Category Archives: Candy News

Candy News and Trends form the online leader in bulk candy, ACandyStore.com

Hard Times Sweetened by Candy

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As the global recession seems to drag on and on candy consumption, which peaked in the U.S. at the height of the recession, continues unabated. It seems that stress and difficult times are inducement for candy consuming comfort. That’s good news for candy suppliers who have experienced across the board sales increases since 2009. Candy pundits attribute the rise to the benefits of candy as an inexpensive comfort food.

Interestingly the last big candy boom was during the depression of the 1930s which certainly supports the idea that when times are tough people eat more candy. The great depression also prompted the creation of a number of popular confections which remain favorites today such as Snickers, Tootsie Pops, Mars bars with almonds and Three Musketeers, all created in the early 1930s. Pretzel filled M&Ms have just been introduced and it will be interesting to see if the world will enjoy another candy creation boom.

Many professionals, especially in the world of business are using candy to assuage battle worn customers, clients and employees. Some professionals who have always had candy available to visitors are finding they have to fill their candy bowls significantly more often. When it comes to comfort candy, traditional candy is the most popular. The nostalgia of childhood candy, like hard candy and gumballs, (coupled with the expense of gourmet products) make these the ones people crave most in a recession and during hard times.

The benefit of candy isn’t just rooted in nostalgia and fond memories. Chocolate, licorice and other ingredients in candy do raise endorphin and serotonin levels in the people who eat them. Raised endorphin and serotonin levels equal increased happy feelings and mood. Some candy makers won’t use fructose corn syrup because they say it is bad for the brain neurotransmitters that carry the happy hormones.

Some studies have shown that difficult times increase sales in other indulgences like alcohol and cigarettes. Next to these, candy appears to be an excellent and fulfilling alternative for relieving stress and lightening the mood. Plus, there is no SIN tax on candy!

Candy Bar Controversy

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A man is suing the Toronto Santa Claus Parade after he was hit in the eye by a candy bar. The miniature chocolate candy bar was allegedly thrown into the crowd by a volunteer clown where it hit the man in his eye causing pain and permanent partial blindness. Despite the Canadian social safety net which would provide health care for any injuries sustained as well as unemployment insurance for loss of work, the man says the parade owes him $500,000.

The candy bar lawsuit was launched because the man claims that the clown should not have been engaging in an activity (throwing candy bars to kids) that they knew, or ought to have known, posed a danger to spectators. The candy bar claim also specifies that reasonable care should have been taken to ensure that spectators along the parade route were safe.

While there is no doubt of a general sense of sympathy for the man hit with the candy bar, the lawsuit is controversial because it calls into question the lengths required to ensure public safety at public events. There are certainly no other cases of candy bar maiming at Santa Claus parades in recent memory which begs the question, is an isolated incident involving one man and one candy bar, sufficient reason to end years of tradition? That is the possible consequence of the candy bar claim. If the parade which runs to a tight budget as it is, is required to compensate half a million dollars there is a good chance it will not survive.

Realistically it isn’t possible to anticipate every conceivable freak accident that can occur at an event, nor should that be reasonably expected. Apart from practical care by parade organizers, one might arguably suggest that the duty of self care must rest with individuals. If an accident does occur, well accidents do happen. The alternative is to be so wrapped in cotton wool that we will have to watch future parades from behind a Plexiglas wall.  The poor clown who threw the candy bar!

The Magic of Candy Cane Lane

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The spirit of Christmas is alive and well again this year in the street that has affectionately become known as Candy Cane Lane. The street in Edmonton, Alberta began putting up Christmas decorations nearly 50 years ago. At that time five families participated in the festivities which became almost a ritual beginning in the late fall with the securing of steel rods in the ground. This had to be done early because the ground would freeze over by December and the steel rods were necessary to hold up the giant snowman that would come to be the symbol of Candy Cane Lane.

Once the five families had completed preparations they would get together for a few drinks and a Light Up the Lights celebration. These families fondly recall the Christmas carollers that always seemed to end up at the door of the party on ‘light up’ night.  No need for a snow machine on Candy Cane Lane, the street has enjoyed snow at Christmas for as long as they have been decorating the houses.

