Happy Spring!

Hello, Turtle Faithful!

If April showers bring May flowers, I'm thinking May is going to be a BLOOMFEST!
We're over the hump:  there's light in the sky in the afternoon, buds are showing themselves, things are trying heartily to get green.
I'm not the only one who's feeling good about it, our customers are, too.  We're seeing a lot of folks right about now for the Easter holiday, also selling lots of sweets for Passover.  Whatever you are celebrating, it's SPRING!

yup, that basket is made of chocolate.
By hand!

all these bunnies are solid.  No messing about.

Spring is also a fertile time for me in candyland.  Lots of inspiration.  I'm really quite happy with our latest, our Curry Caramel.  Topped with a flake or two of Maldon salt, the balance of curry, cream and milk chocolate is just heavenly.  I expected the dark wouldn't work, and I was spot on.  Not enough fat in the dark chocolate to make that curry really taste creamy and full bodied; interestingly, though, in the dark chocolate, the curry went completely floral.  I did not see that coming.  Learning new stuff is boss!

A bar I've been playing with for a year or so finally had it's debut as well:  the Bjorkbar.  Milk or dark chocolate, chopped black licorice, and licorice salt.  This is another one that I really enjoy best in milk chocolate. I tend to lean to dark chocolate, so as much as I like the dark chocolate version, the milk chocolate just gets the balance right. No other way to describe it.  When I am lucky enough to  achieve that perfect balance, I'm grinning for days (or maybe I'm grinning because I'm taste testing every other minute.  Sugar is a powerful drug).  

Keep your eyes peeled for more new delicious bits and bobs.  After Easter, though!

xx

H

Glad to meet ya, 2019!

Hoodoggers, my Turtle Peeps, I find myself once again overdue!
Happy New Year.  Happy Valentine's Day!
I guess I just sort of slid through November-January without a blink.  Things do get a bit hectic....

Christmas Eve, 1 minute after we opened the doors.  It was like a rock concert!

It was an amazing Fall, busy and fun, tasty treats flying out of our Gloucester and Salem shops.  We just have the best people in both shops behind the counter right now; I'm thankful daily.

In most recent chocolate holiday news,  Valentine's Day is fast approaching.  Amy and Brandy from our shop on Derby Street in Salem  just had a fabulous time at Salem So Sweet, an annual event that has grown so very much since we first did it 15 years ago, really great to see it has become such an event!

Here in the salt mines in Gloucester, we're making things as sweet and foofy as possible, which for all my cranky exterior, I love love LOVE.

I'll pretty much put hearts on anything.  Oreos, for instance.

In the world of not-about-Valentine's Day, I'm excited that we have a couple of new turtles in dark chocolate.  I really really like pistachios, always have.  It's been hard to find a really great pistachio out there that is affordable, fresh and delicious, but at long last, we have.  Say hey to our dark chocolate Pistachio  Turtle, as well as our dark chocolate Cherry Pistachio Turtle.  We just couldn't decide which one was better, so we made both.  They are both selling equally as well, so there it is.  So far only one person has asked about milk chocolate.  What say you, Blog folk?  Yes or No?

I anxiously await some feedback on this.  We are running out of space in our cases, making it necessary to use the limited space we have wisely.

For now, though, I'll be making Valentines.  Lots of them.  All sorts of shapes and colors.  Come see us!  If you come on Valentine's Day proper, I can guarantee you it will NOT be just men, and that we will be open an extra hour that night.  See you in the Alley!

PS:  don't forget to click on highlighted words.  There are fun links lurking behind them!

xxx

Summer Love

Man oh man, do I love a warm breeze!  The hotter, the better.  I don't even care if it's humid.  Just a delicious hot breeze, and I'm transported.

That said, I love fall, winter, and spring, too, but right now, we are in the heart of summer.  I'm just delighted.

