It’s no secret that Switchback Brewery is a local legend here in Vermont.  Their classic Unfiltered Ale is on tap in every bar in town and chances are if you try it once, you’ll be hooked. 

You may remember from last year’s Chocolate and Beer Pairings at Brew Fest, we paired Switchback’s Porter with our classic 54% Dark Chocolate.  This year, same brewery, different beer, different chocolate and amazing results.

Switchback’s Roasted Red & Honey Caramel

Our Chocolates of Vermont Honey Caramel is made from sweet, locally-harvested honey which is infused into our caramel and then drenched in a semisweet dark chocolate. The honey gives the caramel a complex blend of flavors beyond your typical caramel.

Switchback’s Roasted Red has strong, caramelized malt notes which match up beautifully with the Honey Caramel.  The floral notes in the honey really enhanced and brightened up the rich, hoppy flavor of the Roasted Red.  This is one match you have to try!

A lot of hard work went into researching this year’s chocolate and beer pairings for the Vermont Brewers Festival and it definitely paid off.

Last Friday night a group of 100 plus beer and chocolate enthusiasts made their way into the tent on the Burlington waterfront to experience 4 amazing pairings of local Vermont beer and chocolate.  Folks were even lucky enough to hear each brewery talk about their particular beer before each pairing.

Gary Coffey, self-proclaimed “Official Lake Champlain Chocolates Taste Tester” started off the night by explaining that even though there are six steps to tasting chocolate, in the end, there are no rules. This is a Brew Fest after all.

The first pairing got under way:

 Zero Gravity’s Grissette (5%)  with Dark Chocolate Covered Orange Peel

Paul Saylor of American Flatbread’s Zero Gravity Brewery describes this Saison beer “as a Belgian style Farmhouse Ale.  This beer has a golden color to it with a slight white head.”

We found the aroma had a beautiful scent of sage and ginger.  And pairing this with our citrusy Dark Chocolate Orange Peel really elevated the spice notes in this very dry beer.

Stay tuned for more pairings in the coming days….

Session 501 began on a Friday afternoon in July as a familiar group shuffled together to sample delicious suds made by our friends at various Vermont breweries. Many of you could probably say the same week in and week out, but this gathering’s unlikely setting (the Lake Champlain Chocolates’ kitchen) has an auspicious sidekick – chocolate.  The plan is simple, the task is large – develop a new pairing menu for the 2010 Vermont Brewers’ Festival.

The best of our fresh chocolate confections entice; alongside is an ample supply of bottles and growlers from 6 Vermont microbreweries – LongTrail, Wolaver’s, Magic Hat, Trout River, Rock Art, and Switchback - enough to clutter the island table in the LCC kitchen. It was a sound check of sorts as anticipation of prospective pairings settled into unexpected flavor rifts: Belgians, Wheat, IPA, Fruit-fusion, Oatmeal Stout. The seemingly hodge-podge of trials included Organic Sea Salt & Almond Milk Chocolate squares, Milk Chocolate Macadamia Nuts, Caramelized Almonds, 80% African Blend Dark Chocolate, Dark Chocolate Dipped Orange Peels, Ethiopian Coffee Truffles, and more. Since the factory was empty for the weekend, we had free range on the possibilities!

The challenge this year is to create unexpected pairings that test your palette. Dark beers naturally pair well with chocolate as they have many similar profile notes: earthy, malt, coffee, tobacco, leather, roasted – oh, and chocolate. Expect one, but don’t think we settle for passing grades.  Just like last year’s walk-off winner of Harpoon’s Leviathan IPA paired with our Orange Peels, we are striving for top of the class.

It wasn’t until later in the tasting that we met our surprise pairing this year, a soon-to-be hit at this year’s festival. If you can’t make it down to the Burlington waterfront this weekend, be sure to check back for the pairings next week. Cheers – Eric

It’s official.  Here in Vermont we’re having a heat wave.  It’s been 7 years since our last heat wave so it takes us a bit to adjust to 90 + degrees.  And for many people, eating in hot weather is not at the top of the list. 

