Candyfreak A Journey Through The Chocolate Underbelly Of America

A self-proclaimed candy fanatic and lifelong chocoholic traces the history of some of the much-loved candies from his youth, describing the business practices and creative candy-making techniques of some of the small companies..

Perhaps you remember the whipped splendor of the Choco-Lite, or the luscious Caravelle bar, or maybe the sublime and perfectly balanced Hershey's Cookies 'n Mint. The Marathon, an inimitable rope of caramel covered in chocolate. Oompahs. Bit-O-Choc. The Kit Kat Dark. Steve Almond certainly does. In fact, he was so obsessed by the inexplicable disappearance of these bars—where'd they go?—that he embarked on a nationwide journey to uncover the truth about the candy business. There, he found an industry ruled by huge conglomerates, where the little guys, the last remaining link to the glorious boom years of the candy bar in America, struggle to survive. Visiting the candy factories that produce the Twin Bing, the Idaho Spud, the Goo Goo Cluster, the Valomilk, and a dozen other quirky bars, Almond finds that the world of candy is no longer a sweet haven. Today's precious few regional candy makers mount daily battles against corporate greed, paranoia, and that good old American compulsion: crushing the little guy. Part candy porn, part candy polemic, part social history, part confession, Candyfreak explores the role candy plays in our lives as both source of pleasure and escape from pain. By turns ecstatic, comic, and bittersweet, Candyfreak is the story of how Steve Almond grew up on candy—and how, for better and worse, candy has grown up, too..

“A deliciously informative, engaging and sweeping chronicle of one of the most popular treats in the world” (Kirkus Reviews). Chocolate explores many aspects of the much-loved cacao bean: cutting-edge genetic science; social and environmental considerations; history; and culture—providing a thought-provoking look into one of the world’s most popular foods through the centuries. It relates fun facts as well—like the story of the children who went on strike to protest a price hike on candy bars after World War II (and were accused of being Communist agents). As a bonus, it also includes photos—and some sweet recipes. “Fascinating . . . Excellent and highly original.” —School Library Journal (starred review).

The next time you pick up a piece of chocolate, consider that you are partaking in an aspect of Jewish history. Explore the surprising Jewish connections to chocolate in this historical and gastronomic adventure through cultures, countries, centuries and religions. Rabbi Deborah Prinz draws from her world travels on the trail of chocolate to enchant chocolate lovers of all backgrounds as she unwraps tales of Jews in the early chocolate trade to how Jewish values infuse chocolate today. She shows the intersections of Jews, pre-Columbians, Catholics and Protestants along the chocolate trail and the lasting rituals involving chocolate that the world¿s faith traditions still share. Tasty tidbits include: ¿ Chocolate making in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, home to the largest and wealthiest Jewish community of its time, was known as a special Jewish industry. ¿ Bayonne chocolate makers today advertise that Jews brought chocolate making to France. ¿ Chocolate Hanukkah gelt may have developed from St. Nicholas customs. ¿ Jews pioneered chocolate in North America as successful and well-known American colonial Jewish merchants such as Abraham Lopez and Nathan Simson traded cacao and manufactured chocolate. ¿ A born-again Christian businessman in the Midwest marketed his caramel chocolate bar as a ¿Noshy,¿ after the Yiddish word for ¿snack.¿ ¿ Jewish values of caring for the needy, pursuing economic justice, protecting the environment and promoting sustainability feed into the organic and fair trade chocolate businesses of today..

