Trending up: Applying the latest innovations to chocolate and nut confections
25 Apr 2018 | Almond Board of California
In this webinar, Lu Ann Williams of Innova Market Insights highlights the latest trends in chocolate products with almonds. Chocolatier Wendy Sherwood of the Culinary Institute of America shares recipes and her inspiration behind the development, with a look into how she works to align confectionary concepts with the latest consumer trends.
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Hello, and thank you for joining us today.
I'm Habind Deman, the associate Director for trademarking and stewardship at the Almond Borda California, and we are pleased to host today's webinar, Trending Up, applying the latest innovations to chocolate and nut confections.
In today's presentation, Luanne Williams, Director of innovation at Innov Market Insights, will highlight the latest trends in chocolate products and almonds, including ingredient innovations to help manufacturers capitalize on every opportunity to keep consumers wanting more.
Chocolatier Wendy Sherwood of the Culinary Institute of America will then take us through 3 confectionery recipe concepts that she developed for the almond board, discussing unique ways to pair crunchy California almonds with smooth chocolate, and which techniques and additional inclusions help maximize the flavors of each decadent treat.
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So without further ado, I'll hand things over to Luanne Williams to begin.
Thank you.
Thanks, Harbiner.
So we'll just dive right in and start looking at what's happening in terms of innovation and chocolate.
So I have 4 trends here that we're gonna talk about.
We're gonna look at indulgence, which is really still the key driver for chocolate.
We're gonna look at shapes, and how that impacts new textures.
We're gonna look at color.
That's a really big trend this year.
And also we always have to talk about better for you and health when we talk about just about any trend nowadays.
So, just to kick off, we'll start with indulgence and as I said this is still the key driver.
So here you see some results from a consumer survey that we did and we asked US consumers, what factors do you pay importance to when you're buying chocolate confectionery?
And it's not a big surprise that flavor is really important.
Cost is also a factor, especially if you're looking for something super indulgent.
There's just a wide range of of price points, so not a surprise that consumers are looking at that.
But of course indulgence, so flavor and indulgence really do go, go hand in hand there.
But this is just kind of a nice reaffirmation of that because we're talking so much about health nowadays.
It's important to also just look at indulgence and what that means.
So if we look at some of the different aspects there, we can see some different examples and different types of attributes that are being used to drive this indulgent positioning.
So premium blend is one of them.
You see there on the left-hand side, strawberries and champagne used in, fresh cream ganache and a truffle center.
So again, really playing up the indulgence of, of those ingredients together.
Provenance is still really important with chocolate, and here's a nice example where they're talking about the, the cocoa from Surabaya, a state in Indonesia.
Decadence really talking about texture and in this case it's dark chocolate and salty pretzels with a creamy caramel center, so this really does evoke all those.
The textures and the pictures on the product really reinforce that and then of course we have the classic premium packaging as.
Sharing is still really important and a fancy package really does give the consumer a great idea that there's something fancy inside.
Looking at inclusions for flavor and texture, so I just gave you some nice examples, examples of that, but also looking at, at seasonality, that's also interesting.
So here we did a split and we looked at all chocolate and then also seasonal chocolate and what types of inclusions are there.
And you can see that when it comes to seasonal chocolate, you see much more, really indulgent inclusions like the, like cookies and nougat.
Marzipan, of course, is really popular around Easter and Christmas.
Peppermint, peanut butter, gingerbread, of course, is another one of those winter types of flavors.
So again, it's really this really does, it's like proving it with a number.
The data really does support that.
And then you're looking at some of the examples here.
You can see the crunchy clouds, and this is milk chocolate with almonds and spiced biscuits, and it really highlights also the, the different flavors, the cardamom, cloves, cinnamon that goes along with that again to really also give a very seasonal taste for Christmas.
And then the macaron roots there you see, strawberry cream cookie pieces, and roasted almonds, again to deliver a really different texture experience for consumers.
Another big trend that we see this year is beyond the coffee house, so I think everybody knows that everywhere you know we see coffee and tea in so many different places.
