h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Maltesers - A12180953
Author: Chocoholic's Delight Club - a hootoo club with a difference - U4288864

I'm AKA Emmily - U190758

This is an update of Maltesers - A378290

>"If your update is effectively a brand new entry, you can request for it to be put through the normal editing process once it leaves here. That way, the new entry will eventually get its day on the Front Page."

Yes please, if that's possible.

CD/Em

Right, now I've got some time to look at this again.

"In the early 1930s American born, Forrest Mars travelled to the UK and opened the Uk's first"
'In the early 1930s, American-born Forrest Mars travelled to Britain and opened the UK's first'

"Frank and Ethel Mars, from Washington"
'Frank and Ethel Mars from Washington DC'
Or were they from Washigton state?

"Once the dough for the centre has been shaped, in the past that would probably have involved the use of a drop roller. However, these are rarely used nowadays; most have been replaced by"
'Firstly the dough for the centres has to be mixed and then shaped. In the past that would probably have involved the use of a drop roller but nowadays these are rarely used in high volume confectionery production; most have been replaced by'

"into a continuous oven, which quickly heats them"
'into a continuous oven which cooks them'

As far as I'm aware, coating pans are not chilled or refrogerated in any way - it's entirely down to the skill of the operator to feed the chocolate spray in at just the right rate to prevent the sweets sticking together. This is how I used to put a sugar coating on pear drops - too little water and the sugar won't stick; too much and the pear drops will get too wet and the sugar will dissolve when you sprinkle it, creating a huge sticky mess.

coco - cocoa

In the context of this entry I don't think it's necessary to include "White chocolate contains milk solids 14% minimum." (nor the similar claim in the ingredients for normal Maltesers).

"Maltesers are manufactured in bright red plastic bags, and top-opening cardboard boxes, of varying weights and sizes; including"
'Maltesers are manufactured in bright red plastic bags and top-opening cardboard boxes of varying weights and sizes, including'

Maltesrers - Maltesers (a couple of times)

The first footnote is uneccesary, and I'm not sure the second one is either since enrobing usually refers to covering centres in chocolate with an enrober (which was one of the possibilities discussed in the other thread) rather than in a coating pan. I'd advise taking them both out.

Gosho

all sorted

I just realised the ingredients (I think) should have been in italic, and have changed them to italic. And I've omitted the ingredients for the ice creams, will add them soon.

CD/Em

The pans don't have a 'polish mode' - I think they spray in some kind of edible wax to make the sweets shiny with products such as Maltesers.

If you are making your chocolate by hand, then tempering the chocolate automatically gets you a glossy sheen on the surface. Some US chocolate-like products don't have enough chocolate to gleam on their own and they are waxed. Are any of the ingredients in Maltesers that correspond with the EU list of food-additives for adding gloss?

The lack of flat surface doesn't seem remarkable to me, and it's puzzling to me to see it repeated in many of the articles about maltesers on the www. I've seen many kinds of mass produced chocolate-covered things that don't have a flat surface. Is this a geniune concern of the UK public, or is it a Mars marketing 'thing'?

How is 'maltesers' pronounced?

It's pronounced Molteezers. We don't generally do the 'Moll-TEE-zers' thing in the UK. I've seen it creeping into the EG and I don't much care for it.

Finally got a break from writing to read the article through. It's looking great Em. Gosho cleared up most of the issues I was going to raise, my proof-reading brain going into auto mode.

Forrest Mars "is the son"; change to "was the son".

Packaging. White Maltesers are usually in a cream coloured bag with the same red and white labelling.

"The packaging also includes information... ingredients; printed in a variety of languages". Change the semi-colon for a comma or remove altogether.

"Although the weight of milk and white differs slightly..."
"Although the weight of milk and white Maltesers differ slightly..." to show the change is in the product. Possibly rephrase the last sentence to "The white chocolate coating being lighter than the milk chocolate may explain this difference in weight"

Hot drink, para starting "According... malt drink; using..." Change the semi-colon for a comma or remove entirely.
Hot drink, para starting "All have the..." Change to either "the same bright red and white Maltesers packaging..." or "the same bright red packaging with the white Maltesers labelling..."

