Chocolate trends.docx

7/29/2019 Chocolate trends.docx

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. Chocolate/Nut Spreads

Nutella's got some serious competition on its hands. Honestly, it makes sense when I think

about it, but it would never have occurred to me out of the blue. However, someone (well,

someones) noticed the vacuum in the chocolate-nut spread section and rushed in to fill it.

Of course it's nothing blow-your-socks-off revelatoryPeanut Butter & Co.has been doing

theirchocolate PBfor a while, andJustin'smakesseveraldifferent kindsbut these look to be

going straight after the more shelf-stable, smooth-processed Nutella-like flavors and

textures.
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My favorite straight-up chocolate/hazelnut was from Czech manufacturer Carla; Jen and I agreed

it was the smoothest and creamiest we tried, with a really nice balance of chocolate and

nutty flavors. Close behind, though, was theChocoDreamfair trade, eco-friendly versionand

they make a speculoo spread that is out-of-control good, too.

2. 'Healthy' Chocolate

Also not that new, but the variety here (particularly from the "big boys"Hershey's, etc.)

was what astounded me. This niche of the market seems to be heading away from straight

dark chocolate trumpeting high cocoa percentages and towards adding inclusions or extractsinstead (I may scream if I see another Goji berry), or using it as a coating for "healthy" items

like soy nuts. I still refuse to think of chocolate as a health foodwhat's wrong with having

something just for a treat?but it looks as though I'm in the minority. Well, at least as far

as the marketing department is concerned.

3. Covering Already-Popular Stuff in Chocolate

Oreos, jelly beans, soy nutseverything is better dunked in chocolate, right? Uhh, sure. Just

ask Oreo, Jelly Belly, Planters, and numerous others who are dunking their already

established treats in chocolate. Chocolate covered Oreos aren't new, but I did try one that

was only half a cookie (with the filling, natch) coated in chocolate. Seemed a little curious to
http://www.natural-nectar.com/default.asp?contentID=665http://www.natural-nectar.com/default.asp?contentID=665http://www.natural-nectar.com/default.asp?contentID=665http://www.natural-nectar.com/default.asp?contentID=665


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me; I don't get why the other half of the cookie wasn't welcome. The chocolate-covered jelly

beans were surprisingly tasty, though, if you could get past the says-it's-cherry-but-really-

just-kinda-tastes-Red flavor (I could).

4. Retro Packaging/Old Favorites

The old-school look was in heavy rotation around chocolatey treats. Mallo-Cups, Turkish

Taffy, coconut slices; it looked like brands that have been around for a while are capitalizing

on their nostalgia factors to get people's attention. I have to admit, it worked for meI love

the bright, straightforward, often-blocky designs and fonts on the packaging, and theunassuming displays. It might just be an aesthetic thing, but I love that the retro look is

coming back. Now if only they could all go back to the retro ingredients...

5. Aerated Chocolate


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Okay, so only one company was rolling this out aggressively (Hershey's), but I'm honestly

surprised aerated chocolate bars haven't caught on sooner. I happen to love Aero bars, and

from a business point of view, it's a really innovative way to charge more money for less

product (aside from doing all the older tricks like repackaging, rebranding, etc). I'm not the

biggest Hershey's fan, so I'd like to see a better chocolate doing this; I think if it did it could

really catch on. Then again, CandyBlog favorably reviewedBubble Chocolatewhen it first

showed up in the US in 2006, and not much happened there...guess we'll have to see how

this works out for Hershey's
http://www.candyblog.net/blog/item/bubble_chocolate/http://www.candyblog.net/blog/item/bubble_chocolate/http://www.candyblog.net/blog/item/bubble_chocolate/http://www.candyblog.net/blog/item/bubble_chocolate/


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CHOCOLATE WITH A PURPOSE

Ethical, Pure & Sustainable

We want authenticity, traceable origins and natural ingredients, preferably

LOCALLY made in America. Socially conscious chocolate lovers choosing to make

the world a better place are seeking chocolate bars and confections that offer more

than just good taste.

Companies and brands that demonstrate strong eco-friendly practices and direct

farmer support have become as meaningful as an organic and/or fair trade label.

Strategic alliances and partnerships between chocolate companies and

organizations dedicated to social, economic, and environmental sustainability such

as that between Bloomsberry & Co. and TerraPass Inc. can offer chocolate

aficionados measurable results with the purchase of each chocolate product (in this

case, each chocolate bar). So far, in less than a year and a half, the Climate

Change Chocolate bar, created to help the fight against global warming, has

already helped offset more than 80,000 days of carbon emissions, or enough

carbon offsets to equate to nearly 220 years of the average American's carbon

footprint, roughly the equivalent of 11,200 barrels of oil. In addition to a carbon

offset for the amount emitted by a typical American in one day, the purchase of

each chocolate bar also comes with 15 tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint.

