Tag: Candy View All Tags

Food Snob Alert: High-Tech Chocolate

November 14, 2008 at 12:30 PM | 0 Comments

Chocolate is next on the list of things for food snobs to start taking way too seriously, and San Francisco-based startup Tcho is leading the charge.

Tcho, which just opened it's first store in the Embarcadero, sources their cocoa beans as carefully as any specialty coffee shop, and their unique flavors (fruity, nutty, citrus and just chocolate-y) are constantly being redeveloped. The store specializes in nibs--roasted cocao beans broken into small bits--and also offers treats like mango bites drenched in dark chocolate.

Tcho, which was started by the founder of Wired magazine, is also billed as a sort of a Web 2.0 chocolate company: You can give the chocolate makers your feedback via their website, letting them know which flavors you like and how they should be perfected.

Related Stories:
· Tcho [Official Site]
· Chocolate coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Tcho]

German "Chocolate" Travel: What Exactly Is in These Sweets?

September 16, 2008 at 11:00 AM | 0 Comments

Is Berlin the new Amsterdam? Well, hipster enclave Prenzlauer Berg might be.

German cops have shut down a candy store in the notorious neighborhood in Berlin after discovering the 23-year-old owner was peddling chocolates and lollipops laced with magic mushrooms and marijuana.

"In the shop we found 120 pieces of magic mushroom chocolate and countless cannabis lollipops," said police, who confiscated around 70 sachets containing various drugs, about 20 marijuana joints, a range of pills and some jars of drug-laced honey

Sorry, we still haven't been able to dig up the address of the shuttered sweets shop!

Related Stories:
· Hallucinogenic Chocolates Doom Berlin Sweets Shop [Reuters]
· Drug Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: EuroMagic]

New Hangouts in New Orleans

November 30, 2007 at 3:45 PM | 0 Comments

Even though New Orleans won't play host to a Republican presidential debate, the city does have a host of huge events on tap this winter, from the Sugar Bowl to the BCS National Championship Game to the NBA All-Star Game. (Not to mention Mardi Gras in February.) And when you head to the Crescent City, there'll be some new spots to check out, as the New York Times reports today.

528 Music Club in Harrah's New Orleans Casino & Hotel hosts Louisiana jazz singers and cajun bands, with no cover charge. You'll also be right next door to Todd English's restaurant, which provides snacks to go with the frosty martini you'll no doubt be sipping on.

Sucré on Magazine Street in Uptown has more sweets than you can eat in a sitting--so take some extras to go. Look for miniature pastries, chocolates and macaroons, and remember: This is New Orleans so you can't go wrong with anything featuring pecans.

Ray's Boom Boom Room is another newly opened jazz hall just east of the Quarter. As if the music weren't enough to draw you, Ray's gives away oysters during Friday happy hours.

Zagat is also getting ready to release a new survey of the city in January 2008, so if you like your restaurant, nightlife and hotel picks riddled with quotation marks, stay tuned for that. It'll be Tim and Nina's second survey of New Orleans since the storm, though, as always, they have updated reviews on their website.

Related Stories:
· New in New Orleans [NYT]
· New Orleans Field Trip [Jaunted]
· New Orleans coverage [Jaunted]

Though Delicious, Japanese Candy May Kill You

November 1, 2007 at 9:30 AM | 2 Comments

The Japanese tradition of bringing sweets when visiting a friend's home may now be akin to bringing a roast you picked up at the local Food Lion to a BBQ in the United States' South. We've learned to fear meat and anything that comes near it in this era of mad cow disease, Salmonella poisoning and Montezuma's revenge. But now we have to worry about candy? Say it isn't so.

Just in time for Halloween, The New York Times revealed Wednesday that Japan's leading confectioner, Akafuku lied about the contents of its products, tampered with expiration dates and recycled ingredients. The revelation follows news that two other leading candy makers, Shiroi Koibito and Fujiya, also sold faulty products.

Not to be outdone, the country's meat industry is working overtime to deceive customers. Executives at a meatpacking company called Meat Hope were arrested for labeling ground pork, chicken and even rabbit as beef. Around the same time, the Septegenerian president of a poultry company admitted to mislabeling his chicken products after he returned from the mountains following a failed suicide attempt.

Part of the joy of traveling is sampling the local cuisine and, of course, the local junk food. But the next time we visit Japan, we're sticking to the congealed Clif Bars in the bottom of our backpacks.

Related Stories:
· An Epidemic Of Bad Food In Japan [NYT]
· Japan Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: The Mrs. Kennedy]