I’m pretty convinced that Zzang! bars have essentially remade the way everyone around Zingerman’s (and a lot of our regular customers) think about candy bars. In the same way that Bakehouse rye and Farm breads and Creamery cream cheese (just to name some that come to my mind) have altered the way we think about those foods, I think the same thing is happening with Zzang! bars. We pay more for to eat these more traditional, more full flavored foods, but we’ve just come to accept them as the “norm” (I know, we’re spoiled).

Anyways, with that in mind . . . I’m on the campaign to get ever more folks of all ages, around and beyond Ann Arbor, to make the mental move to better candy in the same way everyone around here has done in the last couple years with so many other foods. I want to help people understand the difference in flavor between fresh candy and candy that can sit on the shelf for weeks. I also want to really get across what a big taste difference it makes when you’re willing to invest in the kinds of ingredients Charlie uses in the Zzang! bars. Really, a big commercial candy maker would never consider using ingredients like these. The flavor is, like, fifty nine times better than the stuff everyone is used to buying elsewhere.

Starting with the former—freshness—it’s not really new news in the food world in general; most everyone who eats well has long ago figured out the import of freshness with produce, roasted coffee, olive oil and a host of other things we eat and drink. Freshness counts for candy, too!

Obviously, not everything is better in its fresh state. Some foods are made to last—we’ve got a pretty fantastic wheel of two year old Comte cheese in the Deli right now that’s delicious. We’ve got balsamics that probably date back to before Emma Goldman ever left Lithuania (1885) or before the Nueskes went to Wittenberg, Wisconsin from their native Germany along with their family recipes for bacon and ham (1882). And of course there are loads of wines before they get sold, and dry cured hams at the deli that are aged for two or three years. But those are foods that are supposed to be aged before they’re at their best.

Candy bars are a different story—they don’t get better as they get older. Charlie started saying it like six years ago. The flavors are simply livelier and more lustrous and just better when the candy is fresh from the manufactory. It’s not like the bars are going to be spoiled in six months, but they aren’t as goo. Over time the sugars break down; the flavors blur. Commercial bars avoid this problem by loading up on ingredients that keep them as is for, literally, years.

Then there are the better ingredients. You can’t make great candy out of mediocre raw materials. Better chocolate, better nuts, honey, sea salt, etc. Handmade cashew brittle, handmade nougats. Literally everything in each bar is better. And again, you really can taste the difference.

With all that in mind, the truth is that I think we’re all sort of spoiled around here—living near the Candy Manufactory is like having a really good local bakery, while most of the rest of the world is still making do with Wonder Bread. That’s starting to change as the Zzang bars make their way into so many other stores around the country.

While I’m on the subject, let me just say out loud that there’s no question that these bars—like our bread or Neal’s Yard Dairy cheeses or whatever else—cost more. If you use good stuff and make ‘em by hand it’s safe to say that they’re gonna have a higher price than all that commercial candy that everyone’s been accustomed to for so long now. But hey, there was candy before there were big factories. And now, thanks to Charlie (and Sara and Freddy and Amy and Frank everyone else involved) there’s candy after big factories. Those of us in Ann Arbor and folks near a Zzang! retailer (or, really, anyone with an internet connection since they’re available Zingerman’s Mail Order) no longer have to settle.

Greetings and welcome to spring!

Before I even get into the actual five foods, I wanted to wish a happy anniversary to everyone here. Hard to believe but sure enough, 28 years in the books! The anniversary wishes really do go out to everyone here because, while I guess it’s sort of not really deniable that Paul and I are the people who started the whole thing 28 years ago last week, the exceptionally obvious reality is that none of it would exist without all the other thousands of people—that would clearly include you—that have worked over all the two point eight decades. As we all know, ideas are great but it’s making them into a reality that’s the key. And as we also all know incredibly well in the food business the way that we do it here, it REALLY doesn’t matter much how great someone’s idea of the food was. Unlike books, cds, software, shoes and appliances handmade food really has no guarantee that what was good on one day will be anywhere near that good the next. Sometimes that’s because of nature, sometimes human error, sometimes some of both. . . but the point is just that if we’ve served a lot of good food over the years it’s to the credit of the many thousands of people who made it happen.

So, Happy Anniversary, and here’s to many more years to come. And as per the 2020 vision, I look forward to taking our already good food and service to radically higher levels over the next decade.

Getting back to food of the moment . . . (not that they’re particularly monumental or meaningful from an anniversarial standpoint but . . . ) here’s five foods to fit into your eating this week!

Happy everything!

ari

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As is becoming the norm, I’m way overdue to get these out. Thanks for your patience and support (both personally and professionally), thanks for reading, thanks for doing all the amazing things that you do everyday to make all this that is the ZCoB go as great as it goes. It’s just my own sense of things but I feel like the energy around our parts is really, actually probably higher that it’s ever been. And that while—as is pretty much always the case—some parts of “us” are having better times and others are working through more challenging ones—the energy, the positive attitude, the spirit of generosity, the level of cooperation and the quality of the food and drink are better than ever. Which is pretty cool thing to be able to say 28 years down the road.

There’s a lot of great stuff going—Roadhouse beef, baguettes, new Wowza candy bars, new packaging at Mail Order (Mo’s working on some really great, cloth from old bread baking, not inexpensive, but I think lovely carry-bags to sell—ask him about them if you’re interested in getting in on the project!) … plus pot pies at the Deli, new coffee brewing methods, ZingTrain’s debut of the new, half day, Service Express training sessions, etc., etc.

In terms of compliments and how much good food, good service, good energy appeal to all ends of the world’s spectrum, I’ll tell you that on the same day I heard rave reviews about the entire ZCoB first from half a dozen highly experienced, business focused upper level executives from the Giant Eagle supermarket chain (based in Pennsylvania) and from the guys from Band of Heathens, here from Austin for the Folk Festival. Let me just say that these two groups are not likely to be seen hanging out together too often and probably have fairly different tastes in many things in life. But there they were – the execs stylish black overcoats in the am, the heathens in black jeans and leather jackets later that same evening—telling me how much they loved the whole experience. Pretty cool I’d say.

Seriously, thanks for doing all you do. It’s pretty darned amazing to be a part of it!

Ari

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In terms of food, as usual there are about 900 great things that I feel like I should write about… .Comte, Manchester from the Creamery, Christmas Cookie Club cookies (and books, signed by Ann Pearlman), Boston Brown Bread, 2 Kilo Caraway ryes, Maras red pepper from Turkey, Crunk Fish (when it’s on special at the Roadhouse), Rwanda coffee, Masia Altet olive oil, Txakoli vinegar (more on this one next week), stollen, wild berry preserves from Serbia, El Rustico chocolate bars and peppermint bark from Askinosie… like I said, I have a lot of stuff on my mind. But since they aren’t going to all fit in below, here are five things to get you going.

More info to come soon.

See you soon!

Ari

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