chocolate with chipotle.
Coco Polo - photo (c) by Manny Treeson
Stevia is getting big. There are a few chocolate bars that are now sweetened with Stevia. I picked up some samples from Coco Polo to see how Stevia and Erythritol do instead of cane sugar.
Wild Boar - photo (c) by Manny Treeson
Truffle Pig, who makes decadent truffle bars has a new line of single origin bars called Wild Boar
More photos to browse here. I’ll have a few more notes tomorrow before I head back to Los Angeles to isolate myself with my samples and take some product shots.
I so wanted to go for this. So disappointing that it wasn’t open to the public gah!
enjoyed the hagensborg 70% wild boar bar, used most of it to make covered pretzels.
I wish a la mere de famille was sold in the usa :(
Next entry: 2012 Fancy Food Show Notes - Day 3
Previous entry: 2012 Fancy Food Show Notes - Day 1