Past Newsletters
Vol. 6 No. 7

Member of the Month

We’ve decided to delay the start of our new feature, Member of the Month, until August, so that we may give everyone a chance to get their pictures submitted to us. Snap those photos of you enjoying your monthly features and e-mail them to us with your name and address to MOM@monthlyclubs.com and if we select your pic, you’ll earn an FREE one-month extension to your club membership! Now that’s a sweet deal!!

It’s Hot, Hot, Hot Baby!

Well, it’s July and you know what that means? Summer is in full swing. Which basically translates to soaring temperatures, vacations, outdoor activities and general summertime frolicking! And while this is one of our favorite times of the year, it’s actually a very tough time for shipping gourmet chocolate, as the heat can really wreak havoc on the products shipped during July and August. That’s why we tend to feature less traditional, but equally scrumptious chocolate goodies during the summer months. We’ve come to accept that our beloved truffles, pralines, cakes and chocolate bars just don’t hold up in all areas of the country given the summer weather. So, we get a chance to experiment a little and bring you some unique, unexpected treats that have become some of our favorite unique goodies over the past few years! And, as this is the season for vacations, we’ve thought ahead and selected chocolate features that will travel with ease and hold up quite well, should you decide to take them along on that family picnic or vacation! We look forward to bringing you these decadent chocolate treasures, and to expanding your palate with these unique and exciting choices. So, without further ado, we ring in the summer season by bringing you some of the most incredible chocolate shortbread cookies you’ve ever had!

Making Cookies for Connoisseurs for More than 20 Years!

Scrumptious, chocolate, Shortbread—a triple treat! Imagine rich cocoa, sweet creamy butter, and Guittard chocolate chips combined in a dark, dense, and decadent treat. That’s exactly what you’ve got in the Chocolate Bliss Shortbread cookie from the Mendocino Cookie Company. Discriminating chocolate aficionados love these cookies, and we’re thrilled to bring them to you as a unique offering developed to showcase twenty-one years of baking innovation. Our newest cookie, Choc-0-Lot, includes three different varieties of chocolate chips, including dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate. The flavor of the richest baking cocoa is combined with exquisite Guittard chocolate. The result is a taste sensation that will bring you back for more and more!

As far as we’re concerned, these are great American classics that are well suited for the month of Independence! Mouthwatering chocolate shortbread cookies, made to recipies Wendy and her team at the Mendocino Cookie Company perfected just for our club! Expect to find two dozen of these handmade little marvels packaged in your tin. Small batches of these cookies are made by hand daily, by folks who truly care about their creations—which is something that you will taste with every bite.

Established in 1984 in the tiny historic village of Mendocino off the Northern Coast of California, the Mendocino Cookie Company is a favorite stop for coastal residents and visitors from all parts of the globe. For 21 years now you can find them three hours north of the Golden Gate Bridge, on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, in Mendocino. This family-owned shop specializes in fresh cookies, baked goods, and the best coffee and espresso drinks in town. Twelve to fourteen different varieties of cookies are offered daily, guaranteeing freshness. After fourteen years in a 350 square foot shop this family owned business moved fifteen minutes north expanding their operation to 1,700 square feet.

Now located in the historic Union Lumber Company Store building in Fort Bragg, California, two and sometimes three generations of family members enjoy working side by carrying on the tradition of excellence established more than twenty years ago. Every cookie this family bakes is made entirely by hand without the aid of production machinery. From mixing the dough to hand scooping each and every cookie, the Mendocino Cookie Company is proud to be one of a very few companies still doing things entirely the old fashioned way. In this way, using these traditional methods, they’ve been able to work in a facility that’s five times the size of their original kitchen, but still make cookies that taste like they came right out of Grandma’s oven!

… Hang on just a moment please… we’ve got to take a quick cookie break… writing about these and not snacking on them is just too tough! Mmmmmm… that’s better. Got our quick choco-fix! Sweet chocolate heaven!! Ok, let us continue…

Attention to detail and quality control are paramount in the kitchen of the Mendocino Cookie Company. You won’t ever taste a more scrumptious Chocolate Shortbread treat than theirs—made with all that butter and not one egg! The Double Fudge Chocolate Brownie is also an exceptional treat. Both are sure to delight your palate, and are impossible for any true chocolate aficionado to resist (as you can see from our last paragraph)! The Mendocino Cookie Company uses only the freshest and most genuine ingredients, including toasted walnuts and semi-sweet premium chocolate from the Guittard Chocolate Company. As more than one of our panel members was heard to exclaim, “These cookies are to die for!”

One Family’s Passion = The World’s Pleasure

One of the many reasons the Mendocino Cookie Company has such devoted customers is the fact that only the highest quality chocolate is used. Holding to this superior standard sets the enterprise apart from other cookie confectioners. It is no wonder that they chose Guittard Chocolate Company to supply their chocolate.

Guittard Chocolate

Gary Guittard’s great-grandfather, Etienne Guittard, opened Guittard Chocolate on the San Francisco waterfront in 1868 when the city was young and still glowing from the gold rush. Etienne had originally come to California from France in pursuit of gold, but stayed on at the behest of merchants who recognized his talents as a master chocolatier. For 135 years the Guittard Chocolate Company has been managed with the personal attention and care that can only come from a family-run business intent on continuing a distinguished legacy. Gary Guittard joined the company in 1975.

