Pecan Pie - a southern favorite, is coming to a candy bar near you. This is insider news, don't tell anyone who told you (okay, you can link the blog if you insist). Ghirardelli is coming out with a milk chocolate bar that tastes like Pecan Pie. No kidding. It is truely amazing. If you LOVE Chocolate Pecan Pie, like your blogger here, you are gonna go ape for this bar. You get the flavor, pecan pieces, and a mouth feel of a crust, all in a chocolate bar. Coming soon to a candy distributor near you. More details to follow, but probably not until summer time.
In other news, we will soon have the Ghirardelli 3 oz. stand up bars (with display) available very soon. These are not new items. The packaging has been updated and the bars now stand upright.
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Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Theo Gets Fantastic Press - HOT HOT HOT!!!
We wanted to drop you a quick note to tell you about Theo -- and some of the great press they are getting. Theo is an all Fair Trade cocoa bean company. They are an artisanal, domestic chocolate maker with great products, a catchy look, and some really neat add-ins. Two bar lines are available (see below). The larger bars are made from all Fair Traded, single origin cocoa beans. The smaller bars are made from all Fair Traded cocoa beans and are also certified organic.
They are really gaining steam and are now getting some fantastic press, including an Oprah favorite (left). We have the full bar line in stock. ORDER NOW, now when your customers are looking for something new, fun, trendy, and feel good!
Theo - Fair Traded, Single Origin Chocolate (12 / 3 oz. bars)
| 31213 | THEO ORIGIN BAR- 91% VENEZUELA | ||
| 31211 | THEO ORIGIN BAR-65% MADAGASCAR | ||
| 31210 | THEO ORIGIN BAR-74% IVORY COAST | ||
| 31212 | THEO ORIGIN BAR-75% ECU/GHA/PAN | ||
| 31209 | THEO ORIGIN BAR-84% GHANA |
3400 Phinney Organic Bars (12 / 2 oz. bars)
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Monday, January 7, 2008
Fun Items for New Year
001245 COCKTAIL CANDY TWIST – DAIQUIRI 12ct.
001269 COCKTAIL CANDY TWIST – MARGARITA 12ct.
001283 COCKTAIL CANDY TWIST - PINA COLADA 12ct.
For kids, and kids at heart, we have the Sour Dipper Licker. This is similar to the lick’em with the stick that you put into the powder. It is inexpensive and a ton of fun!
009035 SOUR DIPPER LICKER – BLUEBERRY 36ct.
009034 SOUR DIPPER LICKER – CHERRY 36ct.
009044 SOUR DIPPER LICKER - GREEN APPLE 36ct.
009040 SOUR DIPPER LICKER – STRAWBERRY 36ct.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Fair Traded Chocolate from Divine
Fair traded chocolate is chocolate where the manufacturer makes an agreement with a farmer or a farm cooperative to buy the cocoa beans at a price above the lowest available price. In exchange, the farmers agree to pay their workers above market wages and treat them better than is the norm. The agreement may also include other provisions, but the core is about treating the workers better.
We just started carrying a new line - Divine Chocolates. Divine's product offering is below. They have a very strong and loyal fan base and are getting some very nice trade press.
http://www.confectionerynews.com/news/ng.asp?n=81922-divine-icco-ghana
Read a brief statement about the company here. The unique thing about Divine is that they are "beyond" fair trade in that they not only buy the cocoa beans for a fair price, but the growers themselves own a piece of the company.
Ghana
We just started carrying a new line - Divine Chocolates. Divine's product offering is below. They have a very strong and loyal fan base and are getting some very nice trade press.
http://www.confectionerynews.com/news/ng.asp?n=81922-divine-icco-ghana
Read a brief statement about the company here. The unique thing about Divine is that they are "beyond" fair trade in that they not only buy the cocoa beans for a fair price, but the growers themselves own a piece of the company.
