Peppermint Bark by EH Chocolatier
Peppermint bark is one of the most coveted chocolate confections during the holiday season. Typically made with three ingredients: peppermint candy, white chocolate, and dark chocolate, peppermint bark is the rare treat that combines the crunchy texture of candy canes, the milky flavor of white chocolate, and the rich taste of dark chocolate. Read more 
Almond Crack
Almond Crack is one of the most appropriately named chocolates ever tasted: a sinfully addicting flaky butter-toffee (made with toasted organic Kashiwase Farms almonds, Gilt Edge Creamery butter, organic, fair-trade cane sugar and healthy dose of esprit du sel) dipped in 72% cacao Guittard chocolate.
Made by Nosh This, a San Francisco based company that specializes in handmade toffee, caramel, marshmallow, chocolate treats and sauces, Almond Crack is decadent, rich, and truly scrumptious. Did I mention addicting? Read more
Better Brittle
Better Brittle is a West African style peanut brittle that resembles the peanut brittle that many baby boomers recall from our childhood only without the rock-hard corn syrup that has been known to crack a tooth now and then. Made with three simple natural ingredients – freshly roasted peanuts from Virginia and North Carolina, fair-trade organic evaporated cane juice, and sea salt, Better Brittle is really better than traditional brittle. Read more
Marco Paolo Chocolates
Mark Lewis is the founder and genius chocolatier behind Marco Paolo Chocolates – an artisan chocolate shop known for its distinctive double layered chocolate truffles that taste as decadent as they look. Instead of a single flavored truffle, Lewis combines two complementary ganache flavors using fruits, flowers, spices, herbs and seeds to create a tasting and sensory experience.
One of the most popular truffles is the Coconut Cilantro Dark Lime Truffle: white chocolate coconut ganache enlivened with cilantro teamed with tart lime dark chocolate ganache: two distinctive fruit flavors (the jury is still out on whether coconut is considered a fruit or nut) enhanced with spices and then enrobed in dark chocolate make for one scrumptious tropical truffle. Read more
Videri Chocolate Factory
There’s a special place in a chocolate lover’s heart for bean-to-bar chocolate makers like Videri whose founders are committed to creating great chocolate while following the tenets of social responsibility and providing warm and friendly customer service. Truly a labor of love, the beans-to-bar operation is a fascinating process and one worth understanding to truly appreciate.
The Videri Chocolate Factory, located in Raleigh, North Carolina starts with what is referred to as “The Process” purchasing organic and fair-trade cocoa beans from Central and South America, whenever possible. Read more
Halloween Treats for Adults
Most adults don’t go trick or treating unless they happen to be the parent of a primary school aged child. For those of us who embrace Halloween, this is a responsibility we take very seriously – enough to make some of us consider spacing our kids out far enough to ensure we are needed for decades. Yes, I mourned the day my daughter was old enough to go trick or treating without me but I don’t know if it was because she was growing up or because I wouldn’t be able to scarf candy out of her bag before she noticed or get free handouts by the neighbors. Read more
Tradestone Confections
In the small town of Conshohocken (often referred to as “Conshy”) in eastern Pennsylvania 15 miles northwest of Philadelphia is an artisan chocolate shop called Tradestone Confections. Owned and managed by two local chefs – Chip Roman and Fred Ortega – Tradestone Confections, as their name suggests – makes exquisite confections and gourmet bonbons using high quality ingredients and locally sourced seasonal fresh fruits, herbs, and dairy products. Among the choices: hand-crafted ganache covered in milk and dark chocolate, creamy truffles, homemade buttery caramel, traditional bark studded with dried fruits, sweet sticky toffee, roasted nuts or pretzels, and more. Read more
The Ultimate Peanut Butter Cup
Man cannot live by bread alone. He must have chocolate and peanut butter.
Nearly one hundred years ago, a former dairy farmer and shipping foreman for Hershey named H.B. Reese invented the Peanut Butter Cup. Decades passed and until recently there hasn’t been much innovation in the peanut butter cup industry. Chocolate maker extraordinaire – Theo Chocolate – and master peanut butter maker, CB’s Nuts – have joined forces to make one very extraordinary Peanut Butter Cup: ground fresh peanuts covered in creamy milk or rich dark chocolate. Read more
barkTHINS
Who doesn’t love chocolate bark – thick slabs of chocolate blended with nearly anything edible – fruit, nuts, candy, and more? The combination of flavors – sweet and salty – and textures – creamy, crunchy, and chewy make chocolate bark irresistible. By it’s very nature, chocolate bark is chunky making the confection a bit tricky to eat unless the choice is barkTHINS – perfectly portioned, thin slivers of fair-trade certified chocolate crammed full of wholesome non-GMO project verified snack ingredients like almonds, pumpkin seeds, pretzels, blueberries, quinoa, coconut, and peppermint. Read more
Schermer Pecans
Some of the best tasting pecans in the world are grown in the south central orchards of North America where the hot and humid climate allows pecan trees to grow and bear the rich, buttery nut meats year after year. At Schermer Pecans in Glennville, Georgia (60 miles west of Savannah), the pecans have been grown and harvested by five generations of the Schermer and Wetherbee families since 1946.
Schermer Pecans are what some people would call a fully vertically integrated company: they plant, tend, harvest, shell, package, and distribute their own pecan products, which allows the customer to receive a fresh, high quality product directly from a Georgian orchard. Read more
Paddock Post 