Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone enjoys the holiday season!  I wanted to thank everyone for the compliments, inquiries and support.  

I have had a few inquiries as to why you can't order on the website. First, I have to say that I welcome all inquiries, be it by phone or email.   The answer is pretty long, so hang with me; when someone orders an assortment of chocolates, say an 8 piece box (which is $16.00) I make 8 different chocolates.  Each recipe, when cut in half makes roughly 40 chocolates each, so, if I am doing my math correctly, I end up with 320 chocolates.  I then fill the box and deliver the chocolates.  I now have 312 chocolates left over, with absolutely no guarantee that I will get another order for.  It is my intention that when someone gets a box of my chocolates that they are getting the best possible product that I can create.  When it takes me 4 days to make an assortment of chocolates, I want my customers to get them fresh, not a few weeks old, or frozen. 

I know it is frustrating, there have been a few sites that I have been to that are information only, and let's face it, we are an instant gratification type society!  I will gladly talk to anyone who has questions or would like to order some chocolates.  RIght now my chocolates can be found at Let's Talk Wine at 236 Carmichael Way Suite 308, Chesapeake, VA 23322 757.420.4720.  We are working on a schedule for chocolates to be delivered to them; such as every other Tuesday, as well as me just hanging out in the shop one Saturday a month, with an assortment of chocolates that can be sampled and boxed up.  We just did an event in mid December that worked really well like that, so hopefully there will be more of them to come.  Stay posted! 

The next common question, "why don't you just have a shop?" I am still trying to perfect my craft, for one thing and it takes a lot of time.  I also have 3 boys at home who need me, and a husband that travels a lot for work.  They are my priority.  I love making chocolate, I love the process of what I do, and selling them has come at the suggestion of others.  I just want to make the chocolate, and share what I learn and what I know, the business part is really hard for me.  I am trying to make it all work, my way.  Which means no tempering machines, or enrobing machines.  I do everything, completely by hand, by myself (sometimes my friends do help and I have plenty of tasting volunteers). 

I have looked into Etsy, which looks promising, but again it is the volume issue for me. I would have to post "coming soon", or "available now"  type banners, which when you want something now, won't really help.  I am open to suggestions, if there are any out there! 

I will update again soon, hopefully with dates for the next Let's Talk Wine event, but the site will be updated with new photos and such as well.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season! 

Chocolate weather!

It is finally chocolate weather here in Virginia!  The leaves are nearly all gone and we have officially had a frost (although, it is going to be 65 degrees today).

I am still recuperating from my last chocolate even

t a few weeks ago, it was a rough one.  The entire week I was making chocolate, it was mid 70s and raining, so I had all kinds of trouble and a 

lot of ugly chocolate.  My neighbors and teachers at my son's school were happy to take the seconds though.  I had a great opportunity to show some samples and to offer some boxes for sale at Let's Talk Wine, so I didn't want to throw in the towel (I was close though).  

I played around with the assortment, took out 2 flavors and replaced them with others.

I added the "Paris":  a traditional dark chocolate truffle, nothing but dark chocolate, butter and cream.  When I think of truffles from Paris, this is what I imagine.  Sometimes they are in a pave (flat square, like a paver) form or a soft truffle form that actually looks like the fungus truffle.  If you love chocolate, for chocolate's sake, it doesn't get much better than this combination.  The qualities of the chocolate shine when there are no other flavors getting involved!

I also added the "Morris".  Do you think that an odd name for a chocolate?  Let me explain.  The flavors in the "Morris" are just dark chocolate and orange.  Now this screams "English" to me.  I don't know if it is just because of my friend Nina or those chocolate orange balls you can get around the holidays that you knock on a hard surface and they magically break into orange slices, which are English.  So, I have a flavor screaming out "English, English,  English" but no town in England that makes me think of oranges.  You know, if you have read any past posts that I need a connection to name my chocolates.  Which artist is the prime example 

of Art Nouveau in England?  William Morris, of course.  Now, I am not an art historian, or an expert of any kind.  I also realize that William Morris came along before the Art Nouveau movement came along, it is my understanding that the English Arts and Crafts movement gets to claim him, but he was such an important figure during a time that the movements either overlap or that Art Nouveau is transforming from Arts and Crafts, that it makes complete sense to me.  Now, I did say that I am not an expert!

It is really slow going, and decidedly not a great time to start a business.  The sampling goes great, everyone loves the chocolates; but no one wants to buy.  Or, they want to buy, but they don't want an assortment, just one flavor.  When did people stop wanting an assortment of chocolates??  Has everyone forgotten Forrest Gump?   So, to see if my packing assortments only is a hinderance or not, I will be hanging out at another sample event at Let's Talk Wine on 12/13 all day, with trays of chocolates to package to order.

Now it is time to start thinking about "winter" flavors.  There isn't much locally fresh right now that would taste great in a chocolate.  There are still pomegranates in the store and pumpkins, but I am thinking about cranberries, champagne, peppermint and ginger (not all together).  I have also been experimenting with wine truffles, let me just say, there are more failures than you would imagine!

Happy December!  Go support your local farmers and businesses!