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In the article entitled "100 THINGS THAT ARE ACTUALLY GETTING BETTER", Caring Candies is listed at Number 4 under the heading "Sweet Tooth"...

Guilt-ridden sweet binges need no longer keep you up at night, thanks to a growing move to provide sweets that are tasty and healthy. Woolworths offers a delicious range of reduced-sugar, tartrazine-free sweets, while local company Caring Candies (www.caringcandies.co.za) sells tartrazine- and sugar-free treats that are flavoured with herbs and fruit essence, and naturally coloured with fruit and vegetables. They have become so popular that they are now exporting overseas.

They produce sugar-free candies without artificial sweeteners, artificial colourants, or preservatives (including BHA, BHT or TBHQ). Their flavour is derived from either herbs or fruit essence and their colouration is from vegetables, plants or herbs. They are 100 per cent free from gluten, wheat, soy, sugar, yeast, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, potato, eggs, corn, rice and sesame, which make them ideal for children, and indeed adults, with allergies.

SUGAR-FREE DIET

Neil was an accountant and Denise was a web designer, but they became interested in developing sweet treats for diabetics after complaints from Denise’s diabetic friends that there was little or nothing available in South Africa.

Products on the market were full of artificial sweeteners and other synthetic ingredients, or were imported and expensive.

When Denise had to follow a sugar-free Candida diet, she really suffered and admitted that she hadn’t realized the problems facing people with sugar intolerances until she had to exclude sugar from her diet:”Artificial Sweeteners gave me heart palpitations”, she recalls. Neil decided to try and devise an alternative solution for his sugar-deprived wife. Their first sweets were made on their kitchen stove and once the taste was to their satisfaction they tried them on friends and family and of course their most demanding critics; their children. By also using a test group of non-diabetic or non sugar-intolerant individuals they knew that if they liked the taste, then their initial target market of diabetics would absolutely love them.

PALATINIT AWARD

Their initial range, Caring Candies “Naturals” were herbally-flavoured candies with flavours such as raspberry (general tonic, detox), Lemon (nausea, digestion), Liquorice (low blood pressure, chest infections), ginger (nausea, constipation, digestion), and Lavender mints (high blood pressure, calming, soothing).

The Glezer-Jones’ real stamp of approval came at the Annual Palatinit inhouse sugar-free meeting held in Milan Italy, where they were awarded the prize for “Best Product 2004”. Following the success of their “Naturals” range, Caring Candies “Sourz” were added to the range offering an assortment of Sour Apple, Sour Cherry, Sour Tangerine & Sour Lemon flavours.

It did not take long for them to realise that their target market was much larger than they had initially anticipated. Due to the fact that Caring Candies are very low on the glycemic index (less than 9), and release glucose slowly and steadily into the bloodstream, they are not only beneficial to diabetics but also to slimmers, individuals with ADHD, Hypoglycaemics, and Sportsmen.

PLANS TO EXPORT

There has been considerable interest shown in Caring Candies. Their website receives up to 60,000 hits per month from all over the globe, which has prompted them to explore exporting their much sought-after product range. Caring Candies have been exporting their candies since 2004 to private consumers around the world including the UK, various EU countries, USA, Australia, Puerto Rico and Canada.

As a result of the demand for their healthy candies, the company has been forced to expand from one small factory specializing in hand-crafted candy to two factories, the second being mechanized to cope with current and future production requirements.

With a basic concern for health and care reflected in all of their products, the couple are currently researching and developing other exciting products to add to their range.

Making success naturally sweeter

Sweet success in exports is within the grasp of a South African hand-made candy manufacturer, writes Linda Ensor

CAPE Town-based sweet manufacturer Caring Candies has created a niche for itself in the South African market for its naturally sweetened treats, but cracking the international scene has not been easy, despite intense interest.

The problems will be familiar to those who have tried to enter the export market for the first time — the need to find reliable, motivated agents and distributors, the considerable freight logistics hurdles, and the difficulty in speedily finalising international transactions.

However, Caring Candies joint MD Neil Glezer-Jones says there is little doubt about overseas demand for the hand-made candies, which contain neither sugar nor artificial sweeteners such as aspartame. Glezer-Jones, a former accountant, runs the business with his wife Denise, previously a web-designer.

