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.