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!