Pop Rocks played a large part in my recent novel, so I was thrilled to see this little tidbit article about the invention of Pop Rocks in the Boston Globe this morning:

Rock that candy shop
by Joanna Weiss

A little Q&A session with Marv Rudolph about Bill Mitchell, inadvertent inventor of Pop Rocks.

When Bill Mitchell died in December 2004, I read some obituaries, and they made him sound like a mad scientist. I knew the man. He had 44 patents in 35 years. Jell-O, Tang, Cool Whip.

You can buy the whole story in his book, Pop Rocks: The Inside Story of America’s Revolutionary Candy by Marv Rudolph. I think that might need to go on my Christmas wish list.

Search string changes are a pretty clear indication of the season of the year. Last month’s search strings reflect the departure of Halloween and the arrival of Christmas. Oddly enough, Butterfinger is still going strong, having appeared near the top of all lists and taking over the #1 slot for the first time in November.

1. butterfinger
2. reeses
3. merry christmas
4. kissables
5. razzles
6. christmas candy
7. halloween candy
8. m&ms
9. choxie
10. lemonheads

As with last month, Candy Convention was still coming up pretty high (in the #15 spot), I guess Food Network is still running that special.

I wrote a novel and now I’m driving up to San Francisco for the weekend to celebrate. I decided to take the day off from Candy Blog. I’ll be back on Monday.

I told you about my appearance on CNBC’s Morning Call a few weeks ago. I finally got around to getting the video up. Here it is ...

(Direct link for those reading via a feed.)

One year ago and one week Candy Blog was born. Not exactly an anniversary, as I started the blog in April of ‘05, but that’s when it had its coming out party.

Candy Blog got her present look and software one year ago yesterday. It’s like going from black and white television to color ... or for your younger folks who don’t remember that transition - from broadcast television to cable.

Even in the past year Candy Blog has continued to grow. The original 38 categories that divided up the posts now number 149. (And I’ve logged about 450 posts!) I’ve added plenty of countries, most of the brands and and started my city-specific destination guides. In that time I’ve also switched web hosts and cameras. Traffic has grown from a few hundred a day to the present level of over 5,000 a day. I’ve gone from posting a few times a week to a new review every weekday. I added some advertising to help out with the costs of the webhost, my camera and equipment and the candy. Oh, the candy.

Looking to the future, I took a poll a while back to see how folks want to see things grow here. Some of the selections would take technology and time and probably money to make them happen, and others simply time and effort. But the largest group opted for the thing that I can actually do all on my own: Recipes. Simple candy recipes that anyone can do, with step by step instructions and likely lots of photos. I expect to begin those in January and probably just once a month until I get up to speed in the kitchen.

I’m am deeply thankful for all my readers, not just because you visit and I see a little tick on my counter, but that you come back again, subscribe to the feed, link to me, send me emails and leave comments and share your experiences with candy and sweets. I know it’s a simple subject, but our passions are universal and I like to think that this little obsession unites us.

The most important part of Candy Season is not the special candies that are available, but the sales after the Candy Holiday is over. Halloween marks the start of Candy Season.

As Halloween is the first holiday of the Candy Season, the most important part of it is November 1st when the shelves and bins are filled with 50% off signs for merchandise that was coveted just the day before. All those things that you might have been scared to try at retail prices are suddenly not such a gamble.

I’m not usually content with 50% off, I like to gamble and wait a week or more for the 75% off sale. I especially like finding candy corn for 10 cents a bag.

From the poll results it seems I’m not alone in my pursuit of the after holiday bargain, more than half of you said that you grab the Halloween treats ... and part of me wants you all to stay away from the stores I frequent so that the stuff will get marked down further!

There’s early word that some Hershey’s chocolate products in Canada are being recalled because of possible Salmonella bacterial contamination.

If you have any Canadian Hershey’s check the date codes found on the back of each package ? the affected date codes range from 6417 to 6455. (If you want a refresher on what the code means, check out this post, which is about the Mars system, which appears to be the same as the Hershey’s Canada date stamp.)

