ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY
Beverly Hills, California, US - 15 March 2018
1. Pull out of Easter eggs and chocolates
2. Various of Easter eggs and chocolates
3. Close of spinning chocolate on enrober
4. Pull out from picture on wall to wide of assembly line cooling tunnel
5. Close of Easter chocolates moving along assembly line
6. Various of Easter candy designs being placed on chocolates
7. Set up of Ed Engoron, President and CEO of Perspectives/The Consulting Group
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ed Engoron, President and CEO of Perspectives/The Consulting Group:
"Well the chocolate industry right now is very exciting both for consumers and processors because we are going broach over 100 billion dollars this year and that's the first time. That's up about 8 percent in the last 10 years. The Swiss continue to consume about the most chocolate and that's right about 10 kilos a year. The Austrians and the Germans follow very closely behind and that is about 9 kilos a year and America is right around, somewhere around 5 kilos a year."
9. Pull out of Edelweiss Chocolates exterior
10. Close of Edelweiss Candy Kitchen sign
11. Wide interior with customer buying Easter bunnies
12. Wide tilt down of Easter chocolates on shelves
13. Mid of Easter baskets on shelves
14. Wide of Zahir family working on chocolates in kitchen
15. Pull out of Danny Zahirpour, Creative Director and head chocolatier, Edelweiss Chocolates
16. Wide of the hand painted speckled eggs
17. Various of Zahirpour splattering colouring into speckled egg molds
18. Pull out of chocolate being poured in speckled egg mold
19. Mid of Zahirpour flipping mold and tapping out excess chocolate
20. Mid of Zahirpour scraping excess chocolate from speckled egg mold
21. Wide tilt up of Zahirpour putting two speckled eggs halves together
22. Close of sealed speckled egg completed
23. SOUNDBITE (English) Danny Zahirpour, creative director and head chocolatier, Edelweiss Chocolates:
"This year for us we are doing something new, we are doing our handmade speckled eggs. They are about 7 inches long and they are hand molded and we speckle them with coloured coco butter by hand so it's almost like a hand painted design. Think about Jackson Pollack, splattering the paint on the molds. And then we shell the egg and then we demold them and put them together in a 3D fashion and then they stand on a platform and then they are boxed with a beautiful spring ribbon."
24. Mid of gold chocolate bunny and gold egg
25. Close of gold chocolate egg
26. Various of Zahirpour hand creating gold chocolate bunny
ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY
West Hollywood, California, US - 15 March, 2018
27. Pull out of Katherine Spiers, food critic at KCRW, NPR public radio
28. SOUNDBITE (English) Katherine Spiers, food critic at KCRW, NPR public radio:
"People like to eat fancy chocolate around Easter. This is the holiday where you will see people spending more of their money on the high-end chocolates so the expensive chocolatiers are going to see a big bump in business around Easter compared to say Valentine's Day and Halloween where people are buying sort of more inexpensive chocolate candy, which might come in a bulk bag, that sort of thing. It's less elegant than Easter chocolate."
29. Pull out of John Kelly Chocolates exterior
30. Close of John Kelly Chocolates sandwich board
31. Pull out of interior
32. Wide of John Kelson with client offering chocolate sample
33. Close of client eating Easter chocolate sample
34. Mid pan of framed press articles
35. Wide of shelves with chocolate boxes
36. Close of milk chocolate bunnies gift box
37. Pan of dark and milk chocolate bunnies on trays
38. Close dark and milk chocolate bunnies on trays
39. Wide of John Kelson, Kelly Green and chocolatier working in kitchen
40. Wide of John and Kelly preparing Easter bunnies
41. Mid of three Easter gift boxes
42. Mid of awards and Tower gift boxes
43. Close of 24 piece Assortment Boxes
44. Set up of John Kelson, CEO and co-owner of John Kelly Chocolates
45. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kelson, CEO and co-owner of John Kelly Chocolates:
"We have a big celebrity clientele. We're located in the heart of Hollywood in Los Angeles. I mean you can't get more in the centre of entertainment that that. So we do a lot of business with the studios. We have a lot of celebrities that do come directly to our stores and buy from us."