International interest in the candy, which is made from a beet-sugar derivative, Isomalt, has been high, with hits on the company website averaging about 19|000 a month. Diabetics, hyperactive children, slimmers with a sweet tooth and the health conscious in general are among the targeted consumers.

The candies are flavoured with either pure herbs or fruit essences and sold in health shops and pharmacies. Flavours include raspberry, ginger, lemon, liquorice, peppermint, lavender, spearmint and orange, with products ranging from sticks, lollipops and bon bons.

Added to their health benefits are the absence of artificial flavourants, colorants, preservatives and fats.

Caring Candies, which started with somewhat messy experiments in the Glezer-Jones’s kitchen in 2002 before a workable recipe was found, now operates from a small factory in Woodstock employing 15 people.

A network for exporting successfully to Australia has been established but freight delays aborted the initial foray in the US market, despite the strong interest displayed when Caring Candies products featured at the “All Candy Expo” in Chicago last year alongside about 700 other candy exhibitors from all over the world.

“The response was incredible,” Glezer-Jones says.

He is hopeful that the imminent approval by the US’s Feingold organisation of Caring Candies’ products will act as a significant stimulus for demand and open the gateway for exports to the US.

“Feingold is an organisation which acts as a consumer watchdog for their over 40|000 members who are prone to allergies. Feingold produces a ‘shopping list’, listing products that are safe for their members, and our products will soon be on their list. This will act as a strong pull factor for our products into the US market,” Glezer-Jones says.

“We hope to finalise the Feingold endorsement soon, which will make us the only sweet product on its list. The US market is obviously very important and we believe such endorsements are the way to go for the Americans.”

International recognition also came in May 2004 when Caring Candies was chosen as the best product in the Annual Platinit Sugar Free Awards at the annual Platinit meeting in Milan, Italy, which brought together one representative each of Isomalt from 30 countries. The agents themselves were the judges of the best product — “that is endorsement indeed”, Glezer-Jones says.

He believes 2006 will be a watershed year for the company, “a year when we will make it happen. I have been reining in the company’s growth so we get the recipe and packaging right and learn the hard lessons on the local market. Now we are ready to move. ”

Talks have been held with a number of importers in Scandinavia, Puerto Rica, the Netherlands and Benelux countries.

Last year Caring Candies was a finalist in a Western Cape Entrepreneur of the Year competition. The company has been self-sufficient from the start but has required a lot of investment in research and development in the early years.

Caring touch leads to sweet success

When Neil Glezer-Jones was 15 years old, he promised himself that at 35 he would change his career. And so he has, going from accounting to making candy.

"If you're going to change your career, you might as well change it to something fun," he said.

His business, Caring Candies, a finalist in the Cape Argus/Liberty Life/UCT Graduate School of Business Entrepreneur of the Year competition, makes "healthy" sugar-free candy.

It started out in 2002 with experiments in Neil's own kitchen, when he and his wife, Denise Glezer-Jones, were frustrated by the fact that there was no healthy sugar-free candy on the market to offer their children. "Well, there was imported sugar-free candy, but then

it would have artificial sweeteners in it, artificial colourants and preservatives," he said. So Neil tested recipes, starting out with what he called "our green gooey". "We never made a single sweet to sell from home. That was only research and was tested on friends and family," he explained. When Neil says "we", it's because his business is run by himself and his wife, Denise.

The sweets' main ingredient is Isomalt, which is said to hardly influence blood glucose levels or insulin after intake, as it has a very low glycaemic index. Though originally made from sugar, it also does not promote tooth decay. "Caring Candies has been able to pay for itself since day one, but we don't really make any money, because all the profits go into research and development," Neil said. The company also enjoys a good relationship with its customers. "Our customers call us all the time with ideas and requests for new candies. Actually, I think our customers drive us harder than we do ourselves," Neil said. All the sweets are "handcrafted" at their company facilities in Woodstock.

When packaging and promoting their products, Neil said they were very honest. "All the packs have a warning that you should not eat the whole bag in one day, because it can have a laxative effect if you're not used to eating sugar-free candy. "We also state that our only products that are not good for teeth are the citrus ones." Caring Candies also looked abroad to find the toughest label restrictions, and labelled their products accordingly. "In that way we can export everywhere, without changing our packs," Neil said. And they have gone global, exporting to Australia and England, among other countries.

