The world's next Coca-Cola or Starbucks is more likely to emerge from Asia, the Middle East or South America They comprise Juan Valdez Café, a Colombian coffee chain; Almarai, a Saudi dairy and fruit-juice company based in Riyadh; Patchi, a Lebanese boutique chocolate chain; ChangYu, China's biggest wine producer; and United Spirits, India's largest liquor group, which owns Scotch whisky Whyte and Mackay.
posted by nam3d on Jul 20, 2009 - 35 comments

Ice cream sundaes are good, but what if you could eat the bowl? On a suggestion from his son, Michael Ruhlman, food writer and critic, figures out how to make a chocolate chip cookie ice cream bowl... and tells you how to do it too.
posted by SansPoint on Jun 18, 2009 - 62 comments

Q: You like chocolate? You are a person who likes the chocolate finger that we are currently testing?
A: Yes! I am! I like chocolate!
Q: You like chocolate! In fact, you are a person who likes chocolate as much as a company likes money!
A: YES I LIKE CHOCOLATE AS IF IT WERE MY PROFESSION!! TELL ME MORE ABOUT IT!
Q: YOU ENJOY THIS FLING YOU SEXY CONSUMER. [more inside]
posted by Brandon Blatcher on May 17, 2009 - 90 comments

Are you entertaining guests for Easter dinner? Don't forget the dessert. Here are the 50 Best Dessert Recipes. Chocolate lovers in your family? No problem. The 50 Best Chocolate Desserts. Maybe you're partial to cake. Okay, Mom's Best Cake Recipes. Here's to yum.
posted by netbros on Apr 6, 2009 - 17 comments

According to legend, Einstein was eating chocolate when he came upon the theory of relativity. These sites are all about chocolate and candy in general. Chocolate Obsession. Hyperbole? Maybe. Just a little. Ok, a lot. Chocolate does have a lot to offer, though. It is a one of a kind food characterized by a truly unique and intense flavor. The idea of Jim's Chocolate Mission came after a discussion with friends about the greatest chocolate bar. Was is the Wispa? Galaxy? Clark? The Chocolate Review is most likely to review English chocolate because that's where they're from, but they also do imports. [more inside]
posted by netbros on Feb 8, 2009 - 39 comments

Grace Jones in chocolate. That isn’t a clever illustration of an assembly line of Grace Jones heads on the cover of her new album, Hurricane. Those are real chocolate Grace Jones heads made from 16 moulds of her head and body.
posted by joeclark on Dec 10, 2008 - 93 comments

It's a bickie, not a cookie. Named after the winner of the 1958 Kentucky Derby, it's Australia's equivalent to the iconic Oreo. How do they make them? How do you eat them? Tim Tams! They almost make up for the Vegemite.
posted by ninazer0 on Nov 23, 2008 - 73 comments

Carolina Chocolate Drops rock the piedmont. [more inside]
posted by chuckdarwin on Nov 20, 2008 - 23 comments

What happens when a former NASA software engineer and a co-founder of Wired magazine decide to start up a chocolate company? TCHO Ventures is trying to make single-bean varietal chocolate varieties that best express the component flavors of chocolate, which they've identified as "chocolate", "nutty", "fruity", "floral", "earthy", and "citrus". To test this concept, they've been "beta-testing" their chocolate in plain brown wrappers, and collecting feedback. The result is good chocolate, with just a hint of viral marketing.
posted by kaszeta on Oct 2, 2008 - 26 comments

A brief history of chocolate slavery: That Chocolate is an oligopoly might surprise a few people. Chocolate's Bittersweet Economy (pdf) shows that seven years after the industry had agreed to abolish child labour, little progress has been made. Cross-border Migration of Working Children has still been left out of Harkin-Engel Cocoa Protocol Process. Bitter Chocolate Reflects on the politics of cocoa and chocolate. With Halloween approaching you might consider a Fair Trade approach to Trick or Treat. (If Chocolate slavery doesn't make you throw up a little maybe this will.)
posted by adamvasco on Oct 1, 2008 - 26 comments

