We’ve been commissioned by the Fragrance Foundation to create 3 special marshmallow flavors for the annual FiFi Awards, which is an Academy Awards of sorts, for the fragrance industry (I know what you’re thinking - are there really that many new fragrances introduced every year that an annual award ceremony is necessary? Apparently, the answer is yes.) The ironic thing about the FiFis is that when I worked in the beauty industry in a former life 10 years ago, I designed the invitations for the Awards. Funny how some things seem to come back around.

It’s been feeling like the old days (as in 3 months ago…3 long months) when Mark started experimenting with marshmallow flavors. It’s interesting that we settled on classics like chocolate and caramel for our products because we tried a whole bevy of flavors during our test trials, most of which worked, but more in a “hmmm, interesting…” and not in a “I want to eat these one by one right out of the bag” kind of way. Having settled on Cardamom, Lemongrass and Grapefruit, Mark set to work today. Flavors are a bit tricky with marshmallows - while they may taste as you expect them to right after they are made, they can change as we soon found out a few months ago after a pomegranate marshmallow test. A few days later, the marshmallow ended up tasting a lot like a Flintstones vitamin. Unexpectedly, in this experimental batch, the cardamom marshmallow came out the best. The flavor of the spice really came through and it’s an interesting experience to bite into a marshmallow and taste cardamom. Texture-wise, Mark really came upon a great discovery when he began played around with technique - we’ve been keeping dated packages around of all our stuff and even a month later, the marshmallows are still quite soft and fluffy.