Lindt Chocolate RSVP

Lindt & Sprungli, the world's leading producer of premium chocolate, today announces the introduction of Lindt Chocolate R.S.V.P., a new direct sales program for Lindt USA.  The new venture provides chocolate lovers with the chance to become entrepreneurial, independent Lindt Chocolate R.S.V.P. Consultants, and to host in-home chocolate tasting parties.  In addition, the program allows Lindt to showcase and sample its wide variety of premium chocolate, including exclusive Lindt Chocolate R.S.V.P. specialties, to new consumers across the country.

Not only can Lindt Chocolate R.S.V.P. Consultants take pride in selling the world's most premium chocolate, the program also features a compelling commission structure and enticing host rewards.  Consultants are given the tools they need to create a fun and rewarding chocolate business including training programs, expert coaching, a personal website that aids in generating successful sales results, and an invitation to the annual Lindt Chocolate R.S.V.P national sales conference.  

"The Lindt Chocolate R.S.V.P. business venture is a great opportunity for Lindt to share our premium chocolate with an extended audience," said Thomas Linemayr, chief executive officer and president of Lindt USA.  "We are excited to provide chocolate lovers with the opportunity to indulge in an unmatched chocolate experience."

At a Lindt Chocolate R.S.V.P. party, Consultants introduce guests to the exceptional quality of Lindt's products in a comfortable, private setting.  Consultants and hosts choose from a variety of party formats, including wine and chocolate pairings, chocolate fondue, or dessert creation.  Each party centers on a Consultant-led "Five Senses of Chocolate" tasting, engaging guests' senses to fully experience all that premium chocolate has to offer.  

From the iconic smooth melting Lindor Truffles to expertly-crafted Excellence bars, all Lindt chocolate offerings are made with the finest ingredients and most sophisticated refinement.  In addition to these classic Lindt offerings, exclusive products are available at Lindt Chocolate R.S.V.P. parties.  For more information on Lindt Chocolate R.S.V.P., how to become a Consultant or to host a party, visit www.lindtchocolatersvp.com.  

About Lindt Chocolate R.S.V.P.

Introduced in 2011, Lindt Chocolate R.S.V.P. is the premium chocolate direct sales program of Lindt USA.  The business provides consumers with the opportunity to become independent Lindt Chocolate R.S.V.P. Consultants or to host chocolate parties, using Lindt's premium chocolate offerings.  For more information on Lindt Chocolate R.S.V.P., how to become a Consultant, or host a party, visit www.lindtchocolatersvp.com. 

Chocolate fried pickles

People love snacks that are sweet. And sour. And crunchy. And salty.

Chocolate-covered pickles! Hello?

The carnival midway at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is famous for introducing wonderfully bizarre "carny food" like fried Twinkies, fried Beer, fried Coke, fried butter and, well, fried anything.

The truth is, while fried this and fried that are good for laughs — whoa, almost forgot fried Snickers — dining along the carnival midway is awfully great for what it is. If you like turkey legs, the rodeo has the biggest, most delicious turkey legs. Corn dogs? The corniest. Hot dogs? Half-pounders that can't be beat.

But chocolate-covered pickles? That took some extra-hard thinking.

Unlike New York Stock Exchange burger chains, which spend years and millions of dollars creating, test-marketing and introducing a new "secret sauce," things move fast on the carnival midway.

Last month, Mike Ousie was preparing his Pennsylvania Dutch Funnel Cake booths for the rodeo. His funnel cakes are famous on the state fair circuit. You really have to eat them hot from his cast-iron frying pans with powdered sugar or chocolate frosting on top.

A few years ago, Ousie began selling chocolate-covered strawberries. And he's always sold big juicy pickles.

"My daughter Kate said, 'Why don't you make chocolate-covered pickles?' It sounded strange to me at first, too. But I thought, you know, she might be on to something," Ousie said.

"I wanted to add something different that would get us some attention. Chocolate-covered pickles would certainly do that. Once I started playing around with the concept, things moved pretty quick," Ousie said.

They're $4.75.

Ousie first tried traditional chocolate coating, like a chocolate-dipped cone at Dairy Queen. He didn't like the waxy texture. He also wanted a richer, "more chocolaty" flavor. So he went to Sam's Club and bought some Ghirardelli chocolate bark. He melted the chocolate in a double boiler and dipped a giant dill pickle. He waited to see if the chocolate hardened properly and stuck to the pickle.

It did, but Ousie didn't think the chocolate flavor was right — not "chocolaty enough." So he tossed a few handfuls of Nestlé Toll House chocolate chips into the double boiler with the Ghirardelli chocolate bark. Perfect.

