Past Newsletters
September 2008
Sweet Gem Confections… Born in the USA
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! I know you've heard it from us before; but, honestly, chocolates don't get much better!
Sweet Gem Confections: Nancy Biehn's Passion
As a child, Nancy grew up on a farm and was always making things: mud pies, mud cookies, mud donuts, mud brownies… you get the picture. As funny as it sounds, she says she was always meant to make "little brown things." Playing on the farm was like living in a wonderland. She would even make violet perfume with the violets that grew wild.
Nancy also discovered 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! Even as a small child, she always wanted to be in the kitchen watching family members making bread and cookies.
Nancy's discovery and love of chocolate came with time, experience, and travel. After college and a liberal arts degree, she ventured to Oviedo, Spain, to teach English and improve her Spanish via working as a nanny. There she became acquainted with strong people, amazing flavors, and a beautiful chocolate shop in town… and was introduced to a new world of fine chocolate.
Returning home to work, marry and start a family, Nancy decided that chocolate was her professional passion. She read any and everything she could find about chocolate making and then practiced, practiced, and practiced some more. (She had received rave reviews for ruffles she made for her own wedding.) She attended culinary school and took all the courses on chocolate, of course. Deciding she wanted to be in business for herself, 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 interact 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, and seeing the joy on faces as people try her confections. "No one frowns much when they get chocolate," she laughs.
Nancy has been in business ten years now and intentionally keeps her operation small so she can be hands-on, working with both people and 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 via word-of-mouth, gaining more and more customers each year. Gourmet Chocolate of the Month Club discovered Nancy and Sweet Gem Confections as most do: 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 combinations of ingredients, including the usual suspects: vanilla, raspberry, and lemon; but also unusual ones like balsamic vinegar, pear, and exotic teas. Nancy enjoys finding the beauty of unique flavor pairings to complement the world's finest chocolate from Italy, France, Venezuela, California, and Colorado! Nancy's primary goal is quality, a trait that harks back to her childhood affinity for the finest and freshest ingredients. She feels strongly about using locally grown ingredients, including produce, cream, milk, butter, and eggs; mint grown in her own garden; and even pecans hand shucked by her father! You will never meet anyone as passionate and exuberant about fine chocolate and local, fresh, organic ingredients. Need we say all Sweet Gem Confections are preservative free?
Sit back, relax, and enjoy! Your package of 18 confections may include some of the following selections, each artistically decorated so they are as beautiful as they are delicious:
- Irish Cream: Creamy and smooth milk chocolate truffle flavored with Irish cream and decorated with a white chocolate swirl of cream
- Balsamic Vinegar in Milk: Milk chocolate ganache with 18-year balsamic vinegar, cream, butter, and a pinch of salt in white chocolate, with splashes 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 chunks 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, wrapped 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.
