The entire team cherishes that four-month period between Mother's day and Labor day, because this is when we play!  Each team member is tasked with creating new chocolates, and the ideas can be wild!  Among the out-there notions this year are grapefruit/goat cheese (Kait), fennel (Catherine), lychee jasmin (Ruby), and carrot cake (Sarah).   More classic tastes are also in the cards, with lemon poppy-seed, strawberry matcha, hazelnut calamansi and cassis vanilla.

We are also thinking of expanding the range of vegan options in our regular collection, so Briana will put forth a coconut guava offering.  And Victoria (a.k.a. our Caramel Queen) will work with maple/something... as her very first chocolate creation!

Our process is straightforward:  each team member creates her tentative recipe, makes tiny batches of the components which she casts in dark and/or milk.  Then she tests various percentages of each filling to figure out optimum balance and clarity of tastes, and selects the shell that works best with the flavor profile.  The whole team assesses each chocolate as it makes its way through changes, and we give each other lots of ideas for improvement.  The tasting process is absolutely one of the best parts of the job!

Our gold standard is that a chocolate HAS to taste like its name, so we change direction and refine as needed.  We drop any concepts that don't work, because while we can be stubborn, some combinations are just beyond salvation!

We are pleased to share that this year, our menu will have at least an additional panel so we can add new chocolates without sacrificing too many customer favorites.  We want you, our customers, to be able to go out on a limb taste-wise, or to be as classic as you wish.

In the meantime, know that summer time is also when we have test samples of the future chocolates on hand.  We love to get your opinion on them, so get your palate ready!