A Giant Chocolate Christmas Tree!

In a move sure to delight many, a famous French chocolatier has prepared a giant chocolate Christmas tree for a television charity event aimed at raising funds to support research into neuromuscular diseases.

The ten-meter-high tree, towering inside chocolatier Patrick Roger's chocolate factory in the Parisian suburb of Sceaux, weighs a trouser popping four tonnes and is described as a rare piece of 'architecture'.

"To achieve this kind of architecture - because this really is a piece of architecture - we used a sort of cavity inside to make the chocolate solid enough, because there is very strong vertical pressure," explained Roger.

The tree, which took Roger's team over a month to craft, will be one of the main highlights at France's Telethon, a nationwide charity event that will be broadcast on French television on December 3 and 4. Participants will receive pieces of the tree in exchange for their donations.

Patrick Roger is one France's most famous chocolatiers. He was honoured as the prestigious 'Meilleur Ouvrier de France Chocolatier' (best French artisan-chocolatier) in 2000, an award for professionals combining art and taste and proving to be worthy representatives of French gastronomy.

Roger's laboratory also features a wide range of other chocolate sculptures, including small Santas, reindeers and other figurines.

Article posted by Spencer Samaroo, Managing Director, Moo-Lolly-Bar
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Source and Photo: News MSN

The World's Biggest Chocolate Bar!

Armenian Company, Grand Candy, smashed the Guinness World Record recently for the biggest chocolate bar every made. Weighing in at 4,410 kg the gigantic bar beat the previous record, which was made in Italy in 2007 by over 830kg.

To mark its 10th anniversary on September 11, the company held a presentation ceremony to unveil their creation which measured in at 5600 x 2750 x 250 millimeters and took four days to make using cocoa beans imported from Africa. According to the Guinness terms, the bar is 70% made from natural primary products – 500kg of cocoa beans and 300kg of powdered sugar.

According to the Grand Candy President Karen Vardanyan the record-setting bar, which will be kept in special conditions, would take the average consumer some 450 years to eat!

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Source and picture: World Breaking Record

Recipe of the Week - Cherry Coke Salad

I'll bet this is a new one on you!

Originating from the Deep South, Cherry Coke Salad might not necessarily sound like a match made in Heaven but when served as a dessert or sweet salad on a hot day it is actually surprisingly good! For best results it is well worth leaving this dessert in the fridge for 24 hours to really let the flavour soak in.


Ingredients

20 oz crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 cup water
6 oz cherry gelatin powder
21oz cherry pie filling
3/4 cup Cherry Coke
Handful of roughly chopped Pecan or Macadamia Nuts
Whipped Cream
Cadbury's Flake


Method

1.  Drain the pineapple and set aside.

2.  Pour the pineapple juice into a saucepan, add the water and bring to a boil.

3.  Remove saucepan from the stove and stir in the gelatin powder until the gelatin mixture is dissolved.

4. Add the cherry pie filling and Cherry Coke and pour mixture into a serving bowl.

5. Leave to chill until the mixture starts to thicken.

6.  Fold in the reserved crushed pineapple and pecan or macadamia nuts.

7. Refrigerate until firm and then serve topped with whipped cream and a crushed Cadbury's Flake.


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A global chocolate shortage ahead?

It is every chocophile's worst nightmare. A shortage of chocolate in the world. But some experts are predicting it soon could become a real possibility.

An ongoing drought in Western Africa, coupled with continuing unrest in the Ivory Coast - the world's biggest cocoa producer - and a rising consumer demand for cocoa-rich dark chocolate has raised concerns about the potential of a shortage in supply.

As a result, cocoa futures have been trading at three-year highs, with prices rallying since the beginning of the year.

'In the last few months, cocoa prices have rallied on expectations for a smaller crop from the Ivory Coast and Ghana' said Boyd Cruel, a senior analyst at Alaron Trading who specialises in the cocoa market.

In general World production of cocoa is down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis from 2005-2006, according to the International Cocoa Organization and cocoa's price has risen 44% since November 2005.