But we can also measure that to see what really is happening there.
So you can see the chart here.
We did an index of the number of confectionery launches that have coffee and tea flavors and again you can see really nice growth, especially since 2015 there and.
I think the M&M's is one of the best examples where we can see that coffee and nut was highlighted as a winning flavor.
So again, when you see a flavor, think about what we saw happening with coconut water.
We now have coconut everything.
When you see flavors jump in categories, it tells you a lot about it.
So in this case we can also see.
Some nice examples where the type of coffee and tea is being highlighted on the product.
So you see there the Tesco finest, Belgian dark chocolate and coffee frosted almonds with coffee beans, the espresso coffee flavor in the product in the middle, and then Kit Kat, of course, is really famous for having a lot of different flavors, and this is a nice, matcha example.
Another big trend that we're seeing is what we're calling positively processed that we've seen over the past few years.
Consumers are really interested in how their products are being made, and this really can be woven into a very positive story about the product.
So we found three nice examples here.
The first one being fresh roasted.
And this is describing the almonds that are being used in this Whittaker's chocolate bar.
The Ritter Sport has chosen to tell a story about a better roasting process, and it talks about how the almonds are roasted and enhances the full flavor, and the roasting process is part of, it's the important part of bringing out this flavor.
And then the example on the right, this is a bit more niche and a bit more specialist, but again, it really does talk about the the hand carved stones that are used to, to create the chocolate that's used in the, the stone ground chocolate.
So again, these really do evoke a really positive image for the for the consumer through the storytelling.
And I mentioned texture earlier, but we can see here that 23% of chocolate launches that we tracked last year have a texture claim and just some nice examples here.
We see different ways of, and the, the product on the left, this is a three-layer tablet, with dark chocolate, almond paste, and hazelnut paste, and it really goes into a lot of description about the type of the consistency and, and gives a good idea even from the picture there, what the consumer can expect.
So this is combining multiple textures to add interest in one product.
And then the product on the right.
Again, the picture really does highlight, this mousse crunch bar, which is buttery popcorn, almonds and cashews, and then coated in a smooth caramel and then enrobed in chocolate.
A really, again, you really do get this great picture of a lot going on there with crunchy, but also smooth to create a lot of interest in the product.
So now we go on to our first recipe here.
Hi everybody, this is Wendy Sherwood.
I created this recipe of smoked maple almond rocher for the almond board because I thought it really brought in a lot of the concepts that we were already talking about today with indulgent textures and the fresh roasted quality of slivered almonds, and it also kind of brings in an interesting flavor profile.
Everybody's familiar with smoked almonds, that concept, but to just give a little twist to it, I actually smoked the chocolate in this recipe and candied the sugar, candied the, almonds with maple sugar in, and it's just a little twist on a classic.
So this one is, slivered almonds with candied maple sugar, blended with hickory smoked milk chocolate, and candied orange peel for a little extra zing to it.
These are really easy to make.
I'll just move forward to the next one with the praline method.
It's a very basic method and confectionery that anybody can try in large or small sort of concepts.
So you just bring your maple sugar to a boil with a little bit of water, and when it reaches proper temperature, add in the toasted slivered almonds and just stir very vigorously and that recrystallizes the sugar around.
The exterior of the slivered almonds, and the reason we use slivered almonds in this recipe is because they have, the largest surface area of almost any almond product.
And so there's just that much more area to coat with the sugar and get that extra level of crunch that's really, really delicious in a roch.
So then we just go ahead and caramelize those to get a little bit deeper flavor.
And let them cool down.
And the next process would be smoking the milk chocolate to add just a little nuance of flavor.
You don't want to go too far on this, just, just a hint.
It sort of evokes the, the springtime ritual of cooking the maple sugar over a wood fire to create maple syrup.
And so this is really fun to do with either a tabletop smoker or you can do it in a, in a larger process if you have a larger shop.
But this one is, is a really fun recipe.
It just brings in a lot of different, sort of classic concepts with almonds with the rocher.
Everybody knows what a rocher is, but it really brings it sort of to a modern kind of, audience.