The company also went to Italy in May last year to showcase their products at the annual Palatinit Meeting, attended by representatives from 30 countries. There their candies were selected as the Best Product for 2004. Flavoured with herbs, the sweets - in ginger, lavender and peppermint or spearmint, liquorice, raspberry and lemon - are said to relieve a number of conditions including nausea, constipation and sore throats. The products are all kosher. "Well, actually they're also halaal," said Denise, "we just haven't applied for the certificate yet." The sweets are available from health stores and selected pharmacies.

To the Glezer-Joneses it's very important that they support their agents and workers. "They helped us come this far, and even though we get offers from big companies, we would never let our current agents down," Denise said. "And we dream of expanding our production. We have the room to employ more people when we can expand the business. "There's also room for advancement for our eight very special ladies working in production," Neil said.

And that's what Caring Candies is all about – caring!

The same article also appeared in the TABLE TALK Community Newspaper, 8th September 2004, DAILY NEWS KZN Newspaper, 8th September 2004, CONSTANTIA BULLETIN Community Newspaper, 16th September 2004, TYGERTALK Community Newspaper, 23rd September 2004

When victory is oh-so sweet

The Glezer-Joneses' answer to the lack of sweets for diabetics was to cook up healthy herbal candy and, after winning an international award, their invention is enough to make even Willy Wonka green with envy.

WHO would have thought that a young Milnerton dad, fiddling around on his home stove, could come up with every mother's answer to the "sweeties please" nightmare. "I had green goo following me from the stove, all across the kitchen to the fridge," laughs Neil Glezer-Jones, who just a year later, beat sugar-free products from 30 countries to collect the Best Product 2004 award at the Palatinit Awards in Italy.

Surrounded by boxes of colourful candy, Neil and his wife and partner Denise appear still a little shell-shocked at how their "Caring Candies" have taken off, now being sold at health shops throughout the country, as well as from about 100 school tuckshops in Johannesburg and Durban. He was an accountant and she was a web designer, but they got interested in developing sweet treats for diabetics after complaints from Denise's father that there was little or nothing available. Products on the market were "full of artificial sweeteners", or were imported and expensive. Then Denise had to follow a special sugar-free diet for medical reasons and, says she, "really suffered". "I hadn't realised the problems facing people until I had to exclude sugar from my diet. I decided there simply had to be an easier way," she recalls.

But while the rest of us may have sat back bemoaning our fate, Neil got to work, talking to anyone willing to share their knowledge, got past the "green goo" stage, and by May last year was ready to go. "In fact, our first customer was ready before we were. So in June last year we launched officially, but we've really been putting the finishing touches as we've gone along.

"We started with sweet sticks, then moved on to lollipops because children are obviously such a huge market. We've changed the recipe five or six times, changed the flavours and made a few switches after I visited the International Sweet Show in Cologne at the beginning of the year," Neil says. But now they've got the final product wrapped up. The sweets are also sold in packets of bonbons. 

Without giving away their secret recipe, Denise will say that Caring Candies is unique because they:

 Contain herbs
 Contain no artificial flavourants, no sugar, no aspartame, no saccharine, no preservatives, no tartrazine and no fat.
 Are a low glycaemic index food, making them ideal for diabetics or children with attention deficit disorder.
 Contain no gluten, no MSG, no yeast, which makes them perfect for those following a gluten-free or candida diet.
 Are "tooth-friendly"
 And they're delicious and affordable too, she says.

Although the sweets are hand-made in a local factory, the Glezer-Joneses' home smells quite enticing, the "sugary" smells wafting around thanks to orders they have stocked up ready to go. Aside from being delicious, and tasting just as sweet as any other commonly-sold candy, their healthy offering have another dimension. They did some research into the properties of herbs, combined these with more commercial flavours such as peppermint and spearmint, and ended up with:

 Lemon - aids digestion and has detox properties.
 Raspberry - good for sore throats, mouth ulcers, for detox and as a general tonic.
 Lavender/peppermint - relieves tension headaches, calming, lowers high blood pressure.
 Lavender/spearmint - relieves tension headaches, soothing, lowers high blood pressure.
 Liquorice - fights upper respiratory tract infections, sore throats.
 Ginger - aids digestion, relieves constipation and nausea.

