Past Newsletters

September 2007

Sweet Gem Confections … and We're Not Kidding!

We know we've said it before, but … this month, you are in for a treat … and an excellent chocolate one! Gourmet Chocolate of the Month Club always offers selections from the finest chocolatiers from around the world. This time, we found an outstanding chocolate-maker right here in our own back yard … the good ole' USA!

Introducing Sweet Gem Confections: Meet Nancy Biehn

As funny as it sounds at first, Nancy says that she was always meant to make "little brown things". As a child, she grew up on a farm and was always making things … mud pies, mud cookies, mud donuts, mud brownies, you get the picture. Playing on the farm was like living in a wonderland. She would even make violet perfume with the violets that grew wild.

Nancy also learned that the best food was grown in the garden. She learned that she loved good food, that she loved cooking and that using fresh ingredients was always better! She watched bread and cookies being made by her family. She found that she wanted to be in the kitchen.

Nancy's discovery and love of chocolate came with time, experience and travel. After college with a degree in marketing, Nancy decided to live in Spain, teach English and be a nanny. In Oviedo, Spain, she became acquainted with strong people, amazing flavors and a beautiful chocolate shop in town … and was introduced to the new world of fine chocolate.

After working and starting a family, Nancy decided that chocolate was really her love.
She read everything available on chocolate and practiced, practiced. Nancy received rave reviews for the truffles she handmade for her own wedding. She attended culinary school and took all the courses on chocolate, of course. She decided that she wanted to be in business for herself, so she began her chocolate-making business in her home and then rented a larger kitchen in a church basement. But, she missed contact with people. So she built a commercial kitchen inside a specialty food store with a big viewing window so she could have contact with customers. Nancy says she is inspired by the human aspect of her business. She loves people, the comments they give her in the store, the fun of seeing the joy on peoples faces as they try her confections. She says no one frowns much when they get chocolate!

Nancy has been in business 10 years now and is intentionally keeping it small so she can be hands, on working with the people and the product. She has a few helpers but still makes the confections carefully by hand. She likes to touch each piece. The business is steadily growing, gaining more and more customers each year. Gourmet Chocolate of the Month Club discovered Nancy and Sweet Gem Confections quite by accident … from a friend of a friend!

You will soon discover the genius of Nancy and her ability to combine flavors with her high-end chocolate. She uses amazing combination including the usual suspects … vanilla, raspberry, lemon … but also unusual ones … balsamic vinegar, pear, exotic tea. Nancy enjoys finding the beauty of putting flavors together. And these flavors are added to only the world's finest chocolate from Italy, France, Venezuela, California and Colorado! Nancy's primary goal is quality … quality that comes for using the finest, freshest ingredients. She feels strongly about using locally grown ingredients - produce, cream, milk, butter and eggs, mint grown in her own garden, even pecans hand shucked by her father! You will never meet anyone as passionate and exuberant about fine chocolate and local, fresh, organic ingredients. All of Sweet Gem Confections are preservative free.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy! Your package of 18 confections may include some of the following selections and are each artistically decorated to be made not only delicious, but beautiful.

• Irish Cream – creamy and smooth milk chocolate truffle flavored with Irish cream and marked with a white chocolate swirl of cream
• Balsamic Vinegar in Milk – Milk chocolate ganache with 18 year balsamic, cream, butter and a pinch of salt in white chocolate with splashed of red, pink and orange
• Cocao with Cream, Sugar and Honey – 77% De Vries Chocolate from Costa Rica blended with cream and local honey coated in dark chocolate
• Cappuccino Buttercream – a three-column stack of fluffy, whipped, white chocolate cappuccino butter cream enrobed in milk chocolate
• Chocolate Chunk Twist – dark and milk chocolate ganache twisted together with chunk of chocolate and dipped in dark chocolate
• Chocolate Covered Carmel – hand-made caramel piped into large oval shells of milk or dark chocolate and finished with textured lines
• Deep Dark Ginger with Vanilla – heavy cream infused with fresh ginger root and vanilla bean, mixed with dark chocolate, piped into cocoa pods and painted with gold dust
• Filbert Frangelico – Dark chocolate and smooth hazelnut liqueur, dipped in milk chocolate and finished with toasted filberts
• Irish Whiskey with Dark Chocolate – 64% Valrhona Manjari and Irish Whiskey dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with chocolate "jimmies"
• Jasmine Tea with Citrus Zest – Dark chocolate and fresh cream infused with pearl jasmine tea and grapefruit zest, diamond, cut, dipped in white chocolate, and finished with a pattern of branches and flowers
• Leapin' Lemon – White chocolate lemon custard ganache enrobed in milk chocolate and finished with a lemon swirl cocoa butter transfer
• Milk Chocolate Mint – Cream infused with fresh mint leaves, mixed with milk chocolate, dipped in dark chocolate and embellished with a colorful finish
• Mocha Kahlua – Dark chocolate ganache made from Kahlua and espresso extract, enrobed in milk chocolate and scribed with a fleur-de-lis
• Orange Zinger – Dark chocolate truffle made with Grand Marnier dipped in dark and finished with a flower pattern of cocoa butter
• Pear with Pink Peppercorns – Fresh pear puree infused with pink peppercorns and milk chocolate, dipped in white chocolate and finished with freshly ground pink pepper
• Raspberry Chambord – Dark chocolate loaded with fresh raspberry puree, Chambord (a luscious black raspberry liqueur), and cream drizzled with pink chocolate
• Strawberry Pate – Fresh strawberry pectin fruit pate dipped in Michel Cluzel's single origin "conception" dark chocolate
• Stout with Plum and Nut Butter – Gianduja (hazelnut chocolate), dark chocolate, stout, hazelnuts, butter and prunes dipped in milk chocolate and sprinkled with edible art
• Passion Fruit Honey Butter – Milk chocolate honey butter layered with passion fruit pate dipped in dark chocolate
• Tree Nut Clusters – Toasted and glazed tree nuts covered in, and resting upon dark or milk chocolate.

Your gourmet chocolates will be accompanied by a scrumptious 3 oz. package of Chocolate-covered Butter Caramel Toffee. Roasted and salted tree nuts (such as cashews, pistachios, almonds) are encased in butter caramel toffee made with fresh ingredients and drizzled with 85% dark chocolate … a treat you won't want to miss!

A Little Chocolate Whimsy Part 3 In recent months, we shared a little ditty from chocolate-writer Theresa Cheung's delightful little book Chocolate Principles to Live By in which she suggests one can get insights in the personality of oneself and another by the shape of the chocolate chosen. She says "the shapes you are attracted to when presented with a choice of chocolates might reveal aspects of your personality and the way you appear to others. When using this fun approach to self-analysis, base your choice on instinct or first impressions – take the shape that you naturally want." In this space for the next few months, we will share her insights in to Your Chocolate Personality. This month we're featuring oval. We will share others in future months so stay tuned! Of course, Ms. Cheung suggests that we "take these personality hints with a pinch of salt." Oval: "Oval people often have a huge network of friends, as they always seem to have the right word for the right occasion. You work from the heart and go with what you feel, but this can sometimes lead to rash, impulsive decisions, which can get you into trouble. You are not afraid to express your true feelings and are unlikely to remain single for long."