I followed 3 guys wearing Chocolate Thunder jackets through the parking lot and up the stairs of the Atlantic City Convention Center where I was greeted by a 4 ft wide poster featuring a head shot of Mia Michaels, the award-winning choreographer and judge of the hit show, So You Think You Can Dance. In a stroke of genius, the convention center staff had scheduled the 121st Philadelphia National Candy, Gift and Gourmet Show next to a dance conference. Hundreds of incredibly petite young women in leg warmers. I felt a bit sorry for them. They looked hungry and I was on my way to a show with over 90 exhibitors looking to give away things made with sugar.
With so many exhibitors, I would need to pace myself. Just to whet my appetite, I started with a few nibbles of m&ms, and then settled in at a demonstration on how to make Dierich Orde Glass, aka Clear Toy Candies. A Pennsylvania-German tradition, these candies are handed out to children during the holiday season. Made by a team from the Franklin Fountain in Philadelphia, the little light-amber animals are sweet, yet feel sturdy in the palm of my hand. Using an antique copper pot, they heated 6 cups of sugar, 2 cups of corn syrup, 2 cups of water and then poured it into molds. In addition to these candies, the Franklin Fountain is also known for their ice cream. I’m a huge raving fan of their ice cream. It’s one of my favorites in Philly. 
I was trying to concentrate on the demonstration, but kept getting distracted by movement in the corner of the room so I wandered over to find students from the Academy of Culinary Arts at Atlantic Cape Community College baking lemon curd muffins. Phil Searles, a student in his third semester at the Academy worked on a rich gooey batter that will become double brownie chocolate chip cookies.
This show is for people in the retail side of the business and is not open to the public which is a shame for my friends because I know several people who would give their 2 front teeth to be in a room filled with as much chocolate as you can eat. There were samples everywhere. Piles and piles of chocolate and candy. And if that wasn’t awesome enough, there were numerous ice cream stands including one for water ice, 
and one for Berzaci gelato presented by Taylor Products.
Frank Cox, Jr, Show Chairman, reported that over the course of a few days, over 3500 people would experience the show. He said it’s very family-oriented and ‘for anyone looking to get into the industry, it’s a great place to start.’ I agree. In addition to the exhibitions, I saw sessions on The Art of Tempering Chocolate, Mixing Ice Cream and Candy, and also Chocolate and Love. There were lots more sessions listed in the program, but I was needed at my day-job so I couldn’t stay for the whole show.
Making the most of my time, I wandered over to Birnn’s Chocolates of Vermont. They had some of the most gorgeous truffles I’ve ever seen. They designed custom patterns and then used a silk screening process to apply them to their truffles.
I tried a banana truffle and swooned at the first bite. The scent of fresh bananas floated by as I bit into the smooth and creamy chocolate ganache center.
The chocolate mint madness fudge from Deliciously Different Fudge really was delicious. But, by the time I made my way over to them, the Snickie Pie Fudge was gone. It was so good that it disappeared within a few hours of show opening. Next time, I’m heading right for the Snickie Pie fudge first.
Dona Peters spent 30 years in the food industry and now as a retired chocolatier gets paid by Wilbur’s Chocolates to work special shows and events. This sculpture is a combination of molded chocolate coated with luster dust. Dona’s background includes time as a dietitian and cake decorating instructor. When I asked her about the irony of starting as a dietitian and then going into chocolate, her response was that ‘moderation is good, anything in excess is bad.’ Whoops. Should have talked to her before I consumed so much chocolate that day. (See bottom of post for Dona’s Chocolate Clay Recipe).
I quickly walked by lots of packaging and shrink wrap exhibitors on my way to eat more sugar. Their stuff looked interesting, but since I don’t enjoy eating cardboard, I made my way over to try some JM Golden Gourmet Rainbow Popcorn from Celebrations Fun Food Factory. I usually don’t eat popcorn but couldn’t pass up something so colorful.
Then, I came across the machines. I wanted these machines so badly. So very, very badly that I’m afraid I might have hung out a little too long at their booths. It got to the point where I was trying to get other people to buy one just so I could live vicariously.
The first machine I lusted after was from Sentry Equipment. It creates individually flavored soft serve ice cream/yogurt cups and cones in less than one minute. The process was so fast that I couldn’t really understand how they did it but it has something to do with bottles filled with flavor, individual cups of ice cream and what I can only assume is magic. If I had this machine then I would be the coolest chick on the block. Sadly, I called Kevin and he said we can’t get one so I’m relegated to my normal uncool status. Please note: that is not my hand holding the ice cream. It belongs to a random conference attendee who was nice enough to hold it so I could take photos.
Then there was the Hilliards Double Chocolate System. This machine tempers the chocolate and then enrobes candies, cookies, etc as they go by on an assembly line. I wanted to lay down, open my mouth underneath this spout, and let the chocolate pour in. Luckily for Hilliards, we were in public and I’m a little shy. Thinking of the goodness of chocolate covered oreos, I considered buying this piece of wonderful equipment. However, until my blog makes more than 26 cents a year, I need to watch my expenses so I reluctantly left it at the show.
Lessons Learned:
-It’s hard to shoot certain types of candy because of the flash. It bounces off lollipops and other hard candies. It was also difficult to shoot the pounds of chocolate at the show. Brown upon brown is a challenging color scheme and doesn’t visually ‘pop’ the way I want.
-My willpower is weak when surrounded by so much chocolate. I did the best I could and am proud that I ate enough and then stopped before getting sick. For those of you that know me, you know this is a huge accomplishment.
-When Kevin saw my photos from the event, he regretted not attending. Honey, if you’re reading this– lesson learned: the next time I invite you to a chocolate show, immediately agree to go. There is no football game better than chocolate.
Recipe for Chocolate Clay from Dona Peters:
[note: all comments in parens are from Dona]
Ingredients:
-10 oz chocolate (white, milk, dark. Real or compound)
-1/3 cup clear Karo corn syrup for milk and dark, 1/4 cup for white
Directions:
-Melt chocolate. Quickly add room temperature corn syrup
-Mix quickly (do not over mix or it will separate and be no good)
-Pour mixture out into pan liner or parchment paper and cover with another layer of same paper
-Let sit until hard (overnight most of the time)
-Take out small portions and knead until smooth (you may need to put into heavy duty mixer for this, but take care not to overload it or the motor will burn out! Trust me, I know!!!)
-Wrap in plastic wrap and put into a tight seal container til used.
-To color: add powdered coloring to small amounts of clay, then mix the colored into the white (DO NOT mix the white into the colors)
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OMG! That is like heaven on earth (except for the colored popcorn which looks it was dyed with blue no. 1 and yellow no. 5 which is a little too similar to fruit loops for me!). How did you manage to get into a show for people on the retail side of the candy business?