The World Cocoa Foundation, founded in 2000 to "promote a sustainable cocoa

economy through economic and social development and environmental

conservation in cocoa growing communities" is supported by member companies

and public private partnerships like the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation. WCF

has developed and managed a number of on-the-ground programs to help ensure

responsible cocoa farming, including fighting against crop loss and improving

farming practices, helping farmers earn more for their cocoa crops, improving the

quality and health of the cocoa trees, introducing farmers to more environmentallyfriendly farming methods, in addition to education for children in the cocoa farming


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communities. WCF continues to make significant improvements in the lives of

cocoa farmers and cocoa farming communities, and to date, WCF-supported

programs have helped train more than 300,000 cocoa farmers in West Africa, Latin

America and Southeast Asia.

Sustainable packaging, and donating a percentage of profits to worthy causes also

supports product, brand, and company "purity" and integrity of purpose.

"Keep it real"is how we feel about our world and our chocolate. A greater

abundance of chocolate choices than ever before is providing us with a totally new

meaning for pure pleasure as we choose to effect a greater ethical role in our future

as stewards of our earth.

BEAN-TO-BAR

MICRO-MANUFACTURERS

Committed to Excellence

In the still " sizzling hot" and ever-expanding chocolate bar market, micro-

manufactured bars are all the rage bars made "from scratch" by small artisan

manufacturers, often from directly sourced cacao beans, and often accompanied

by deep relationships with farmers and the growing communities. Mainly dark, high

percentage and single origin, many of these micro manufactured bars are selling in

the $6-10.00 range for a 2 to 3 oz bar. Surprisingly, this actually may be a bargain

price, when one considers all the capital costs of starting a chocolate-making

business, in many cases including custom equipment, in addition to the

extraordinary labor and brutally long hours involved in creating and mastering

formulas.

Currently, there are about 20 bean-to-bar guys (HELLOOOHHHHH WOMEN,

HELP ME OUT HERE!!!) actually making chocolate the old-fashioned way

spilling the beans out of big burlap sacks, roasting, grinding, conching, blending,melting/tempering, molding, cooling, (and not necessarily in this order (eg. some


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chocolate makers blend before they roast; some skip conching altogether, etc.) The

dedicated cast of micro-manufacturers includes a couple ex-lawyers, an ex-

engineer, and even an ex-glassblower among the more colorful, passionate and

highly committed characters. While their personalities vary as wildly as their

chocolates, they have one common trait each is fastidiously determined to

unlock the sacred mysteries of the cocoa bean, carefully teasing out the nuances of

flavor with each new batch.

HOT CHOCOLATE IS STILL HOT!Ever Tried It Brewed?

Drinking Chocolate, Sipping Chocolate, Shaved Chocolate for Drinking, Grated

Chocolate for Blending in warm milk whatever it's called, it's not our

grandmother's cocoa anymore. This is not about cocoa powder with most of the

cocoa butter pressed out of it mixed into warm milk, it's thick and rich, and

essentially deep, dark chocolate in liquid form. Now with far more flavor thansweetness, we want more of it than ever before, whether the temperature outside is

soaring or plunging. We'll be seeing a greater abundance of chile-enhanced hot

chocolates and drinking chocolates from small local chocolate makers as well.

Also expect more hot chocolate experiences derived from the coffee world. Two of

the most recent entries in the morphed chocolate/coffee realm include "brewed

chocolate" from Cabaret which is essentially a syrup made from "brewed" whole

raw cacao beans (the beans are water-brewed to extract flavor, similar to coffee)

and sweetened with organic evaporated cane juice. The product, which is already

selling in limited markets, is positioned as a "whole bean beverage" with the

wholesome benefits of "20 beans in every serving". Another organic twist on the

chocolate and coffee affinity is "Choffy" ground roasted cacao beans that can be

brewed in standard auto-drip, French Press or espresso machines. Choffy is

currently selling online and via network marketing.


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One of the latest pieces of home kitchen equipment to hit the craving list is a Home

Hot Chocolate Dispenser. These handy little machines bring home the authentic

cafe experience of drinking chocolate by heating, whipping and blending milk and

chocolate into a frothy, easily dispensed hot chocolate.

SALT CARAMELS.