The sweets have a shelf-life of up to two years, and more tests are being conducted in Denmark. The Glezer-Joneses' real stamp of approval came with their recent big win at the international sugar-free awards when they beat products from 30 countries around the world to take the Best Product 2004 prize. "We're talking about multi-national companies with mega-million rand budgets, and we came along and beat them all," Denise says. The sweets are distributed through agents across South Africa, and Neil says they want to keep their company small and grow it slowly. They're not yet in the big retail stores, but they have a new still-secret range that they are intending to have ready before they tackle that new market. Denise says their original idea was definitely to provide a sweet that was delicious, but also affordable in South Africa, and they want to keep it that way. Prices from retailers range from R2.50 for a sweet stick, to R15 for a 75g packet of bonbons. "We keep close tabs on the people who sell our stock and we really wouldn't like to see big mark-ups going on to them. That's not why we started this business," Neil says emphatically. 

Who benefits:

 Diabetics: Caring Candies have a low glycaemic index, releasing glucose slowly and steadily into the bloodstream. In addition, lavender sweets are particularly good for diabetics with high blood pressure.
 Candida patients: The candies contain none of the "banned" ingredients, such as sugar, gluten, MSG, yeast, vinegar etc. · Coeliac patients: The sweets contain no gluten, wheat, oats, barley or rye.
 Children with attention deficit or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: They contain no sugar, no tartrazine and no preservatives, and have a low glycaemic index.
 Slimmers: The sweets contain 0% fat and have a low glycaemic index.
 Anyone wanting a sugar-free sweet.
 Anyone looking for a "tooth-friendly" sweet: The sugar replacer in Caring Candies reduces dental cavities and gum disease.
 Anyone wanting to maintain a healthy lifestyle

New herbal candies spell sweet success

Cape Town couple fills a vital gap in the market, writes Nashira Davids

WHAT started out as green goo boiling on the stove in a Cape Town couple’s kitchen, has turned into a profitable business selling herbally flavoured sweets.

Denise and Neil Glezer-Jones came up with the idea of sugar-free herbal sweets when she was put on a sugar-free diet and they were “desperate to find something to pacify the kids”.Instead of controlling their son’s intake of sweets or just cutting sweets out of Denise’s diet, they decided to make their own, substituting artificial flavourants and sweeteners with herbs .

Denise, a web designer, and Neil, an accountant, fine-tuned their recipe to produce Caring Candies, which has won an international sugar-free products award.

Next month they will start exporting the sweets to the US.“We thought, ‘What can one ingest that is healthy?’ And the obvious answer was herbs. Herbs have been used for centuries for their medicinal benefits. So we thought, this is great, we can make candy that is not only delicious and affordable, but good for your health,” said Denise.What followed was Neil toiling in front of the stove for months, extensive research and meetings with experts until they came up with a winning recipe.

They used herbal flavours such as ginger, lavender and peppermint to develop a range of sweets that are suitable not only for children, but also for diabetics, slimmers and children with attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.They launched the product in June last year. The sweets are on sale at health shops and pharmacies throughout the country.

Denise says she has had incredible feedback from customers who suffer from diabetes and high blood pressure. Less than a year after their products hit the shelves, the couple beat 30 countries at the Annual Palatinit Sugar-Free Awards, held in Italy in May.The Glezer-Joneses were proud to walk away with the “Best Product 2004” award.

Recently they clinched an export deal with a US company and hope to have their sweets on the shelves in time for Halloween. 

Despite their business showing rapid growth of about 600% this year, the couple have remained humble.“I believe success is not measured by the size of your bank balance, but by the number of people you positively affect — and, boy, are we successful,”said Neil. Nutritional therapist Mandy Simpson said she recommended the sweets to clients, including those who suffered from diabetes and ADD.“A lot of people have problems with sugar and there is such a need for sweets that are safe for them,” she said. “These sweets are a huge leap for sufferers who just a year ago had very little available to them. Most of the other products on the market are either very expensive or contain artificial sweeteners . . . which people have to be careful of.”

Sweet on Sweets

We all know that sweets are bad for you because they cause tooth decay, contain sugar or artificial sweeteners and have no nutritional value.

