Godiva seems to have sensed their decline and has fought back via a recent explosion of Godiva's product line and expansion of their marketing.  I am not really a big fan of Godiva's chocolate - it has always been much more focused on looks rather than on substance and ingredients.  Having just returned from Singapore, I was amazed at seeing Godiva in every mall (and they have a lot!) and of course all over the airport.  I was surprised when leaving Los Angeles airport, in one of the little news/candy shops, that an entire wall was devoted to all things Godiva.

They have now gone far beyond the in-store bonbons they sell, which began with the bars being available at the checkout stand at Macy's and Barnes and Noble Booksellers.  From there they have grown the product line, adding "Chocoiste" products that have a truffle-like filling and come in several shapes from bars to bite-sized domes.  I have also seein little pearl-sized chocolates that you can pop in your mouth by the handful.  They have a gold collection, platinum collection and seasonal collections which are mostly just fancier boxes.  The trend is being followed by the other commercial chocolate makers like Hershey's and even Dove...dozens of incarnations of mediocre chocolate.  My hope is that people don't confuse these chocolates with the true artisan chocolates out there, made with the purest of ingredients and dedication of a true artist.  

There I was, pushing my cart full of veggies, cereal and frozen meals around the corner at my local supermarket, when I almost knocked over a new display.  Much to my surprise, it was a Russell Stover gourmet chocolate display.  Now I don't know about you, but in my family those "drug store" boxes  of candy were either 1. what dad brought home because he found out it was Valentine's Day while driving home from work, or 2. for people who's teeth spent their nights with polydent.  But I digress...At this point I guess I am not surprised when another candy company jumps on the bandwagon of the artisan chocolate movement.  After further investigation, I discovered Russell Stover has three new lines they are marketing.  Two lines are  bite sized individually wrapped squares in bags...one set is filled with differnt types of goo like vanilla bean, mocha, coconut and truffle (sound better than saying whipped chocolate wax I guess), the other is a series of origin squares from different South American countries.  Lastly they have a line of fine truffles in a brown Godiva-esque box with gold script lettering.  I will admit I even had a couple of the small tasting bags in my hand at one point, when my husband came up and said "Are you kidding??"  I guess the fancy packaging didn't seduce him the way Russell Stover was hoping...

Along the same line, I now find Target is a decent spot for an emergency chocolate fix.  NOT their Choxie brand "truffles" - I bought those to review for this site, and after sampling a few I decided they were better suited to filling scratches on my coffee table.  No, I mean the other brands they offer, like Dove's new line of single origin tasting squares, Hershey's upscale bars, Lindt, etc. in all their many shapes and variations.  Target is actually where I discovered one of my favorite chocolate bars - Seattle Chocolates' Dark Espresso.  They were doing it before everyone was doing it, and have been selling their bars at Target for at least 5 years. Fortunately for me, since you couldn't even buy them directly from the company without a wholesaler's license.

I suppose in the end this is expansion a good thing for us chocolate lovers - more choices easily available beyond the standard grocery store fare without having to mail order.  But somehow I feel like the whole thing is becoming far too diluted and the finer chocolates are going to get lost in the mele.  I'm sure I will break down one day and try some of those fancy new drug store chocolates...I guess I'll just have to make sure I'm shopping alone that day!

I was leafing through Prevention magazine for my monthly dose of health advice, when I came across an ad that made me laugh out loud.  "The benefits of dark chocolate.  The MMMM of milk chocolate." It's Hershey's latest attempt to break into the artisan chocolate market.   The MMMMilk chocolate has natural flavanol antioxidants...whatever that means.  Why is it, whenever someone discovers somthing "good for you", it suddenly starts showing up in everything from your breakfast cereal to your candy bar?!  Weren't these health boosting vitamins always in chocolate? Yes.  So how do they get those extra anitoxidants in there anyway?  Hershey explains it on their website as "The antioxidant levels in Hershey's Antioxidant milk chocolate are naturally derived by carefully selecting ingredients obtained from the cocoa bean - e.g., chocolate liquor and cocoa powder. We selected cocoa-based ingredients which retain higher levels of flavanol antioxidants. No antioxidant additives are used."  Well, that clears it up, doesn't it?  Hershey's apparently has this new line called Hershey's Goodness Chocolate, and it comes in three varieties...Whole Bean, Extra Dark Dark and Antioxidant Milk.  Call me a chocolate snob, but this is somewhat humorous to me...if you can't sell it based on the taste - which in my opinion is what chocolate is all about - then grab a trend and make it your own.  Hershey's isn't the first to do this of course...Cocoavia (owned by Mars) touts antioxidant benefits in their line of bars and chocolate covered almonds coated in dark chocolate. they took it a step furher by adding blueberries (another anti-oxidant vehicle) - a taste I didn't care for.  There have been others, and I'm sure we haven't seen the last of those jumping on the proverbial bandwagon.  All in all I guess it's not such a bad thing - if the anti-aging properties really work, that's more years of eating chocolate!