Chewy, Gooey & Found All Over

From desserts and ice creams to bonbons and bars, the trend of nostalgic andcomforting has merged with sweet and salty to prolong this delectable trend that I

wouldn't be surprised to see extend into the beverage category.

Chewy or soft, liquid or creamy, grey salt, smoked salt, sea salt, pink salt, even

fleur de sel caramels are big sellers sold as-is in simple twist wraps or drenched in

milk or dark chocolate in beribboned gift boxes. As the trend of sweet with salty

proceeds to flow forward, crunchy salt crystals atop chewy sweet caramels

blanketed in rich chocolate continues to delight the curious and the connoisseur.

Even Hagen-Dazs jumped on the salty caramel bandwagon with its Fleur de Sel

Caramel ice cream. Hagen-Dazs also recently launched a new all natural 37%

cacao milk chocolate coated Fleur de Sel caramel ice cream bar. Leave it to the

iconic ice cream maker to capitalize on a popular chocolate category trend by

upping the ante with the hand-harvested French "flower of the salt" a rare,

delicate salt that offsets the sweetness of the caramel and complements the

creaminess of the ice cream. Soon, we may see salted caramel fudge sauce on our

supermarket shelves. And more and more salt caramel truffles are being

introduced in mass and specialty channels. Salted caramel hot chocolate anyone?


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ALL-AMERICAN

COMFORTING CLASSICS

Bite-Sized to Big

In these uncertain economic times, we turn to familiar American favorites for solaceand comfort. In addition to both traditional and more experiential caramels, we

crave turtle-type confections, nut clusters and all-butter toffee, plump and puffy soft

marshmallows, and pure solid dark or milk chocolate squares. We're choosing

simple truffles, hand-dipped chocolates and molded creations in familiar flavors

with just a splash of color, if any at all these are the sweetstuff of our dreams,

and a backlash against super-exotic, unfamiliar, and often just weird combinations

of flavors that we may try once for adventure, but then we return to what we love.

Alcohol is IN, however old-fashioned traditional liqueurs like Amaretto and Grand

Marnier are now just perceived as "old" and outdated relative to flavorings. Instead,

we favor vodka, especially for soaking fruits like cherries, and margarita-flavored

and infused truffles, as well as chocolate spins on Mojitos are gaining favor as are

port, scotch and whiskey.

We want fair value for our favorite sweets, and, we're saving money by buying

more often in bulk for everyday consumption. Even for gift-giving and holidays, we

care less about fancy packaging than we ever have. But we do want to instantly

know what's inside, even with our eyes closed, so that we can be transported back

to the innocent times of our childhood, and be comforted.

BIG, FAT MARSHMALLOWS & MARSHMALLOW TREATS

Simple, Frozen & Chocolate-Covered

Fluffy, puffy, natural and sweet, the latest and greatest to hit the shelve are big fat

squares often flecked with real vanilla bean, or naturally flavored with the simplest

basics like... you guessed it... chocolate and strawberry. European pastry chefs

and American artisans are experimenting with coffee-stained marshmallows,

sugary herb-embedded marshmallows and chocolate-speckled versions with tinybits of very dark chocolate. Watch for pink peppermint and candy cane striped


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versions coming soon. Yes, expect them to be fully covered in a shiny coat of deep,

dark chocolate. At holiday time, you may even find red boxes filled with alternating

pure vanilla versions, sans chocolate, and double dark chocolate pale chocolate

marshmallows cloaked in a thick layer of glossy bittersweet. Yum.

Also, be on the lookout for new twists on our favorite old-fashioned marshmallow

treats. While not as ubiquitous as the return of the cupcake, simple childhood

classics are making a comeback. A couple unique brand spins on s'mores and Rice

Krispies Treats R, respectively, are S'more Smoochies tm and QB's tm all natural

crisped rice squares filled with with ice cream. The 3 oz. S'more Smoochies are

handmade to order graham cracker marshmallow sandwiches double dipped in

chocolate and customizable with a choice of toppings from nuts to coconut to

rainbow sprinkles or mini chocolate chips. QB's individually wrapped frozen crisped

rice cubes are stuffed with either vanilla, strawberry or chocolate ice cream, and

offer an intriguing,( albeit very sweet) chewy and slightly crisp taste memory of

Neapolitan ice cream slices and Rice Krispies treats.

HEALTHY CHOCOLATE

SNACKS & MIXES

Fruits, Nuts, Chocolate & Nibs

Purse-sized mini bars, pocket packs of panned fruits and nuts were indulging

more often with small portions of wholesome chocolaty treats. More and more

often, dried fruits include so-called superfruits from more traditional dried

blueberries and cranberries to the more exotic goji, mangosteen and pomegranate.

