So if you’re in the area, swing by and pick up some chocolates. You’ll be glad you did. Are there any other V Chocolate fans out there?

Here’s the background from their website on this, one of my latest favorite candies, Almond Roca:

ALMOND ROCA® comes to you with a history as flavorful as its fresh almonds, and as rich as its buttercrunch toffee. It all started back in 1923 in Tacoma, Washington. Harry Brown developed a recipe for the crunchy log-shaped candy destined to become a worldwide favorite. J.C. Haley wanted an unusual name to go with the new almond confection they had invented. A local librarian suggested “roca”, and ALMOND ROCA® buttercrunch toffee was born. In Spanish, the word “roca” (pronounced Roe-ka) means “rock”, which seemed appropriate given the crunchy center.

After 5 billion pieces and 5 billion smiles, “Roca” has taken on a new, universal meaning: fresh – and – lively – crunchy – chewy – taste – sensational – buttery – chocolaty – delight.

The product was an immediate success, but some method had to be found to protect all that fresh, buttery goodness. In 1927 ALMOND ROCA® confection became the first candy in the world to be put in a sealed tin. After all, JC. Haley reasoned, if tins could keep coffee fresh they could certainly do the same for ALMOND ROCA® buttercrunch toffee. And if a regular tin could do the job, imagine what a pink tin could do!

The confection emerged from being a well-kept secret of the Pacific Northwest during World War II. Since it was packed in air-tight tins, it could be shipped to the troops overseas and remain fresh. It became so popular that an entire chapter was dedicated to the crunchy morsels in the Official History of World War II. In one memorable event, American generals would not turn over responsibility for an occupied country to other Allies until three railroad cars of ALMOND ROCA® confection could be taken with them.

ALMOND ROCA® buttercrunch toffee has traveled around the world ever since. It has been shipped to more than 63 markets over the past 80 years. Sir Edmund Hillary packed it to the top of the world on many of his Himalayan ascents. It’s one of the favorite candies of Japan’s royal family. It’s also a market leader for imported gift confections in many markets from Asia to the Middle East, including Japan, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, Australia and the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain. Today, ALMOND ROCA® buttercrunch toffee can be found on retail shelves in over 35 countries on six continents.

Today, nine decades and three generations of Haleys later, ALMOND ROCA® buttercrunch toffee is still being made with the same care in the same factory where it all started. The factory has become a historic landmark and the candy has earned the title of “America’s Finest Confection®.”

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

If you don’t do any keyword optimization for search engines (or even know what that is, for goodness sakes) you’re probably unaware that Overture (Yahoo’s company for adding paid search) has a little tool that tells you how many times a certain terms/words were searched for on Yahoo for a close-in-proximity previous month. (If you click on that little tool link, please note it takes a LONG time to appear and do searches.)

So according to this tool, how many of you ARE looking for chocolate?

Searches for Chocolate over the Past 3 Years
There’s also a nifty little tool put out by Google that tells you about search trends. The tool displays a graph showing the trends over the last 3 years of how many people have been searching for a particular subject, and then reflects the high points in the graph with major news articles that could respond to those spikes (or cause them – such as “spinach” was recently searched a lot because of the ecoli scare). Down below the graph, it tells you who’s doing the most searches on those subjects (by cities, regions or languages). (Round the page down to just one country using the pull-down in the upper right hand portion of the page)

So who else is looking for chocolate?

Top 10 Cities Searching for Chocolate
1. Auckland, New Zealand
2. Melbourne, Australia
3. New York, NY, USA
4. San Francisco, CA, USA
5. Portland, OR, USA
6. Denver, CO, USA
7. Philadelphia, PA, USA
8. Chicago, IL, USA
9. Seattle, WA, USA
10. Boston, MA, USA

I also noticed an interesting trend of chocolate peaks in mid-summer as well as around the holidays. So, did you find my page because YOU’RE thinking about chocolate? Just as a side note, you can enter multiple terms into Google Trends and compare them over time. For example Chocolate and Candy – it’s interesting how many of the spikes in the search numbers overtime are similar.