Just some thoughts, I hope they make sense. Years of Admin work may have left me too picky so take and leave what you think is best. Again, well done.

Re-Post #4 - Gosho

I've replaced the what I had with the following

'In the final stage a spraying of edible wax is used to give the Maltesers their shiny polished look.'

Yvonne, I've dealt with all your points except >"Packaging. White Maltesers are usually in a cream coloured bag with the same red and white labelling." which I will go back to and add a description for the white Maltesers soon.

Sea Change made a good point -

>"The lack of flat surface doesn't seem remarkable to me, and it's puzzling to me to see it repeated in many of the articles about maltesers on the www. I've seen many kinds of mass produced chocolate-covered things that don't have a flat surface. Is this a geniune concern of the UK public, or is it a Mars marketing 'thing'?"

I'd imagine that Mars were the first to produce chocolates, ie their Maltesers without a flat surface, but there are various different chocolate coated sweets without a flat surface now.

Should I rewrite the first sentence under 'How Maltesers are Made' in the past tense?

CD/Em

When dealing with the 'How they're made' section Emmily, you should remember that this is all speculative, and this is indeed stated in the entry itself.

Therefore, how about a one word paragraph at the end of that section, immediately before the 'Ingredients' header:

Probably.

Gosho

What I was think of was replacing -

>"Mars do not openly reveal their trade secret of how Maltesers are made, and how the chocolate balls are smooth, with no edges. However, we can speculate on a viable possibility."

with

'It's reasonable to assume Mars were the first confectionery company to produce smooth round chocolates with no flat edges. They did not openly reveal their trade secret of how Maltesers were made and maintain that stance. However, we can speculate on a viable possibility.'

Does that sound okay and accurate - it was 1936 when Maltesers were first made, was there likely to have been much speculation of how they were made at the time?

CD/Em

Have added packaging for white Maltesers.

CD/Em

If they kept the method of their manufacture a secret right from the word go then eventually there would have been speculation about how they're made, but I've no way of knowing that or answering that question.

However, there were coating pans and smooth sweets of several shapes at the time, so it's not reasonable to assume that Mars was the first company to produce such sweets. That's innacurate.

Okay

I could use this from the original Entry

'For years it was a mystery to some how the manufacturers managed to get the chocolate on the balls without getting a flat edge. Most chocolates have one flat side where they rest while cooling. Maltesers though, like similar sweets Poppets and Revels, do not.'

and then add >"However, we can speculate on a viable possibility." at the end of that.

CD/Em

Saying "For years it was a mystery to some how the manufacturers..." suggests that the secret was suddenly revealed and that some of us now know how it's done. It also doesn't get across the idea that Mars keep the method secret - it just sounds like it's a manufacturing method that most people don't know about because they've never worked in a confectionary factory. Like putting chocolate around a liquid centre for instance - most people don't know how that's done either. This is different though - Mars are keeping this one a secret even though people in the trade can speculate about the method.

I have to go to work in about 10 minutes so I really don't have time to come up with alternative wording right now. Maybe tomorrow or over the weekend if you need suggestions.

Okay, I'll put what I originally had back in for now, maybe was was ok after all.

Don't work too hard

CD/Em

should have been -

Okay, I'll put what I originally had back in for now, maybe that was ok after all.

And how is this one coming along?

Only suggestion I can think of is making sure the title explains that this is to do with the confectionary.

Hmmm you sure about that Jims? Isn't the trade-name Maltesers as recognisable on its own as Smarties (A571727)

CD/Em

If I said 'Maltesers' to anyone where I live, I'd get a blank stare, just as much as if I said 'Bengay' to you, Emmily.

Okay, I'll try to think of something.

What's Bengay?

Emmily