Foodies will be pleased to here that the boutique chocolate retailer Cacao Sampaka, is planning to open its first UK outlets later this year.

The brand is part-owned by Ferran Adrià, the head chef of El Bulli, one of the world’s most celebrated Michelin 3-star restaurants which can be found near the town of Roses, Catalonia. As well as having equity in Cacao Sampaka, Adrià is also head of development for the brand. It already has a retail presence in Spain, Dubai and Tokyo.

Cacao Sampaka aims to open at least two combined café and retail outlets in Covent Garden and Canary Wharf by Oct­ober. A wider roll-out will follow; a full UK ecommerce website will be launched next week. As part of a campaign created by NR Communications, the brand has signed up TV make-up artists as brand ambassadors to help position it as the ‘celebrities’ chocolate’.

If you like the idea of marketing your businesses along chocolate lines, why not invest in some branded chocolate for your business. Sweets2order in conjunction with Gift Selection can supply great quality branded chocolate, that will really leave a sweet impression.

The branded chocolate that they offer may no be quite as posh as what you’ll find in El Bulli, but rest assured it is made either here in the UK or on the continent, you won’t find any dodgy Chinese confectionery being offered. Whether you’re looking for little Neapolitans branded, chocolate bars, or embossed boxes of truffles; talk to their friendly team who will be able to help.

If you work in a challenging environment,  and you’re looking for unbreakable promotional plastic mugs and tableware, then  you’ll know they can be hard to find. The Mugstore and Gift Selection however, now offer such products with short lead times and great quality printing.

Finding such products is hard enough, but not only that, you can now have them branded too. If you’re looking for unbreakable mugs, plates, bowls, trays and cutlery, then they are now available in a wide variety of attractive and vibrant colours.

When they say “unbreakable”, they don’t just mean under normal use, like a lot of other distributers will mean. If you just drop say a cup on the floor, then unlike a ceramic mug it won’t break, sure. But more than that, if you smash it against it a wall they won’t break too.

However, they do not mean that the products are literally impossible to break. If you’re a  twenty stone man, and you keep jumping up and down on the products, then they may break yes. If you’re unsure about the strength of these products, by all means ask their friendly team for a sample, so you can be certain that they’d meet your requirements.

An entrepreneurial chef and hotel owner is planning to produce Scotland’s first commercially-available wine.  Pete Gottgens, originally from South Africa, has planted vines in the grounds of the Ardeonaig hotel in Perthshire.

Mr Gottgens said: “I don’t for one minute think we are going to rival any of the great wine-producing areas of the world.” He explained that he wanted to sell the wine in his restaurant and also allow guests to see the production process. There are 48 vines in total from four different varieties, in the grounds of the hotel located on the banks of Loch Tay.

To celebrate his new venture and promote his business, Mr Gottgens might appreciate some wine themed promotional products. Branded bottle openers are available in all shapes and sizes, and make for a neat promotional product that people are likely to keep for a long time. If bought in quantity, you can pick up a promotional bottle opener to put on a set of keys for as little as 50p.

Alternatively high quality wine accessory sets, make for eye catching corporate gifts, that are bound to make the recipient feel appreciated. Having engraved wine gifts such as bottle stoppers, wine collars and cork screws will make a smart addition to any dining table.

There is a branded wine set for every wallet, but if you’re looking for something specific, contact the friendly promotional experts over at Gift Selection.

We love promotional confectionery here, while one leading supplier is Gift Selection, who only supply quality branded confectionery items from the Continent or the UK.  The down side of ordering branded sweets from Europe however is the relatively high long lead times involved.

However Gift Selection in conjunction with Sweets2order have recently brought out a line of branded sweets, that our available with super quick lead times. The popular ‘Creative Sweet’ or wrapped boiled sweet, is now available on an express service, which means your order will be made in just three working days.

The beauty of these branded sweets is the individual photo quality printing, which is ideal if you have a vibrant message you want to get across to your consumers. The minimum order quantity on these popular branded sweets is the usual 25kg (approx 4,000 pieces), while shelf life is a respectable two years.

Branded sweets and promotional confectionery in general make novel marketing ideas for mailers, or they can make your exhibition stand even more eye catching. If you have questions at all about branded express sweets, contact the friendly confectionery experts over at Gift Selection.

Controversial confectionery supplier Nestle has announced that Kit Kat bars will be Fairtrade certified from 2010. They have launched a print ad campaign to coincide with the certification, carrying the line ‘Have a break, have a Fairtrade Kit Kat’.

The ad explains Nestle’s on-going sustainability drive, ‘The Cocoa Plan’, through which it promises to invest £65m over the next 10 years to increase agricultural assistance, promote sustainable farming methods and improve social conditions for farmers working in the Ivory Coast.

Funnily enough it doesn’t mention their; marketing of processed cow’s milk as a substitute for breastfeeding, their connection with Robert Mugabe, selling of contaminated animal feeds, GM ingredients, child labour and price fixing. On the other hand their Kit Kat Chunky caramel bars are bloody good.

If you are looking for promotional chocolate items, that have to be specifically Fairtrade certified then this is something that sweets2order can help you with. They have a range of explicitly ethically manufactured chocolate items that are great for promotional use. The most popular is their branded Fairtrade hot chocolate sachets, which I think would make a great mailer for this time of year. If you have any questions at all about branded confectionery, contact the friendly team over at sweets2order.

