Caffe Acapella is a small company in Philadelphia that debuted the world's first edible coffee candy this month that does not include cocoa beans. The candy is made primarily from imported coffee beans with some milk, cocoa butter and sugar (for texture) but no cocoa beans at all. According to the Candy Blog, the taste is fairly intense, as you might expect.
Mark Izzo and Kathy Niness of Caffe Acapella came up with the idea for an edible coffee candy bar after realizing coffee is the world's second highest selling commodity after oil. They imagined that an item that popular would probably have a following in different forms as well. After two years of experimentation, the team came up with the perfect recipe for coffee bars and Caffe Acapella was born.
I love the packaging for the Caffe Acapella product line. The coffee bars are available in four flavors: espresso, cappuccino, toffee espresso and caramel macchiato. The packaging for each flavor has slight color variations. The design is simple and classic.
While the bite-sized heart candies have been available at candy trade shows and as in-store samples, so far only the bars are available on the Caffe Acapella website and in Raley's supermarkets in Northern California. I will warn you, the Caffe Acapella coffee candy bars are pricey. A single 2.25 oz. bar goes for $2.99 on the Caffe Acapella website (a 24-pack is $64.58) making the price point more competitive with luxury chocolatiers like Godiva.
What do you think? Will coffee candy bars be the next big thing?
If the taste isn't too overboard I think they'll do well. I've enjoyed chocolate covered coffee beans before, so I'd be willing to give this a try. Where can I get some free samples before I commit to a purchase?
Posted by: Scott | January 29, 2008 9:11 AM | Permalink to Comment