Oceans of Chocolate Optimism

I just tried Chocolate Animal Crackers by Kraft. These are the animal crackers most of us grew up with - they come in the cool package that looks like the circus train. I got them for the sole purpose of comparing them to the Chocolate Goldfish. I secretly thought they might be better. (I don't know why I seem to be so skeptical of the Chocolate Goldfish - I have eaten them and they are good!) The animal crackers were not as good - less sweet - more crackery. But better shapes! But not smiley faces. Get the Goldfish.


On the ChocoTour I got some Stauffer's Chocolate Animal Crackers - they rank somewhere between the Chocolate Goldfish and Barnum's Animals Choco Crackers (the official name for the Kraft crackers). Stauffer's base is in York, PA but you can't tour their factory, so I didn't go there. (I want to see stuff being made! I'd love to see dough being pressed out of little animal molds! Whee!!) They claim to have started making animal crackers back in 1871. Now, they are just a division of the Meiji Company of Japan. Wah - that makes me sad. Anyway, Pepperidge Farms is kicking their butt in the chocolate-cracker-in-an-animal-shape department. Go Team USA!


Stauffer's does, however, have some exciting stuff on their website including this important information:


What is the difference between a cookie and a cracker?

Stauffer's Animal Crackers have less sugar and shortening than cookies. Animal Cookies, another Stauffer's product line, have slightly less flour than animal crackers. Animal crackers have a layered dough, which gives the crackers a crunchy and delicate texture. Break an animal cracker in half and you will see layers.

Holy cow-shaped cracker! This is like cookie geology! I bet Animal Cookies are really good.(Here's the deal though - they have WAY more calories than animal crackers - it's all that sugar and lard.) Again, get the Goldfish.

Now here's something truly amazing! There's a whole special Goldfish website (the chocolate ones aren't even on there yet - we are soooo cutting edge!). And they have a special program called Fishful Thinking (I kid you not) and this is what they say about it:

The Fishful Thinking program provides the tools parents need to teach their kids how to think optimistically about themselves and how to use their Optimism to overcome life's obstacles, persist in the face of adversity, and transform setbacks into manageable challenges. By teaching kids Optimism today, we are equipping them with the skills and strategies they can rely on to shine in the face of adversity for the rest of their lives.

Chocolate Goldfish are motivational speakers!!! Who knew?

As Close to Seafood as Chocolate Should Ever Come

Just when you think you have it all figured out, you realize you know nothing.

I was prepared for Chocolate Goldfish to be horrible. I like the little Goldfish crackers, but after all, they are a cheese thing or a cracker thing. I guess it's somewhat hard to figure out exactly what Goldfish do well. They really aren't the greatest cheese item ever or the best cracker ever.

Regardless, I was ready to write a scathing blog about how Pepperidge Farm should stick to what makes Goldfish great - cheese. I was ready to relive my former erudite comments about Pez and gum not venturing into chocolate, about staying true to what made them good and not trying to be chocolate. I was ready to rock and roll!

Then I ate a Chocolate Goldfish. It was good. I ate more Chocolate Goldfish. They too were good.

I was wrong about the Chocolate Goldfish.

Actually these are Goldfish Grahams and the ones I tried just happened to be the chocolate ones. (They also come in honey and cinnamon, but when there's chocolate, why bother?) And, dear reader, I bought them with you in mind. I can now rationalize any chocolate purchase I make - it's research for the millions reading this blog everyday. I'm boldly tasting chocolate so you don't have to! (Hopefully I saved you from Weight Watchers Boston Cream Pie yogurt.)

The Chocolate Goldfish (I like that name better than Goldfish Grahams - it gives chocolate the attention it deserves) are actually good. And 50 (yes fifty!) of them only have 140 calories! And they are made with whole grain! And they have a little smiley fish face on every one. In fact, the whole experience has caused me to re-evaluate what makes Goldfish great. It's not the cheese or the cracker - it's the size and shape! That's what makes them fun to eat! And that's what makes the Chocolate Goldfish good. They are not the greatest little chocolate cookie/cracker things ever, but they are good. And they are a fun shape. And you can eat lots of them! Whee!!!

I also think these would be great sprinkled over ice cream, sprinkled in a peanut butter sandwich, mixed in with vanilla yogurt, stuck in raw cookie dough - oh, the epicurean delights!

So try not to be as judgemental as I am - a product may indeed hold qualities you didn't even appreciate until you experienced it in a different format. Something you don't like may be good in another recipe. A person may have qualities you don't appreciate until you see him or her in a different setting.