Taking a cold shower? Yes.
Turning on the stove or grill? No. 
Drinking a cold beer?  Yes.
Swimming in Lake Champlain and then drinking a cold beer.  Yes and yes! 

There is one thing people do crave during warm weather- an ice cream cone.  There’s almost nothing that tastes more delicious and more like summer itself than an ice cream cone, especially on a warm- ok sweltering- summer night.

A few years ago, we realized we needed to put our good chocolate to work in the summer, if nothing else than to satisfy our own personal cravings; and thus Lake Champlain Chocolates Ice Cream was born.  The same all-natural, fresh ingredients go into our ice cream that go into our chocolate.  However, unlike our chocolates, we cannot ship our ice cream across the country, which means you have to come to Vermont to experience it- and it’s worth the trip. 

Thick, creamy and rich.  The coffee tastes so much like coffee, it’s no surprise there is real coffee in there.  Same goes for the Vanilla Almond Butter Crunch.  If you’re a fan of our Almond Butter Crunch, this is essentially the ice cream version. And yes, we use the same chocolate in our chocolate ice cream that we use to make our chocolates.  What could be better?

Just think of some of your favorite chocolate flavors and we just might have the summer version for you- Chocolate Hazelnut, Maple Butter Pecan, Mocha Chocolate Chip, even Chocolate Banana.  Ok, we don’t have any banana flavored chocolate but maybe someday we will!
 
And all our flavors are made in small batches, I mean small.  Our ice cream maker is only five gallons.  Need I say more?

Yes, there are other ice cream makers in Vermont who will remain nameless but we think ours is worth checking out- you can find it at our three scoop shops and at Shelburne Supermarket and Healthy Living.

So enjoy some ice cream and stay cool!

Here at LCC, it's just as important to us what is on the outside as on the inside.  You all know the care we take and the fresh, all-natural ingredients we use to make our chocolates.  Well, almost as much care and time is taken when creating the packaging to house our delicious chocolates.

Our seasonal packaging changes each year; we know some people who have collected boxes over the years and when you look at the wall in our office with the history of our packaging, it’s pretty impressive.  Some designs were more successful than others (we did have kind of a scary looking snowman one year) but in one glance you can tell that each box was individually designed to capture the essence of our company, of Vermont and of the gourmet chocolates tucked inside.

This is a long way of saying that it is nice to be recognized for the packaging of our chocolates.  We recently won Platinum in the Food & Beverage Packaging Category at the 39th Annual Creativity Awards for the design of our organic line of chocolates- bars, squares and truffles.  With only one Platinum award per category, this is a big deal for us!

So what is the Creativity Awards?  Well, for one they put out this AMAZING book of all of the winners.  If you’re into graphic design, you’ll want to check this out.  But it is also one of the longest running international advertising and graphic design competitions with categories in print, packaging, TV, radio and more. The entries are judged by a panel of advertising and design professionals.  

In short, it’s a pretty prestigious award and we are proud.  We’re not always great at patting ourselves on the back but this time I think we will.

By now most of you have probably heard about our awesome new rock ‘n roll chocolate bar Grace Under Fire.  It was even mentioned on Good Morning America last week!  Plus lots of great mentions in the blogosphere. The dark chocolate bar with red peppers and pistachios celebrates our fellow Vermonter and rock star Grace Potter.

So how did this all happen?  Here’s a super cool chocolate/music video that says it all!  The making of a chocolate bar by Grace herself set to Medicine, one of Grace Potter & the Nocturnals songs on their newly released self-titled album.

Chocolate and music both with a kick- let chocolate rock your world!

There is a gift giving season that people seem to overlook - which is shocking when you think about how many “hallmark holidays” we have these days - but end of the year teacher gifts is serious business.  No one deserves a gift at the end of the school year more than your child’s teacher (no matter what a joy it was to have your child in their class for the year).

