Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Put That Smile On Your Face

I was just thinking today how awesome all of us are when we share our ideas with each other, when we become the cheering squad for our friends and family, when we stop thinking of how we can beat the other guy and instead think about how we can lift him or her up.
What does this have to do with candy and gifts?
Over the years I have sometimes thought of myself as the iconic bartender, who listens to all her customers, their troubles, their triumphs, their questions about life.  And all I had to do was listen...no solutions, just being there when someone wanted to talk.
Believe it....this does happen in a retail store.  And it is not what some refer to as Retail Therapy...which is really just running away for the day and having a great time without a care in the world.
In our world, people are often just trying to find the right gift which will cheer up a friend in the hospital or help celebrate the birth of a child or the marriage of a friend.  Those gifts represent the special feeling we have for each other and the time involved in picking out just the perfect gift to say "We care".
Retail is so much more than ringing up a customer at the register.  You can get that any day anywhere.  We just want our store to be the Happy Place for our customers, a place where people know that we care about them and want their day to be the best.
So, is this a little sappy?  Yes, it is and yet why not rise above the everyday problems which life throws at us?
I always told my daughter....the little song....you have a smile in your pocket....put it on your face.
So I am smiling at all of you....
And now back to ordering Trollbeads and Minion tic tacs and paying the bills.  Right?

Friday, June 5, 2015

Blooming Chocolate: What's That All About?

Today I want to talk to you about chocolate blooming.  Because of the heat and humidity in the summer, this subject is more relevant now than at other times of the year.  I am hoping that knowing what blooming in chocolate is will help you to decide what to buy and when to buy it.
First of all, that sort of grayish look you find occasionally on chocolate is NOT mold.  What is happening is one of several possibilities.
Sugar Bloom is caused by surface moisture.  Moisture causes the sugar to dissolve and when the moisture evaporates, what is left is sugar crystals.  If this situation repeats, the chocolate can become sticky and look discolored. 
Fat Bloom is similiar to sugar bloom, however in this instance it is the fat or the cocoa butter which separates from the chocolate and deposits itself on the outside of the candy....thus that grayish color.
Changes in temperature, as well as moisture, are both enemies of chocolate and other candy.  At Sweet Tooth we attempt to keep both the temperature of our store (70 degrees year around on the candy side) and the moisture at as much of a minimum as possible.  Quick changes in temperature, from cool to warm to cool can be a source of blooming in chocolate.
Chocolate also absorbs flavors from food or from other items like scented candles and perfumes which are stored nearby.  This is the reason why Sweet Tooth does not sell scented candles or perfumes and why we do not make gift baskets which have other flavors or scents near the chocolate.
Bloomed chocolate can be eaten.  The texture might be a bit grainy, however the chocolate should taste ok.
At our store we also encourage our customers, particularly in summer months, to store their candy in a cool, dark place in their home.  If they buy chocolate while they are out shopping or traveling, it would be best to keep that chocolate in a cooler until arriving at home.
The chocolate we sell does not require refrigeration and should, under the correct conditions, last for a number of months.  We carefully watch manufacturing dates of our chocolate and attempt to adhere to a fairly strict schedule of when the chocolate is manufactured.
Now you know why we say that chocolate can be a fragile and delicate food...one you want to handle and store with care.  

Monday, June 1, 2015

Holiday Candy Ordering: It's a Marathon.

Here's what Jeff and I did last Friday.  For the 23rd time we ordered Halloween and Christmas/Chanukah candy from the first sales rep we ever knew:  Gary O.
The first time I met with Gary to order holiday candy it was in the back room of our first store....in The Farm Shopping Center.  I knew absolutely nothing about candy,  Of course I had eaten candy but never stopped to think about what candies were popular and what candies would do well for the various holidays in the fall.  I liked Mars bars (frozen, of course) and Bit O Honey .  A real gourmet, huh?
Gary was very patient...so patient that it took 8 hours for us to complete that order.  At this point I don't even remember anything in particular about that day.  I do remember that the back of my desk chair was always up against the bathroom door.  And I learned that some people make pigs out of marzipan.  So you can imagine how crowded Gary and I were when we were paging through his sales book.
This year we were down to about 5 hours for the ordering process.  Of course we had to stop for a  BarBQue lunch...Gary's favorite meal.  And occasionally there was a little gossiping, a little reminiscing, a few jokes, looking out the window at the torrential rain and of course, bathroom breaks.
I vowed that 2015 would not be a PEEPS year.  PEEPS are supposed to be Easter candy, right?.  I wanted the NEW STUFF.  After 22 years, you can imagine that some repeat candy simply has to go go go.
One observation:  folks are not buying chocolate Santas like they did in the "old days".  Don't know why but I do know when you have a lot of left over Santas one year, you steer clear of that problem the next year.
"Coal" candy for the naughty ones is still popular.  Peppermint triumphs over cherry and raspberry every holiday season.  And since last year the concept of the Mensch (ok...look it up) has gained popularity for Chanukah candy.
23 years!!!  Wow...Jeff gets a kick out of the conversations Gary and I have every time we get together for this marathon candy ordering.  Like an old married couple...as people used to say...we have know each other that long. He can't retire until I do!!
Stay tuned for more about holiday candy.  Let's get past July 4th first!