Then came an unexpected problem. Ousie was having trouble finding the right size pickles, and enough of them, for the huge crowds expected at the rodeo. He eventually ordered a truckload of dill pickles from the Cajun Chef company in St. Martinville, La. They arrived just in time for the rodeo's opening day.

Ousie makes his chocolate-covered pickles fresh each morning. He starts with cold pickles, so the chocolate hardens fast. Ousie rolls each chocolate-covered pickle in candy sprinkles or adds a swirl of white chocolate on top.

The chocolate shell is crunchy and brittle, and it crumbles in your mouth when you bite into the pickle. Ask for an extra napkin — these pickles are juicy and squirty.

Chocolate-covered pickles have become a surprisingly good seller for Ousie. His best customers are women. "And not pregnant women, either."

"When people bite into one, they get a surprised look on their face. It's like, 'Wow! That wasn't what I expected!' I think I've got a nice little product on my hands," Ousie said.

St. Patrick's Special Edition Chocolates

American artisan chocolates don't get any better. If you have not tried this New England company's hand-made truffles, bonbons and baked goods, you are missing out.

First, their presentation is unlike anything you have ever seen: Gorgeous wooden boxes wrapped in beautiful wired iridescent ribbon, filled with the perfect sized hand-cut (no molds are used) chocolates in the USA.

Bold statement, I know, but I have eaten chocolates in every state and I challenge anyone out there to best Burdick's offerings.

The Company is headed by founder Larry Burdick, his wife Paula Burdick, and Chocolate and Pastry Chef Michael Klug of Montabaur, Germany.

Larry hails from Boston, Massachusetts and learned his candy making craft in the late 1970s in France, and then the mid-1980s in Switzerland.

Coming back to the US, Larry established L.A. Burdick Chocolate in New York City in 1987, and the success of his door in the big city led him and his family back home to New England, setting up shop in Walpole, New Hampshire.

Together they have built a mini chocolate empire that reaches far away to Grenada, where Larry and his wife have partnered with local farmers to help them build wealth while Burdick's ensures the quality of their cacao product. 

Burdick's creates inspired collections for every holiday that comes. What goes with coffee in Ireland? The smokey, complex notes of premium Irish Whiskey, and they have infused the these flavors in their chocolate for a touch of Irish whimsy.  

The special St. Patrick's assortment includes Burdick's own "Caife Gaelach" - gourmet Irish Coffee bonbons made with dark chocolate, coffee, cream and Irish Whiskey, coated in white and dark chocolate resembling an Irish Coffee drink.

Godiva Chocolate outlets being refurbished

The first of the Godiva retailers to feature the d-ash design concept recently opened in Istanbul's Nisanti district. Godiva and d-ash design are continuing their collaboration with newly completed stores in Amerkez, Turkey; Xintiandi, Shanghai; Shanghai's Pudong region; and in an IFC mall in Hong Kong. Stateside locations will open in Atlanta in Spring 2011 and in New York City in Summer 2011.

The d-ash design team (led by David Ashen) partnered with Linda Lombardi, Godiva's Vice President of Global Store Design & Visual Merchandising, to create the new concepts, which brings a more luxurious, immersive retail environment to the company's worldwide operations. Together, Lombardi and Ashen have fashioned a glittering aesthetic that pays tribute to Godvia's venerable Belgian heritage while presenting a fresh face to the world, with clean, modern interiors where as Ashen puts it "chocolate is the star."

Each flagship has its own personality and amenities, including a Godiva cafe that provides guests with an elegant and stylish place to have a cup of cocoa, an interactive 360-degree "Chocolate Island," and a two-storey vertical vitrine in place of the traditional chocolate display case. The interiors highlight a palette of dark browns and bright creams, rendered in an array of rich materials, and the exterior features beautiful Art Nouveau-inflected bronze gates framing the Lady Godiva logo.

"Our objective was to make the consumer feel totally surrounded, in a sense, not just by chocolate itself but by all the emotions that chocolate conjures-pleasure, indulgence, comfort," said Ashen. "Everywhere you turn there's a different way to enjoy Godiva, a different type of chocolate encounter."

The redesign gives new life to one of the biggest brand names in the chocolate industry, with d-ash design bringing a touch of 21st century glamour to chocolate lovers everywhere-just in time for Godiva's 85th anniversary.

Nicole Scherzinger: I love chocolate, cakes and pies

Nicole Scherzinger is a girl who bakes. Nicole Scherzinger loves to cook naughty treats at home.