It’s a time for teachers to let loose, indulge, relax….and what better way to say thank you and kick off the summer than with some hand-crafted, gourmet chocolates.   They are appropriate, thoughtful and definitely will not go to waste.  No one needs another scented candle.

Give your teacher Chocolate Truffles or a Summer Assortment, the two teaching assistants each a bag of chocolate sea shells or some Chocolates of Vermont.  Go in on a group gift for a team of teachers with one of our delicious chocolate gift baskets!  We have gifts that run the gamut and with our cheerful packaging, there’s no better way to say thank you.  Give your teachers a treat to savor while they relax knowing they have the whole summer ahead of them.

And don’t forget teachers can’t do it alone, teacher aides, coaches, principals, scout leaders, piano teachers….it takes a village and everyone deserves a little chocolate.

As if working with chocolate isn’t cool enough, we are thrilled to announce our first collaboration with a rock ‘n roll band!  Vermont-based Grace Potter & the Nocturnals came to us a few months ago wanting to create their own chocolate bar and we were more than happy to oblige.

It was a true partnership to create this bar.  We went through many different flavors before deciding on one that blends the band’s love of spice, dark chocolate and nuts, foods the band gravitates towards when on the road.  The end result?   “Grace Under Fire,”  54% dark chocolate, bold red pepper, and savory pistachio bar with hints of vanilla and cinnamon.  Spicy, sweet and definitely delicious.

As Grace says herself, “We may be a rock ‘n roll band, but the Nocturnals and I take an unprecedented interest in all things food!  I've been a fan of Lake Champlain Chocolates since I was a kid, so to combine forces to create a rock n' roll chocolate bar is a dream come true!”

We'll start taking orders for the bars tomorrow morning, June 3rd and they will be in our retail stores starting  June 8, just in time for the band’s newest album release. 

Stay tuned for more fun events and news related to Grace Potter & the Nocturnals- you never know where they – or our new bars - will show up!
 
In the meantime, go out and treat yourself to their new album, catch a show (they are an amazing live band!) and top it all off with a spicy chocolate bar!    Trust me, you’ll want an encore of both.

We just got word from our friends at Wedding Wire that Lake Champlain Chocolates has been selected to receive the WeddingWire 2010 Bride’s Choice Award!  This means we are in the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire Community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada.  Let’s say that again: Top. Five. Percent.  Yes!

How does this award really work?  The annual Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.  We all can openly admit brides are not always the easiest customers, even the most laid back brides have their bridezilla moments.  So if we can please this many brides we must be doing something right!

We are thrilled with this honor, especially since it is based on the reviews and feedback of our own customers.  To all those newlyweds out there who used LCC- Thank you!!  We truly appreciate it! 

And to all of those brides-to-be out there, think about including gourmet chocolates on your special day.  You can check out our full line of wedding chocolates, including a newly designed custom engraved favor box filled with chocolate hearts, gourmet truffles or the distinctively flavored Chocolates of Vermont.  

And don’t forget chocolates aren’t just for weddings- our favors are great for showers, retirement parties, anniversaries, family reunions or any sort of party you may be throwing!

I’m Emily Jones, the resident chocolate sculptress for LCC.  I recently had the pleasure of shooting a chocolate picture frame demonstration for HowtoHeroes.com.  They are a site where you can go to watch all kinds of videos on how to make food creations.  People often ask me how I make chocolate sculptures.  Now you can follow along at home to create your own masterpiece.

I was nervous at first being on camera.  For some reason that was more intimidating than being in front of a large group of people!  What made things easier was my former employee Zoe happened to work for how2heroes and was there talking me through the process.  The whole crew was very friendly and helpful.  We did the whole video in one take!  I’ve given many chocolate demonstrations for chocolate frames so I felt very comfortable talking about it.

The weirdest part for me was seeing the final video!  Does my voice really sound like that?  The camera really does add 10 pounds!!  Will I be the next Food Network Star?  I’m not sure.  This was a great experience and I hope I will be able to do it again.