This edition of Full Belly Files was originally emailed to subscribers on January 26, 2024. Matt Kettman’s Food To receive his newsletter in your inbox every Friday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.
I’ve always enjoyed candy, leaning more toward fruity and tart than rich chocolate, but I don’t really discriminate. Just as often as you’ll see me indulging in Twenty Four Blackbirds’ latest truffles or Chocolate Maya’s imported exotic bars in Santa’s downtown, you’ll find me drinking Sour Skittles at some gas station. You can easily find them buying Haribo Gold Bears and the latest Haribo Gold Bears flavors. Barbara.
As a child, candy was a special treat that was easily available around holidays like Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and especially Easter. Back then, as a cousin of many, I always carried the most plastic eggs to my uncle and aunt’s house. A farm on the outskirts of Yuba City. Besides holidays, Candy usually appeared on sporadic occasions such as going to the movies or an amusement park. And I’ll never forget the summer weeks I spent at Capitola Beach. There, I went to the chocolate bar as often as I would walk two blocks on my sandy, bruised toes. As far as I can remember, it hasn’t been a ubiquitous part of life, other than a few M&Ms dotted here and there on a normal weeknight.
When I was in college and early in my career, I ate less sweets, but back then alcohol must have helped soothe the carb itch. But once my kids were born, my candy consumption accelerated even further, and the births of my kids in 2009 and 2012 seemed to coincide with the recent boom in American candy culture. By the time they were in elementary school, candy had permeated every aspect of our lives, and gummy bears and anything sour were part of the nighttime scene. Even in middle school and high school, this trend continues despite the growing threat of candy-induced acne. (I don’t know if that’s true.)
I’m not the first to notice this increase and wonder what’s going on. Back in 2022, Megan K. Stack wrote this 2022 essay of his called “Lost in Candyland,” new york times, is based on returning to this “Candyland” with young children after spending some time abroad. Her insightful theories about the ongoing sugar rush reflect many of her personal experiences. The coronavirus pandemic has added fuel to the fire, she writes, offering a sweet and relatively safe ointment during a stressful time.
In fact, the candy industry itself has touted its connection to the coronavirus, even doubling down on continued increases in candy sales during the ensuing years of inflation and market turmoil. ing. “During this economic uncertainty, consumers are looking for small ways to bring a little sweetness into their lives and the lives of those around them,” said the article, written by the National Confectionery Association. “As transparent, reliable, and affordable sweets, chocolate and candy can meet this unique need.” In the article, chocolate and candy sales will reach $42.6 billion in 2022 and 2021. This is an 11% increase compared to 2019 and a 22% increase compared to 2019, and is expected to exceed $54 billion by 2027.
According to this report, candy purchases for Halloween alone last October reached a record high of $12.2 billion. USA Today According to the article, the market appears resilient to inflation. According to this, these records were set at a time when the price of candy was hit by his 7.5% inflation. Nerd wallet Other food items rose only 3.7%, the report said. And for those who believe in polls, this article has plenty of opinions to dig into, including why Americans eat more candy now than they did when they were kids. Here’s some more poll information from Big Candy itself.
This is not the first candy boom in the United States. In 1993, even as everyone was obsessed with the latest health fads and exercise regimens, candy sales were also skyrocketing. “According to statistics released last week by the National Confectioners Association, candy consumption in 1992 exceeded 20.5 pounds per person, a record set nearly 50 years earlier.” washington post article. “According to the association, Americans gorged on 20.6 to 20.8 pounds of candy per person last year. Measured by candy bars, all 258 million Americans eat one Snickers a day, every day of the year. That’s enough for.”
Of course, this candy craze is problematic when it comes to obesity, diabetes, and all the other American diseases that we are steadily exporting to other countries. Thankfully, my children seem to be healthy enough. So we try to keep our candy cravings to a minimum, as long as they stay within a reasonable level. We recently got rid of an incredible amount of Halloween candy that was still piling up in our pantry, some of which probably dates back to 2022 or even much older. There is a possibility. Vintage Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, anyone?