Divine Chocolate, the world's first farmer-owned Fair Trade chocolate brand, is based on the idea that cocoa farmers deserve more of the value of their product than they get by being suppliers of raw materials. Founded in the
| 1009 | DIVINE CHOC SNACK BAR- 70% DARK | 30/1.5oz | 8-98596-00100-2 |
| 1016 | DIVINE CHOC SNACK BAR- MILK | 30/1.5oz | 8-98596-00101-9 |
| 1085 | DIVINE CHOCOLATE BAR- 65% DARK W/FRUIT &NUTS | 10/3.5oz | 8-98596-00108-8 |
| 1023 | DIVINE CHOCOLATE BAR- 70% DARK | 10/3.5oz | 8-98596-00102-6 |
| 1030 | DIVINE CHOCOLATE BAR- 70% DARK W/MINT | 10/3.5oz | 8-98596-00103-3 |
| 1047 | DIVINE CHOCOLATE BAR- MILK | 10/3.5oz | 8-98596-00104-0 |
| 1054D | DIVINE CHOCOLATE BAR- MILK W/HAZELNUTS | 10/3.5oz | 8-98596-00105-7 |
| 1061 | DIVINE CHOCOLATE BAR- WHITE | 10/3.5oz | 8-98596-00106-4 |
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Great Ideas for 2008
Howdy folks! Sorry it has been so long since we posted last. Our New Year’s resolution is do post more. We hope this blog can be a valuable resource to you. What follows in the next few weeks will be some new and hot ideas for 2008. We have previously posted about some neat gummy and mallow items. We just got some additional items in recently that were too fun to miss out on for the blog. They are bulk items. Details are below. If you want to see a picture, click on the item number.
1015494 Gummi Filled Strawberries /2.2lb.
1019045 Gummi Filled Turtles /2.2lb.
1006608 Gummi Watermelon Slices /5lb.
Of coruse, we cannot forget to mention the chocolate covered gummi bears, always a best seller.
K164 Kopper’s Choc Covered Gummi Bears /8lb.
K457 Kopper’s Choc Covered Gummi Polar Bears White /8lbs.
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Wednesday, November 14, 2007
The China Question
Sorry we were gone for so long. We're back!
Many of our customers have been asking about candy products from China. Below are some facts I thought you'd like to know.
-There have been no known problems with Candy from China.
-Factories that our suppliers use are larger and more modern than many of the factories where the problems in other industries have occurred.
-The factories our suppliers use are in business for the long term. They would not likely do something (like adding an unapproved filler) because they know that awareness is up and if they were caught they would be out of business forever.
-Many of the factories are HAACP certified. This is a certification level set by the US Government that identifies potential problems and seeks to avoid or correct them. This is very common in other industries such as juice or canned food, but not candy. Many Chinese factories meet these standards - many US companies do not.
-Labor rates are much less in China than in the US or even Mexico.
-Sugar costs more in the US than anywhere else in the world due to price supports. This makes it less expensive to make the exact same item with the same equipment and same labor costs in Mexico than in the US. Thus, if you were to make a candy that requires lots of hand work/labor and lots of sugar, it will be cheaper in China than in the US.
-Our customers and end consumers require that cost is moderate and thus we see more pressure to manufacture outside the US. This is especially true this year when price increase have been at record levels.
NOW FOR THE BUSINESS NOTES: We cannot accept a return because something is made in China. If you'd like to know ahead of time what is made in China, we can let you know. However, once a product is shipped, it is yours.
By the way, it is not possible in today's world to avoid products from China. Go to any supermarket, grocery store, Wal-Mart, or Target and pick an aisle (not in clothing) and count the number of items from China. Chinese made goods are a fact of life. This is true in food, but it is also true in the cookware aisles and utensils that interact with food as well as the rest of the store.
Of course, we continue to have a huge number of items not made in Asia and can help you work through these concerns.
.
Many of our customers have been asking about candy products from China. Below are some facts I thought you'd like to know.
-There have been no known problems with Candy from China.
-Factories that our suppliers use are larger and more modern than many of the factories where the problems in other industries have occurred.
-The factories our suppliers use are in business for the long term. They would not likely do something (like adding an unapproved filler) because they know that awareness is up and if they were caught they would be out of business forever.
-Many of the factories are HAACP certified. This is a certification level set by the US Government that identifies potential problems and seeks to avoid or correct them. This is very common in other industries such as juice or canned food, but not candy. Many Chinese factories meet these standards - many US companies do not.
-Labor rates are much less in China than in the US or even Mexico.
-Sugar costs more in the US than anywhere else in the world due to price supports. This makes it less expensive to make the exact same item with the same equipment and same labor costs in Mexico than in the US. Thus, if you were to make a candy that requires lots of hand work/labor and lots of sugar, it will be cheaper in China than in the US.
