Tweet Sweet

“Our chocolate should be savored with all senses. Listen to the most romantic music, watch it like a child’s fantasy that turns into reality, smell it like the rarest of perfumes, dip your fingers into it and lick it slowly and passionately. Make love to it. Enjoy to the Max.” Reads the back half of the “sweets” menu for Max Brenner’s new chocolate bar off New York’s Union Square called Chocolate By The Bald Man.

Apparently the “Bald” theme is carried by the waiters (who are bald according to a blog I found about their Manila location) and their primary drinking mug that looks like a bald head (called the “hug mug” because your hands hug around it).

So my first notice of this shop was an article talking about it in Yahoo news. I always check the most popular news on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis to see what news people are looking at the most. Apparently the new glitzy new Union Square location is part retail sweetshop, part café, and 100% all slickly packaged cocoa- scented theme park.

Since I haven’t been there, I don’t have much to say - other than the Max Brenner website was a fun visit (There is no “Max Brenner” by-the-way - it’s more of a Wonka-like persona created by the combination of it’s founders names - Max Fichtman and Oded Brenner), so I’ll leave you to the review in the New Yorker who didn’t seem to like the place, but gave a good explanation of it’s ambiance. Stephen Weiss in New York City gave the place less of a lashing in his review, and described the ambiance and included photos. While the New Yorker may have not liked it (nose in air) any search in Yahoo or Google will turn up rave reviews from nearly everyone else who’s been there, including this one from Kimbie in Melbourne, Aus, or Amanda in Sydney, Aus, or even “Mrs. Bee” in NYC. (Hey, that rhymed.)

This one is a SURE visit on my next trip to New York.

Chocolate by the Bald Man (Max Brenner)
- 841 Broadway New York, NY 10003 (now open)
- 141 2nd Avenue New York, NY 10003- 8315 (opening soon)

Sounds like this concept is sweeping the world… (oh, and their colors are the colors I planned for Tweet Sweet! Hmmm.) Looks like a fun place!

The Oregonian reports that the Red Fox Bakery in McMinnville, Oregon produces whopping chocolate studded pumpkin seed cookies under the rationale that the pumpkin seeds are wholesome and nutritious. But with nearly each cookie containing an ounce of Bernard Callebaut bittersweet chocolate, this cookie loses its status as health food. The pumpkin seeds are actually mixed in to lend an unusual texture that contrasts with the silky chocolate.

It sounds like an excellent cookie, and an especially good one to release around Halloween time when we’re all gutting helpless pumpkins. (I bake the seeds myself - I love em!)

Red Fox Bakery
328 NE Third Street
McMinnville, OR 97128
Phone: 503-434-5098
Contact: Laurie Furch, Owner

So one of my friends knew my obsession with Hot Cocoa… heck, half a shelf in my pantry is full of the stuff… and clipped an article out of the USA Today for me last Christmas. I just ran across it today while looking for some old paperwork and thought it a perfect Tweet Sweet blog subject.

The coolest idea I gleened from this article called “10 Great Places to Savor Exquisite Hot Chocolate” was a hot cocoa that was served in the NoMI Lounge in Chicago. Since the online version didn’t include the photo that the one clipped from the paper did, you’ll have to have a little imagination (my scanner’s not hooked up, sorry folks) but it shows 3 champaign glasses with truffles in the bottom of them. The center glass is being topped off with steaming milk. The caption reads “Steaming hot milk is poured tableside into truffle-filled liqueur glasses at the NoMI Lounge in the Park Hyatt” What an awesome way to serve hot cocoa!

The article highlights 10 warm spots to take a break from holiday shopping and savor a hot chocolate treat. Listed are:

Since I haven’t been to any of the locations mentioned, I can’t comment on them, but it’s on my list of to-do’s and to see’s!

So I was reading the site for the Bloomer Chocolate Company, and ran across a link on their contact us page that sent me to the National Cocoa Shell’s website.