So I'm gonna pass this back to Luanne.
Thanks Wendy.
And then we're going to move on to say it with color.
So as I mentioned, this is a really big trend, and of course a lot of it is driven by social media.
And just to start out with, a consumer insight there, about 10% of consumers from Mexico, the US, Canada, Spain, you can see all the countries there are influenced by social media to purchase foods and beverages, but we see that double when we get to India and China.
So again, that's really interesting.
Some of, some markets are really kind of skipped ahead in terms of, of what consumers are doing with social media.
And I think the pictures there, you know, you hear, is it Instagrammable?
We've seen the, the huge increase in things like unicorns.
The color is something really interesting to experiment with, when it comes to, to innovation and also with chocolate.
So, it's, I think a great idea to use, color as part of a marketing strategy.
And if we look at confectionary launches that have food colors, it's one way to measure what's happening with this, we see really nice growth there and just looking at some examples.
You can see the M&Ms there used in, in the bar and the, and the color of the M&M's there.
You see the pistachio flavored, coated nuts there and then, of course, dry jays are also, have always been colorful, but again, something, you know, a, a new way to do something.
Ruby chocolate has been very buzzy, recently, and Barry Callibo has, partnered with, Kit Kat, I think to do the first, Products, but again, you can see just some of the examples of the way that this is being promoted as something completely new and novel for consumers, and I think this is gonna be Certainly hugely interesting for consumers when it first hits the market.
And you can see here, again, Kit Kat has been very flavorful, very innovative, especially in Japan.
And just a couple of examples here of a Kit Kat with purple sweet potato, and another one with a strawberry cream, but again, making the color also an important part of the marketing.
And now moving on to what's happening with shape.
We really see these mainly in seasonal products.
I think that's not a big surprise, and the hearts, I think, are probably the first thing that we think about.
I think the Choco twins is a nice twist on a heart shape because it's a little bit, different shape, but then also look at the products on the right, a diamond shaped chocolate.
This really does again we talked about indulgence earlier.
But this would also give you a very different eating experience when you bite into that.
Also the red package, so there's a lot of nice things going, going along there, but I think the shape is certainly really interesting.
Looking at what's happening, also shareable bags, we know that sharing is a very important, factor when it comes to confectionery, especially.
And then again within a sharing bag you need more bite size pieces.
You can just do something a lot different with the shapes and so on.
So here's two nice examples of, of products that have, you know, a round small shape, more of a bite type of a product that also, it's something where you can also play with the texture.
And again looking at a few more formats there we've seen a big increase in products that are promoted as a bite, and there's a nice example from Hershey's, thins, that's another big trend as.
We've seen an increase in products like these nutty thins, something that's thin very often has very often has a crunchy.
Components as.
So I just mentioned sharing.
So let's also look at some of the other sharing formats.
So here's nice examples of bytes, spins and balls, and you can see how quick how fast these have been growing.
But the bites are an interesting format as , very much also related to, a texture.
I think really they all are.
The nutty thins, we've seen, a lot of interest in products are being promoted as bar or thins, and this is a nice example of roasted almonds and, and Belgian dark chocolate and also balls just like the previous examples.
But again, nice ways that you can also, play around with different textures.
And just to mention the thin chocolates, these also fit really into the better for you trend.
So this is a nice example.
Skinny me, 100% sugar-free chocolate.
They've already reached almost 4 million in sales, but there are a lot of consumers that are worried about obesity and also sugar reduction is a huge topic.
These are using natural sweeteners, stevia with erythritol is the bulking part, and again they also claim to be just as good at or even better than normal chocolates that contain sugar.
So this is something to watch out for as.
OK, Chef Wendy, let's hear about the next recipe.
Absolutely.
So this is, again playing off the idea of thins, a classic nougatine updated with all kinds of really healthful and delicious and crunchy seeds to pair with the sliced almonds.
We use sliced almonds in this recipe because they're ultra thin and they allow the confectioner to roll out the sugar to the thinnest possible thickness.