Sold all over the world but banned in the US in 1997 under a law passed in 1938. Kinder Surprise are now under attack in Germany. No magicodes for you!
posted by tellurian on Aug 9, 2008 - 54 comments

Identify the candy bar by its cross-section.
posted by mr_crash_davis on Jun 27, 2008 - 80 comments

Steve Gisselbrecht writes about his experiments taking chocolate from beans to bars at home. [more inside]
posted by rmd1023 on Apr 28, 2008 - 17 comments

Smartie Art by Prudence Emma Straite; who previously has made works of Dali (and whole rooms) from chocolate and the Pope (and the Coliseum) from pizza. (Radio 4 doc - real audio) (PS. The blue Smartie is back)
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Apr 16, 2008 - 12 comments

Lupercalia is a festival that probably pre-dates Rome, and which later became known as St. Valentine's day. It had everything; sacrifice, cake, nudity, spanking and a love lottery. What do we get? A card. If we are lucky. But, who was Valentine? Did Chaucer make the whole thing up? [more inside]
posted by asok on Feb 14, 2008 - 27 comments

An entertaining stop-motion animation from an AdHack (a DIY-ad startup) user. The audio is slightly unsafe for work, and it gets a bit weird and, uh, extra-chocolatey near the end, but it's certainly worth 30 seconds out of your Valentine's Day.
posted by dbarefoot on Feb 14, 2008 - 15 comments

Last minute valentine idea: Chocolate Ganache Truffles. "You'd have to go a long way to screw it up." (video, expect an interstitial)
posted by rouftop on Feb 13, 2008 - 19 comments

It's an advert for chocolate. It's a man in a gorilla suit drumming to a track by Philip Collins Ltd. It's been very popular. It's won awards. It's been spoofed. And it's been mashed-up... some bad (Metalica (sic), ACDC, Guns and Roses), some good (Bonnie Tyler, Subsource, A Skillz, Bon Jovi, Deep Purple, Nirvana) and some utterly sublime ('Enders, Bodyrockers, Cameo). But great adverts don't always equal great sales. Bonus: Monkey Drummer. (Previously)
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Dec 23, 2007 - 38 comments

Chocolate Bunny. From artist Sander Plug.
posted by GuyZero on Nov 27, 2007 - 23 comments

Chocolate and the Beer of the Ancients. New archaeological evidence suggests that primitive beer brewers were the first to discover the goodness of chocolate.
posted by amyms on Nov 20, 2007 - 21 comments

Make your own Halloween candy bars. The take on a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup is superb. However, to temper chocolate properly, you'll need an accurate kitchen scale. The behind-the-scenes video is pretty cool.
posted by AceRock on Oct 24, 2007 - 28 comments

Chocolate Rain. From Bach to Tupac, you can always expect the unexpected from Tay Zonday. Mr. Zonday has experienced some fame as of late, thanks to shock jocks Opie & Anthony. Tay is quite the original artist and is, shockingly, unsigned. So, if you know any A&R guys that are looking for new talent, please let them know! My personal favorite is his karaoke cover of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up". Although, the Darth Vader remix of Chocolate Rain is pretty friggin' sweet, too.
posted by digiFramph on Jul 27, 2007 - 58 comments

Carbonite Chocolate Han Goodness
posted by Stynxno on May 14, 2007 - 34 comments

Europeans love to bash American chocolate - especially Hershey's - almost as much as the like to bash, erm, America in general (apparently, it tastes like doggie treats). Recently, Big Chocolate have asked the FDA if they can stop using real cocoa butter in the chocolate-making process, which can only make it taste even worse. I often wonder how many so-called chocoholics know that most of the chocolate they eat was probably picked by slave labour in West Africa. Child slaves, even. Meh, they probably don't care: research indicates that chocolate is 'four times better than kissing'. Never trust a junkie.
posted by chuckdarwin on Apr 23, 2007 - 128 comments