Cocoa shell mulch, also called cocoa mulch, cocoa bean mulch, cocoa bean shell mulch, or cocoa bean hull mulch is made from the shells that come off the bean during the roasting process. The shells are separated from the beans by strong air action and bagged by the National Cocoa Shell company for mulching gardens.

The mulch lasts longer, smells better, gets darker with age, and provides various nutrients beneficial to plants and the soil. It retains moisture better than regular mulch and is an excellent insulator for root systems in winter and summer. The only down-side? The sweet chocolate aroma only lasts 2-3 weeks.

I remember seeing this in an Asian-themed garden at my local garden center (Wasatch Shadows) when I went to view some plants for my landscaping project earlier this summer. It has quite a unique look, and a nice dark brown color. Check your local nursery for it… perhaps your garden might like a little chocolate as well.

I ran across a rather comical article in Yahoo news:

Kenneth Affolter admitted to managing marijuana crops with the intention of manufacturing and distributing a range of joke candy and soft-drinks spiked with marijuana that parodied well-known brands. US Federal Agents raided warehouses registered to a company known as ‘Beyond Bomb’, and seized items with labels including ‘Munchy Way’, ‘Pot Tarts’, ‘Puffsi’ ‘Buddahfingers’, ‘Rasta Reece’s’, ‘Puff-a-Mint Pattie’ and ‘Toka-Cola.’

Medical marijuana advocates say the treats are legal under state law and are designed for sick patients who rely on cannabis to ease their symptoms. DEA officials operate under federal law, which deems marijuana in any form to be illegal.

You gotta give it to them on the creative side though, it makes one wonder how close the parodied candies were to the original? Drug Enforcement Agency Special Agent in Charge Javier Pena had this to say about it - “While real candy may give you cavities, these individuals know that marijuana candy can get you jail time.”

It’s always interesting to research the variations on your company name to see how others might perceive the name you’ve chosen. Here are a couple things I’ve run across while online:

Tweet - 80’s slang
Remember my posting about why I chose the name Tweet Sweet? Well, the Urban Dictionary online backs me up in my definition. The first posting reads: “Tweet: A mid-80’s preteen slang for cool. Derived from ’sweet’. ‘Those shoes look tweet!’”

Tweet - Kinda like baby talk
I ran across the word “twee” which in British English or English English, is from “tweet”, a baby talk alteration of “sweet”. It is used to denote something that is overly sweet, knowingly cute or overly precious. It’s a strongly negative word, and a very useful one, that is in common British use.

Tout de Suite - speedy delivery?
After seeing a random posting online that mistakenly said “tweet sweet” in place of “tout de suite”, I investigated what this obviously French phrase meant. Sometimes shortened to just “tout suite”, or in the anglicised form as toot sweet, it means “immediately” or “right away”. As in “if you’d like to catch the movie, you better leave tout de suite.”

So I found myself in Time Square last week when I was shipped out to check out our exhibit at the Interop Trade Show event. I was excited to get the opportunity to go to New York City, even though my trip would only afford me two short evenings to see what sweet trouble I could get into. But unfortunate events with my airline travel - United sucks!, caused me to lose my first evening in endless travel delays, and be clothes-less the entire next day. So needless to say, I didn’t get to any dessert shops. In New York City and no dessert shops? What a sin!

But our hotel happened to be just around the corner from the Hershey’s Time Square which was quite a display.

From the outside, the 215-ft tall, 60-ft wide store facade is the largest permanent fixture ever constructed in Times Square. Featuring 34 dimensional props, four steam machines, over 4,000 chasing lights, 30 programmable lights, 56 neon letters, 14 front-lit signs, and every major signage technique used today. Here’s the photo I took: (Notice the steaming hot cocoa)

Inside, you’ll find the perfect gifts for every occasion, including tins and jars loaded with HERSHEY’S chocolates, collectible HERSHEY’S souvenirs, HERSHEY’S clothing and toys. Believe it or not, it was CLOSED when I went to visit it at midnight, though the outside was still all lit up. One of my co-workers who stayed longer at the tradeshow got a chance to go inside, and raved about a giant jar of Hershey’s syrup and the fact that you could imprint your own message on a Hershey’s Kiss flag. Well, all I can say, is there is always next time I’m in town to check it out. Cause I don’t think a display that big is going anywhere (unless perhaps if Godzilla makes a visit again).

