Charles Chocolates Blog

One of the few things that every chocolatier, lover of fine chocolate or just plain foodie must do before they die is attend the Salon du Chocolat in Paris. It is the one place where you can experience some of the worlds best chocolates, at a reasonable price, under one roof.

For several years now, we (Americans) have had a similar annual venue in New York. The New York Chocolate Show brings together a group of some the best American chooclatiers and chocolate makers. Charles Chocolates will be exhibiting at the show this year (November 9th, 10th and 11th) for the first time. If you happen to be in New York, please stop by and say hi - and enjoy some of the many, many samples that we are taking to pass out to the attendees.

While California, our home base, is still where most of our chocolates are sold - with the exception of our web site which serves our customers all over the world - New York is fast becoming our second most important market. We already have a couple of dozen stores selling Charles Chocolates in Manhattan alone, with more being added every week. This makes the New York Chocolate Show a really great way for us to support this growing market.

One of the most exciting things that we will be doing at the show is introducing our all new packaging for our confections. This is a really beautiful set of boxes that is every bit the equal of our chocolates. Once I upload the pictures from my camera, I will post one of the new box(s).

In a recent post I talked a little bit about the frustration that I felt during the development of the Peanut Butterflies. As I sit waiting for my car to diagnosed for a problem that I have had “fixed” 3 times in the last 3 months, the Peanut Butterfly experience doesn’t seem so bad…

OK, at the time it seemed pretty bad. I have always loved the combination of peanut and chocolate, going back to my childhood love of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, especially the miniature ones that they made for Halloween. There are quite a few really good examples of peanut butter/chocolate confections being made out there, and as everyone who knows me can tell you, when I develop new confections, they have to be unique.

So, in my quest to create something new, fantastic and unique, I started with the finest all natural peanut butter. To make a long story short, peanut butter is peanut butter. I tried every peanut butter imaginable, from the best fresh-ground to the stuff at the grocery store. I creamed it with my favorite Straus butter and cream and I whipped it until it was light and fluffy. Like I just said, peanut butter is peanut butter - everything I tried, while fun, never produced a confection that tasted any different than all of the others out there.

In my first post of this series I told the story of the Yankee, and how a forced break from trying to create my peanut butter masterpiece led to something really special. The break also gave me some time to think about how to solve my peanut problem.

Peanut Butter is really very basic.  To make it, all you do is roast some peanuts and then grind them into butter.  What I realized (and yes, I can be a little slow sometimes) is that given this process, it’s no surprise that all peanut butter tasted the same.  Once I came to this brilliant realization, solving the problem was relatively easy.  It’s all in how you roast the nuts.

Gianduja is praline made from hazelnuts (and sometimes almonds or other nuts) that is very popular in Europe.  It has a characteristic flavor that comes  from roasting the hazelnuts with sugar until it caramelizes around the nuts.  It’s not hard to do, and the result tastes great.  When made with peanuts, the praline is new, fantastic and unique - finally.

Now if I could get my car fixed…

I have just returned form 3 days in Yosemite National Park, one of California’s most beautiful and awe inspiring places. It was a chance to spend time with friends that, thanks to the demands of Charles Chocolates, I don’t get to see often enough.

Not surprisingly, one of the campfire conversations turned to Charles Chocolates - specifically, what inspires new products. I should mention that we had just finished a batch of fresh mojitos, one of many “inspirations” for a CC confection.

Since the opening of our new kitchen, chocolate bar and store, we have been giving tours every Wednesday and Saturday. I make sure that I am the person who leads the tours whenever I am in town and available. During the Q&A session that ends each tour, I have been asked about product inspirations on many occasions.

Aside from the actual eating experience, people are very interested in how each confection actually came into being. They are also curious about what it takes to create something new and exciting, time and time again. If you think about it, it’s understandable that this would be so interesting to our customers. After all, we (super-premium chocolatiers) all use the same ingredients, the same wonderful chocolates and the same equipment (mostly). What separates us is how we use those ingredients to create products that are both unique and enjoyable. It’s that creativity that is behind each chocolatier’s style, and it’s that individual style that defines a company’s entire product line (the exception being the copycat companies that are part of any growing business segment - our’s is not immune from this).

This is another area that I will spend some more time on over the next couple of weeks - please let me know if there is anything in particular that you would like me to discuss on this, or any other topic.

To celebrate our third birthday, we are offering an exceptional deal on one of our most unique and exciting products — our edible chocolate boxes. Now through October 15, 2007, our edible chocolate box collection is available at a 25% discount (product must be shipped by October 15, 2007). You will pay only $33.75 for the Fleur de Sel or Marzipan Collections, and only $45.00 for the Fall or Tea Collections.

As a special bonus, everyone who takes advantage of this deal will receive an e-mail coupon for 10% off on all holiday orders (orders placed during November and December 2007).

One of the very first flavor combinations that I started working on for Charles Chocolates was peanut butter and chocolate. No surprise given that it is one of the most popular flavor combinations in the U.S. (an important distinction as it is not popular elsewhere).

In keeping with one of my basic philosophies for CC, I wanted to make sure that each of products was either significantly different from, or significantly better than, what was already being produced by any of the other creators of super-premium chocolates. This proved more difficult with peanut butter than with anything else that I have worked on since starting CC.