The Making of a Master Chocolatier

In 2001 Gary Guittard announced the E. Guittard artisan line, which is a culmination of his lifelong knowledge of French chocolate-making while returning to some of his family’s nineteenth century methods and recipes. Named after Gary’s great-grandfather Etienne Guittard, E. Guittard is the result of more than six years of devotion, a few hundred handcrafted batches of chocolate, and continuous analysis by an expert tasting panel. The new line meets a contemporary niche—a desire for highly sophisticated foods made with traditional methods.

The rare heirloom criollo cacao bean which Gary uses in E. Guittard was also used by the company years ago—a company ad shows workers fermenting Guittard’s criollo beans back in the 1930’s. A visit to the Guittard plant in Burlingame reveals a business that is both modern and steeped in tradition. From the cacao tree growing in the lobby, to displays of chocolate molds, newspaper articles, and packages from by-gone eras, the plant is an historic icon.

Throughout its long history, and under the strong influences of both his father and grandfather, Gary has defined his own palate and style in running the business. Like his father, he encourages feedback from his clients. Gary also acknowledges his father’s influence in not insisting that his own two children join him at Guittard Chocolate, though both have already worked at the plant.

With only nine companies in the United States now making chocolate from cacao beans, and far fewer with expertise in heirloom methods, Gary Guittard holds a position of extraordinary distinction. While continuing to perfect his own chocolate-making skills, he is also active in the industry, serving as the current Chairman of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association.

At this point, looking back on a sometimes ambivalent path, Gary happily acknowledges that his work is his passion and that what he is doing more than meets his desire to be creative. Creativity may take the form of adventure in traveling to remote Latin American cacao plantations and working with plantation managers to get fermentation just right. It may mean being flexible in dealing with clients. Anyone who has been with Gary as he tastes, smells, and blends cacao beans—and samples the results of his efforts—would agree that he is one of the most creative and masterful chocolatiers today. He thank him for his efforts, and we’re sure you will too once you taste the amazingly rich chocolate he’s developed!

Developing A Chocolate Palate

Chocolate can be heavenly, mellow, sensual, deep, dark, sumptuous, gratifying, potent, dense, creamy, seductive, suggestive, rich, excessive, silky, smooth, luxurious, celestial… If it is none of these things, it is either not quality chocolate, or not real chocolate. That’s right; there are lots of chocolate imposters out there! The following precepts will help you become a true connoisseur in all matters chocolate.

How to Sample Chocolate

• Look at it - Shiny and smooth are hallmarks. The color reflects the percentage of cocoa, therefore milk chocolates would be the lightest (but what about white chocolate you ask? Surely that’s the lightest colored chocolate. It sure is, but that’s because it doesn’t actually contain true cocoa. Some folks are surprised to learn that white chocolate isn’t technically chocolate at all. It’s made from the cocoa butter that is removed from the bean—but not the actual cocoa.)
• Smell it – The best chocolate has a breathtaking full-bodied aroma that will run from sharp and bittersweet to wholesomely robust, warm cocoa tones.
• Break it – Great chocolate breaks clean and makes a cracking sound.
• Melt it – In your mouth that is! Great chocolate will slowly melt on your tongue, and as an ingredient will melt smooth and not grainy.
• Taste it - A full-mouth taste with no unpleasant aftertaste will stay on your tongue long after the chocolate is swallowed.

Short Scoop On A Scottish Tradition

The British Empire may have lost world power and momentum during the last 500 years, but there are no signs of a slow down in the empire that has grown around shortbread. Sold in millions of tons around the world, its fame is largely due to the talents of Scottish bakers and their determination that shortbread should not be classed as a common biscuit.

It is safe to assume that Scottish shortbread dates way, way, way back. There is a shortbread named Pitcailhly Bannocks, and the Pictish people were first mentioned in Roman literature in 296. The name “Pict” is said to have come either from a Latin word meaning “painted ones” or another meaning “fighter”. Both of these accurately depicted the Pictish people. If you are interested in learning more, below is a link that will take you to a compendium of links about Scotland and her often turbulent history - http://www.scotland-inverness.co.uk/links.htm.

Old festive shortbreads were made by the rural communities and shaped into large round bannocks or wheels, or they were baked as rectangles and then broken up into uneven chucks for serving. Later shortbread was often baked in round molds with various designs, and served at high teas.

It’s a Small, Small World!

Perhaps you’re already a member of our International Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club (or our most-popular beer club, the Domestic and International Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club) and you recognize the terms Pict and Pictish from this month’s newsletter in which we describe one of this month’s features—an ancient style Scottish ale known as seaweed ale—whose brewery has Pictish origins. If you’re not already a member of our beer clubs, visit us at www.beermonthclub.com to learn more. You might be surprised at how many beers we feature that actually have deep, dark, distinctly chocolate notes in their flavor profiles. Particularly with our international microbrews, we find that their rich, robust characters are often complemented best not by a meal, but by a sturdy chocolate dessert. Visit us for more info and get your subscription—or a gift subscription—started today and prepare to revel in even more chocolate—and other—world-class bliss!