My Ratings:

Review Summary:
The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is a publicly-traded franchised company with locations all over the world. (There are 7 in Utah from St. George to Salt Lake City) They have good chocolates, hand-dipped caramel apples, and a friendly atmosphere. The Park City RMCF is located in the historic downtown area in front of Dolly’s Bookstore, with tables for fudge making, and a big kettle for melting caramel in the front window. Stop by when you’re walking Main and pick up a treat – I recommend the caramel apple with almonds – they’ll cut it for you to share.

My Visit:
I’ve been to at least a half dozen Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory locations in the past few months – in the Denver Airport, near Pikes Place in Seattle, in the Provo Riverbottoms (Utah), in historic Trolley Square Salt Lake City, and in downtown Park City. Each have their stamp of familiar franchisee posters and menus, but my favorite has got to be Park City. I don’t remember exactly when the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory moved into the front of Dolly’s Bookstore, but I do remember before it was there (I remember cats use to wander the bookstore).

My least favorite is the RMCF in Trolley Square – last time I was there, it was dirty, the display cases were covered in greasy fingerprints and the store looked unorganized and the chocolates unappetizing. When I visited the Provo Riverbottoms franchise location last month, it was clean and tidy inside, but the black covers on the windows from the outside made me pause at the front door thinking it was either NOT the front door, or this location had been closed (the Provo Riverbottoms loses lots of businesses – even the franchises).

Since I had some almond-covered toffee from the Park City location for breakfast, I thought I’d write up a quick review. Typically there is a line out the door to Main Street of tourists buying chocolates and caramel-covered apples, even in the winter months, and yet I always make it a “must stop” for a treat when I’m in Park City. This time was no different, but no caramel-covered apple (shock!). I was just in town for the day with a friend to attend the annual ski swap at the high school. I got some English toffee and a peanut butter cup. Since they weigh everything by the pound, these are probably some of the most expensive things you can buy (for one of each, it was $7.00 total).

One of the nice things about the RMCF, is the are a chain. Like the McDonalds of the chocolate world, you almost guaranteed to count on one location having the same tasty chocolates as the next. Another neat thing is the fact that they do caramel apples – tons of them. Carmel apples were always so difficult to eat, and hard on the teeth – but with a quick cut in the store, peeling off bite-size pieces with friends is a treat. The sweet caramel offsetting the tart granny-smith apple. Yum! Another nice element to their store, is they’ve moved a kettle and food prep area out into the retail location, and daily put on shows of sweet treats being created.

Ideas for Tweet Sweet: Seeing the chocolates being created is fun for children and adults – is there something that could be produced out front that would draw in customers? Or just like restaurants that wok food at your table – is there a type of dessert that could be partially prepared at your table?

I ran across this picture on flickr while doing a search for dessert (I always find amazing pictures of desserts and dessert tastings from other countries and big cities). It reminded me of a cake my sister made for her daughter’s birthday. Barbie had been stripped of clothing, poked into the center of a dome-carved layer cake, and then decorated to look like she was wearing a big poofy dress made of frosting. It’s a rather cute idea – since my niece got a cake, and then a Barbie to boot. The closest I had as a kid was a Hot Wheel driving across my cake (which I loved BTW). In one case I found on Flickr, it didn’t seem to work out too well on a boy’s cake.

I’m told this is called a “Princess Cake” – and here’s an example of one.

When my sister was ready to cut my niece’s cake, and the photos had been taken to preserve its memory, she carefully slipped the frosting-clad Barbie out from the middle (now half exposed, since the bottom half of her dress was the cake) and then flung her around the room and asked “who wants to lick Barbie?” We all started laughing, and my sister turned bright red with embarrassment, having just realized what a silly question this was (noting the fact it was only frosting covering her upper body).

You’ll find Glazies in side a large building called “The Corner” which includes a Hogi Yogi and a Teriyaki Stix. This building was built in 2003 where an old Winchells stood. (Nice to see they replaced a donut place with another one, isn’t it?) Parking here is pretty tricky, and tight.

Glazies Donuts (in Orem)
“Parkway Crossing” (Just west of the University Parkway exit, enter off Geneva Road)
1270 W. 1130 S.
Orem, UT 84058
Google Map
(801) 789-3765

You’ll find this Glazies included in a student housing complex called Parkway Crossing. The development is only a couple years old and viewable from the freeway. Turn right on Geneva just past the Chevron, and then take your next right into the complex. Glazies is on the South Side.