Calories no bar to chipper chocolate lovers
By Gail Appleson, Reuters, 02/02/00
NEW YORK -- Health-conscious Americans will do just about anything to melt off extra pounds -- except on Valentines Day, when they refuse to fudge on chocolates.
|
She'll give you her heart, but forget the chocolate
If you think your Valentine is going to give you a share of the chocolates in that heart-shaped box, think again.
[ Story ]
|
|
|
|
The prospect of massive fat calories is no bar as even the most diligent gym-goers are seduced by the mouthwatering scent when rich cocoa embraces sensual swirls of butter entwined with heavy cream.
Indeed, chocolate makers see the national trend toward low-fat nutritious meals and more exercise as nothing to sweat about. Godiva, for example, says it expects another record-breaking Valentines Day, its busiest day of the year.
Although the company does not release sales figures, a spokesman said it experienced strong double-digit growth on the holiday last year.
"Americans are consuming more chocolate than ever before," said Carole Bloom, pastry chef and author of five dessert cookbooks including "All About Chocolate: The Ultimate Resource for the World's Favorite Food."
Bloom, who is also spokeswoman for the American Boxed Chocolate Manufacturers, said Americans eat about 12 pounds of chocolate a year, up from 9 or 10 pounds a few years ago. But they are far from catching up with the British, who consume about 31 pounds of chocolate per person annually.
AMERICANS CATCHING UP WITH BRITISH?
Americans may well be on their way, however. Their interest in chocolate is growing along with their exposure to the more intense milk and dark chocolate flavors used by European candy makers. Luxury chocolatiers such as Godiva and Neuhaus say this is particularly apparent in rising sales in the United States of dark chocolate, never before a big U.S. seller.
"Dark chocolate has become trendy," Neuhaus executive vice president Claude Emery, said, explaining that demand for the intensely flavored confection is part of an overall growth in U.S. sales of higher quality foods ranging from bread to wine.
Bloom agreed. "People's tastes have become more sophisticated because they travel and because food travels."
Godiva spokesman Frank de Falco said this exposure has led Americans to seek out not only higher quality foods but those with unusual ingredients and sharper tastes such as the wasabi horseradish served in Japanese sushi and hot Mexican chilies.
Godiva, founded in Belgium about 70 years ago, foresaw an openness to new tastes when it began selling chocolates in U.S. department stores in 1966. Since then it has created a market in this country for luxury chocolates known as "superpremium" with high levels of cocoa components, heavy cream, butter and rich fillings such as hazelnut praline.
This gives the confections a short shelf life and they are sold only in better department and specialty stores or company boutiques where the inventory can be controlled.
The company, now owned by Campbell Soup, opened its first boutique on New York's Fifth Avenue in 1972 and now owns and operates more than 200 boutiques in North America selling more than 150 different luxury chocolates at $32 a pound.
GODIVA RAISES THE CHOCOLATE BAR
"Godiva was the first to raise the bar," Bloom said.
Although it maintains operations in Belgium, Godiva's headquarters are now in New York and it produces chocolate for North American distribution in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Superpremium chocolates are usually made by a shell-molding method in which a fine chocolate "shell" is filled with a rich center. These chocolates often have unique sculpted shapes like Godiva's hazelnut "Open Oyster" and Neuhaus' "Cornet Doret," swirled hazelnut chocolate wrapped in a miniature gold cone.
Moderately priced chocolates sold in drug, discount and grocery stores are generally produced by "enrobing," in which the center of the candy is coated with tempered chocolate.
De Falco said superpremium chocolates are generally more intense, with a sharper taste than other chocolates, due in part to a high ratio of cocoa components. While Godiva pieces are rich, he said, this actually encourages moderation.
"With M&Ms, the tendency is to eat handful after handful," he said, adding that while the popular candies might have fewer calories people tend to eat more of them.
"They stimulate more than satisfy," he said. "With a piece of Godiva you can really only eat one or two."
Godiva's popularity opened the door to other Europeans such as Brussels-based Neuhaus, Belgium's oldest chocolate maker. It began in 1857 when Jean Neuhaus established a "pharmaceutical confectionery" shop that sold chocolate tablets as medication.
Neuhaus opened its first boutique in New York in the mid-1990s and now has six shops in New York, San Francisco and Seattle. Its chocolates are also sold at better department and specialty stores. Emery said the company plans to have a total of 20 boutiques within three years including other major markets such as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.
The chocolates cost $40 a pound and individual pieces can be bought for about $1.50 to $2 each based on weight.
'CANDIES USED TO BE FOR KIDS'
"Candies used to be for kids," Emery said. "Twenty years ago Americans would never have even thought of buying chocolates for more than $5 a pound."
European-style chocolates' growing popularity has not been lost on makers of moderately priced sweets. For example, Russell Stover, the nation's largest maker of boxed chocolates, is offering a new Valentines heart this year containing chocolate shaped seashells filled with hazelnut paste.
While the shape and hazelnut filling are inspired by European chocolates, the price is not. Under the company's Whitman brand, it costs $3.99 for 5-3/4 ounces.
"This is for a different customer ... people who have been exposed to different kinds of candy in their travels," said Tom Ward, chairman and chief executive officer of Kansas City, Missouri-based Russell Stover. "Godiva obviously has influenced the market but a lot of people can't afford that."
He said Russell Stover's best-selling Valentines item continues to be a one-pound red foil heart for $7.99. The firm, which also makes Pangburn chocolates, reports good sales of boxes with licensed characters such as Barbie, Snoopy and even a suction-cup-pawed Garfield that says "I'm stuck on you."
And of course there are the Elvis Presley Valentine boxes including a 12-ounce heart that plays "Love Me Tender" when opened ... a real bargain at $9.99.
"You wouldn't believe how well that one sells," Ward said.
