Most adverts for supermarkets at the moment tell us that their tins of chocolates are cheaper than anyone elses. If you are feeling adventurous this year how about going for something that little bit different instead. How would you like to try a milk chocolate bar flavoured with lavender from Provence that smells like soap? The bar is called Tranquility and if that tempts you then what about a kick from curry, a jolt of cumin or a crunch from sesame. Traditional chocolate is making room this year for bars containing coriander, curry, cumin, lavender, lime, green tea, black sesame, soy butter, chilli and balsamic vinegar. Sounds yummie doesn’t it?
Consumer tastes have become more sophisticated, leading to an explosion of small companies that specialise in hand-crafted, high-quality chocolate. That has helped boost the industry beyond the mass-produced chocolate bars many people grew up with.
Consumers’ interest in dark chocolate has intensified after research showing it contains healthful ingredients like antioxidants. Research (funded by the chocolate manufacturers’ no doubt) has found that dark chocolate, like red wine, is rich in antioxidants, which they say benefits the heart by dilating blood vessels and improving blood flow. This health fact is not lost on chocolate marketers, who have introduced all manner of “good for you” confections. Cocoa beans do have antioxidant compounds called flavanols, and a growing pile of scientific research suggests they do do good things to blood vessels. Despite the enthusiasm, flavanols are missing from much of the chocolate on shop shelves today. Flavanols make chocolate and cocoa taste bitter, and confectioners have spent years trying to perfect ways to remove the pungent flavour. Most chocolate, in fact, isn’t flavanol-rich, which totally cancels out the health claims. The manufacturers don’t really say how harmful excess sugar can be to the same arteries in the body either.
ICE CREAM GETS A MAKEOVER
It was high-end chocolatiers who first experimented with spices like chilli and cardamom. Newtree, a Belgian company sells chocolate bars infused with fruit and plant essences that promise well-being. One shop offers a tasty salt, pretzel and lime pie-flavoured chocolate bar to visitors and is experimenting with black pepper.
Manufacturers are coming out with bars that contain ingredients said to be healthy, including dried blueberries, almonds, sunflower seeds, green tea and soy nut butter. The underlying product on sale here is still cocoa and sugar but with a new twist. Ice cream makers are going down the same road too ginger, green tea, adzuki bean, pink pepper, chilli and nutmeg are proving to be popular. On the other hand flavours such as sea slugs, whale meat, fireflies, snake, octopus, crab and shrimp have been popular with a few enthusiasts but for some reason seem to be falling out of favour with the public!
Environmental.
Consumer tastes have become more sophisticated, leading to an explosion of small companies that specialise in hand-crafted, high-quality chocolate. That has helped boost the industry beyond the mass-produced chocolate bars many people grew up with.
Consumers’ interest in dark chocolate has intensified after research showing it contains healthful ingredients like antioxidants. Research (funded by the chocolate manufacturers’ no doubt) has found that dark chocolate, like red wine, is rich in antioxidants, which they say benefits the heart by dilating blood vessels and improving blood flow. This health fact is not lost on chocolate marketers, who have introduced all manner of “good for you” confections. Cocoa beans do have antioxidant compounds called flavanols, and a growing pile of scientific research suggests they do do good things to blood vessels. Despite the enthusiasm, flavanols are missing from much of the chocolate on shop shelves today. Flavanols make chocolate and cocoa taste bitter, and confectioners have spent years trying to perfect ways to remove the pungent flavour. Most chocolate, in fact, isn’t flavanol-rich, which totally cancels out the health claims. The manufacturers don’t really say how harmful excess sugar can be to the same arteries in the body either.
ICE CREAM GETS A MAKEOVER
It was high-end chocolatiers who first experimented with spices like chilli and cardamom. Newtree, a Belgian company sells chocolate bars infused with fruit and plant essences that promise well-being. One shop offers a tasty salt, pretzel and lime pie-flavoured chocolate bar to visitors and is experimenting with black pepper.
Manufacturers are coming out with bars that contain ingredients said to be healthy, including dried blueberries, almonds, sunflower seeds, green tea and soy nut butter. The underlying product on sale here is still cocoa and sugar but with a new twist. Ice cream makers are going down the same road too ginger, green tea, adzuki bean, pink pepper, chilli and nutmeg are proving to be popular. On the other hand flavours such as sea slugs, whale meat, fireflies, snake, octopus, crab and shrimp have been popular with a few enthusiasts but for some reason seem to be falling out of favour with the public!
Environmental.
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