Gummy Bears

Gummy bears are tiny (.79 inches long) gelatin-based candies with a distinctive rubbery texture that are molded in the approximate shape of a bear. The original Haribo candies are sold in packages that contain five flavors: orange, lemon, lime, raspberry and pineapple. All are in predictable colors, except the pineapple, which is clear.

Beginnings

The original gummy bear was invented by German confectioner Hans Riegel. Riegel founded his candy company, Haribo, in 1920. The name is an acronym of Riegel’s first and last names, and his city of birth, Bonn. Riegel died in World War II, but his son and namesake took over the company in the 1940s and expanded operations, eventually operating 18 candy factories in Europe.

Bears

In the 1960s, Haribo began distributing the classic bear-shaped treats under the name “Gold-Bears.” The concept had been around since the factory’s early days, when the little treats were called “Dancing Bears.” In 1982, Haribo began to manufacture the first American-made Gold-Bears, and Americans began to refer to them generically as “gummy bears” or “gummi bears.”

Competitors

A second German company, Trolli, introduced the gummy worm in 1981 based on a similar recipe. The Trolli gummy worms, led by their two-inch-long Brite Crawler, are now the best-selling gummy candies in the world. Trolli also produces a number of other gummy candies, including a bear-shaped candy. The Trolli red gummy bear is cherry, rather than raspberry, flavored.

Recipe

Gummy bears are made of corn syrup, sugar, gelatin, dextrose (another sugar), citric acid, starch, artificial colors, coconut oil, carnauba wax, and artificial and natural favors. The candies are made by pumping a mix of sugars, starch and gelatin through a steel coil that is steam-heated on the outside to cook the candy. After a vacuum chamber removes excess moisture from the candy, flavorings and colors are mixed in. The candies are molded in starch-filled molds and allowed to “cure” before packaging.

Icons

Haribo makes a gelatin-free Gold-Bear especially for the vegetarian Muslim market, and other companies offer organic versions made with real fruit. Gummy bears have become a pop culture icon, with their own TV show, addiction support group and page on Facebook. Under development are gummy candies with tooth-protective xylitol as well as a vitamin-fortified version.

Nutrition

Regular gummy bear candy contains empty sugar calories, but manufacturers are now creating gummy bears that contain Vitamin C and multivitamins. Manufacturers are also creating gummy bears that promote beauty needs, such as healthy skin.

Fun Fact

Gummy bears were originally named Dancing Bears by creator Hans Riegal . Red is the most popular and favored color of gummy bear candy.

Are Gummy Bears your bliss?

Cream Puffs

The Mystery of the History of Cream Puffs

Many cooks and pastry chefs passed Recipes along by word of mouth. Recipes might be called one thing in France and another in England, one thing in the queen’s kitchen and another in the mayor’s. This makes it difficult to trace the history of cream puffs and mixes myth with fact.

Catherine de Medici

One myth surrounding the history of cream puffs is that they were invented by Catherine de Medici’s cook. Catherine de Medici, daughter of the famous Renaissance Italy family of Medicis, was the queen of France. Legends surrounding the history of the cream puff credit Catherine’s cook at the royal court of France with inventing this tasty dessert. Because Catherine was a patroness of the arts, many assume that her high taste in art ran to high art in the kitchen.

Unfortunately, this myth is probably just that – a myth. While Catherine most certainly enjoyed delicate pastries, her cook did not invent puff pastries nor did he invent the cream puff. The ancestor of the cream puff can be traced back to the Middle Ages.

Cheese Pastries

Long before Catherine de Medici’s cook set foot on French soil, cooks during the 13th century in southern Germany and France had created puff pastries filled with rich cheese mixtures. Pastry dough was cooked in a hot oven until it puffed, then sliced open and cheese inserted. The warm pastry melted the cheese center. Herbs were often added for additional flavoring.

French Pastry Arts

During the same time Catherine was queen in Renaissance France, pastry chefs throughout France and England had begun to experiment with dough mixtures of flour, water, fat and egg. The exact mixture goes by the name choux pastry. It’s a simple mixture with delightful results: when it puffs, it creates an airy hole in the center which can be filled with sweet or savory filling.