In addition to chocolate panned fruits and nuts, whole raw or roasted almonds,

cashews and walnuts are often combined with a colorful array of unsweetened

and/or juice-sweetened dried fruits including plump cherries, apple bits,

strawberries and diced papaya bits. Small chocolate chunks, dark or milk chocolate

wafer rounds, or white, dark or milk chocolate chips round out the more modern

versions of trail mix.


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Raw, roasted, caramelized or panned cacao nibs are also showing up in the

Natural channels snack packs, as well as embedded in small bars or sprinkled on

top of indulgent and healthy chocolates. The healthful halo nibs add is in addition to

their lively crunch. Next will be education to help consumers make the leap to

understand what nibs have to do with chocolate!

MAKE IT MINE OR GIVE ME FRESH

Cracking the Code

Customized means personalized, and consumers will pay more for just for me.

Years ago, pre-Internet, customized meant "say what you want to say" on a

chocolate bar wrapper or a giant fortune cookie paper strip. Or you could create

your own message on a molded chocolate bar, but you had to order a designated

minimum number of bars. Then Hershey's and Mars jumped into the game

Hershey's with custom messages on their Kiss plumes, and Mars not only offering

personalized messages on M&M's, but now custom photos too, can be printed on

that tiny centimeter of space on the surface of an M&M.

Even Russell Stover offers personalized images/photos and messages on their

online chocolate boxes orders for unique gift opportunities.

If you'd prefer to select your own ingredients for a chocolate bar, there are now a

lot of options from ordering a baker's dozen of your own custom nutritional "YOU

BAR" to spending five days at a micro-manufacturer (Askinosie) and working

side-by-side with owner/chocolate maker and former criminal defense attorney,

Shawn Askinosie in Missouri, to create your own personal batch 200kg to 400kg

of chocolate, or about 2350 to 4700 3-ounce chocolate bars for for a small fortune

of $20,000. Askinosie, who is also one of the most passionate proponents of

connecting consumers of his chocolate with the farmers who grow it, by featuring

farmers on his packaging, states that the hefty pricetag on his custom 4-day

chocolate-making camp experience is targeted to "really rich people". There are

fewer of that group these days, but fortunately, we have lots of other options for

choosing only the chocolates we like best for a custom gift for ourselves or others.


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Many online chocolate sites offer various box sizes and types, and a system for

"hand selecting" the chocolates to go into the boxes.

While choosing your own chocolates out of a bulk case implies a certain degree of"just for me" customized selection, we all know those chocolates may have been

shipped to the store months before. Thanks to the Internet, super-fresh chocolates

are available via direct delivery, generally anywhere in the country, and often, even

overnight. Both mass and specialty retail chains continue to work on "cracking the

freshness code" by looking into in-store chocolate cases with touchscreen ordering,

and chocolate "concierges" that point shoppers to display units for direct ordering

and efficient drop-shipping to shoppers' homes. Unfortunately, the logistics of such

programs are not a simple undertaking, and back-end refrigerated delivery

continues to stymie progress. In the meantime, luxury artisan chocolatiers keep

building their databases small order-by-small order, in an effort to consistently

deliver kitchen-to-door fresh-batch chocolates.

SUPER-HIGH CACAO PERCENTAGESThe Latest Spate Hits 80's & 90's

Remember when 70% was not for dark chocolate first-timers? Then, suddenly,

poser connoisseurs and health nuts feigning interest in really dark chocolate joined

the ranks of serious chocolate lovers and proclaimed that only chocolate above the

rather arbitrary 70% was worth consuming. Sure enough, many of the everyday

premium brands launched new 70% bars and even new 70% chocolate bar lines.

Now, high-end manufacturers are upping the ante with chocolate bars and truffles

in the 80 and 90% range. Several are surprisingly un-bitter. They can be intense,

but the flavor is far more multi-layered and complex than the earliest attempts at

"eating chocolate" which generally proved more suitable for baking and cooking

than for tasting and savoring the flavor. Additionally, the texture or mouthfeel is

often smoother than earlier incarnations and the aftertaste may even have pleasant

lingering fruity, spicy and/or nutty notes.


