Tuesday, June 6, 2006

Impressions from the Floor

I’m finally back in my hotel room and I’ve downloaded my photos and dumped out my sample bag for the day.

I’m dazed. Literally ... to the point where I’m slightly dizzy. I’m probably just tired. Probably? Definitely!

The show floor is huge and wonderfully colorful. The booths are in a great linear pattern that makes it relatively easy to navigate, but I got lost and I don’t think I did all the rows completely. But that’s why I’m here for three days.

I picked up a lot of samples but tried to focus on a few things that I’d read about or wanted to try. I tried not to eat too much on the show floor, but I did a terrible job of eating properly.

image

In all fairness, I did try to start the day right (as suggested by desertwind). I met my husband for breakfast (as he is also in town for work) but my eggs arrived at the table so salty that I wanted to spit them out upon the first bite. I sent them back, but there was no way they’d be remade in time, so I just downed a little yogurt smoothie (more sugar than I wanted with my protein) and some toast.

I went to a marvelous session this morning about high end chocolate and the health benefits which I’ll post more about later.

Out on the show floor I did my best to seek out nut products for sampling in the first hour, finding some excellent cashews and then some panned peanuts.

Here are a few things that I tried (and I’ll try to get photos later on):

Golden BonBon Soft Nougat - yes, it’s turrones or French nougat ... whatever country it is that’s making it, I’m in love with it. They had a great selection of flavors and I loved the Orange and Maple. A good honey hit. Not as good as the Nougat de Montelimar, but hey, if I could get this stuff on a regular basis, I’d be a happy candy blogger.

Dreamers - high milk content candy chews that provide 8% of your calcium. Sweet and chewy, they don’t taste at all like a calcium supplement - more like an extra creamy Tootsie Roll.

Hershey’s Peanut Butter Kisses - yes, they’ve been on the market for a while, but I hadn’t tried them. And apparently they’re so successful they’re going to stay. I wasn’t as fond of them as I was of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs (the little football ones) for Easter. The center of these Kisses is more emulsified than a Reese’s cup. Wonderful smooth quality with a satisfying hit of salt ... but lacking in that crumbly thing that I dig.

Bubble Chocolate - I’m going to have lots more to post about these guys, but this looks like it may be a big hit. I’ve written about quite a few aerated chocolates before, but this is by far the highest quality stuff. The cocoa content on the dark chocolate is satisfyingly high and of course the aeration gives it a light texture that allows the flavors to come through. There’s even a coffee version that I think might be my favorite.

Koppers - amazing booth (I hope I can go back and photograph it). I got to try so many different morsels. My favorites at the moment are the “savouries” line that incorporates herbs and florals. The very spicy cayenne that I got in NY is part of this line but they had black pepper (awesome), orange blossom, lavender, rosemary, and salt. I hope I can spend more time there tomorrow with the woman who is the next generation of the company. Fascinating stuff.

Yummy Earth - organic lollipops. Simplicity itself. Really flavorful lollipops. I had an orange one and chatted for quite a while with one of the sales guys and have an array of samples for later tasting. I’m hoping these will be available at Whole Foods soon.

Chocolate Dipped Pirouline - it’s about time! Pirouline has come out with several varieties of their filled wafer sticks dipped in chocolate. They’ll give those Nestle Stixx a run for their money!

I picked up lots of samples, including some other kinds of popping candies, different flavor versions of Mike & Ikes, more Rockaletas (what was I thinking?), the new Snickers Xtreme and some Jelly Belly.

The sad thing is that I tucked some candies into my bag and they’re not well marked and I have no clue where they were from at this point. Maybe reconstructing my path and looking at my photos will help.

(I’ll try to link up some of these items a bit later on when I get home.)

POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:00 pm Tracker Pixel for Entry     All Candy ExpoNews

Comments
  1. Oh wow! I’m glad to hear you’re having such a fantastic time!

    The Maple Nougat sounds amazing… *drool*

    Any Japanese stuff appearing in any of the booths? I’m curious…

    Comment by Sera on 6/06/06 at 4:46 pm #
  2. Are you taking requests? We want some of that Bourbon Fudge!

    It sounds like you are in hog heaven.

    Bon bon bon

    Comment by The Neighbors on 6/06/06 at 7:30 pm #
  3. God, sugar overload.  It’s like Halloween without the costumes or the Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet.

    Comment by Marvo on 6/06/06 at 8:43 pm #
  4. That’s so it.  Next year I’m sneaking in.

    Comment by eliza on 6/07/06 at 3:25 am #
  5. wow. that sounds like heaven on earth.

    i’m so happy to hear about the aerated chocolate. i loved it so much when i lived in england so am happy it’ll be here soon. (not including imported bars from overseas.)

    Comment by Pam on 6/07/06 at 5:26 am #
  6. I’m so jealous!!! I would probably be in some sort of stupor from all the sugar I would have consumed by now if I was in your shoes. The Bubble Chocolate is something I will be hunting for in the near future. Enjoy the sugar high!!!!!

    Comment by Florence Colandro on 6/08/06 at 7:17 am #
  7. Cybele's avatar

    Sera - there were two different displays by Lotte, but that was about it for Japanese stuff. I was actually expecting more Hello Kitty, at the least.

    Pam & Florence - yeah, I’m very excited about the bubble chocolate. It was fun to watch them on the floor each day.

    Comment by Cybele on 6/13/06 at 12:30 pm #
  8. yes, YummyEarth lollipops and candy are organic and planet friendly, but they also taste really awesome!!! we literally flood them with natural fruit extracts for a “true to fruit” flavor. most people tell us they’ve never tasted candy like ours before. which makes us feel all warm inside like we did a good job that day. http://www.yummyearth.com

    Comment by rob wunder on 6/30/06 at 6:12 am #
  9. that was me you chatted with at the candy show.  it’s just me and sergio at YummyEarth making lollipops, but maybe we’ll need to hire someone soon.  and YES!!!  we will be at whole foods in September.  We’re sooooo excited!!!

    Comment by rob wunder on 6/30/06 at 6:14 am #
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.

Next entry: Partying with the Sugar Crowd

Previous entry: What I Want to See




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABOUT

FEEDS

CONTACT

  • .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
  • Here are some frequently asked questions emailed to me you might want to read first.

EMAIL DIGEST

    For a daily update of Candy Blog reviews, enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

CANDY RATINGS

TYPE

BRAND

COUNTRY

ARCHIVES

Meticulously photographed and documented reviews of candy from around the world. And the occasional other sweet adventures. Open your mouth, expand your mind.

 

 

 

 

Facebook IconTwitter IconTumblr IconRSS Feed IconEmail Icon

COUNTDOWN.

Candy Season Ends

-2547 days

Read previous coverage

 

 

Which seasonal candy selection do you prefer?

Choose one or more:

  •   Halloween
  •   Christmas
  •   Valentine's Day
  •   Easter

 

image

ON DECK

These candies will be reviewed shortly:

 

 

image