But don't fret at the thought of a $5 Mars Bar just yet. Cruel said that markets have already factored in the supply issue. The highs reached this week are technical in nature, he said, because news of the drought has been out for months.

Other commodities analysts agree including Barclays' Sudakshina Unnikrishnan who told Bloomberg News from London 'On the fundamental side, we don't expect to see changes in demand'.

'Going into the second quarter, the real wild card continues to be based on the conditions and political situation in Ivory Coast'.

For the sake of all chocolate lovers the world over, let's hope the situation doesn't pan out to our worst case scenario.

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The World's Biggest Kit Kat

Now this is our idea of a chocolate bar!

We've all seen supersized chocolate bars before, but this is truly amazing! A chap called Brian has created quite possibly the biggest Kit Kat bar ever made. Apparently he started by going to the local hardware store and buying one of those big flower boxes. Then he filled it with molten chocolate and six packs of Loacker Quadratini cookies (for the crunchy interior).

When it was finished, the giant Kit Kat chocolate bar measured 28 inches long and weighed over 13.5 kilograms. Named Mega Giganta Kat, by its creator, this calorie bomb has over 72,000 calories. Considering a person’s daily calorie intake is around 1,800-2,200, that’s pretty scary.

Two things we weren't able to ascertain was how he made the Kit Kat logo, (it was most probably carved) and how long it took him to eat.

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Source: Oddity Central

Does Chocolate leads to a healthier heart?

Apparently older women who eat chocolate regularly are less likely to develop cardiovascular disease, an Australian study shows.

Researchers in Perth found that women who ate chocolate were less likely to be hospitalised or die of atherosclerotic vascular disease than those who steered clear of it.

And they did not even need to over-indulge to obtain the cardiovascular benefit, with similar benefits applying to those who ate chocolate only once a week and those who ate it daily, according to the study published in Archives of Internal Medicine.

More than 1,200 women over the age of 70 took part in the study and were tracked for a decade.

Nearly half had less than one serving of chocolate a week, which was the equivalent amount of cocoa in one cup of hot chocolate, a third were having one to six servings a week and the rest had a serving daily.

Around 88 of those who ate chocolate rarely were hospitalised or died from heart disease during the study period, compared to 65 women who ate chocolate more frequently.

And another 35 of those infrequent consumers experienced heart failure, while only 18 chocolate-consumers died from the same condition.


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Source: 6 Minutes

The world's biggest chocoholic?

A 21-year-old woman from South Korea has become an overnight celebrity in her native country by officially claiming to be the world's biggest chocolate addict.

On November 2nd, Kim Do-yeon made an appearance on a Korean TV show, where she confessed to having eaten over 1.2 TONS of chocolate in the last six years alone. You wouldn't guess it from her figure, for Kim is quite slim, but on the show, in front of a live studio audience, she backed up this claim by drinking it from a glass and eating it mixed with noodles or steamed rice. She even revealed that she melts small pots of chocolate every day and mixes it into everything she eats, even meat.

I thought I was a chocoholic but Ms Do-yeon certainly puts me to shame.

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Source and picture taken from the Oddity Central.

A picture of sweetness

There are numerous tales surrounding Mona Lisa’s mysterious smile, but perhaps none so sweet as the story of the one involving Kristen Cumings, of Martinez, who has created a quite stunning meticulous rendition of Da Vinci’s famous masterpiece entirely out of JELLY BELLY JELLY BEANS.

Cumings has been a Martinez resident since 2004. Prior to her move, she and her husband resided in San Francisco. A native of Indiana, Kristen attended Wheaton Conservatory, where she majored in music. She began painting with acrylics after giving up the French horn, though the paintings were mainly for friends and family members. One friend, who works for Jelly Belly, told Cumings the company was looking for a jelly bean artist. She pursued the position and has been busy ever since.