And if you still don't like something or someone, there are plenty of other fish in the sea! Bwah, ha, ha!!

Ice Cream Heaven and Hell

Yes, dear readers, I am keeping you on the cutting edge of America's cravings. Yesterday I talked about the expanding and exciting candy aisle. Today USA Today devoted an entire FOUR pages to dessert! One of the headlines reads "Despite diets or budgets, America will always make room for dessert." Yay!

Some of the desserts are wacky and exotic (just like some of the new chocolate bars), some are just down home delicious (also like some of the chocolate bars). USA Today highlighted the South, Chicago and New York City. I'm proud to say the South has what looks best to me - peanut butter pie, cream cheese pound cake, giant chocolate cake. Chicago has some desserts that scare me - one involves pop rocks, another lots of lavender (ugh). New York, of course, has it all.

If you have a spare $25,000 you can go to Serendipity3 in NYC and get a sundae - a blend of 28 cocoas, covered in 23K edible gold-infused whipped cream, topped with the most expensive chocolate in the world (La Madeline au Truffle) served in a goblet lined with chocolate. An 18K gold and 1K white diamond bracelet decorates the base of the goblet - and you get to keep that, as well as an 18K gold spoon encrusted with black, white and chocolate diamonds. Whoa - girls, this creates a whole new potential for the words "Sugar Daddy."

I guess I'm just not sophisticated - some of the wild new flavors just don't to it for me - especially when they start messing with ice cream. USA Today asks a question I'm sure I will use again - "Just because you can do it, does it mean that you should?" These ice cream flavors make me say not just no, but hell no!:

14 vegetable (including zucchini)
squid ink
oyster
roasted garlic sorbet
Parmesan
malted barley
Thai chili
smoked pine nuts
mashed potato (did they just serve them really cold?)
lobster
Memphis barbecue
tomato basil
cucumber

I'm sorry - those are just wrong. If there's an ice cream hell, the creators of those flavors are going. If there's an ice cream heaven, it costs $25,000. Can I get an "Amen"?

Global Madness & Chocolate Chips

What the heck is going on in the world? Russia has completely lost it and invaded Georgia. Pakistan's President resigned before he could be impeached. And Mrs. Fields Cookies is filing for Chapter 11. When will the madness end?

Apparently we shouldn't be surprised about Mrs. Fields. The chain has been losing money for years. Too much debt. The interest payments were killing them. Of course, those of you who would like to start a franchise apparently can still do so:

Below is an itemized list of costs associated with establishing a franchise with Mrs. Fields Famous Brands:

Initial Franchise Fee:
$30,000*

Ongoing Royalties:
6% of Gross Sales

Advertising Fee:
1-3% of Gross Sales

Initial Training Fee:
No charge for first two individuals

Initial Term of Agreement:
7 years (7 year renewal)

Total Estimated Initial Investment:
$179,900-$252,100**

*For full service store.**A complete inventory of associated cost is disclosed in item 7 of the Uniform Franchise Offering Circular. These figures do not include real estate lease costs, and may vary with actual circumstances.

Call me crazy, but I think there may be better ways to make dough. (bwah, ha, ha!)

I think this may be a story of a company getting away from what made it successful. Great cookies and amazing service fell by the wayside as empire building took over. The company bought TCBY, a couple of pretzel companies it has since unloaded, and strayed from its core values. I also think there may have been a lack of trend spotting. As a yogurt lover, I know that TCBY has been slipping for years. The ice cream companies jumped on the yogurt bandwagon and scooped (I can't help it) up any advantage TCBY might have had. Hey, if the whole family can get what they want at Baskin Robbins, why go to TCBY? Who was asleep at the TCBY wheel? That dog hasn't been hunting for years.

Lessons?

Need we revisit chocolate Pez? Know what you're good at and make the most of it. Was Mrs. Fields good at making cookies or good at running food stalls in the mall? I think someone got confused.

Bigger isn't always better. I bet the company would now rather have just 50 successful cookie stores than 500 cookie stores, 50 TCBY stores, etc. Little and profitable is better than huge and in debt. You might keep that in mind when manging your own finances.

Final lesson? Don't trust the Russians.

The Power of Chocolate

PRESTON, England, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- An English 3-year-old hungry for candy in the middle of the night set off for the sweet shop, leaving his parents and brother sound asleep at home.
A newspaper delivery driver found Max McGrath outside the supermarket in Somerfield, The Times of London reported. The store was closed, and young Max was looking wistfully through the window.
While the boy's timing was bad, he had come prepared with money and a front-door key to his home, although he left the door open behind him.
"I have a child about the same age and it is terrifying to think what an adventurous youngster can get up to," said James Brown, who found the youngster. "He was fine, but it must have been such a shock for his family."