A sweet tooth is a powerful thing. Babies everywhere seem to smile when tasting sweetness for the first time, a trait inherited, perhaps, from our ancestors who foraged for sweet foods that were generally safer to eat than their bitter counterparts. But the "science of sweet" is only the beginning of a fascinating story, because it is not basic human need or simple biological impulse that prompts us to decorate elaborate wedding cakes, scoop ice cream into a cone, or drop sugar cubes into coffee. These are matters of culture and aesthetics, of history and society, and we might ask many other questions. Why do sweets feature so prominently in children's literature? When was sugar called a spice? And how did chocolate evolve from an ancient drink to a modern candy bar? The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets explores these questions and more through the collective knowledge of 265 expert contributors, from food historians to chemists, restaurateurs to cookbook writers, neuroscientists to pastry chefs. The Companion takes readers around the globe and throughout time, affording glimpses deep into the brain as well as stratospheric flights into the world of sugar-crafted fantasies. More than just a compendium of pastries, candies, ices, preserves, and confections, this reference work reveals how the human proclivity for sweet has brought richness to our language, our art, and, of course, our gastronomy. In nearly 600 entries, beginning with "à la mode" and ending with the Italian trifle known as "zuppa inglese," the Companion traces sugar's journey from a rare luxury to a ubiquitous commodity. In between, readers will learn about numerous sweeteners (as well-known as agave nectar and as obscure as castoreum, or beaver extract), the evolution of the dessert course, the production of chocolate, and the neurological, psychological, and cultural responses to sweetness. The Companion also delves into the darker side of sugar, from its ties to colonialism and slavery to its addictive qualities. Celebrating sugar while acknowledging its complex history, The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets is the definitive guide to one of humankind's greatest sources of pleasure. Like kids in a candy shop, fans of sugar (and aren't we all?) will enjoy perusing the wondrous variety to be found in this volume..

An essential tool for assisting leisure readers interested in topics surrounding food, this unique book contains annotations and read-alikes for hundreds of nonfiction titles about the joys of comestibles and cooking..

Whether classics like Hershey's, Mars and M&Ms or trend-setters like PEZ and Atomic Fireballs, candy has a special place in the hearts and memories of most Americans, who to this day consume more than 600 billion pounds of it each year. In this colorful illustrated guide, Darlene Lacey looks at candy in America from a variety of angles, examining everything from chocolate to fruity sweets and from the simply packaged basics to gaudy product tie-ins. She examines the classic brands of the late twentieth century and what they mean, guiding us on a mouth-watering, sugar-fueled trip down a memory lane filled with signposts like Bazooka, Clark, Necco and Tootsie Roll..

For most Americans, candy is an uneasy pleasure, eaten with side helpings of guilt and worry. Yet candy accounts for only 6 percent of the added sugar in the American diet. And at least it's honest about what it is—a processed food, eaten for pleasure, with no particular nutritional benefit. So why is candy considered especially harmful, when it's not so different from the other processed foods, from sports bars to fruit snacks, that line supermarket shelves? How did our definitions of food and candy come to be so muddled? And how did candy come to be the scapegoat for our fears about the dangers of food? In Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure, Samira Kawash tells the fascinating story of how candy evolved from a luxury good to a cheap, everyday snack. After candy making was revolutionized in the early decades of mass production, it was celebrated as a new kind of food for energy and enjoyment. Riding the rise in snacking and exploiting early nutritional science, candy was the first of the panoply of "junk foods" that would take over the American diet in the decades after the Second World War—convenient and pleasurable, for eating anytime or all the time. And yet, food reformers and moral crusaders have always attacked candy, blaming it for poisoning, alcoholism, sexual depravity and fatal disease. These charges have been disproven and forgotten, but the mistrust of candy they produced has never diminished. The anxiety and confusion that most Americans have about their diets today is a legacy of the tumultuous story of candy, the most loved and loathed of processed foods.Candy is an essential, addictive read for anyone who loves lively cultural history, who cares about food, and who wouldn't mind feeling a bit better about eating a few jelly beans..