So it's It's really you get all the crunch and the flavor of the caramelized sugar and almonds, but you don't get a lot of quantity, so it really plays into the healthful bite-sized idea where you can eat a little bit less but maybe better quality and feel satisfied.
And almonds definitely work perfectly in this recipe.
So for this particular one, we just dry caramelize the sugar without any water, and that results in a really, really crispy sugar that's easy to work with.
And you go ahead and add toasted sliced almonds and any sort of mix of seeds that you want.
I suggest sesame, poppy, chia, amaranth, or really anything.
And you can add in sesame oil or even go with almond oil if you want a little bit more mild flavor, and then these are just enrobed individually, so I'll move on to the process and we show a little bit of dry caramel on the pot there at the top, and you want to just take it to the color that you feel comfortable with.
And then you add in the toasted, prepared sliced almonds and the seeds, and then you deglaze it just to give the sugar a little bit more tenderness so it doesn't stick in the teeth.
It's very, it's very light and crispy, and you roll it out between two silicone mats with a rolling pin and get it as thin as you can.
And really the diameter of the seeds and the thinness of the almonds is going to, is going to tell you how thin you can roll it.
And then score it while it's still warm.
Just to get a nice little squares and whatever size you like.
And then once it's cool, they can be broken apart and robed in dark chocolate of your choice.
This is a great recipe as , to offer to vegan clients.
I get a lot of people, asking for dairy-free options in my shop.
It's really, really popular.
It's almost the, the top request that I have and, And again, people are looking for things that are really still very indulgent but a little bit more on the healthful side.
So this is a great dairy-free option, and I'm going to pass it back to Luanne.
Thanks Wendy.
OK, so now we're gonna talk about better for you.
So this is still really important, and just looking at our top trend this year, Mindful choices.
It's really important and I just spent two weeks in Asia and it's amazing where like I had Chinese customers really talking about this.
It's something really new from them, for them, but we know that clear label, clean label has been a huge trend, but now consumers are also caring about how they feel about something.
So this really is about mind and body.
Environmental issues are becoming a bigger deal.
So this has really moved from what I really would describe as having been a Wall Street issue to a much more mainstream issue today.
Also in terms of consumers, you can see there 4 in 10 US UK consumers say that they have increased their consumption of, of healthier foods.
And again, we could have a big discussion about what that means, but what this means is for them that they are looking for whatever their definition of healthier is.
So the example that we just saw, It would probably fit perfectly into that.
And then looking at healthier chocolate, so we also know that.
Some consumers are also looking for healthier options, so we talked a lot about indulgence.
But we asked consumers, why have you decreased your consumption of chocolate, and you can see that more than half said because it's unhealthy, budget, we talked about the importance of cost.
That's something as.
But again, there are a lot more healthy options on the market, so there's a lot of choice for consumers.
So you can see a couple of examples here.
One is the stevia sweetened, also vegan, non-GMO, no sugar added.
Chef Wendy mentioned also how customers that come into her shop are really looking for vegan options.
That's a huge trend.
And then also looking at some of these super ingredients.
So again, just coming from Asia, I ate a lot of sesame seed, but you can see also here like the spirulina.
So again, there are definitely opportunities for looking for new ingredients as part of the, the better for you trend.
I mentioned the clean label and free from plat free from platforms are, as.
Still a big interest for consumers.
We see a lot of interest still in gluten-free, organic claims.
And again just looking at.
The bit of data here we look at the percent share of total chocolate launches but also the growth so we can see that free from and clean label quite big but also still growing, quite strong and just looking at I know that's a lot of data on the right hand side, but we mentioned vegan that's an interesting to look at as because we're seeing, only 4.1% of chocolates are vegan, but we're seeing 2.7% growth, gluten-free, a bit bigger.
It's more established, so that's not a big surprise.
Interesting that vegetarian is declining, but what we're seeing overall in food and beverage is that vegan is growing faster, and again, still a lot of interest in organic.
So these are some of those emerging better for you trends in chocolate.
We also see, still a lot of interest in raw claims.
