June 2012
Village Candy-gram
News to infuse
Village Candy
344 Beaver Street
Sewickley PA
412.741.1490
Tues - Sat 10-5
Wed til 8
June Edition
Father's Day
Finnish Your Licorice
Sweets & Snacks Expo Report
Son of Candy Alphabet
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Greetings Fellow Candy Lover!   

Just entering June, and it already feels like the heat is on. And believe it or not, it's National Candy Month, according to the National Confectioners Association. Of course we don't need no stinkin' designation to know the happy and tasty pleasure candy brings. We see it every day, from seniors that feel they've entered a museum of warm memories, recognizing forgotten items that have been hidden in the far reaches of their memories for decades, to kids walking in as if in a dream, eyes gazing upon the rows of bright treats all calling their names, whose memories are just being created. Seeing this never gets old. Candy really isn't something anyone needs, but for a small price, it sure lifts the spirits and makes an impact like nothing else.

Father's Day is June 17!

New Chocolates to the Rescue

  

At Dolfin, their master chocolate makers cultivate the intense and Dolfin Dark Chocolate with Grilled Almonds Bararomatic taste of real Belgian chocolate. Powerful, full-flavored and sometimes extreme in the case of the dark chocolates, soft and tender in the case of the milk chocolates. New to our store: Dark Chocolate with Grilled Almonds, Dark Chocolate with Fresh Ginger and Dark Chocolate with Crystallized Orange, along with pure Milk, Dark and Extra Dark Bars. 

 

Also new, two fruit-filled chocolate bars from Germany. Porta's Waldfrucht is a delicious Milk Chocolate with forest fruit-flavored filling, and the Erdbeer bar is filled with a delightful strawberry.

From Asher's comes a dark chocolate mint Asher's Mint Smoothiessmoothie. Similar in texture to their sensuously decadent peanut butter smoothie, these are filled with a refreshingly smooth minty temptation. They are sure to become a new hit from Asher's.

Finnish Your Licorice
From Finland/Holland/Australia to you

  

Village Candy has decided to replace one of its most popular Panda Cherry Licoricelicorices - Panda. But not with a different product, just better packaging. Instead of the typical box, they're now available in a resealable bag, which will help to lock in the soft freshness and flavor even better. They're available in the usual black and raspberry, along with a newer real cherry.

 
If you haven't yet tried Panda, you ought to give it a go. It's deliciously chewy and all natural. Along with the new bags, we have black and red individual bars and a new scrumptious blueberry flavor.Panda Blueberry Licorice Bar
 
Panda, the Finnish candy company founded in 1920, began exporting sweets to the U.S. in 1963, and still uses the same all-natural recipes. They add no salt, preservatives or additives. And instead of bleached sugar, they use brown molasses syrup containing minerals and micronutrients. It's fat free, nut free, lactose free and vegan! But most important - it tastes fantastic!
 
From Holland, where licorice (especially the salty kind) is like a Klene Laurierdropnational pastime, comes new bags of Klene Zoute (Salt) Waterwerken, or hard and salty, along with Zoete Hallandse Meesters (Strong Sweet Dutch Masters), a hard and sweet drop, and new Laurierdrop (left), a yummy chew with a hint of laurel (a.k.a. bay leaf). Klene has been satisfying Holland's licorice-loving masses since 1876, and they know their stuff. If you're a true black licorice lover, come in for a sample.
 
And don't forget the new Kookaburra Licorice Shooters, and Strawberry & Cream Bites. Both down under delicious!
Sweets & Snacks Expo 2012 
Inside Report   
This year's National Candy Association's Sweets & Snacks Expo again took place at Chicago's McCormick Place May 8-12, covering 143,300 square feet of floor space. There were some really interesting (i.e., bizarre) products along with the usual product extensions.

A chocolate replica of Chicago's famous "Cloud Gate" sculpture, also know as "The Bean" and comprised of over 120,000 Jelly Belly beans and Chocolate Dips, was on display at the entrance.

 

Every year they hold voting for the industry's Most Innovative New Products. This year's Chocolate winner was Hammond's Candies Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich Milk Chocolate Bar, beating out Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds Pieces, Rolos Minis and Wild Ophelia's Beef JerkyNew Product Winners (?!) Bar, among others. Wrigley's Skittles Riddles won the Non Chocolate category (not my vote), besting a group including Haribo's new Ginger Lemon gummi (quite good) and Just Born's Hot Tamales 3 Alarm. Jelly Belly's UNO Gift Box topped the Novelty/Licensed Category, and Mars won the Seasonal Category with their M&Ms White Chocolate Candy Corn, (much better than it sounds). These will all be trickling out to the retail candy world soon.

 

Other notable candies: Gummi Gumby (love it), Bonomo Turkish Taffy with new packaging and flavors (Blue Raspberry and Wild Cherry), and Ford Gum (who bought Big League Chew from Wrigley last year) will be offering Big League Bubble Gum Filled Lollipops, and Gumballs. There will be a major promotional campaign from Just Born, producers of Mike & Ike, announcing the "breakup" of Mike, and Ike, due to "irreconcilable creative differences" (not exactly sure where that's headed). Smarties is coming out with Taffy Bites, with candy bits in each bite, Wonka is reintroducing Kazoozles (yay - so good) and new Nerds Surf & Turf flavor (Totally Tropical Punch and Road Rash Raspberry). There also seemed to be a lot of Angry Birds-themed stuff. 

World's Largest Chocolate Bar
World's Largest Chocolate Bar - 12,000 pounds
And One More Thing...
Son of Candy Alphabet

ecause we started with this Candy Alphabet again, now we have to rack our mutual brain trust to come up with an opportunity to stump you! Here's the latest installment, one perhaps geared more towards the younger crowd. 

Name the candy that begins with the letter pictured here as you'd find it on the package. If you're the first to guess correctly, you could win a gargantuan prize (void where prohibited, must be declared on taxes - hah!). Oh, and by the way, you have to submit that guess by email to candyalphabet@villagecandy.com (not just mention it to your spouse in passing, enabling him or her to beat you to the prize).
Candy Alphabet
Last week's winner was Maxine Macha with her correct guess of Altoids.
Village Candy is an old-time, new-fangled retail shop specializing in a unique selection of retro and current bulk and novelty candy, artisan chocolates, glass-bottled pop and candy-themed gifts. Oh, and remember customer service? It's back!

We are here Tuesday thru Saturday 10 am to 5 pm, but on Wednesday we stay late until 8! We are closed Sunday and Monday.
 
Sincerely,
 

Doug Alpern, Proprietor
Village Candy