The shops in Gloucester and Salem are teeming with folks from all over the world.  It's so cool we have shops in such beautiful places.Those of us who live on the north shore are very fortunate people.
When winter was trying to turn into spring a couple of months ago, I got talking to one of our excellent long time Gloucester regulars.  He works at a farm part time, and was telling me how good it was to work with the soil, especially when the spring seems like it will never get here.  I asked him if the farm he works at grows celebrity tomatoes.  My husband really loves a good tomato, and I really only like one right off the vine.  In the past we've had a piece of dirt to grow a couple of plants in, and had luck with celebrities.  This summer?  Not so much. He said they sure do, so  I asked him to let me know when they were ready for planting.

At the start of June, he showed up at the shop with 6 gorgeous baby tomato plants.  Wouldn't take money for them.  Wouldn't even take chocolate! Just a really nice guy.

I planted those tomatoes, and I stuck 'em in my office window.  I get great sun there.  The plants took off like crazy.  I had to ask around about hand pollination, and do a little reading -- I've never grown tomatoes indoors.  The plants got so huge that I had to move them into the front of the store.  I do my crazy tomato lady thing, shaking and blowing on the flowers, midday, daily.  I've taught one of my coworkers how to do it on the days I'm off (I don't ask him to talk to them, though- there are certain things I just can't ask!).

Week after week, I do my thing.  I figure even if they don't bear fruit, they are incredibly optimistic crazy looking plants, and I just never get tired of smelling tomato vines, so it's all good.  Watching things grow is an exercise in positivity, as far as I'm concerned. But look.  LOOOK!!!

 I really can't tell you why this makes me so happy.  Like irrationally, stupidly, happy. I know it's a  candy store.  I know I'm supposed to be regaling you with tales of chocolate dreams and tasty new  recipes.  But really all I can talk about right now is green things, given as gifts, talked to, blown on,  gently shaken green things, who in return have decided they are going to flower, then fruit.There's a lot of things going on on this planet that are not so sweet and simple.  I'm grabbing the simple. By the end of the month, those tomatoes won't be green anymore, but I guarantee they will be sweet.

Happy summer, y'all!  I'll talk about chocolate next time.

Maybe. 

Try, Try Again...

I've been making chocolate professionally for about 25 years.  It's not a big fat brag, it's just what I do.  You'd think I'd have it down by now. That's what I think most of the time.

I've had it in my head to bring back an old favorite, Figaro, to the shop.  It's been in my head for a few months now.  I just could never find the time, it seemed. I realized at the start of the week that in fact, that wasn't true.

I was nervous.

I hadn't made it in years, maybe a decade.  I have shadowy memories of it only being partially successful.  After I had made it a few times, I still didn't feel like I owned the recipe.  It harshed my candyland mellow, and eventually I dropped it from our repertoire.

I'm old enough that I don't like not being an expert at my job.

I've got a birthday coming.  Such stupid thoughts in the face of another ring around the sun, said I!

I got all the ingredients last week, and then I put it off again, until just yesterday.  I'll tell you what: when I flubbed the first batch, I wasn't surprised at all.  Not a whit! Don't get me wrong, it was super tasty.  Just wrong.  In lots of ways.

So pretty. So wrong.

After retreating into my office to do some non-threatening paperwork, I thought about it some more. Double checking my math, my ratios.
The thing about making a mistake in chocolate (especially Figaro), is that it's costly, and I dislike wasting money almost as much as not being an expert. Double whammy, mammy, get on your horse and ride!

And so I did.

Figaro?  You're MINE now.

Second time was a charm, but the best part of the whole process was having a laugh at myself and who I think I am sometimes.  It's got me all jazzed up to make some more mistakes.  We're just heading into a fairly predictable summer season; there's plenty of time and space to work on some new ideas.

Or maybe just make some of the things I love best.

Did I ever tell you how much I love torrone?

Stay tuned.  Who knows what could happen next.

xxx
your flawed, but devoted, chocolatier.