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...
Our first Spring/Easter season is thankfully over! While we had a 9-week (seemingly endless) stretch between Valentine day and Easter, it proved to be barely enough time to create all the spring creatures and all the large and smaller eggs. The challenge could be ascribed to one thing: this is our first year with a shop, and demand is tremendously different from that in my prior life doing markets. With the Valentine day's onslaught, we could just make new boxes adding domes to hearts when we ran out. Not possible with eggs, or bunnies... We sold out of Jacques and...
As of last Tuesday, our little chocolaterie has been open for half a year. I feel so thankful to all our neighbors who care for our fate and ask ever so earnestly how "we are doing". And who show up, on the regular, to get a hostess gift or a birthday box or just a couple of little hearts to enjoy as they take a walk. This is where living in a small town translates into a different experience for all parties. The relationships are not transactional, there is a building of kind regard and sense of responsibility to each...
A year ago Darcy and I met at a Valentine party my neighbor was hosting for her women friends. We chatted about chocolate and her background as a pastry chef. I asked her to come work with me on the spot, which she accepted on the spot! I was producing chocolates at the Fork Food Lab at the time, and there Darcy started her chocolate education. She proved herself immediately, her pastry skills transferring smoothly to our work. The professional kitchen discipline she brought to the job helped me look at our production process with fresh eyes. And in the...
HOLIDAY SHOP HOURS: From Wednesday December 19, holiday hours will be from noon to 7 PM until Christmas Eve, when we will close at 5PM. We will re-open on December 28 for our regular retail hours, 1 PM to 7 PM until New Year's Eve. We will take a short break from January 1 until January 9th, when we will resume our regular schedule of 1 PM to 7 PM Wednesday to Sunday. Preparing for holiday markets in past years was a straightforward affair, involving the preparation of an assortment of boxes in a broad price range. When things sold...