The star admits she's 11lb heavier than in her Pussycat Doll days, when her toned stomach and perfect pins shot her to stardom.

'I love my pasta, my chocolate - I cook when I can,' says Nicole, 32, who's still a UK size 8.

'I love making down-home Southern cooking, and just chilling out and having cakes and pies and baking stuff, you know. I'm a pretty simple girl.'

Nicole, who hopes to become Mrs Lewis Hamilton soon, doesn't make working out her priority these days.

'For a couple of years, at the end of the Dolls, fitness was my life. I'm a lot more relaxed now,' she tells You magazine.

'I have been trying to be a little easier on myself.'

Let Chocolate Be Your Great Escape

A small moment of edible pleasure can keep you going for the rest of the day.  Each week Hazelwood Patch provides those deserving people who need some way to get away, with ideas for quick getaways.

Well, as the editor of this site, I work crazy hours. Some days it feels like all I do is work. Well on Monday while working in my office, a Ghirardelli commercial came on.

Now I'm not one to see something on television and want it, really, I'm not. But the commercial showed a rich piece of milk chocolate with creamy caramel in the center. In a moment, it was like the commercial voice and the voice in my head said the same thing at the same time. Why can't Ghirardelli be a little escape from the complexities of the world?

It's that simple. So many people take pleasure in a small square, and for those trying to lose weight as I am, one square is all you need for a little satisfaction. So that's this week's "Great Escape." Let chocolate take you away.

If you don't care for chocolate, the escape doesn't end there. There are tons of great foods that can give you that small moment of pleasure. Just remember, this is one truly  sweet way to spend some quality time with yourself.

Enjoy.

Chocolate University students eat their homework

Facts about chocolate:

* Chocolate is made from the fruit of the cacao tree. Cacao pods contain nibs that are crushed to make unsweetened chocolate.

* The scientific name of the cacao tree, Theobroma, means “food of the gods.”

* When the cacao nibs are crushed, there are fats and solids remaining. The fats are called cocoa butter. The solids are ground into cocoa powder.

* There are 40-50 million people who depend on cocoa for their livelihood.

* Chocolate bars may have “% Cacao” or “% Cocoa” printed on the label. This percentage refers to the total content of the cacao (or cocoa) solids.

* White chocolate does not contain cocoa solids but can be called chocolate by U.S. FDA standards. It must contain cocoa butter.

* More than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate are sold every year for Valentine's Day.

* James Baker started America's first chocolate company in Dorchester, Mass., in 1765, based on the advice of John Hannon, a penniless Irish immigrant.

* Organic chocolate is made from ingredients, including the cacao bean, that are grown without the use of synthetic pesticides or genetic modifications. In the US, the USDA must inspect a farm before its products can be labeled organic.

* It has been reported that Napoleon carried chocolate with him on his military campaigns, and ate it when he needed quick energy.

* In countries like Ghana and Ivory Coast, people rarely eat chocolate because it is worth more to them as a trade product than as a food.

* Cacao is dried in the sun for about seven days before shipped from the country of origin to the chocolate manufacturer.

* The largest cacao producing countries are Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Indonesia.

* Fermentation is an important step in the transformation of cacao beans to chocolate.

* The seed pods of the cacao tree grow directly off the trunk, not on the ends of the branches.

* Each cacao pod is about the size of a pineapple and holds 30 to 50 seeds. It takes between 400-500 seeds to make one pound of chocolate.

Source: www.chocolateuniversityonline.com

“My husband ate my homework.”

There probably aren't too many situations where such an excuse would be acceptable. But Sue Kirk, a recent graduate of Chocolate University Online (CUO), frequently resorted to it.

Kirk also unabashedly admitted to eating plenty of her own homework as well. As a Chocolate University student, she was encouraged to sample her lab lessons.

Sue, a part-time Yuma resident from Kimberly, Wis., and her friend, Karen Jarocki, a music teacher at Yuma Lutheran School, can be considered chocolate experts after completing the CUO course for chocolate lovers.

They can now impress their friends with all sorts of interesting chocolate facts, such as explaining the difference between semisweet and bittersweet chocolate. They can speak in chocolate lingo, exactly understanding what the chocolate ingredient “lecithin” is.

They can explain how the percentage of cocoa affects taste and what “single source” and “organic” chocolate mean. Ever wonder what the difference is between milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate? They can tell you.

And they can also share some historical facts such as that the Indians of the ancient Americas used chocolate, which is one of the oldest foods, as currency. They considered it “food from the gods.”