So here's an index looking at 2013 to 2017 again, really strong growth there for raw, but it doesn't just have to be like raw chocolate.
In this case we can see the raw almonds are crushed, but raw really does communicate something that's very natural, for consumers.
So that's another way to communicate better for you.
And then we also talked about inclusions, so nuts and fruit inclusions are another way to offer health benefits like protein or antioxidants.
Almonds are certainly a nice way to do both of those, and then looking at fruit and nut inclusions as a percentage of chocolate confectionery launches, you can see that about a third of products have nuts and a little under 20% have fruit, and, but then 60% of the chocolate launches that we tracked that have nuts, those nuts are almonds.
So there's a nice example there of a milk chocolate with pieces of caramelized, hazelnuts and almonds.
And I think Chef Wendy just gave you a great example of how you can also combine those nuts with other types of like the, the chia seeds or amaranth seeds or so on.
So there's a lot of inspiration.
And then just back to the vegan, we are starting to see the emergence of plant-based chocolate, so again, it's only 4.3% of, of products with the vegan claim, but we also know that this is something that consumers are, looking for, across all categories.
So, thanks, for playing off the idea of the almond milk, , as a sort of a vegan alternative, I've been playing with that quite a bit, in my shop, and I formulated this recipe for an almond milk truffle, a truffle filling, so it's like a classic ganache, but classic ganache tends to be a little bit heavy.
It's very heavily dairy-based.
It's heavy cream.
And butter and things like that blended with chocolate in sort of an emulsified mixture and it gives a really great texture, but it tends to sort of coat the palate a little bit and thinking about, you know, the use of almond milk as a replacement in a lot of different cooking now, I thought, maybe I can try almond milk in a truffle recipe and what would the result be?
And it ended up , to actually be almost, it's different than a classic ganache, but almost better because it really has a lighter feel on the palate because there's not quite that sort of cloying dairy flavor and the almond milk is just so clean and it really comes through in this recipe, the sort of floral essence of raw almonds, so you can make your own almond milk very easily by just pureing unblanched, sorry, excuse me.
Blanched almonds, so remove the skins, either purchase them that way or just put them in boiling water and the skins will slip right off.
And then you can puree those with purified water in a Vitamix or some sort of high, high energy blender just to get a really, really fine, fine sort of paste, and then you just squeeze out the milk and it really takes the essence of the almond.
Out and it creates a milk that can be substituted in a lot of different recipes and so you can also use purchased almond milk as if you don't have time to go through that whole process but taking that product and then just introducing it into what I had already formulated for a typical dairy sort of white chocolate almond truffle.
This one uses a little bit different technique than you normally would for a ganache, which would require boiling the dairy and pouring it over the chocolate.
I actually use a little bit more modern way of making the ganache to preserve that sort of raw, flavorful almond milk.
So you actually melt the White chocolate and a little bit of cocoa butter, get it completely liquefied and melted, and then blend in your slightly warmed almond milk into that and then create an emulsion and then you can go ahead and blend in a little bit of whey powder which helps create that really creamy, creamy texture and then pour it into your prepared shells, let them set up overnight and cap them with dark chocolate this.
Particular recipe could be taken even further towards sort of making it vegan by using a dark chocolate, a dairy-free dark chocolate.
As the chocolate blend, and then you can create a completely vegan truffle.
So that's my next step with this one.
But at this point this one is really, really delicious and actually can be modified in a lot of different ways.
Like I said, without the dairy in it, it really releases flavor to the palate really quickly.
It's very light and you can add in all kinds of different flavors that complement the almond classic things like lemon.
Or, if you want to go a little bit more modern, something like an herb like basil or something like that would be fun.
So this recipe is, is, is, I think really representative of that sort of trend towards lighter confections.
Still very indulgent, very classic, but, but definitely on the lighter side.
And I'm gonna pass it back to Luanne for the next slide.
Thanks, Wendy.
I think that's really interesting.
There is a market for everything.
Really, everything is possible nowadays, I think.
OK, so just moving on, so that's one of my key takeaways.