Although Cumings states that she is “more of a chocolate person,” she, her children and their friends love Jelly Bellys. So far she has been able to resist eating the beans while working with them, but she admits, “when I’m standing back to look the piece over I might snack a bit … but they’re only like four calories a piece, so it’s not that bad.” When asked what her favorite bean flavor is, Kristen had to think for a moment. “I go through phases … right now it’s probably Juicy Pear, but I really got into Sour Cherry during my last piece.”

Cumings’s most famous work of art currently is the 4’ by 6’ rendition of the Mona Lisa. Both Cumings and the piece were featured recently on the Rachael Ray Show. “It was really surreal,” she recalled on Wednesday, “it felt like I was living someone else’s life. But it was a fun trip.”

The show also featured her portrait of a California grizzly bear, which she put together over three or four weekends at the State Fair last August. She recalls the process being, “somewhat tedious, people kept coming by and asking questions, it was hot, my glue started melting … but I was right next to the candy place, so it smelled good.”

Aside from the grizzly bear illustration, all of Cumings’s pieces have been put together in her garage in Martinez. An average Jelly Belly piece uses 14,000 to 16,000 beans, depending on the size, and typically a palette of 25 to 30 colors of beans. Fortunately for her, Jelly Belly provides all of the beans. The entire art process, including finding and cropping an image and picking out the beans, takes between 150 and 200 hours.


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Source and picture taken from the Martinez Gazette.

Nestle to switch all Australian Kit Kats to UTZ Cocoa

Continuing their commitment to Fair Trade and sustainable cocoa production methods Nestle have announced that as of next year all Kit Kats sold in Australia will be made using UTZ-certified cocoa.

The internationally recognized set of criteria for ethical and professional cocoa growing, UTZ cocoa, which includes socially and environmentally appropriate growing practices and efficient farm management, is already used in the four-finger Kit Kat version in Australia, but Nestle has now pledged to switch all of the brand’s portfolio of products to the certified cocoa next year.

Andrew McIver, business executive manager for confectionery within Nestle Australia explained that the decision was part of Nestle’s overall broader “Cocoa Plan”, launched last year, a global programme aims amongst other things to increase production yields and improving the social conditions around the farming of cocoa.

'The cocoa sector faces challenges like poor soil fertility management, ageing tree stocks, improper use of chemicals, low farmer income and poor labour practices. At the same time consumers are increasingly aware of these challenges and demand products that are grown in a sustainable way,' McIver said.

'We believe certification is a critical component to our overall approach. It provides the framework to reward farmers and their organisations for producing cocoa in a sustainable manner, and certification also gives our consumers added assurance that the cocoa was produced under proper conditions'.

Now that's something we can all get our teeth into.

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Every woman's dream?

Fashion and chocolate, two of women's favourite indulgences perfectly merged in an incredible show of style and taste by Salon du Chocolat at the Porte de Versailles in Paris, France.

A couple of the main highlights of this show, the theme of which was Fair Trade, were an over-sized, magnificent hoop skirt of chocolate that was designed by Patrice Chapon and modeled by Irene Salvador and a chocolate fashion experiment in which model Nubia Esteban played a bird in a chocolate cage, complete with chocolate wings, a chocolate bustier and short skirt that was designed by Bailey's and Carole Dichampt (see picture).

In commissioning these pieces Salon du Chocolat aimed to showcase that ethically obtained and environmentally friendly, sustainable and delicious chocolate is a reality that can be enjoyed by everyone. With such stunning examples, Salon du Chocolat surely made its point.

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Chocolate as a Teaching Tool

A great story from Jackson.com.

Their article a clever use of chocolate describes how one ingenious elementary teacher uses Hershey's chocolate bars to illustrate fractions.

Apparently Michelle Lester has been teaching 'chocolate fractions' to her students for a few years now and claims that the students grasp the concept of fractions more easily with this idea.

'During chocolate fractions, Lester reads problems aloud from a book provided by the Hershey Corporation. Students then have to figure out the fractions remaining by removing the individual pieces of the Hershey bar."

If only my teacher had been so inventive!

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