Recipes for cream buns called pate feuillettée in France and butter pasted puffs in England circulated from cook to cook by at least the early 1500’s. These buns used the same basic dough of pastry flour, water, egg and fat. They were cooked into cakes about three or four inches long. After baking in the oven, they were removed and basted with a mixture of rosewater and sugar or lemon, rosewater and sugar and glued together to form a layered pastry. The entire pastry was then coated in another layer of sugar and lemon or rosewater flavoring. While not exactly resembling today’s puffed and creamy delight, these desserts were much admired and sought after by the nobles and wealthy people of the day. They were an important step on the road to today’s cream puff.

Mixture of Terms and Recipes

The mystery of the true history of puffs deepens thanks to the many terms used to describe puffed pastry. While the basic four ingredient recipe remains the same, how the ingredients are prepared and baked led to many names – choux, puff, profiterole, and buns. By the 17th century, the pastry recipe was commonly referred to as a choux recipe, because the buns it made resembled cabbages. The French word for cabbage is choux.

Profiteroles or Cream Puffs

By the 19th century, the various types of puff pastries had developed their own following. Now each name took on distinctive meaning and characteristics. The dessert known and loved as the cream puff became known in pastry circles as the profiterole. There was still some leeway in the creation of the dessert. What you ordered in one French restaurant called a profiterole might taste very different than a similarly named dessert in England.

The Art of the Cream Puff

By the mid 19th century in both France and England, the cream puff had become known as the profiterole. Often created in elaborate shapes by skilled pastry chefs, elegant Victorian diners could find cream puffs shaped like swans or pyramids of tiny, fragile chocolate or vanilla filled puffs to nibble on with the dessert wine, tea or coffee. In the United States, the first recorded mention of the cream puff on a restaurant menu dates to 1851 at the Revere House Restaurant in Boston.

Cream Puffs Today

The humble cream puff had come a long way from the kitchens of the 13the century as a cheese-filled pastry to the darling of the Victorian dining room. What was once the purview of royalty now became a bakery aisle staples You can even buy frozen cream puffs at most supermarkets. There’s even a chain of cream puff bakeries called Beard Papa’s, with 300 stores worldwide. But nothing beats the taste of a home baked, fresh from the oven puff pastry filled with sweet cream. Bite into one and imagine you’re back at the French royal court, or sitting among the elegant diners at the Revere House Restaurant. Although the origins remain a mystery, the taste answers all questions: it’s simply divine.

Are cream puffs your bliss?

Baby Blue

Baby blue is a very light to very pale greenish or purplish blue.

Baby blue is known as one of the pastel colors.

The first recorded use of baby blue as a color name in English was in 1892.

Gender

• In Western Culture, the color baby blue is often associated with baby boys (and baby pink for baby girls), particularly in clothing and linen and shoes. This is a recent tradition, however, and until the 1940s the convention was exactly the opposite: pink was considered the appropriate color for boys as the more masculine and “decided” while blue was the more delicate and dainty color and therefore appropriate for girls.

Law Enforcement

In the late 1960s, New Age philosopher Alan Watts, who lived in Sausalito, a suburb of San Francisco, suggested that police cars be painted baby blue and white instead of black and white. This proposal was implemented in San Francisco in the late 1970s (the police cars of the San Francisco Police Department were repainted the standard black and white in the early 1980s). Watts also suggested that the police should wear baby blue uniforms (this was never implemented by the SFPD, apparently because the police wouldn’t stand for it, even though other American locations do use light blue police uniforms). The idea behind using baby blue instead of black or dark blue to symbolize the police was, Watts suggested, that if the police were dressed in baby blue, they would be less likely to commit acts of police brutality.

Is the color baby blue your bliss?

Top 10 Zoos in the United States

1. San Diego Zoo – San Diego, CA
The world-famous San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California is one of the largest, most progressive zoos in the world with over 4,000 animals of more than 800 species. Exhibits are often designed around a particular habitat. The same exhibit features many different animals that can be found side-by-side in the wild, along with their native horticulture. Exhibits range from an African rain forest to the Arctic taiga and tundra in the summertime. Some of the largest free-flight aviaries in existence are here. Many exhibits are “natural” with invisible wires and darkened blinds to view birds, and pools and open-air moats for large mammals.