I don't even know if it's on my slide, but that's one key takeaway.
We definitely see, increasingly unusual and novel flavor com combinations getting more attention.
Consumers are getting more experimental, and they're also researching and becoming more knowledgeable about what they're eating.
I think looking at who's driving innovation, I think we're seeing the same thing in chocolate that we're seeing.
Across the whole industry and we think smaller companies are really driving innovation, but also in flavored chocolate, and they're really responding very fast to changing trends and also to regional tastes.
Looking at flavor inspiration and also co-branding linkups with other artisan food and beverages, maybe like craft distilling, this is a nice, opportunity as.
We see that in other categories, you know, beer and cheese and, lots of different ways to, to combine and cross categories is, really a big interest to consumers.
Looking at what's happening in healthier and free from.
It's again, a way to give consumers that have different dietary needs, or even different lifestyles, greater choice.
And then also looking at, you know, ways that mainstream products can widen their appeal and to tap into that premium market is to look at more indulgent versions of their established brands.
I think Kit Kat is definitely, one of the leaders, if not the leader, when it comes to this.
And I'm gonna talk about a little bit of the key takeaways about these recipes.
I really, I'm sort of on the front line in a small shop every day, and I talk with my customers, and I really listen to what they ask for, and I pretty much create those products, the best I can.
They tend to ask for a lot of almonds because they're grown here in California in abundance and so they're really a local product for us.
I use them in, in, I would say probably at least 50% of our products, strangely.
They are so versatile.
As you've seen, as you've seen from these three recipes, they can be, depending on how they're processed, made into all different kinds of textures that really lend themselves, to, development for different crispy textures, different crunchy textures, and even super smooth textures like the almond milk.
So they're really, you know, they're also, they, they play with just.
About everything else in the kitchen, so all kinds of different flavors can be blended with almonds, and sometimes they harmonize, sometimes they take a little bit of a back seat, and sometimes they're the main flavor profile.
So almonds for a confectioner are just, are just pretty much the best nut.
They, they really are.
The basis of a lot of confectionary arts and especially classics and so as long as we can update them and bring them to a modern audience, I think they're going to be a huge part of confectionery going on into the future.
Super.
I think that's a great summary, and now we're going to to answer some questions.
OK, so let's start answering some questions.
We got a lot of them in and we have.
Oh, quite a lot to answer.
Chef Wendy, is not on the line, but any questions for her, we will answer, to you by email.
So let's start with question number one, high protein chocolate, is that a trend at the moment?
So I did a quick search.
And there are, it's definitely trending up, but really small numbers so far in the chocolate category.
I found less than 100 for the last year.
But if you think about some of the other categories, if you like the sports category, for example, in the bars and the snacks and the bites, there are a lot of high protein and chocolate combinations there.
So to me, that would be a good source of inspiration for what could happen in, in the chocolate category.
We have seen some like Snickers.
There's a high protein version.
So again, on trending up, but , not something that we see lots of numbers on in the chocolate category.
We had a question about, consumer perception of allergen-containing products.
Does the presence of allergens hurt the chocolate category or help those products, those products without allergens?
Harbinger, I think you might have some insights into this.
Yeah, that's a really, really good question.
What I can say according to our consumer research is that nuts and and tree nuts are the number one inclusion in consumers' ideal chocolate bars so I don't feel like it, it, takes away from it at all.
And in addition to that we've started seeing some newer, types of products that have.
Milk in them replacing dairy milk, so it's a vegan chocolate and again avoids certain allergies for lactose.
Tree nuts are about less prevalent in less than 1% of the general population here in the US, and I would imagine it's probably about similar to that in Europe, so we don't think that it would, it hinders the category at all.
OK, I agree with that, yeah, absolutely.
Oh wow.
It's interesting.
There's so many, questions here, and I don't know how many we're gonna get to about natural ingredients, healthy ingredients.
So there's definitely, maybe that's an insight for everybody listening.
There's a lot of interest in, in the whole natural, and, and healthy indulgence.
Yeah, aspect of this.
