Really, this is the slow season? Such a busy Summer!
By Catherine, Founder/Co-owner
Mid May to Labor day is widely considered a chocolatier's slow season. While it is true that our team had more time to relax, with a week's break in both July and late August, we would all argue that it is intense (and super fun) in other ways. To whit:
- We created eight new chocolates! As our regulars know, summer is the time for each of us to create. Four chocolates are for our Core collection, to be unveiled in January 2027. And four for our Chocolatier's Choice box #5, which will replace our recently retired CC box #1. That latest fancy box will be unveiled in time for the holidays. Among the new, we will be adding another vegan chocolate to the core collection, which means that for the first time, we will be able to offer a fully vegan box of 16 chocolates with eight choices!
- Sarah collaborated on a birthday cake for Martha Stewart! Yes, for her 85th birthday, delivered personally to her by our pastry chef collaborator, Big Fish Cake Studio (located in Saco). Sarah took on the challenge to create the chocolate dome, had a 3-D mold created by another friend/collaborator, and with the help of Audi managed it in grand style. We can officially call her our chocolate engineer!
- We won four medals in two competitions. We entered the International Chocolate Salon's (San Francisco) Top Chocolate Bars competition and earned silver medals for both our Coffee Caramel Pecan bar and our Citrus Almond bar. The second Salon's competition was for Best Vegan Chocolates, where our Blackberry Almond received a silver medal and our Strawberry Shortcake received a bronze.
- We welcomed 188 students in our chocolate classes this year, including 43 to our newly instituted advanced class. We love teaching the classes, and are forever amazed by the creativity of our participants, see the picture above right for an example.
- We created a gorgeous, new Advent calendar format. We wanted to accommodate more large chocolates, so the calendar will be about 13" by 13", versus the 11" by 11" size of our prior calendars. We worked with our excellent local graphic designer to create a totally new concept, closely tied to our beloved West End and our beautiful coast of Maine. We will be sharing more news and unveiling the calendar in coming weeks.
In spite of our busy bees activities, we do feel rested and energized for our official busy season, starting right after Labor day. And we look forward to welcoming you back at 175 Spring Street!