Out of sheer desperation, a father-mother team, Neil and Denise Glezer-Jones, developed Caring Candies specifically with children, slimmers and diabetics in mind. Flavoured with pure herbs, these sweets contain no sugar, fat, artificial sweeteners, tartrazine, preservatives, and they’re kosher, too. They are also tooth friendly and are endorsed by dentists.

Caring Candies, recently voted Best Product 2004 at the Palatinit in-house Awards, come in 10g candy sticks and lollipops and 75g bonbon packets and are available at health shops and pharmacies nationwide.

Caring Candies is also launching a brand-new range of Sourz and a super Christmas Gift range. For more information, call Denise on (082) 824 4418 or visit www.caringcandies.co.za

Feast on it

All sugared out? Stock up on sugar-free Caring Candies, developed by SA couple Denise and Neil Glezer-Jones. The best bit is they contain no artificial sweeteners, have a low glycaemic index, are kind to teeth, and a godsend if you have ADD (attention deficit disorder), candida or diabetes.

This article is by Sieraaj Ahmed and is all about the best sweets - and guess who comes out tops....Caring Candies! It talks about what to look out for when selecting sweets for your family and cautions the reader to "Read the Label", "Avoid Fat", "Consider your teeth" and finally "Go Herbal". This is what is written under the "Go Herbal" heading... 

The newest kid on the sweet block is a range called Caring Candies, a locally made range of sweets flavoured with herbs rather than artificial sweeteners. These sweets contain no sugar, no saccharine, no preservatives, no tartrazine and no fat. The herbal sweetener gives Caring Candies a taste only slightly different to regular sweets - but most people wouldn't even notice the taste difference. "Caring Candies are lower in total energy - 970 kilojoules per 100g versus 1550 kilojoules from a packet of liquorice sweets - and are also sugar free", Dr Carien Scholtz says. "They have the additional advantages of being less or non-cariogenic (not causing tooth decay), being free of artificial additives and having a low sugar content, which make them a good choice for diabetics, slimmers and hyperactive children." Caring Candies uses a sugar-replacer called isomalt which has been shown to reduce dental caries and gum disease, rather than cause tooth decay as most other sweets do. "However, if too much isomalt is consumed at a time, it can cause gastrointestinal cramps," Marlinie says. The packs advise consumers not to eat more than 25g of any Caring Candies product in one day. 

A HEALTHY sweet?  NO Way!? YES Way!!! 

Developed by a Father and Mother team out of sheer desperation and specifically with Children, Slimmers & Diabetics in mind, CARING CANDIES are available from most Health Stores and Pharmacies in 10g Candy Sticks and Lollipops, and convenient Bonbon packets. Flavoured with PURE HERBS, Caring Candies “NATURALS” Range is Sugar-Free, Fat-Free, Artificial Sweetener-Free, Tartrazine-Free, & Preservative-Free. Not only that, but they are gorgeous to look at, they won't promote tooth decay, they are Kosher AND they are ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! Flavours include RASPBERRY (general tonic, detox), LEMON (nausea, digestion), LIQUORICE (low blood pressure, chest infections), GINGER (nausea, constipation, digestion), LAVENDER/SPEARMINT or LAVENDER/PEPPERMINT (high blood pressure, calming, tummy ache).

CARING CANDIES are low Glycaemic Index, which makes them ideal for Diabetics, Hypoglycaemics, Hyperactive Children and Slimmers. Whilst CARING CANDIES do not claim to CURE you of your ailments, you may find them useful in the relief of some of their associated symptoms.

Brand new is the "SOURZ" Range, which includes Sour Apple, Sour Cherry, Sour Naartjie, & Sour Lemon (also FREE FROM Sugar, Fat, Artificial Sweeteners, Tartrazine, Preservative, AND Artificial Colourants!). A Super treat to pp into those lunchboxes - Sugr-free, Delicious AND Good for you to!

Sweet tooth

Childhood memories come flooding back when you delve into a bag of Caring Candies.

These bright, striped sweets are totally natural, flavoured with herbs, and are a dream for diabetics, slimmers and hyperactive children.

No fat, preservatives, artificial sweetener or tartrazine. Available at health shops and delis.