2. Disney’s Animal Kingdom – Orlando, FL
Animal Kingdom’s 500 acres are home to some 1700 animals representing 250 different species throughout the park. A ride on the Kilimanjaro Safari will give you a chance to see many of them as they take you through the African Savannah.   Animals and nature are the stars at this park, and its icon is the 14-story Tree of Life carved with images of over 300 different animals. Grown-ups tend to stare at the engineered tree in awe of the work that went into it. Kids automatically try to scramble up to one of the animals or climb around the thick roots at the tree’s base.

3. San Diego Wild Animal Park – San Diego, CA
The San Diego Wild Animal Park  is one of the largest tourist attractions in Southern California. The Park houses a fabulous array of wild and endangered animals including species from the continents of Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and Australia. The park is in a semi-arid environment, based around Nairobi village in Kenya, and one of its most notable features is the large Wgasa Railway which explores 700 acres worth of free range exhibits. These free-range enclosures house such animals as cheetahs, antelopes, lions, giraffes, okapis, elephants, zebras, Przewalski’s horses, rhinos, and bonobos. The park is also noted for its California condor breeding program, possibly the most successful program in the country, as well as an amazing collection of rare hornbills.

4. Maryland Zoo – Baltimore, MD
The Baltimore Zoo was created by act of the Maryland state legislature on April 7, 1876. Its name was changed to The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore in 2004. It is the third oldest zoo in the country, behind Philadelphia (1873) and Cincinnati (1874). It actually had its beginnings as early as 1862, when the first of many citizens gave animals to Druid Hill Park for public display. Today the 160-plus acre zoo property is owned by the City of Baltimore and leased to the State of Maryland. The Maryland Zoological Society, established in 1967, operates the Zoo under a lease agreement with the state. The Zoological Society assumed full management of the Zoo in 1984. Currently the Zoo’s animal collection encompasses more than 1,500 birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles, representing nearly 200 species. Animals are displayed in natural settings replicating their native habitats.

5. Bronx Zoo – New York, NY
The Bronx Zoo is the flagship of the largest network of metropolitan zoos in the country. With award-winning, cutting-edge exhibits featuring over 4,000 animals, there is no other zoo in the world that offers the diversity, superb viewing, and world-renowned expertise that assures a rewarding experience and the knowledge that visitors can make a difference in the world around them. Whether you’re nose-to-nose with Western lowland gorillas in our famous Congo Gorilla Forest , spotting snow leopards in our naturalistic Himalayan Highlands Habitat, or experiencing almost an acre of an indoor Asian rain forest, you’re always within roaring distance of the world’s most amazing wildlife.

6. Columbus Zoo – Ohio
The Columbus Zoo is home to over 5,000 animals representing over 700 species and sees over 1.8 million visitors annually. The animal exhibits are divided into regions of the world, with the zoo currently operating eight such regions. In addition the zoo owns an 18-hole golf course, known as Safari Golf Club, Zoombezi Bay, and Jungle Jack’s Landing. Both are located just south of the zoo. In total, the zoo owns 580 acres of land, with just under half dedicated to the zoo itself.

7. San Antonio Zoo – The 56-acre zoo has a collection of over 3,500 animals representing 750 species. The San Antonio Zoo opened two of the first cageless exhibits in America in November 1929 that offered visitors views of the animals not available in caged exhibits.The zoo’s bird collection is now one of the world’s largest.

8. Henry Doorly Zoo – Omaha, Nebraska – This zoo has the  Lied Jungle  which opened on April 4, 1992 at a cost of $15 million.  It is the largest indoor rainforest in the world; it occupies an 80 foot tall building that spans 1.5 acres

9. Phoenix Zoo – The Phoenix Zoo garnered worldwide attention for one of its animals, an Asian Elephant named Ruby. Ruby came to the zoo in 1973, just months after being born in Thailand. After noticing Ruby doodling in the sand with sticks, her keeper decided to give her a brush and paint. Ruby quickly became famous for her paintings, whose sales raised over US$200,000 for the zoo. Art collectors all over the world joined 18-month waiting lists and paid hundreds of dollars for original prints.

10. St. Louis Zoo – It is recognized as a leading zoo in animal management, research, conservation, and education. Admission is free, although there are fees for some attractions. One special feature is the Zooline Railroad, a small passenger train that encircles the zoo, stopping at the more popular attractions.