“You can talk like an expert,” Sue admitted, adding with a chuckle, “if you can remember.”

When Sue does remember, she definitely makes her daughter-in-law proud. Bryn Kirk, who is married to Sue's son, Jeff, is the CUO course facilitator. Bryn recently met with her two Yuma students during a visit from Waukesha, Wis.

“She has a very developed taste. She could take a bite and tell you how much spice there is, how much cocoa it has, which country it comes from,” Sue said.

Bryn is a true chocolate expert, having worked for nearly a decade in research and development at a chocolate company in Milwaukee. She developed formulas for such companies as Pillsbury, Nabisco, Mrs. Fields and Quaker Oats. She also ran taste test panels for new products developed in the laboratory.

She left the chocolate corporate world “to do other things, but my passion for chocolate remained.” Having worked in research and development, “my scientific side was lacking chocolate stimulation.” To satisfy that void, she ran chocolate educational seminars as well as chocolate- and wine-tasting seminars at corporate events and “fun parties” in private homes.

In addition, Bryn taught, and still does from time to time, as an adjunct biology laboratory instructor at Carroll College in Waukesha.

However, “I wanted to share that passion with more people without impacting their schedules,” explained Bryn, a mother of two teenagers.

So Bryn and Jeff, whom she calls the university's “Chancellor of Chocolate,” developed the online lessons, which are also now available in audio and video lessons. They offer two courses: one for chocolate lovers and another for the business professional.

“It doesn't matter whether you're in the food industry, own a candy store, are an aspiring chocolatier, love chocolate in secret, or just want to have fun,” states their website, www.chocolateuniversityonline.com.

CUO has students from coast to coast in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa. “We're just waiting for a student in Antarctica to complete the collection of continents,” Bryn joked.

She noted that they are surprised to have students from countries where chocolate historically hasn't been well known, such as the Middle East and India. Students in those places plan to open up chocolate stores, a growing market in their regions.

The school has attracted just as many men as women, who are more traditionally chocolate lovers than men. However, most of the men who have enrolled have done it for business reasons.

“For men it's been more of a business approach. Women usually just want to learn more about it,” Bryn said.

In the U.S., Arizona tops the list of states with the most students. The Kirks believe CUO is the only online school of its kind.

Students can learn at their own pace, receiving a weekly lesson for 40 weeks, or go for “maximum learning” with five lessons a week plus audio lectures and personal coaching. The cost is $19.95 a month. Graduates receive a diploma and certificate of completion.

Although the course includes some basic science, Karen insists that the “course is not so technical that people who aren't scientific can't understand it.”

The course includes plenty of lab lessons allowing students to make, taste and use chocolate. A lab lesson might call for dipping pretzels or dried pineapple in chocolate dip and evaluating the experiment. This is where students are encouraged to eat their homework. And they usually don't have trouble recruiting volunteers to help them.

The recipes were Karen's favorite part. Bryn explained that recipes are a bonus at the end of each lesson, not the focus. But the recipes have proved so popular, she is compiling them into a book.

Sue said her favorite part was getting to taste different chocolate treats. One lesson required completing a chocolate comparison sheet similar to a sports playoff bracket.

“I learned there is a difference in chocolate brands and flavors. Now I know what's good. My taste has come a long way.”

For more information on Chocolate University Online, go to www.ChocolateUniversityOnline.com.

Mara Knaub can be reached at mknaub@yumasun.com or 539-6856.

***

Optional homework

assignment

Chocolate Krazy Cake

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/3 cup cocoa

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tbsp vinegar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 cups water

Directions:

Mix dry ingredients together in a 9x13” cake pan. Stir until well blended.

Using a spoon, or even your fist, make 3 indentations in the mix. Put the oil in one “well,” the vinegar in another and the vanilla in the third. Pour water over everything. Mix everything together with a fork. Bake at 350°F for 35 minutes.

Chocolate Truffle Frosting

Ingredients:

1/3 cup whipping cream

4 oz. semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

1/4 cup butter, unsalted (allow to soften, but not to room temperature)

Directions:

Pour whipping cream into a small heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add the chocolate. Stir quickly until chocolate is completely melted, continue to mix until smooth. Pour mixture in a separate bowl and allow to cool to room temperature. Using an electric mixer whip on high for about 3 minutes. The mixture should thicken and lighten in color.

Put butter in a large bowl. Beat until smooth. Add 1/3 of the chocolate mixture, beating continually. Add another 1/3, continue beating. Add the final 1/3. Beat until smooth.

Source: Recipe taken from Chocolate University Online Lesson No. 39.