It started the way most of my “creative” sessions start, with an idea of what I would like a confection to be once it is perfect. For my peanut butter/chocolate combination I knew that this meant, as it always does, using the best peanut butter that I could find/make. Off to our local health food store I went to get a tub of freshly ground peanut butter made from just roasted organic peanuts. This, I thought, would be pretty easy - wrong!

I’ll jump ahead about 2 weeks and many, many iterations of what I thought would be “it”. Needless to say, this was getting pretty frustrating.

While I was busy driving myself crazy, a friend called to see if his father, a retired ophthalmologist from Florida, could come to visit while i was working on developing my recipes.   It turns out that he is a chocolatier hobbyist, and he wanted to watch while i was working in the kitchen. He came over on one of the nights when I was making absolutely no progress on the peanut butter blend, and sensing my frustration, he suggested that we try something different instead (always listen to your elders).

After rummaging through our cupboards, we decided to play with a jar of blood orange marmalade that I had laying around. After a few minutes of discussing our options, I heated some cream, added the marmalade and threw the mixture in a blender. Once it was smooth I made a ganache using the flavored cream, it was delicious.  It only took a couple of additional batches to get the flavor and texture right, and then the Yankee was born. I should mention that my friend’s father’s nickname is, you guessed it, Yankee.

Not long after I started Charles Chocolates I added a second variety, the Meyer Lemon Yankee. We have also started selling the homemade marmalade that we make for the Yankees as well.

Yankee was just here in San Francisco and he celebrated his 90th birthday with, among many other things, plenty of Yankees.

Oh, I obviously solved the Peanut Butterfly problem, but more on that next time.

As we approach our third birthday (it’s October 1st), I find myself wanting to reflect on everything that has happened since we began making chocolates in 2004. Now i know that the whole “reflect back” thing is usually reserved for 50th anniversaries, retirement parties and 25th reunions, but thanks to our new blog, I don’t have to wait that long…

This is also a really great opportunity for me to get used to daily (yes, you heard that right) blogging. Since our blog was launched in July, I have been a neglectful blog owner. At least that’s what everyone has been telling me. So get ready for a couple of weeks of Charles Chocolates stories as we count down to October 1st.

When I think about the run-up to the launch of CC, I remember the nights at home developing what would become the core of our confections line. There are a few stories that go along with the days/weeks/months that I spent working on our recipes, my favorite revolving around the Peanut Butterflies and their contribution to the creation of the Blood Orange Yankee (one of our marmalade ganaches).

Since that’s the first story that is coming to mind tonight, it is the one that I will share with you all first, in a few minutes.

Congratulations to Karletta Moniz of The Art of Tasting Chocolate and Lisa Rogovin of In the Kitchen With Lisa, both of whom work with Charles Chocolates for chocolate tastings, in the recent San Francisco Chronicle article (”These Firms Are Bite-Sizing”) about local food tours and tasting classes. A very well-researched, concise yet comprehensive article. Read the article at http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/29/FOOD.TMP.

It’s the moment that everyone’s been waiting for — factory tours at Charles Chocolates! Starting Saturday, August 4, 2007, we’ll be offering tours on Wednesdays and Saturdays, at 11:30 am and 2:30 pm. To make a reservation and for more information, please visit http://www.charleschocolates.com/tours.php, email events@charleschocolates.com or call 510.652.4412 x311. You can also make a tour reservation online!

While most factory tours offer a lecture and slideshow on how the products are made and where the ingredients come from, our tour is a little different: our tours happen while full production is going on in our kitchen, so you can watch our chocolatiers at work. Each and every tour will be different because every day we are making something different. From our chocolate bar, you’ll be able to watch our chocolates being made, during various stages of the process — from zesting of fresh Meyer Lemon to enrobing of our Fleur de Sel Caramels.

Public Guided Tours

Every Wednesday and Saturday, at 11:30 am and 2:30 pm, we will offer a free guided factory tour of our production facility. You’ll be able to watch as our chocolatiers are in full production in our kitchen, observe various chocolates being made, and learn how hand-crafted, artisan chocolates and confections are made at Charles Chocolates. The tour will end with an interactive question and answer session. Tours will happen twice daily at 11:30 am and 2:30 pm every Wednesday and Saturday. While you won’t be able to walk through our production floor because we will be in full production, you will gain a much more comprehensive view of all the different processes that occur to make one piece of chocolate. We look forward to hosting you and answering your questions.

To make a reservation for a tour, please email events@charleschocolates.com or call 510.652.4412 x311 with your name, number of people in your party, desired tour date and time (Wed or Sat, 11:30 am or 2:30 pm), phone number, and email address. You will receive a confirmation of your reservation. You can also make a tour reservation online!

Guided Tours

We offer a thirty minute guided chocolate tasting & tour from our cafe for groups of 20 or more Tuesday through Saturday, between 11 am – 5 pm. This provides your group with more personal attention, a guided chocolate tasting, and ample time to have all of your questions answered. Pricing begins at $10/person. To arrange a guided tour, please contact events@charleschocolates.com or 510.652.4412 x301.

Meetings & Special Events

We’d love to host your group of friends, company, or organization in our café for monthly meetings, special events, and more. Contact events@charleschocolates.com or 510.652.4412 x301 with your event details to get started.

Private Tours & Tastings

We can arrange a completely private chocolate tasting & tour for your group. To plan your event, contact us at events@charleschocolates.com or 510.652.4412 x301.