Are zoos your bliss?

Amusement Parks

Amusement parks all started with pleasure gardens. These were located in Medieval Europe and had live entertainment, fireworks, dancing, games and some rides. They were popular until the 1700s when political situations caused a lot of them to close down. Bakken, a pleasure garden north of Copenhagen, is still standing. It opened in 1583 and with the world’s oldenst operating amusement park.

Taking Hold in the U.S.
In the late 1800s amusement parks started taking hold in the United States. Most amusement parks were built at the end of a trolley line. They usually had picinic areas, dance halls, restaurants, games and a few rides. They were immediately successful!

The Beginning of the Future
In 1893, amusement parks started to become extremely popular. The World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago introduced the ferris wheel and the midway. The midway had a wide variety of rides and concessions and largely influenced amusement park design.

In 1894, Paul Boynton opened the world’s first modern amusement park, Paul Boynton’s Water Chutes. It charged admission and used rides to draw people to it. In 1895, he also opend a park at Coney Island. Coney Island was central to the amusment park industry. Once it had three big amusement parks, plus smaller attractions.

Over the years, trolley parks expanded, new amusement parks opened and new rides were created. Over 1,500 amusement parks were opened by 1919 in the United States.

Amusement Park Decline
During the Great Depression, amusement park attendance went down greatly. In, 1935, there were only about 400 amusement parks and World War II didn’t help matters. Many parks closed during the war and others had to stop adding new rides in order to stay open.

After World War II
After World War II, amusement parks had a sudden popularity boom. New parks opened as more and more people came. Kiddieland was developed for younger kids. It did not last long, however.

Disneyland and Theme Parks
In the 1950s people started to lose interest as the parks grew older. It was during this time that Disneyland was created. It opened in 1955. Many people doubted it would last long. However, Disneyland was an immediate success. Instead of having a midway, it had themed places.

Many people tried, unsuccessfully, to copy Disneyland. In 1961, one company finally succeeded: Six Flags Over Texas. However, as more people grew interested in theme parks, traditional amusement parks started to shut down. Some were able to stay open by copying ideas from theme parks.

Today
Theme parks are still enjoying success. New technology is creating types of rides that were once unattainable. Who knows what the future holds!

Are amusement parks your bliss?

Strawberries

Strawberries have a history that goes back over 2,200 years. Strawberries grew wild in Italy as long ago as 234 B.C. and were discovered in Virginia by the first Europeans when their ships landed there in 1588.

Early settlers in Massachusetts enjoyed eating strawberries grown by local American Indians who cultivated strawberries as early as 1643. After 1860 strawberries were widely grown in many parts of the country.

Strawberries have been grown in California since the early 1900’s. Today, over 25,000 acres of strawberries are planted each year in California and the state produces over 80% of the strawberries grown in the United States. On average, each acre produces about 21 tons of strawberries and the state produces one billion pounds of strawberries a year!

How Strawberries Got Their Name

There are many explanations, some believe that the name came from the practice of placing straw around the growing plants for protection, others believe the name originated over 1000 years ago because of the runners which spread outward from the plant. The name may have been derived from the Anglo-Saxon verb to strew (spread) and the fruit came to be known as streabergen, straberry, streberie, straibery, straubery, and finally, “STRAWBERRY’ to the English.

Are strawberries your bliss?

Pear Green

The color pear green is sort of a yellowish green. It is not too bright and not to dark. Most importantly it pairs well with many different colors. Whenever we see any shades of green, we usually associated them with things like:

Balance, Nature, Money, Justice, Youth, Good Luck, Learning, Generosity, Life, hope, Growth, Harmony, Renewal, Beauty, Respect, Satisfaction, Peace

I think pear green has the perfect balance of yellow and green. The yellow gives feelings of happiness and energy while the green gives a sense of peace and comfort.

Is the color pear green your bliss?

Bubble Teas

Bubble Tea originated in Taiwan in the early 1980’s at a small tea stand.