So there's the question, is chocolate with flowers trendy?
I would say I definitely have seen it in really high-end chocolate.
You sometimes see them also with like maybe lavender, new tree chocolates and from Belgium.
Was always very flavor forward and included a lot of botanical types of ingredients so I would say on trends maybe in super premium, but there's definitely ways to do more mainstream types of applications and I think Nutree would be good inspiration for that.
I see a question here from somebody that I know, asking again about the plant-based, trend that we talked about, ingredients like stevia and erythritol, but what other ingredients are trending in chocolate?
OK, off the top of my head, nuts are plant-based, so I think that's one, definitely one good place to start, almonds, for example.
But we also do see some grains like puffed grains as a source of, of texture, you know, for crunch.
And since I know you, I'm gonna say I'm gonna have to look up and see what else we can find, but, there's definitely, definitely, lots of interest in inclusions.
I think also fruit ingredients.
Harbinger, do you have anything to add maybe?
So, some of the things that we've seen are the almond butter seems to be another one that's striking a chord right now because using almond butter also allows you to maybe use less sugar, to, to get a similar, kind of flavor profile, so that's, that's one ingredient that we're seeing, being used a little bit more within the chocolate category so quite exciting actually.
Yeah, and I think we've also seen, you know, plant milks that are, creamed up and emulsified as , more and more as a, as a possible filling for chocolates as.
Nice question here, are there any premium brands that have bite-sized options?
I think some of the most iconic products are bite-size options.
If I think about.
Reese's cups and Hershey's kisses, but I did do a quick, search for this, and there are, lots of small size, bite-size options from.
Quite a few of the big players, so answer to that is yes.
Let's see.
What about, let's see what other questions there are.
What other healthy sweeteners could you recommend to use in place of sugar?
We didn't talk about it a lot today, but also, Maltitol.
I think probably 10 years ago was really kind of a game changer when it came to sugar-free chocolate.
I remember doing a test and an exhibition and I couldn't tell the difference between The chocolate with sugar and the chocolate with maltitol.
So that's certainly in terms of sugar-free chocolate.
And then we did talk about stevia a bit.
So those are two other options, one high intense sweetener and one.
A poll y'all.
Let's see what else.
What is the trend like for palm-free chocolate?
This is, again, trending up, but very, very tiny.
So out of, say, more than 15,000 chocolate products that I looked at, 40 had a palm-free claim.
So really small.
I know that in some countries, Italy, a couple of years ago, there was a big trend towards palm-free, but it kinda died out.
I think Carrero.
Did a lot of education around that.
I am told that there's not a difference in terms of nutrition between really palm oil and olive oil, but there's some misconceptions around processing.
Sustainability is maybe a bigger, you know, thing to think about, but then again, there's also a lot of, commitments towards sustainable palm oil as.
So, not, not really big, quite small.
So here's another nice question.
The chocolate manufacturing is a very traditional industry.
How much enthusiasm, or resistance is there to the use of innovative processes and ingredients?
Storytelling is a huge trend right now.
So, There's a lot of opportunities to tell a lot of stories.
So I've seen a lot of claims about the way the chocolate is ground, how it's made, what's the process, and again, there's been a lot of stories around the origins, but now one of our top 10 trends this year was around processing.
So I think there is a lot of, opportunity if you have the right story for the market.
I think something, really crazy might not work, but there's definitely a lot of interest in, in how things are made.
So it's a traditional industry, but there's definitely a lot of interest.
And innovation.
So I think that's probably, those are the, I think the questions that are probably, there's a few other kind of small questions that can be answered by that probably need a bit more detailed answer.
But I wanna thank everybody for, for their time today, and for listening and I hope everybody is going away with, with a, with a lot more inspiration.
Harvinder anything else to add?
No, I think that to your point, Chef Wendy did a nice job of really kind of highlighting different textures and different forms of almonds in a way that the, the group here might not have seen before, but very, very excited that category continues to grow and it continues to be a lead category for, for almonds.
So thank you.
OK, thanks for attending everybody.
