We are back on Track

It has been a long time since our last post. Hopefully with this new year, we can keep you informed a little better.

We celebrated our 5th Anniversary in December 2011. And although we were down a temperer a week for before Christmas, we managed to survive our busiest season and get as much chocolate out as possible. In fact, the shelves were bare! It took us nearly 2 weeks to get back up to full stock in the case and our extras. We still need to restock on some Jelly Belly jelly beans and the chocolate covered berries.

We have added several flavors since we last posted, and have a new flavor key to put in our boxes. I would tell you check out our website.. .but it is being updated. So keep checking back to www.stlawrencechocolates.com for updates.

Last summer we had some professional photographs taken for us by Kathyrn Deuel. We'll be sure to post more as time goes by. And we are regularly posting to facebook at St. Lawrence Chocolates as well. So be sure to "like" us there as well.

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and we have some beautiful chocolate heart boxes... I'll post more about those in the next sessions.
Chocolate wishes
Ellen

Welcome Fall

It was a long hot summer, one that most chocolate doesn't enjoy... unless you are the frozen variety.

We at St. lawrence Chocolates are gearing up for a fun fall. We've added the Pear flavored truffle. It was a special request from Julian's Restaurant in Potsdam, which will be featuring it as one of their fall drink specials... so be sure to stop in there and check it out. They will also have an apple carmel drink special with a St. Lawrence Chocolate garnish.

We will also be creating the chocolate fish for the St. Lawrnece County Chamber of Commerce's Annual Dinner in October. They are solid chocolates shaped like a fish. These go along with their new FISHCAP initiative to bring more anglers to St. Lawrence County for fishing.

This holiday season we will be featuring a new 24 piece sampler box, which will have 24 different flavors rather than two of our original 12 flavors... and a flavor key to identify them all!

Spring Fling

Spring Fling begins in Potsdam on April 24. It's a celebration of spring, Earth Day, and just a chance to get out and roam the village. Play the Facade Game, by visiting participating businesses, getting your game board stamped and your name goes in for a $100 Village Gift Certificate... and of course St. Lawrence Chocolate gladly accepts those.

We have some great specials going on in the shop. Some chocolate 50% off. We also will have a wide variety of samples, so try something you've not been too sure about, like our new dark chocolate pink peppercorns. They are made by Kopper's of Staten Island, NY. Nice kick.

We also have great new sugar cookie pops... Made by Mimi's Cookies in Massena, NY. Very yummy and beautiful. And Sevey's Shortbread is back, dipped in dark chocolate.

Experimenting with some new flavors here in the shop. The Flavor of the Month is Louisville Lemon, a lemon cream in a dark mint chocolate, very refreshing.

And next month is pina colata in milk chocolate.

Stop in say "Hi" and give us a try.

On to Easter

Just to reflect Valentine's Day was great.. the shop was all decked out in red, and heart-shaped boxes abound on the shelves. It was a great weekend.

On our way to that chocolate bunny season, we will pause briefly in March to take note of St. Patrick's day. We will have claddaugh solid disks wrapped in green and gold... your own pot of gold if you wish. We are also going to try our hand at Guinness Truffles this year. Should have those ready by the second week in March.

The bunny's have already started to multiply in the shop! And NEW this year will be a couple of sizes of solid bunnies. Our largest will still be a semi-solid because of its size. The two smallest are 5.5 oz. each. They are two different shapes and we will have them in milk, dark and white. Very cute!

The next size up solid will be about 7-8 ounces in one style same as one of the smallest and the largest so you can have the entire family of bunnies in the basket.

We have also added lambs to the line-up this year. One is about 6 ounces solid and standing, and then we have a set of three small pieces packaged together.

And of course we will be working with Raquette River Basket Company to put together some pre-made Easter baskets with bunnies, Jelly Belly Jelly Beans and our other specialties.

Valentine's Day 2010

Just saying that Valentines Day is just around the corner. We will have 29 piece hearts, and much more. Check back with us soon.