Human trafficking has moved from relative obscurity to a major area of research, policy and teaching over the past ten years. Research has sprung from criminology, public policy, women’s and gender studies, sociology, anthropology, and law, but has been somewhat hindered by the failure of scholars to engage beyond their own disciplines and favoured methodologies. Recent research has begun to improve efforts to understand the causes of the problem, the experiences of victims, policy efforts, and their consequences in specific cultural and historical contexts. Global Human Trafficking: Critical issues and contexts foregrounds recent empirical work on human trafficking from an interdisciplinary, critical perspective. The collection includes classroom-friendly features, such as introductory chapters that provide essential background for understanding the trafficking literature, textboxes explaining key concepts, discussion questions for each chapter, and lists of additional resources, including films, websites, and additional readings for each chapter. The authors include both eminent and emerging scholars from around the world, drawn from law, anthropology, criminology, sociology, cultural studies, and political science and the book will be useful for undergraduate and graduate courses in these areas, as well as for scholars interested in trafficking..

Everything from Amos 'n' Andy to zeppelins is included in this two-volume encyclopedia of popular culture during the Great Depression era. Two hundred entries explore the entertainments, amusements, and people of the United States during the difficult years of the 1930s..

Successfully navigate the rich world of travel narratives and identify fiction and nonfiction read-alikes with this detailed and expertly constructed guide..

The go-to soup-to-nuts guide on how to really make money from food writing, both in print and online With recipe-driven blogs, cookbooks, reviews, and endless foodie websites, food writing is ever in demand. In this award-winning guide, noted journalist and writing instructor Dianne Jacob offers tips and strategies for getting published and other ways to turn your passion into cash, whether it's in print or online. With insider secrets and helpful advice from award-winning writers, agents, and editors, Will Write for Food is still the essential guide to go from starving artist to well-fed writer..

In this language resource for food and word lovers, a thousand-and-one entries on candies, desserts, cocktails, sauces, pastas, and more are covered, including terms from around the world, cooking styles, and descriptions of utensils, as well as tips on usage, special sidebars on food trends and food word topics, and lists of regional snack foods..

While some cities owe their existence to lumber or oil, turpentine or steel, Kansas City owes its existence to food. From its earliest days, Kansas City was in the business of provisioning pioneers and traders headed west, and later with provisioning the nation with meat and wheat. Throughout its history, thousands of Kansas Citians have also made their living providing meals and hospitality to travelers passing through on their way elsewhere, be it by way of a steamboat, Conestoga wagon, train, automobile, or airplane. As Kansas City’s adopted son, Fred Harvey sagely noted, “Travel follows good food routes,” and Kansas City’s identity as a food city is largely based on that fact. Kansas City: A Food Biography explores in fascinating detail how a frontier town on the edge of wilderness grew into a major metropolis, one famous for not only great cuisine but for a crossroads hospitality that continues to define it. Kansas City: A Food Biography also explores how politics, race, culture, gender, immigration, and art have forged the city’s most iconic dishes, from chili and steak to fried chicken and barbecue. In lively detail, Andrea Broomfield brings the Kansas City food scene to life..

This is the first encyclopedia to help the general reader understand the myriad components of what sustains us: the food and drink industries..

As a middle school teacher, author Bart King listened carefully to the wisdom of his girl students. Along with his five sisters (!), their knowledge made The Big Book of Girl Stuff a classic that Parenting magazine has called “a must-have for girls.” This updated and redesigned edition of The Big Book of Girl Stuff is still loaded with fascinating facts, activities, quotes, games, and insightful information and advice on important topics. This humorous and informative resource is filled with everything a girl needs to know and celebrates all the things that make being a girl so wonderful. And not only is it a perfect handbook for preteens, ’tweens, and teens, but it will delight moms, aunts, and big sisters as well!.

After ten years spent riddling over the intricacies of church/state law from the ivory tower, law professor Jay Wexler decided it was high time to hit the road to learn what really happened in some of the most controversial Supreme Court cases involving this hot-button issue. In Holy Hullabaloos, he takes us along for the ride, crossing the country to meet the people and visit the places responsible for landmark decisions in recent judicial history, from a high school football field where fans once recited prayers before kickoff to a Santeria church notorious for animal sacrifice, from a publicly funded Muslim school to a creationist museum. Wexler's no-holds-barred approach to investigating famous church/state brouhahas is as funny as it is informative..