46. Wide of chocolate conveyer belt
47. Mid of chocolatier putting chocolate on conveyer belt
48. Close of melted chocolate
49. Close of chocolates on conveyer belt
LEADIN:
Chocolatiers across Beverly Hills and Hollywood are gearing up for Easter with their latest, high-end creations.
It comes as annual global chocolate sales are expected to top more than 100 billion US dollars for the first time.
Easter is fast approaching, a time for chocolatiers to bring out their most impressive and expensive creations.
And in Beverly Hills and Hollywood, the Easter delights are at their most luxurious.
From 18 karat gold bunnies to Jackson Pollock-inspired eggs, there is plenty to tempt customers, as long as they've got a budget to match.
Ed Engoron, President and CEO of Perspectives/The Consulting Group, an international food and restaurant consulting firm, says chocolate sales are at an all time high worldwide:
"Well the chocolate industry right now is very exciting both for consumers and processors because we are going broach over 100 billion dollars this year and that's the first time. That's up about 8 percent in the last 10 years. The Swiss continue to consume the most chocolate and that's right about 10 kilos a year. The Austrians and the Germans follow very closely behind and that is about 9 kilos a year and America is right around, somewhere around 5 kilos a year," he says.
The market research agency Statista says that increased consumption from India, China and Asian Pacific countries is driving the industry, as those consumers grow more accustomed to 'Western' tastes, along with a belief in the health benefits of eating dark chocolate.
The appetite for chocolate has been growing so much that analysts predict a 30 percent increase in global cocoa demand by 2020.
Edelweiss Chocolates of Beverly Hills has been a chocolate institution since 1942.
During the golden Age of Hollywood, it catered to Hollywood royalty, including the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra and Katherine Hepburn.
The store is filled with handmade premium artisan chocolates, made using traditional techniques and sold in Hollywood and abroad.
Owned by the Zahir family, Edelweiss has enjoyed a unique place in the fabric of Beverly Hills history for many years.
Lucille Ball was a regular customer of Edelweiss and used to enter through the backdoor, passing the conveyor belt.
Rumour has it the infamous chocolate conveyer belt episode in I Love Lucy was inspired by Edelweiss.
Danny Zahirpour, the creative director and head chocolatier, says vibrant colours on chocolate eggs are the big trend this year.
In line with that trend, he's created a modern speckled painted Easter egg made from scratch with a splatter technique.
Each cost 59.95 US Dollars and are in big demand this season.
"They are hand molded and we speckle them with coloured coco butter by hand so it's almost like a handpainted design," he says.
"Think about Jackson Pollack, splattering the paint on the molds. Then we shell the egg and then we demold them and put them together in a 3D fashion and then they stand on a platform and then they are boxed with a beautiful Spring ribbon."
He also hand brushes and paints 18-karat gold chocolate bunnies which sell for 24.95 US Dollars each.
He says Easter is a time people will spend more money on fine, handcrafted chocolates.
Katherine Spiers, food critic at KCRW, NPR public radio agrees.
"People like to eat fancy chocolate around Easter. This is the holiday where you will see people spending more of their money on the high-end chocolates so the expensive chocolatiers are going to see a big bump in business around Easter compared to say Valentine's Day and Halloween," she says.
Kelly Green and John Kelson (aka John Kelly Chocolates) cater to Hollywood's elite and are known for some of the finest chocolates.
They specialise in handmade, ultra luxurious gift boxes and presentations, making their chocolates with natural ingredients in small batches.
One of their most popular items at Easter is the combined dark and milk chocolate bunnies in small round gift boxes (10.50 US Dollars for two bunnies).
They say they sell thousands of these bunnies each Easter.
Kelson says artisan, high quality chocolates are the biggest growing segment and are hugely popular with corporate Hollywood and VIPS.
"We have a big celebrity clientele. We're located in the heart of Hollywood in Los Angeles. I mean you can't get anymore in the centre of entertainment that that. So we do a lot of business with the studios. We have a lot of celebrities that do come directly to our stores and buy from us," he says.
Kelson says their business keeps growing and there is always a peak in business around holiday times.
He says e-commerce is also growing in leaps and bounds as people want the convenience of shopping online.
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