For us, “reasonable” generally refers to gummy worms, bears, and other forms of stuff we have on hand after dinner. That’s more often than I remember eating candy as a kid, but considering there’s so much candy everywhere, it’s not that extravagant. But I also know that candy comes up during school, after school, parties, and travel, when I myself tend to consume a lot of candy. We can only hope that our consistent message, “If you eat too much, you’ll get sick,” somehow sticks.
As for myself, I’ve reached an age where my metabolism starts to slow down and I’m starting to worry about longevity, and I’ve been trying to cut down on my candy intake a bit since I felt like I was eating gummy bears almost every night last year. is. I’m already aware of the pressure my body is under from diving into rich food and wine due to work, so cutting down on sweets as I get older feels like an easy trade-off. . I’m sure your dentist will approve.
But if I ask you to hand me that new flavor of Mini Starburst Sour Gummies, don’t hold back. Eating too much candy is pretty low on my list of things to worry about these days, so I’m okay with that.
Green Grape, also known as Shine Muscat Candy
To give you an idea of how sporadic this newsletter is from week to week, I wanted to write something short about a specific candy experience, so you can see how my family is part of the larger candy culture. I just wrote a long discussion earlier about what you’re dealing with.
One day, when my son and I were eating purple grape candy (probably Jolly Ranchers, but could have been Sour Skittles or some other chewy thing), I wondered why green grapes were the base. I wondered aloud if there was any candy left. I thought it was because the flavor of green grapes is similar to other green fruits like green apples, melons, and limes, so it wasn’t worth carving out that niche.
But this is a big world, so someone has to have it, right? After doing a little research, I discovered that green grape candy is also made in Asia, where candy culture is even more popular than in America.
So I headed to Choy’s Oriental Market at Hollister & Patterson. It’s also home to some of the best hot Korean food, with the owners serving up fresh Korean food made fresh in the back every day. And right next to the register, I found an assortment of green vegetables. – Grape flavored candy. I bought him two versions. One is this hard candy made by a Korean company, Haitai, and the other is this gummy made by a Japanese company, Kasugai.
There were similarities in the taste of the apple and green melon candies, and we liked them both. What’s even more interesting is how much diversity and unique flavor expressions Asian candy makers are exploring. Check out Choi’s Japanese Market, Nikka Japanese Market, or any of the Asian Markets around town and be amazed by the new twists on sweets on the shelves.
What I didn’t realize until later was that my relatively blind foray into green grape candy was actually a flavor of another trend that I was completely unaware of. That grape is Shine Muscat, which is considered a delicacy in Korea, China, and Japan.According to this, a bunch costs as much as $73 in the latter country. tasting table article. Tasting the candy again, I noticed more of the orange blossom-like Muscat flavor that I’m familiar with in wine.
I haven’t found Shine Muscat yet, but I’m currently looking for one. In the meantime, I’ll be content to just pay candy prices to taste this new fruit phenomenon.
Speak, write, speak, Paso Robles, etc.
Last week on Full Belly Files, radio show host and podcast producer Adam Montiel mentioned his participation in a 10-year vertical tasting of Daou Vineyards’ Soul of a Lion bottling. . We had hung out earlier in the day to tape his latest episode. Where wine will take you Podcast hosted and produced by Montiel for the Paso Robles Wine Country organization.
In this episode, which they called “Industry Icons Toast the Magic of Paso,” Montiel joins me, renowned wine scribe and speaker Elaine Chukan Brown, and Hawaii’s superstar sommelier Chuck. -He led lively, sometimes poignant, and thoroughly honest conversations between Furuya. We talked about Paso and much more, including the writing process and how to approach public speaking events. It was a lot of fun and I think it will be an enlightening medium for the next generation of wine writers, critics, and sommeliers.
Check here.
from our table
Here are some stories you may have missed.