Go Max!!! This THREE YEAR OLD boy took money and a key and went to the supermarket for candy!!! Now that is one smart and determined kid! Only candy could drive that type of behavior. Candy or, maybe when he's a little older,......sex.

Well, sex does influence behavior! Have you seen the new commercial for those fancy premium M & M's? Check it out: (chocolate doesn't get much sexier than this!)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/business/media/08adco.html?ref=business

Ha, ha - I love it!!!

Different things motivate different people. What inspires Max and hundreds of others to make 3:00 a.m. supermarket runs, wouldn't get most people out of bed. The key to success is figuring out what motivates you (your faith, your family, your work) so you can design your life around it. And then figuring out what motivates those you need to influence. Give people what they want, and they will follow you anywhere! (Max and I will be at the supermarket if you need us.)

Olympic Chocolate

The Mars Family is brilliant. (I stand by my assessment of the Naked Cowboy as an idiot.) Why do I think the Mars family is brilliant? Long ago Forrest Mars crushed his competitor Milton Hershey by thinking globally. (This was way before global thinking was a given.) Milton was focused on selling his chocolate in the US. Forrest was busy building a global empire. And the company is still at it.

I had no idea what the official chocolate of the Olympics was until I Googled it - of course, it's Snickers (one of my personal favorites). But when you go to the official Snickers web site, there's no mention of this. Know why? Mars didn't do this for sales in America, Mars did this for sales in China. The population of the US? about 301,139,947 The population of China? about 1,321,851,888. That's just a BILLION more people. (That's a helluva lot of Snickers Bars.) And great global business strategy.

I love the Olympics - I went when they were in Atlanta (if you didn't, you missed a fantastic opportunity). I love the patriotism, but also the celebration of all the athletes. The energy of the Olympic Games is hard to describe - it's unlike any sporting event I've ever attended. Maybe it's because the whole world is there - celebrating our best athletes. Maybe it's because the whole idea of the Olympics is so inspiring. This is from the official Olympic website:

FASTER — HIGHER — STRONGER
These three words encourage the athlete to give his or her best during competition.

To better understand the motto, we can compare it with the Olympic creed :

The most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the fight ;
the essential thing is not to have won, but to have fought well.

Together, the Olympic motto and the creed represent an ideal that Coubertin (founder of the modern Olympics)believed in and promoted as an important life lesson that could be gained from participation in sport and the Olympic Games: that giving one’s best and striving for personal excellence was a worthwhile goal. It is a lesson that can still be applied equally today, not just to athletes but to each one of us.

Here's to Mars for excellence in business; to the Olympics for excellence in sport; and to the rest of us to never stop striving. Let the Games begin!!

Tighty Whities

The Naked Cowboy is an idiot.

Okay, I know this is a revelation to, well, no one, but I feel compelled to restate the obvious. I had the great thrill of standing in Times Square this week, right across the street from M & M world:

That random medal around my neck is my new CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) award. I was in New York for the National Speakers Association Convention where I received the CSP and my friends felt it would be the perfect attire for my picture in front of M & M World. Hey - at least I'm wearing more than underwear!


Look how giant and cool that screen is behind me! If you were a random street performer who worked the street below and they put an M & M up there dressed like you, would you sue them? I repeat, the Naked Cowboy is an idiot.

I still wish they'd put an M & M up there that looked like me - maybe with short dark hair and a giant grin wearing a cheesy medal? How cool would that be?


Now M & M World was packed, but we did pop in for another picture:




Yes, that is yours truly in front of the Blue M & M dressed like Travolta. Think John's losing a lot of sleep over this? If he even knows about it, I bet he would laugh. Lesson - don't take yourself too seriously. If having an M & M in your image bothers you, you need to consider more comfortable underwear.

They have tons of images of the green M & M dressed up as the Statue of Liberty with the slogan "life, liberty and the pursuit of chocolate!" Think the French will sue? Or maybe the descendants of Thomas Jefferson? I think they all realize that imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery.


Here are the takeaways:


Don't take yourself too seriously and if you do, wear more than underwear.


If people are imitating you, you obviously fascinate them. Enjoy it. Your 15 minutes will be over all too soon.


M & M's are fun. They are round, brightly colored, and made of chocolate. Could anything be more perfect? Embrace your inner M & M - at http://www.mms.com/us/becomeanmm


And make sure before you pass through this world, you stand in Times Square and celebrate with your friends! Carpe diem! Carpe chocolate!