I’m sure you’ve all seen branded mints before, such as branded mint cards or printed clic clacks. However if you’re looking for some branded mints that are more recognisable, then we can now offer Tic Tacs with bespoke packaging!

They were first produced in 1969 and have been a popular product throughout their history. They are usually sold in small transparent plastic boxes with a flip-action living hinge lid. Originally, Tic Tacs were dyed the specific colours, such as green, red or orange. Now, in many countries, the transparent plastic boxes are coloured for the specific flavours and the actual Tic Tacs inside are white.

Branded mints are a breath of fresh air (sorry), but on a serious note, they do create a novel and effective way of promoting practically any organisation. If you require any sort of branded mint, then contact the friendly promotional confectionery experts over at sweets2order who will be happy to help.

We get lots of enquiries from loved up couples wanting personalised sweets for there upcoming wedding. However as I’m bitter and single I refuse out of spite. On a serious note we can very rarely progress, because of the general high minimum quantities required for promotional confectionery.

Very often we can get asked for promotional rock sweets for example, the problem being that people generally want a couple of hundred and the minimum order being a couple of thousand.

However we are now able to supply promotional sweet jars from low minimum quantities, which would make an ideal finishing touch to a wedding. There’s nothing new about personalised jars, however now they are able to be filled with practically any confectionery item.

Now there is a fantastic choice of sweets on offer, of course there are traditional sugar almonds or love hearts, but now you are only limited by your imagination. Not only can you pick which sweets you want in your personalised jars, you can also pick the colours.

Now you can have the jelly beans matching the bridesmaid’ dresses! If you want to know more about promotional confectionery for your wedding (or civil partnership, bar mitzvah, funeral etc) then contact the friendly confectionery experts at sweet2order.

I don’t know about you but I love a good sausage. However Wall’s has been criticised for branding their “Lincolnshire” and “Cumberland” sausages in packets that do not state the meat comes from Europe.

Their owners the Irish food producer Kerry Group, said ‘Lincolnshire’ and ‘Cumberland’ only refer to the recipe and not the origin of the meat, which apparently comes from Denmark, Holland and Germany, as well as Britain.

It is The Sunday Telegraph (amongst others) who are been campaigning for greater clarity in food labeling, and who brought this to the attention of the media. The Kerry Group’s director of corporate affairs Frank Hayes estimated that half of Wall’s meat came from Britain and said there was not enough pork in Britain to meet demand.

There are a range of promotional savory items (although sadly not sausages), but if your looking for some promotional snacks ask the promotion experts at www.sweets2order.com. Branded mince pies, branded crisps, branded pretzels - you would be surprised what’s available. Of course if you need to know what the ingredients (and where they come from) that go into your promotional snacks then they can let you know no problem.

Kellogg’s is getting sick n’ tired of other people making cornflakes, and want to make double sure that people don’t think that there cornflakes are going into other peoples boxes.

So when you’re munching on your Waitrose own brand corn flakes, don’t be fooled into thinking your getting Kellogg’s cornflakes. If you do a big green chicken will come round, and put you straight.

 In a bid to protect their brand against imitation products, Kellogg’s are to literally brand some of their flaked corn. The cereal main men plan to burn the Kellogg’s signature on to individual flakes using a laser, and will then insert a proportion of these branded flakes into each box.

If the system proves a hit, it could be used on Kellogg’s other cereal products, including Frosties, Special K and Crunchy Nut. Helen Lyons, lead food technologist at the company, said: ”In recent years there has been an increase in the number of own brands trying to capitalize on the popularity of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.

I think she is being slightly pretentious, I don’t see why people would automatically presume this in the first place. Anyway she said; ”We want shoppers to be under absolutely no illusion that Kellogg’s does not make cereal for anyone else. We’re constantly looking at new ways to reaffirm this and giving our golden flakes of corn an official stamp of approval could be the answer.”

Is this nonsensical marketing stunt, or an off the wall attempt by one of the world’s biggest food producers to stop people buying corn fakes. The British PR office for Kellogg’s claimed on their Twitter today that it has succeeded in etching its brand into individual corn flakes so they stand out against any copies.

If you think some promotional cereal is the answer to your business’s marketing needs, then  sweets2order can supply you with some branded cereal bars.

A custom printed promotional cereal bar, makes for an unusual promotional item but one that is perfect if you want your brand to be associated with a healthy lifestyle. Sweets2order won’t go as far as to brand individual cereal flakes, but they will do a good job of printing the packaging. They have a great range of branded cereal bars, so get in contact with their friendly team for more information.

Posh supermarket giant Waitrose has decided to pull the plug, on its UK TV Ads with Fox News (On Sky) after controversial comments from one of the channels leading commentators – Glenn Beck.

It was back in July, that Beck described President Obama as racist. His comments are laughable as he said the president’s reaction to the arrest of a black academic Henry Louis Gates in Cambridge, Massachusetts proved him to be “a guy who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture. I don’t know what it is…”. Not exactly ‘proof’ surely, and when was he ever charged anyway?

A Waitrose spokesman said in a statement: “We take the placement of our ads in individual programmes very seriously, ensuring the content of these programmes is deemed appropriate for a brand with our values. His comments didn’t go unnoticed in America either as Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Travelocity were three of several U.S companies to withdraw their advertising from Glenn Beck’s show because, the Guardian says, they feared becoming “tainted by association”.

This just goes to show how fragile the global world of PR and advertising has become, but a bit odd that this backlash has taken so long to come into effect.