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!