The art of sugar: flowers, lace, birds, sculpture, cubes, gardens, construction site, houses, paintings, underwear. In Britain. In Mexico sugar skulls are created to celebrate the Day of the Dead. Amezaiku is a Japanese candy craft and wagashi the art of Japanese confection.
posted by nickyskye on Mar 11, 2007 - 14 comments

MacRobertson's Confectionery were, in the 1930s, trialling new ideas for their children's range. An employee suggested that as "women and children were afraid of mice," rather than a chocolate mouse, a chocolate frog would be more popular with children. Three days later, what would become Australia's most popular children's confectionery, the Freddo Frog, was born. Its supposed creator, Harry Melbourne, died last week, having never received a cent in royalties. However, to this day there remains confusion as to whether he, or rather the inventor of the Cherry Ripe, Lesley Atkison, was in fact responsible. Those that only know him in chocolate form may be surprised to find out that Freddo was also the star of Australia's first cartoon.
posted by Mil on Jan 29, 2007 - 22 comments

One of the world's most expensive chocolates expertly debunked. (For maximum awesome, read all 10 parts)
posted by hindmost on Dec 20, 2006 - 204 comments

Some folks really like it sweet. Some will start a six-year campaign to get it. Some blame Canada and France for not getting it, when it was perhaps better to blame the Swiss. Some want it healthy while others want the romance back. Some make it part of higher education, while others just want to get higher. Even vegans want in on the gooey action.
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Aug 30, 2006 - 20 comments

Worker falls into chocolate vat. His quick-thinking co-workers understand the chemistry of of confection.
posted by Kibbutz on Aug 18, 2006 - 40 comments

The Sweet Lure of Chocolate
posted by Gyan on Nov 1, 2005 - 16 comments

You can't POSSIBLY be serious. The fact that modern breakfast foods (or at least, foods normally associated with breakfast) have expanded to include items such as cereals whose marshmallow content threatens to outweigh the actual nutritious content, slightly more nutritious items covered in frosting, and of course, the wide variety of chocolate flavored items, cereals, milk, muffins, and so on. But that's just breakfast. Now, however, we're getting into personal hygiene. And that may just be Snakes On A Plane dangerous.
posted by deusdiabolus on Oct 9, 2005 - 33 comments

"For every Deep Roy, there are a hundred and fifty of us who are forced to do wacked-out shit on 'The Man Show.' I'd like Tim Burton to tell me to my face what is the benefit of hiring one dwarf actor and computer-generating him when he could hire seven. We're standing at the gate and we're raising our hands and saying, 'Pick me!' And then Tim Burton comes out and says, 'I'm sorry, guys, go on home. We've got this machine that can do all your jobs.'"
posted by JPowers on Jul 27, 2005 - 43 comments

Eat your favorite deity, the way to your heart (and soul) is through your stomach. Buddha, Ganesh, or even chocolate Jesus. These would even make for a nice dessert after supper. Tom Waits would be proud.
posted by Arch Stanton on Mar 14, 2005 - 12 comments

Save the Bunnies! Every year, thousands of "pet" rabbits are purchased as Easter gifts, usually for kids, without much thought to the years of care which the animals will need. Within months, humane societies and pet shelters are flooded with the animals, many of which must be euthanized, as there simply aren't enough adopters to give them new homes. In response, the Columbus House Rabbit Society encourages everyone to eschew pet rabbit gifts and say Make Mine Chocolate!^TM instead. And since no campaign is worthwhile these days without a symbolic lapel pin, you can wear a chocolate bunny to spread the message.
posted by Dreama on Feb 17, 2005 - 30 comments