Elementary school children would look forward to buying a cup of refreshing tea after a long, hard day of work and play. Tea stands were set up in front of the schools and would compete for business with the best selling tea. One concession owner became popular with her tea when she started adding different fruit flavoring to her tea. Because of the sweet and cool taste, children loved the taste. Soon, other concessions heard about the “unique” and popular tea, so they started to add flavoring to their teas. When adding flavor, the tea and flavoring needed to be shaken well for a good all around taste. This formed bubbles in the drink, which came to be known as “Bubble Tea.”

In 1983 Liu Han-Chieh introduced Taiwan to tapioca pearls. The new fad was to add tapioca pearls into a favorite drink. Most of the time tapioca pearls were served in cold infused tea. After the tea and flavor were shaken well, it topped tapioca pearls that were sitting on the bottom of a clear cup. The tapioca pearls also looked like bubbles, thus also became to known as “Bubble Tea.” Bubbles floated on the top your drink and bottom of your drink.

Bubble drinks are usually cool, refreshing, and a sweet drink with tapioca pearls sitting on the bottom of a clear cup. Sometimes the drink is made with fresh fruits, milk, and crushed ice to create a healthy milk shake. You can also find drinks that are made of powdered flavoring, creamer, water, and crushed ice. And if you like it like the Asians do, the cool drink usually includes a healthy tea, infused by a flavoring.

Tapioca pearls are black, but can sometimes be found to be white or transparent. Depending on the ingredients of the pearl, the color varies. I’ve been told that the white and translucent pearls are made of caramel, starch and chamomile root extract. The black pearl includes sweet potato, cassava root and brown sugar, which add the black color.

The consistency of tapioca pearls are somewhere between jell-o and chewing gum. They are the size of a marble.

A clear cup with black balls on the bottom can easily identify bubble Tea drinks. Another obvious trait is a huge fat straw. The fat straw is needed so that the tapioca pearls can be sucked up with the drink and eaten. Bubble Tea’s appearance definitely makes it unique.One thing is for certain. Bubble Tea is not a fad. It’s a trend. This drink is addictive. If you’ve had a good one before then you know what I’m talking about.

Are bubble teas your bliss?

Chocolates

Despite the cocoa bean originating in the ‘New World’, chocolate made its debut considerably later in America. The chocolate drink was first introduced in 1765 when John Hanau brought cocoa beans from the West Indies into Dorchester, Massachusetts to refine them with the help of James Baker who opened a processing house from where the chocolate drink began to flow through the States.

In the United States, chocolate was first manufactured in 1765. It was introduced at Milton Lower Mills, near Dorchester, Massachusetts by John Hanau and James Baker who opened a processing house.

With the Industrial Revolution came the mass production of chocolate, spreading its popularity among the people. The heavy import duties which had made chocolate a luxury that only the wealthy could enjoy were reduced in 1853. Chocolate and cocoa became within the reach of the wider population and a number of manufacturers of cocoa and drinking chocolate started in business including Cadbury, Fry’s, Nestlé, Lindt and Hershey – all of which are world leaders in chocolate production today.

Ghirardelli Chocolate has a history that dates back to California’s gold rush. A 31 year old, Domenico “Domingo” Ghirardelli, a native of Rapallo, Italy, was the owner of a fairly successful confectionery business in Lima, Peru. However, Domingo had heard of the fabulous riches in gold being found in California, and in 1849 he sailed to California with the intention of striking it rich (and then going back to Peru).

Domingo was out there in the hills and streams doing his best to find his riches, but like a few of the smarter miners he soon found it was much more profitable to sell supplies to other miners. Domingo first opened a store in the boomtown of Hornitos. He was forced to buy supplies for his store in Stockton, at the time the only general merchandise store that was around for miles. Domingo believed that he could open a competing store in Stockton, and make a lot more money, if only he could figure out a way to supply it.

Domingo bought himself a sloop that he used to sail up and down the San Joaquin River, acquiring supplies in San Francisco and then returning with his merchandise to Stockton. Domingo’s first store front was just a tent, but by the end of 1849 he owned a fleet of river sloops, and buildings in both Stockton and San Francisco. He also had some profitable side lines, including grubstaking prospectors in exchange for a share in any gold they might find; he owned a hotel; and he even owned one of California’s first soda fountains (more than a decade before the marble fountain was invented). Unfortunately, by 1851 Domingo was starting over again.