Any other suggestions for dessert in New York City? Something sweet, something delectable, something I’ll never forget?

So I was walking through Costco the other day. Awe, Costco… I really do try to stay away from that place as much as possible as there seems to be so many fun things to buy, a toy store for us big kids. I happen to be passing one of the isles and noticed a Chocolate Fountain made for home use.

The Rival brand Chocolate Fountain holds 3-5 pounds of any brand of chocolate. Your party guests indulge themselves by dipping fruits-strawberries, bananas, cherries, cookies, cakes, nuts, pretzels and even marshmallows, whatever their taste.

Drop by your local Costco and pick one up, cause if you know Costco, like I know it… you never know when they’ll never carry it again. Pretty cool party toy for $40. (Target also carries it, but charges $20 more)

So I ran across and article written by Deborah Markus (BellaOnline’s “Chocolate Editor”… what a job!) on drinking chocolate when doing a search on Yahoo. So how does Drinking Chocolate vary from Hot Cocoa? Deborah explains that Hot Cocoa is and instant powder that produces a “sickly over-sweet” drink by adding either hot water or hot milk as required. But “drinking chocolate” is “thick, slow, and luscious, and it must be made from solid chocolate.”

Want a more technical explantion of the difference? Check out this tidbit from 101cookbooks.com: “Some are confused about the difference between hot cocoa and drinking chocolates. One of my Seattle-based readers kindly offered up this well articulated explanation for the difference between cocoa and drinking chocolates:”Cocoa is derived from chocolate liquor - the professional term for unsweetened baking chocolate. Cocoa powder is chocolate liquor that has been pressed to remove half to three-quarters of its fat and then pulverized. A hydraulic press, designed by the Dutchman C. J. Van Houten in the 19th century, removes fat while leaving solids behind. Cocoa has a strong chocolate flavor and is easy to incorporate into other ingredients.” Cocoa will give you difference texture, taste, and mouth feel.” Check out the whole article entitled Drinkable Chocolate List. The writer, Heidi Swanson rates 18 drinkable chocolate brands, and votes Couverture the best overall. (“No doubt about it.” she says.)

Markus ran across an old recipe in an old cookbook: “Break a one-ounce square of unsweetened chocolate in half. Put half of it away; break up the other half with a butter knife and put the fragments into a small, heavy-bottomed pot (or the top of a double boiler, if you’re nervous). Add two tablespoons hot water; cook and stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture is smooth.

Stir in a generous tablespoon of sugar; continue cooking until this is completely dissolved. Lower the heat, then slowly add one measuring cup of hot milk, stirring constantly. When this is smooth, add a quarter to a half teaspoon of real vanilla. Let this cook about five minutes over the lowest possible heat, stirring frequently.”

Here’s another recipe from Drinksmixer.com that uses a vanilla bean and cinnamon in cream: Drinking Chocolate First cold day that comes along, I’ll report what I think. Yum!

So if you’ve never been over to Engrish.com, you don’t know what kind of laughs that you’re missing. “Engrish” (yes, spelled with an “R”) is the humorous English mistakes that appear in Japanese advertising and product design. Since most of the English included on packaging is not an attempt to communicate, but more for its “modern” look and feel, it’s not always checked for grammatical accuracy.

When I visited China last year I saw my fair share of “Engrish” located on signs, packaging and various menus and such around town. Engrish.com includes several halarious sections including those that include “Sweets”:

Engrish Candy Packaging
Engrish Chocolate Packaging
Engrish Gum