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The president of one chocolate importing business I spoke with in the past week

says that the company's 85 and 99% truffles are among his best sellers. I consider

this very telling, as I'm just beginning to see "extreme" high cacao percentages in

molded chocolates and truffles. Part of this is due to the difficulty in molding and

enrobing with a nearly unsweetened chocolate with such high amounts of cocoa

mass and cocoa butter. It's also often a matter of taste. Frankly, it's a very rare gift,

akin to a miracle, to be able to create a wonderfully nuanced and delectable 95%

truffle. But, as our tastes have moved more to flavor than sweetness and our

preferences continue to move to high numbers on the cocoa percentage

continuum, I think we'll see more and more renegade chocolatiers pushing the

percentages higher and higher in both enrobed and molded chocolates.

Even in the 70% range, one leading chocolate-making visionary, Gary Guittard, is

differentiating his E. Guittard 72% Quetzalcoatl bar as 72% cacao MASS vs. 72%

cocoa content. This is a very significant differentiation, as the Quetzalcoatl bar has

no added cocoa butter, so this is NOT 72% cacao content, which means the

percentage by weight of all ingredients derived from the cacao bean, inclusive of

cocoa butter. Rather, this bar is comprised of 72% cacao mass, or pure chocolate

liquor, exclusive of added cocoa butter. I hope to see more chocolate makers add

this kind of educational information on their packaging. Certainly, the more we learn

about our chocolate, the more conscious our choices can be.

Currently, according to Nielsen data, dark chocolate's major sales gains have been

slightly off through February 2009, and prices are expected to rise due to the

sustained demand for dark chocolate and higher and higher % cacao bars, I

think it's unlikely that we will see an American revival in milk chocolate, or a lot

more dark chocolate bars launched in the 50% range. Still, many manufacturers

and private label brands continue to find a sweet spot among the biggest groups of

consumers with chocolate in the 62% to 68% range. One supplier told me, "You

need sugar to bring out the best flavor from the beans, and assuming high quality

cacao, chocolate in the mid-sixty percentage range is what we chocolate producers

often love the most."


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VALUE

What It Means, How To Offer It & Why It's A Lasting Trend

In the current state of our nation, it seems only fitting to start 2009's Top Ten

Chocolate Market Trends Report with VALUES and end with VALUE. By "Value", I

do not mean to imply any rigidly quantitative definition. Rather, my context is a

more modern spin on the old price/value relationship.

Today, VALUES often affect the perceived VALUE of a given product. The care

with which a product is made, including the ingredients, its uniqueness, its reason

for being (beyond filling shelf space), packaging, all can be factors considered in

determining an item's value.

Price, of course, is a major factor in "value" . Is the product worth the price it costs?

What is the monetary value of the product?

When it comes to chocolate or chocolates, usually there is not a particular need

state involved. While some may argue with me about this I mean MOST of us at

some point(s) in our life, have insisted that chocolate is NEEDED, not merely

wanted. Chocolate becomes an absolute must. A necessity. In these rare cases for

some (and less rare for many, many others), chocolate's value increases

exponentially.

Setting aside these cases involving acts of desperation, most chocolate lovers

today are seeking the best deal for their dollar. This does not always mean the

cheapest chocolate, but it does mean the best value for the money. Luxury

chocolatiers are trying to resist purchasing cheaper ingredients in an effort to

continue to deliver an optimal chocolate experience. Nonetheless, many of the

leading artisan and high-end chocolatiers have reported to me that their sales have

understandably dropped a bit (generally about 20-30%) and they are wondering

what Holiday '09 will bring. Mass brands are vying for shelf space with stores' own

private label lines, which generally are offered at lower prices. Increasingly, store

brands are launching clean labeled natural and/or organic private label lines that

are often viewed by consumers as a healthier value proposition, and a more

meaningful "I'm making a difference" purchase thus justifying the extra money.


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The sweet value spot for self-comfort purchase seems to be in the $1.49 to $2.99

range, with the occasional small gift buy optimally priced at under $4.99.

We're still buying lots of chocolate bars, and the consumer behavior indicates thatthe chocolate bar remains one of the best chocolate values ever one bar can

last a long time if savored, square by square. Or it can be versatile and melted and

poured over cake or ice cream, or whisked into a mug of steamed milk for a quick

and easy hot chocolate fix. Solid bars are also shelf-stable and offer year-round

sales opportunities for retailers in a variety of locations throughout the store.

One thing is certain today, more than ever. As value-conscious, time-starved and

money-strained as we are, we do not want cheap chocolate. We want good

chocolate. Pronounceable, familiar ingredients, preferably traceable, and the more

natural, the better. Clean, simple, pure. The intersection where Values meet Value

is the place where suppliers want to be, consumers are happiest to buy, and

retailers would like to sell the most products.

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Chocolate trends.docx