By Charly SHELTON

The Grammys may have come and gone but the style remains. Red carpet trends and celebrity sway go a long way to making a product popular. It’s with this idea that at these award shows and events, celebrities and members of the media are gifted with awesome items from technology to food to perfume and more. The Grammys had a special gift lounge experience due in part that it was backstage. In a tent just outside the Staples Center, celebrities and media gathered to see what the gift lounge had in store – and they were not disappointed.

Chef Philip Ashley was one of the attendees to gift celebrities with chocolate. From candy apple truffles to sweet potato chocolates to jerk chocolate with fire roasted Scotch bonnets, jerk spices and sweet plantains, Chef Philip gets really creative with his candies. The No. 9 features French lavender and Madagascar vanilla, the Smithsonian features blueberry balsamic vinegar and black pepper and the Memphis is a barbecue truffle. They sound weird, but they actually kind of work. And especially unique is the Versailles Collection. These were only on display as they cost $3,000 for a box of seven chocolates.

Made with Louis XIII cognac, only 100 boxes of seven chocolates each were made. With caramel made by hand and wrapped layer after layer around itself resulting in a fairly large candy, each piece takes 30 minutes to create. The candy itself weighs 30 grams and is hand gilded with 23-karat gold leaf. The level of artistry on these chocolates was astounding.

Koi Interiors gifted attendees with a $1,000 gift certificate toward interior design and furniture, touting that Adele tours with one of their chairs because they’re so luxurious and comfortable. And they really are.

Of course being a 10-year-old boy at heart, the gifter that resonated the most with me was Scuf Gaming and its amazing videogame controllers. When playing a game on Xbox or PlayStation, gamers have to move their thumbs from the right thumb stick to the buttons to perform actions like jumping, shooting, melee or whatever. In high stress situations where fractions of a second could mean victory or defeat, this move means a lot. Scuf Gaming has solved it by putting programmable triggers along the back of the controller where the middle finger, ring finger and pinky rest. Each of these triggers can be mapped to function as any other button on the controller, so whichever ones take gamers away from what they need to be doing can be mapped at their convenience. Scuf Gaming is one of the top game companies in the world and I see why.

For more information and for their websites, visit this story on CVWeekly.com.

  Charly Shelton