The affected products include:

- HERSHEY CHIPITS Milk Chocolate Chips 270 gram

- HERSHEY’S Creamy Milk Chocolate With Almonds 43 gram

- HERSHEY’S Creamy Milk Chocolate 45 gram

- HERSHEY CHIPITS Semi-Sweet 350 gram, Chocolate Chips 2 kg

- HERSHEY CHIPITS Mini 300 gram, Chocolate Chips 10 kg, 175 gram, 500 gram

- HERSHEY CHIPITS Chocolate Chip Bulk 10 kg

- HERSHEY CHIPITS Semi-Sweet Mint Chocolate Chips 300 gram

- HERSHEY Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips 300 gram

- HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate 45 gram

- HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate with Almonds 43 gram

- HERSHEY Assorted 16 count 728 gram

- HERSHEY Assorted 50 count 2.5 kg, Nut Roll 5 kg

- HERSHEY Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips 10 kg

- HERSHEY’S Chocolate Shell Topping 177 ml

- OH HENRY! OH HENRY! 62.5 gram, 145 gram and 4 x 62.5 gram

- OH HENRY! Bites 130 gram

- OH HENRY! Peanut Butter 60 gram

- REESE Peanut Butter Cups 51 gram, 68 gram, 4 x 51 gram

- LOWNEY Cherry Blossom 45 gram

- LOWNEY Bridge Mix 52 gram, 340 gram

- GLOSETTE Peanuts 45 gram

- GLOSETTE Almond 42 gram

- GLOSETTE Raisin 50 gram, 145 gram

- EAT-MORE Dark Toffee Peanut Chew 56 gram, 4 x 56 gram

A reminder - these are CANADIAN products. The Oh Henry bar found in the United States is made by Nestle. There are no reports of illness to date, or any reports about how this was discovered. For any further questions, call the Hershey Consumer Relations line, at 1-800-468-1714

Link to story in the Globe and Mail.

UPDATE 11/16/2006: The contamination seems to have originated in some Soy Lecithin (an emulsifier). There are still no reports that anyone was sickened and the duration of the contaminant in the production line was thankfully short. The Smith Falls, ONT plant remains closed with 300-500 workers laid off as cleanup continues.

The recall doesn’t seem to have put a damper on sales or public opinion of Hershey’s. It does seem a stark contrast to the Cadbury incident earlier this year in the UK.

One of my goals when I started Candy Blog was to become a candy authority. Not that I would know everything about candy manufacturing, its history or the business end of things, but I thought I could master an area that I was interested in: Candy Consumerism.

To that end, I’ve tried to document how candy is marketed to us, where we find it, how it’s packaged, what it tastes like, trends in flavors and ingredients and of course sought the input of the readers and their opinions on the same topics.

The first inkling I got that this goal might be within the realm of possibility was my invitation late last year to attend the All Candy Expo as a member of the press. I was also featured on two radio programs and then later had another affirmation when I was interviewed for the NY Times Magazine. This week I rounded out my media and had my first TV interview.

I was contacted by CNBC for their program called Morning Call. On the day before Halloween they wanted to do a little piece on Limited Edition candies and requested me based on the New York Times Magazine column from last summer.

The big problem ... I was going to be in San Francisco on Monday because of my novel writing kick off. But this was no problem at all! The producer simply refered me to a linked up studio there.

Of course I was nervous and tried not to think too much about it. I did get a hair cut on Saturday ... mostly because I hadn’t had it cut since June. And then I spent some time practicing not flailing my hands around when I talked.

The segment on candy was going to go on a little before the end of the show which aired from 10AM to 12PM Eastern and hosted by Michelle Caruso-Cabrera with another guest, Lisbeth Echeandia (Publisher - Confectioner Magazine).

I got to the studio about 15 minutes early and had a little tea that I got from a cafe in the first floor of the building. I sat in the waiting room then about eight minutes to air the camera tech/engineer came in and got me. We hooked up my mic and stuck that thing in my ear so that I could hear the feed.

The confusing thing about doing these satellite things is that you don’t actually see who you’re talking to. So I had to go off of what I was hearing in the little earpiece. I looked at the camera as best I could, even though the content I was getting was through my right ear.

They had some little eyes on the top of the camera to remind the guests to look there. I was terrible at remembering that. There’s lots of stuff you have to remember when you’re on TV: no cussing, no ripping your shirt off, no flapping your hands, look into the camera, speak intelligently, don’t mispronounce the host’s name, answer the question, try not to talk when other people are talking, don’t chew gum, look like you’re paying attention when you’re not talking and above all be relaxed!

Of course now that I’ve done it I understand all those things far better than before.

They gave me a DVD of it when I left the studio, so I’ll try to get that up on the web sometime early next week. (You know, in case you’re interested in seeing whether or not I followed all that advice.)

UPDATE: You can watch a clip of the segment here!