September News

We are gearing up for the Autumn Holidays and our first big test was First Saturday. First Saturday is designed to get college kids downtown to see what's available. We saw a lot of kids through the door and a couple hundred tried to guess our Mystery Flavor. We gave them a couple hints and 65 guessed correctly. I made about 480 samples to last 5 hours but they were pretty much gone by 4:00. The Mystery Flavor turned out to be Sour Apple and it was actually very good. So good in fact, we may end up adding it to our case in the near future!

We've added another new flavor of fudge: Maple Walnut. Ellen is making this one and it uses local maple syrup. I'm not a big maple fan but this fudge really tastes like maple syrup right out of the bottle and that's the only stuff I like.

Our Cornwall Turtles have made a reappearance to the case as well. They are bigger than before and will not fit in our trays so they will be sold by the weight. As with our nut clusters and toffee, we are trying to sell those awkward things that don't fit in our trays by weight. It's really better for the customer since they are paying for exactly what they get. Otherwise, we'd have to pick out the smallest cluster in order to fit in a tray. I've found that most people don't mix the clusters with the creams, or they just forget about them because they are in a different case. But when people get clusters, that's all they get so I think this switch to selling by weight only is a good one for all.

Our Flavor of the Month is Tom! Named for Tom, our Saturday help, and Ellen's hubby, he finally got his own flavor to snack on. The Tom chocolate is a white chocolate shell with peanut butter filling. Hope he likes it! LOL.

We've also begun making Chocolate Spoons. These will be a Winter seasonal item to start but if people get hooked, we may make them all year. The Chocolate Spoon is a solid chocolate on a handle that allows you to swirl it into a hot beverage like coffee or hot cocoa. We add a touch of flavor to some of them. We have Irish Cream, Hazelnut, and Amaretto. I dunked a plain Dark chocolate one into my cheap packet of cocoa the other day and it was transformed into a chocolaty delight. I was surprised by how much of a difference it made. So when I can't get the gourmet cocoa that I make, I can have a chocolate spoon on hand to make up for it! These spoons just dissolve in the hot liquid in a minute.

I would even think that you can make hot chocolate from them by swirling them into hot milk. For my tastes, I might need a couple spoons, however, as I like a rich Chocolate flavor in my hot cocoa. If it tastes like sweet milk, then it's not for me! That's why if anyone has tried our St. Lawrence Hot Chocolate knows that it's only for those who like to drink their chocolate! I go for rich chocolaty flavor NOT sweet, NOT milky. This is closer to how the ancient Aztecs consumed their chocolate. It was a bitter drink. It was not made with milk; it was made with water. So I can't wait to make up a batch of our Northern Nights Cocoa and try a chocolate spoon in that! AWESOME!

We are heading for Atlantic City this weekend to attend the Philadephia Candy Show. Ellen goes every year to see what's new with chocolate. So no doubt we'll come home with some brand new ideas to try out in the kitchen and add to our stock!

Newest Addition

We have finally relented... we now have fudge. We call it Tooley Two-Tone Fudge. It is not a traditional fudge... but is a very dense and creamy fudge. We have been making this for years, and I believe the recipe originated from one of our Aunts... Addie or Anne I believe. I will post a photo as soon as I can. We were going to call it Thanksgiving Fudge, because that seemed to be about the only time we really made it. And of course it is still a Holiday favorite.

The FOTM (Flavor of the Month) is white chocolate with a root beer flavored center. We call them Beverlys, after our mom. One of her favorite summer treats is a root beer float. She is quite a connoisseur. I remember one summer in Connecticut, visiting Aunt Addie we had root beer floats, and mom declared it had to be the best one she ever had. Not sure if any others have even come close to that one. Anyway the Beverly at St. Lawrence Chocolate is a small white chocolate morsel with a gold cocoa butter stripe, and of course with a root beer flavored center. They are only here for the month of August... but already we have had at least two requests to keep them on as a regular flavor.

With in the next couple of weeks we will also be trying our a Maple Fudge recipe. The first one crystalized too much and crumbled. Maple syrup is a tricky incredient. And we will also be creating chocolate coffee spons in Hazelnut, Ameretto, Irish Cream and plain chocolate.