Today Candy Cane Lane has earned an international reputation for Christmas spirit and although the street has grown and the population increased, there isn’t a house on Candy Cane Lane that doesn’t join in the festivities. Candy Cane Lane has grown from five houses to eight blocks of houses that participate in the Christmas cheer. Every house on the street does it a little bit differently but common themes on Candy Cane Lane are lights on trees and houses, displays in the front living room,  cut out snowmen and Santa’s, candy canes and at one house, the front walk is covered with the bottoms of bleach bottles which are painted and lit to look like giant red and green gum drops.

Some of the residents of Candy Cane Lane are unable to decorate their own houses but not to worry, on a street where Christmas spirit rules; volunteers help these folks out with decorations and labor. The icing on the Christmas cake – the street decorations raised 17,000 kilograms of food for the food bank last year and they expect to do the same or better again.

City of Sculpture Festival

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For those used to seeing their jelly babies about a half an inch tall the latest installation at the Marble Arch in London comes as a bit of a shock. Larger than life jelly babies now grace the prestigious site in a highly acclaimed resin sculpture titled, Jelly Baby Family and created by artist, Mauro Perucchetti. The extraordinary statue of seven colored jelly babies was unveiled on December 13. The pop artist describes his work as the embodiment of family unity. He also says the sculpture depicts the multicultural aspects of contemporary society, especially in metropolitan centres like London.

The sculpture has been erected as part of the Westminster Council, City of Sculpture Festival. The festival attracts pieces from the most illustrious artists and galleries in the world. Jelly Baby Family weighs 3.2 tonnes and stands over fifteen feet tall. Perucchetti’s sculpture is just one of many creative works that will be on display on Park Lane during the festival.

Besides Jelly Baby Family, exhibition viewers can expect to see a fifteen foot child’s hand pushing a black Fiat Cinquecneto. The car featured in the sculpture titled, Vroom Vroom was artist, Lorenzo Quinn’s, actual first car. The sculpture was created to reflect the child within all of us. The hand is a focal point of many of the artists works because he says, the hand is a symbol of human power, the power to love, hate, to create or to destroy. Quinn is highly acclaimed and has in the past produced pieces for the Vatican City and the United Nations.

Jelly Belly Family and Vroom Vroom are just two of sixty world class pieces that are on show. The sculpture styles displayed reflect the many genres of sculpting including traditional and contemporary styles. The city hopes that the exhibit will enhance Westminster’s reputation as a cultural hub.

This Westminster area of London is known for famous art exhibits, galleries and museums. The project is also a push to support art projects in the city ahead of the Olympic Games. Funding and support for the exhibit is provided by the city council and local galleries including the Halcyon.

Hot Tamales Competition

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Stop the press another huge candy competition set sail and the winners have been decided. Two lucky people, winners of the Hot Tamales Competition, will sail on the Caribbean seas in January 2011 for a cruise featuring the entertainment and sounds of Sister Hazel. The competition was part of a series of concerts, promotions, and hot tamale and concert giveaways. The hot tamales competition and the promotions which are continuing throughout the United States are being run by the makers of the candy, Just Born Inc. To enter the hotly named Sizzle on the Seas competition entrants needed only to visit the hot tamales facebook page and follow the instructions. So easy!

Just Born are the company that make hot tamales and they are part of a great American candy tradition. A tradition that was born in 1910 when Sam Born immigrated to the United States, from Russia. Sam was a candy maker by trade who used innovative technology to produce chocolate sprinkles and the hard chocolate coating for ice cream bars. In 1923, Born opened a small candy-making and retail store in Brooklyn, New York where he advertised the freshness of his candy as candy that had been ‘just born.’ Not long after this clever and witty entrepreneur opened his Brooklyn store he invited his brothers-in-law, Irv and Jack Shaffer, to join him in the business. The company run by these three men thrived in spite of the economic depression of the 1930s and, in 1932 they moved their base to Bethlehem, PA and that is where they stayed. To this day they make some of the world’s best candy.