-Our customers and end consumers require that cost is moderate and thus we see more pressure to manufacture outside the US. This is especially true this year when price increase have been at record levels.
NOW FOR THE BUSINESS NOTES: We cannot accept a return because something is made in China. If you'd like to know ahead of time what is made in China, we can let you know. However, once a product is shipped, it is yours.
By the way, it is not possible in today's world to avoid products from China. Go to any supermarket, grocery store, Wal-Mart, or Target and pick an aisle (not in clothing) and count the number of items from China. Chinese made goods are a fact of life. This is true in food, but it is also true in the cookware aisles and utensils that interact with food as well as the rest of the store.
Of course, we continue to have a huge number of items not made in Asia and can help you work through these concerns.
.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Everyday Christmas Ideas, Part 2
Lets talk a bit more about some every day items that go particularly well for Christmas, the Fall Season, and Gifting. Today, we will talk about 3 separate categories...
1) Van Lys
Van Lys is a belgian truffle, dusted in cocoa powder. This is a fantastic item. The price is very good and the markup that most of our customers get is among the best of any gift item. There are 5 flavors:
2) Make Your Own Mix
Some of our customers make their own mixes of everyday product to be a holiday product. This works with the colors of any holiday. Favorite candies to mix into holiday colors are Jelly Belly, M&M Colorworks, Ghiradelli Squares, and Lindor Balls.
Think red and green lindor balls for Christmas or Orange and Black M&Ms for Halloween, Ghiradelli Squares mint and dark (green and red) for Christmas, Green, Yellow, and Purple Jelly Bellies for Mardi Gras, etc. You get the idea.
3) Bags and Containers
Redstone has lots of different containers and bags for each season and for every day. Where we use customer orders to purchase candy, we usually buy way ahead for bags and containers so that we can meet last minute needs. The idea is to take a cute bag or container and fill it with nice, but inexpensive product to make it a nice gift. For example, a clear bag with gold stripes filled with Red and Green Jordan Almonds is a nice Christmas gift. As is a Green and Red bag filled with white chocolate pretzel balls. I could go on and on, but if you use your imagination, your options are limitless.
Another hint - if you use every day product or product you already have, you can try a small number of different bags to see how customers react. For gift baskets, customer reaction is sometimes secondary to price or look and you can also play around with several options.
Good luck with this and please tell us what you tried and how it went.
.
1) Van Lys
Van Lys is a belgian truffle, dusted in cocoa powder. This is a fantastic item. The price is very good and the markup that most of our customers get is among the best of any gift item. There are 5 flavors:
| 08209 | VAN LYS TRUFFLE BALLOTIN-COFFEE | 20/7oz | |
| 08310 | VAN LYS TRUFFLE BALLOTIN-COGNAC | 20/7oz | |
| 08109 | VAN LYS TRUFFLE BALLOTIN-HAZELNUT | 20/7oz | |
| 08009 | VAN LYS TRUFFLE BALLOTIN-NATURE ORIG | 20/7oz | |
| 08409 | VAN LYS TRUFFLE BALLOTIN-ORANGE | 20/7oz |
2) Make Your Own Mix
Some of our customers make their own mixes of everyday product to be a holiday product. This works with the colors of any holiday. Favorite candies to mix into holiday colors are Jelly Belly, M&M Colorworks, Ghiradelli Squares, and Lindor Balls.
Think red and green lindor balls for Christmas or Orange and Black M&Ms for Halloween, Ghiradelli Squares mint and dark (green and red) for Christmas, Green, Yellow, and Purple Jelly Bellies for Mardi Gras, etc. You get the idea.
3) Bags and Containers
Redstone has lots of different containers and bags for each season and for every day. Where we use customer orders to purchase candy, we usually buy way ahead for bags and containers so that we can meet last minute needs. The idea is to take a cute bag or container and fill it with nice, but inexpensive product to make it a nice gift. For example, a clear bag with gold stripes filled with Red and Green Jordan Almonds is a nice Christmas gift. As is a Green and Red bag filled with white chocolate pretzel balls. I could go on and on, but if you use your imagination, your options are limitless.
Another hint - if you use every day product or product you already have, you can try a small number of different bags to see how customers react. For gift baskets, customer reaction is sometimes secondary to price or look and you can also play around with several options.
Good luck with this and please tell us what you tried and how it went.
.
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