First Month

We're up and running - literally - the past few weeks have been a blur in starting up the "business". Our first month's shipment goes out next week, and we are up to our elbows in chocolate...

Details, Details

It's been a while since our last post and that's not because we've been frolicking in the sun! We are trying to pull all the pieces together for our Chocolate Club so we can get on with our ultimate goal--creating delicious and beautiful chocolates for our families and friends!

We are getting very close to finalizing all the details. While we were hoping for an early September announcment to go out, it looks more like late September or early October. It will be worth the wait--I promise.

Doesn't everyone love oranges?

Candied fresh organic valencia orange peels--mmm, mmm. It takes a while to candy these peels, but it is well worth it. You must first remove the peel from the pulp and guess who gets to eat all that pulp--moi! The next step is boiling the peels in water, not once, not twice, but three times! This will ensure no bitterness. Then we move on to simmering the peels in a sugar syrup for 1 1/2 hours. We finish up by letting them sit in the sugar syrup overnight and then into the jar they go. Fortunately, they keep like this for a long time in the fridge.

You will have an opportunity to see for yourself just how much flavor they add to our orange ganache. They will be one of the chocolates featured in our Chocolate Club. After the ganache has been hand-dipped in chocolate, we will also top it with a piece of dried peel that has been lightly rolled in sugar. Perfect!

Test Drive

Now that we have the chocolates and the packaging, it's time to see how well they travel together.  Peanuts vs. Bubble Wrap, environmentally gentle vs. protective armor.  With an ice pack included, and a kiss for good luck, the six-pack box is now flying (hopefully) gently (even more hopefully) over the United States to land in Denver CO and SF CA.  Temperatures here are a chilly wet 65 degrees, and at their destinations, a much too balmy 80's in both locales.  Fingers crossed that they arrive looking pristine and tasting delicious.

Dessert, anyone?

One of the perks (and there are many) of making chocolates regularly is that when unexpected guests arrive for dinner or at anytime, putting together a little something-something for a tasty treat is but a container and plate away.  

Recently I put together a plate of ginger, meyer lemon w/ mint, maple syrup, and a sesame nougat.  It was well received....

Sometimes I Feel Like a Nut

We've been feeling a little nutty lately here in our kitchen...working on hazelnut praline, a pistachio paste, and the all american peanut butter.  Having just made the first two from scratch last week, I can see why some folks choose to pay the $$ to buy it prefab.  Having just eaten our recent batch of truffles, I can see why we should stick to scratch. 

Packaging, Packaging

And I thought all we had to do was create beautiful chocolates...Well, I'm sitting here trying to find brown candy pads which are placed in the box to keep the chocolates from moving around and being damaged.   We want them to look their best when the box is opened and you discover the treasure inside.  Thank goodness for the internet.  Of course, this is only one piece of the packaging picture.  There are boxes--what sizes do we need; box inserts--candy cups or sectioned plastic or both; tissue--does this brown have just the right amount of red in it; and bags for the final presentation are a few of the pieces we are trying to put together.   Sample after sample.  I'm feeling very popular with all the mail I'm receiving these days.   

So many flavors - so little time

As we begin to sort out the "master list" of chocolates that we'll be offering this coming fall, I've come to realize that this is in fact ludicrous.  We have our favorites, reliable go to's, like the star anise, salted caramel, cayenne and five spice, orange zest, lavender honey, and such.  But then, we get together and try new ones like this past week's batch - sesame brittle (photo left), anise honey, maple syrup. Or the week prior - white chocolate w/ meyer lemons and fresh mint, peppermint tea, peanut butter . All excellent, delightful flavors and well received, "best yet", as noted by our test tasters. I guess our master list will have to wait - we will offer the "chef's choice" for our members each month, whatever and where ever our inspirations take us.

Always a process

There are days when creating chocolates goes smoothly, then - there are days when the moon is in retrograde and nothing seems to be going...at all.  The whole process of tempering chocolate such that the crystals align and lock in like a chain link fence to create that beautiful sheen and exquisite snap is something I will never take for granted.  Whether by hand or machine, there always seems to be room for improvement - careful adjustments in temperature, adding just enough seed, agitate-agitate-agitate....check the temper.  Not in temper.  Take a deep breathe, walk away.  Begin again.

20 kilos - 44 pounds

We just received our shipment of chocolate from the distributor down in New Jersey.  To buy wholesale, the minimum order is 4 boxes, or a case, with each box weighing 5 kg.  Ergo the title.  That's a lot of chocolate.  We've been working with Michel Cluizel chocolate now for the past 6 months.  I discovered his chocolate during a chocolate tasting put on by a group at MIT called the Laboratory of Chocolate Science.  If you ever have an opportunity to participate in a tasting, it's worth going.  It's overflowing with students and we tasted over 30 different samples.  I was up all night.  But - I did discover this amazing chocolate by Michel Cluizel.  Extraordinary flavors.  I've seen Cardullo's carry it in their chocolate section.  I ran a similar tasting last spring with a small group of dedicated tasters (are there any other kinds when chocolate is concerned?) with 27 samples; flights of milk chocolate, 50's, 60's, and 70's.  Makers included Cluizel, Valrhona, Guittard, El Rey, Dagoba, Green and Black, and Ghiradelli. 

And the envelope please....

• Group / flight A – Michel Cluizel Grand Lait 45% ,Michel Cluizel Mangara 50%
• Group / Flight B – El Rey Bucare 58.5%, El Rey Mijao 61%
• Group / Flight C – Michel Cluizel Mangara 65%, E. Guittard Quevedo 65%, Valrhona Manjari 64%, Michel Cluizel Vila Gracinda 67%.
• Group / Flight D – Valrhona Guanaja 70%, Michel Cluizel Nori de Cacao 72%, Valrhona Araguani. 

Planning, calculating, losing notes

Finally sat down today and went through all the files and papers and bookmarks and brochures and catalogs...I realized that September is not far away and plans are to start our "Friends and Family" program.  Sorting out all the little details and realizing that I should have paid a little more attention in Microeconomics 101.  I'm learning all sorts of interesting new skills, like blogging....

Can't get away from the SALT

It's a big piece of chocolate - yes, I'd say about one and a half square, and no, it's not toffee.  Burnt caramel ganache with fleur de sel sprinkled on top.  It really brings out the caramel flavors and leaves that long delicious aftertaste, like you just have to take another bite, then another, then - oh - so sad, it's all gone.  And you just have to have the right amount of salty to sweet...oh, there goes another test batch.  Not sure how this would fit in our boxes, but we just had to try a big one once.

Getting the chocolate out of the mold

It is always a magical moment when we unmold our chocolates, particularly this chocolate which we used a magnetic mold where a transfer can be inserted underneath.  This batch is two layered - vanilla bean in white chocolate and a triple espresso.  Our testers were able to taste the vanilla bean underlying the espresso -  our very own vanilla latte.  The ratio of 2:1 - vanilla: espresso worked well despite the fact it was an accidental occurrence of too much vanilla bean ganache and not enough espresso.