Marshmallows make comeback
Wednesday, September 5th, 2007
I’ve been running into marshmallows a lot lately. Star Provisions has been making its own heavenly version of s’mores for several years. I recently sampled a take on a banana split at the Chocolate Bar; it featured “marshmallow fluff.” And my favorite of all is the shaggy pink coconut cupcake with marshmallow icing at the Cupcake Factory.
It seems marshmallows are all the rage. USA Today in fact reported Tuesday, Sept. 4, that America has gone marshmallow crazy:
The everyday marshmallow is toast.
Replacing it: gourmet, fancy-dancy marshmallows made with everything from caramel swirls to chocolate chips to passion fruit.
Even giant Kraft (KFT) is jumping on board. Earlier this year, it rolled out Jet-Puffed StrawberryMallows — its first flavored entry — and the strawberry version already is outselling plain ones 2-to-1. No wonder Jet-Puffed sales are up 9% this year.
Kraft and rivals aim to prove “gourmet marshmallow” is not a contradiction in terms.
The gooey treats are being reinvented as more than stuffing for s’mores over campfires or garnish for hot cocoa.
“Consumers have started to snack on marshmallows,” says Gwen Gray, Kraft’s marketing director for Jet-Puffed. As kids go back to school, Kraft is adding chocolate to its marshmallow mix and putting its three flavors into 90-calorie variety snack packs.
After several years of inconsistent sales, the innovations have the $132 million marshmallow industry up 7.4% though July compared with the same period in 2006, according to ACNielsen.
Nutritionists, however, aren’t going soft on the treats: “Warning to parents,” says Stanford University nutritionist Jo Ann Hattner. “This is packaged sugar.”
The article goes on to list a number of upscale marshmallow treats new to the market. Get the details here.
(Photo from The Wit of the Staircase, the blog of the late screenwriter Theresa Duncan.)