On May 3, 1851, a fire swept through San Francisco and destroyed 1500 buildings. Three days later a fire swept through Stockton and destroyed half of that city. In less than a week Domingo lost everything. Domingo first tried opening a coffee shop in San Francisco, but it was a money loser, and he decided to go back into his old trade as a confectioner. He formed a partnership with a man named Girard, and they opened a confectionery store on Kearny and Washington in San Francisco. Domingo then sent for his wife, who was still living in Lima, Peru. Shortly after she arrived Domingo bought out his partner, and renamed his store “Mrs. Ghirardelli & Company.”

It was not long before Mr. and Mrs. Ghirardelli were experiencing a good deal of success. They opened a couple of more stores, and eventually opened a chocolate factory at 415-417 Jackson Street. Over the next forty years they would ship chocolate products all over the United States, Canada, Mexico, and even Hawaii. Eventually the Ghirardelli chocolate factory would become among the largest in the western half of North America.

It was a discovery made by a worker at the Ghirardelli factory that propelled Domingo’s chocolate factory to such prominence, and revolutionized chocolate making in the United States. In 1865, a worker put a batch of ground cocoa beans in a cloth bag and hung the bag from a hook overnight. By morning, a pool of cocoa butter had collected on the floor. The ground chocolate left in the bag was almost fat free, creating a dry powder that combined with liquids more smoothly. This powder became the essential ingredient in Ghirardelli’s popular Sweet Ground Chocolate and Cocoa. The dripping bags were soon replaced by presses previously invented by an Amsterdam chocolatier, Conrad van Houten, which accomplished the same result in a more controlled way.

Mr. Ghirardelli later purchased an entire block of property on North Point Street in San Francisco, and he and his sons spent the next 11 years transforming the property in to what is now Ghirardelli Square.

Are chocolates your bliss?

Oranges

Orange , common name for citrus fruit of several trees. Different
varieties include the sweet orange, the sour, or Seville orange, and the
mandarin orange, or tangerine, all rich in vitamin C. The fruit is technically
a hesperidia, a kind of berry. It consists of several easily separated
carpel’s, or sections, each containing several seeds and many juice cells,
covered by a leathery exocarp, or skin, containing numerous oil glands.
Orange trees are evergreens, seldom exceeding 9 m (30 ft) in height. The
leaves are oval and glossy and the flowers are white and fragrant. Three
essential oils are obtained from oranges: oil of orange, obtained from the
rind of the fruit and used principally as a flavoring agent; oil of petigrain,
obtained from the leaves and twigs and used in perfumery; and oil of
neroli, obtained from the blossoms and used in flavorings and perfumes.

Oranges are of great commercial importance and are cultivated in warm
regions, although they are native to south-eastern Asia. Principal orange
growing areas outside Europe include the southern United States, Israel,
and Brazil. The sweet oranges are the most commonly grown. They
include the common orange, the navel orange, and the blood orange. The
common orange, which includes the Valencia orange, is cultivated and
sold as fresh fruit and is also the source of most orange juice. The navel
orange is seedless, less juicy than the common orange, and has a small
second fruit growing at one end of the fruit. The skin and fruit of blood
oranges range from pink to red, but they are similar in most other ways to
common oranges.

The sour, or Seville, orange has a bitter taste and is rarely eaten fresh. It
is cultivated to a limited extent for marmalade and to provide rootstock for
less vigorous strains. It was introduced to the Mediterranean region by the
Arabs about the 10th century, and the sweet orange was introduced by
Genoese traders in the 15th century. The bergamot orange is primarily
grown as a source of oils for cosmetics and flavoring. Mandarin oranges,
or tangerines, belong to the same genus as oranges but are not really
oranges. They are smaller in size, often slightly flattened in shape, and
have easily peeled skin. The mandarin is the parent of a number of
hybrids, such as the Clementine.

About 20 per cent of the total crop of oranges is sold as whole fruit; the
remainder is used in preparing orange juice, extracts, and preserves.

Oranges belong to the genus Citrus, of the family Rutaceae. The sweet
orange is classified as Citrus sinensis; the sour, or  Seville, orange as
Citrus aurantium; the bergamot orange as Citrus  bergamia; and the
mandarin orange, or tangerine, as Citrus reticulata.

Are oranges your bliss?