And a very first Happy Birthday to Chocolats Passion at 189 Brackett Street! The year exceeded our wildest expectations. It started when we found out, very soon after opening, that the West End just longed for a chocolate shop. 189 Brackett is on the walking route of so many in the neighborhood, who stop at Rosemont or Fresh Approach for dinner provisions and then come in to get a little box for dessert that night. And it seems that we have become a choice destination for hostess presents and gifts for "people who have everything". The chocolate high holidays were...
Our Mendiant mixed box, left to right: Nougat in dark chocolate; Australian ginger, Marcona almonds in milk chocolate; Strawberry pâte de fruits/Meyer lemon in Dulcey white; and Organic grapefruit with nuts in dark chocolate. The August heat is a great match for French Mendiants that focus on citrus and fruits, the essence of summer ingredients. We have just created two where chocolate binds more than dominates. The first is made with Dulcey, a superb caramelized white chocolate by the French Valrhona, one of the best chocolate companies in the world. It holds a little slab of pâte de fruits made...
Our tempering machines: 207 at left, and Bertha at right. It is finally hot and summery, the best weather for ice cream and a dangerous time for (melting) chocolate! So perfect for us to take a breather and recharge our batteries. Both the boutique and the website will be closed till we resume our regular 1PM to 7PM schedule on Wednesday August 7. We will restart shipping online orders at that time as well. When we opened 10 months ago, we couldn't have dreamt of a better launch for our little chocolaterie and being so swiftly adopted by our...
Inviting the scrutiny of chocolate professionals and having them pass judgment on our confections is a big step in our growth as artisan chocolatiers. This year, Darcy and I decided it was time to dip our toe in the competition waters, and entered two of our favorite chocolates into the International Chocolate Awards, Americas contest. We are particularly proud of our milk chocolate Pistachio Raspberry (with a little candied organic Meyer lemon) and our dark chocolate Almond Citrus (organic candied grapefruit) and submitted 40 of each in late May. We learned in late June that we were among the finalists...
Photo credit Jim Keithley, Channel 8 News Chocolats Passion has been the very lucky recipient of attention from our local Maine television news recently! Just yesterday, Channel 8 WMTW news did a fun segment with Jim Keithley where he made Mendiants start to finish, and by finish I mean as in eating one!. And a week before Valentine's Day, Peggy Keyser of News Center Maine did an interview for 207, their wonderful lifestyle program. We so appreciate the exposure, which has brought us many new customers! This is another element of Portland's small city magic, where small businesses feel...