You see Just Born Inc don’t just make hot tamales, they are also the makers and purveyors of other candy favorites like Mike and Ike candy, peanut chews candy and zours fruit candy. Their current company policy goes like this, “We believe we are part of a larger whole which includes our families, our organization, and the community of neighborhoods in which we work and live and to whom we bear responsibility and loyalty.” That’s a cool company policy by anyone’s standards. So join in the fun, support a great brand, participate in their promotions to win some amazing prizes, and enjoy your hot tamales!

Hard Candy Fitness

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Well it has finally been done and by Madonna no less! The music superstar has combined fitness with pleasure, in her newly introduced and now open to the public, Hard Candy Fitness Center. Madonna is a well known fitness fanatic, of course she is – how else do you look that good in your 50s.  The first Hard Candy Fitness Center was opened in Mexico City (in the exclusive area of Bosques de las Lomas) on Monday by the Diva herself who cut the ribbon and opened the doors in front of throngs of fans. Not sure if they were keen to exercise or just get a look at the mega star – I suspect the latter? For a special few there was the opportunity to enjoy both the fitness and the star, as Madonna herself led the first aerobics class.

The Mexico sight is one of 10 international sights on the drawing board including American based locations. Once the Mexico fitness center has been operating for a time; all systems have been tested and excellent system and standard levels have been achieved, the other sights will then go live as well. Madonna herself had a big influence in every aspect of the gym from the design to the music and class choreography. She has created, she hopes, routines and themes which will be fun, motivational and inspirational. The gym itself wants for nothing. It is a massive 30,000 square feet and equipped with every device needed by even the most demanding gym junkie.

When asked about how she determined the name for her fitness centers, which is also the name of her 11th album (Hard Candy) she explained that she liked combining the concepts of hard body with eye candy, hence Hard Candy. She is quoted as saying, “It’s a sexy name that gives you the opportunity to have fun and to build strength as far as the imagination will allow.” Well, we love it!

Great Jelly Bean Cookie Recipe

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Jelly Bean and Candy Babies

Use the base and frosting of this cookie recipe to create really delicious jelly bean cookies. Think about what you want the finished cookie to look like before you begin. Cut the cookies into shapes before baking to create the design you want and when the cookies are done and frosted, the jelly bean color and placement options are limited only by your imagination (although we do have a few suggestions:).

Cookie Ingredients:

½ cup golden syrup

1/3 cup brown sugar

60g butter

2 ¼ cups of plain flour

2 teaspoons of mixed spice

Icing as per the following recipe

Jelly beans

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 212 Fahrenheit and lightly grease an oven tray

Combine the golden syrup, brown sugar and the butter in a sauce pan and stir gently over a low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the cooled syrup mix and stir together well to combine.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about a ¼ inch thickness and cut into chosen shapes.

Bake the cookies for 10 minutes until lightly browned and then cool on trays before transferring to a rack to cool

Frost the cooled biscuits and while the frosting is still moist, stick the jelly beans to the icing. Some pattern ideas might include red, white and blue jelly beans in the shape of a flag or red and white jelly beans in a heart shape. Go crazy with your ideas because baking should be fun!

Icing Recipe

125g softened butter

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 ½ cups of sifted icing sugar

2 tablespoons cream

Beat the butter until it is pale and creamy. Add the vanilla and half of the icing sugar and beat these ingredients together until they are well combined. Gradually add cream and the remaining sugar while beating, until the frosting is smooth.

The $10k Jelly Belly Challenge is On

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The Jelly Belly people have announced a fun and fantastic chance for candy lovers to make $10 000 in prize dollars – that is a lot of candy money! The prize is for the most creative jelly belly cupcake in the world.

Those who are keen to enter need only make, bake and photograph their best cupcake creation, topped with Jelly Belly’s of course. Actually, you don’t even have to bake the cupcake. This contest is about Jelly Belly’s so that’s what the judges and fans care are looking for; creativity with Jelly Beans. You can actually create on top of a ready made cupcake. The hard part of course will be having the most amazing idea in the entire world. Well, even if you don’t come up with the best cupcake in the whole world, the cupcake challenge is also offering over 2000 instant prizes so it’s worth a shot. Once you have created your cupcake, photograph it and then submit it to the contest through the JB contest website, and then all you have to do is wait.