Consumer Reports for Kids publishes the results of The Great Halloween Candy Report. Be sure to take the Candy Bar test: A bit childish, but oh such chocolatey fun.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy on Oct 24, 2004 - 4 comments

Chocolate Roulette! Finally, a choice for those of us who want the danger of Russian Roulette but not the mess of a bullet in the brain. Of course, if you're watching your calories, there's hope just a click away.
posted by robocop is bleeding on Aug 13, 2004 - 9 comments

Federal marshmallow-mixup bust.... "a teacher's aide who forgot to put away her marshmallows and hot chocolate at Yellowstone National Park last year was taken from her cruise ship cabin in handcuffs...."
posted by troutfishing on Jun 23, 2004 - 29 comments

Welcome to tropical Ivory Coast, the small African nation that is home of almost half of the world's cocoa exports! Visit the sandy beaches! Get kidnapped and disappeared by government officials!
posted by chunking express on Jun 23, 2004 - 10 comments

Chocolate dipped pork fat is now on the menu in one of the Ukraine's trendiest restaurants. Because regular pork fat isn't chocolately enough.
posted by jonson on Jun 22, 2004 - 35 comments

Principe: island of chocolate. [more about Sao Tome and Principe: 1,2,3]
posted by moonbird on Jun 19, 2004 - 5 comments

"Rabbit Test" chocolate bunnies ranked- and I do mean rank.Now you'll know what NOT to bite the ears off of...
posted by konolia on Mar 6, 2003 - 17 comments

Bittersweet chocolate. "Of the $1.1 billion in boxed chocolates that Americans are expected to buy on Valentine's Day, very little will be untainted by the scourge of child labor. Although some who buy those bonbons will do so without knowing the sinister history of their purchases, others, like the chocolate makers, will have known for at least two years, if not longer, that cocoa beans imported from the Ivory Coast -- used to make nearly half the chocolate consumed in this country -- are harvested in large part by children, some as young as 9, and many of whom are considered slaves, trafficked from desperately poor countries like Mali and Burkina Faso."
posted by homunculus on Feb 13, 2003 - 36 comments

"Eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness." Can John Ashcroft find salvation in a recipe for chocolate brownies? Hey, every little bit helps.
posted by PrinceValium on Dec 16, 2002 - 5 comments

Chocolate french fries? I thought Heinz might have gone too far with green ketchup, but Cocoa Crispers, "brown chocolate fries designed for kids with a sweet tooth" really make my stomach turn. Also announced: Crunchy Rings - basically Tater Tots with a hole in the middle. Yum.
posted by ry on Feb 11, 2002 - 38 comments

Kobe Bryant's favorite spread. *Insert joke here* After a long, exhausting day of running drills in practice and shooting free throws, nothing spells refreshment quite like N-U-T-E-L-L-A. Maybe Cookie Dough Sport wasn't so far off the mark. Plus, the rest of the page is truly frightening.
posted by machaus on Dec 2, 2001 - 15 comments

Who needs money, chocolate or cocaine when you've got women?
posted by yevge on Nov 11, 2001 - 33 comments

Your chocolate bar contains beans picked by child slaves. From the Philadelphia Inquirer. Part of an excellent report into the Ivory Coast cocoa trade. Awful stuff, especially for a corporation like Hershey Foods, which exists for the benefit of a school for disadvantaged children. Apparently boycotts won't help. If we shouldn't boycott, can't take direct action, what can we do? (Via TurksHeadReview.)
posted by ftrain on Jun 25, 2001 - 26 comments

Never mind that Dihydrogen Monoxide stuff, here's the latest eco-horror.... A landfill supervisor urges that this theobromine laced substance not be placed in regular landfills because of the toll it takes on animals. Yet it can be freely bought by children.....
posted by BGM on Jun 22, 2001 - 7 comments

News of the Wonka remake. I think Nick Cage would suck as Wonka, but Dustin Hoffman...that's interesting.
posted by veruca on Mar 31, 2000 - 6 comments