The way the contest works is that the top five best cupcakes will square off in a final to be voted on by cupcake/Jelly Belly fans. Fan votes will be calculated to choose the grand prize winner. Besides 10 thousand dollars in cash the promoters are giving away some really neat instant prizes which include Jelly Belly tote bags, charm bracelets (made of sterling silver not jelly) and jelly beans of course.

Those who have the creative Jelly Belly talent and want to enter the contest fray can do so right up until July 31, 2011. That’s heaps of time to come up with the best cupcake on the planet.

Katy Perry and Snoop Dog do Candyland!

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Katy Perry and Snoop Dog (and some very sweet back up singer/dancers) do Candyland like it has never been done before! Throughout the recently released California Gurls video, a provocative Katy Perry travels through a Candyland of candy cane, ice cream and peppermint trees. She lounges naked in a cloud of pink cotton candy and plays amidst other tasty performers, all sporting candy colored hair and bikini costumes representing various candy creations, from cupcakes and doughnuts to ice cream scoops.

In the lighthearted spirit of the video Katy Perry also comes across a gang of rude gummy bears and takes part in eating a gingerbread man, who doesn’t seem at all happy at first but is content after the first few bites, and remains so until he is a pile of crumbs. Hmm, could that be a metaphor? Katy climbs candy cane snakes to clouds of candy floss and finishes on a sugar beach littered with gummy bears.

At the end of the video Katy Perry guns down Snoop Dog with canisters of whipped cream shot from interesting point blank range. In Katy’s own words, “After jumping on marshmallows, eating gingerbread men, going through candy forests, climbing a peppermint stick, popping a girl out of a bubble, unwrapping some caramel (also a girl), making a girl come out of jello and hanging out with Snoop Dog, it’s a wrap!”

The video is undoubtedly based upon the traditional American Candy Land game in which kids move around a Candy Land board. In fact the opening scene shows an opening board game (called “Candyfornia”) just as the song begins and Snoop Dog puts a Katy Perry play piece on the board. Katy Perry then moves along gingerbread paths, crosses twizzle bridge and the dice are repeatedly rolled.

This fun and frivolous video through Candyland is a sweet treat and a welcome respite from artists without a sense of showmanship, who often take themselves way too seriously.

Translation: Candy – Candy in Different Laguages

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The English word candy is derived from the Persian word for sugar cube and has come to be associated with any sugar or chocolate confection. But would candy by any other name taste as sweet? The French word for candy is bonbon. That definitely still sounds sweet and tempting but so does practically every French word. How about the word for German candy? Süßigkeiten initially looks a bit tricky and harsh but broken down this word for candy becomes more manageable, pronounced something like sooobzig keiyten it is perhaps the German word equivalent of a gobstopper! Caramelle, the Italian word for candy is of course more familiar and thus a bit easier to swallow. Italian candy would definitely still taste as sweet.

Moving continents the Arabic word for candy is halwa which is of course the word from which halva, sweet confections from across the Asian continent, is derived. That makes it pretty sweet. The Spanish have two common words for candy and they are dulce and caramello. With the word caramello of course the Latin language influence is as apparent as with the Italian word for candy. Dulce is a bit different but if pronounced properly and with flourish exudes a very nice flavor indeed. The Hebrew sucariah is an obvious root word for the English sugar which is of course the best vital ingredient in all candy so candy in Hebrew definitely ranks as candy that would taste as sweet.

The most beautiful thing about candy on an international scale is that every single country has, regardless of what it is or how it sounds, a word for candy. On a parting note here are a few more for you to wrap your lips around and sink your teeth into! In the Philippines candy is minatamis or kendi, in China it’s tang, in Dutch snoep and in Hindi, chahiye. Wherever you are in the world and however you say it, we hope your candy is as sweet as ours is!