October 4, 2007
Fall is here and Zingerman's Deli is fêting the harvest season with new chocolates and great events.

This month is the debut of the new Zzang! candy bar from Zingerman's Bakehouse — the What the Fudge! Bar — and I've got the inside scoop on it from its creator, Charlie Frank! We've also got Chocolate Halloween Suckers from Cluizel, a special Pumpkin Truffle from local chocolatier Nancy Biehn, and a new hot chocolate for you to check out!

And as always, there is the opportunity for you to increase your chocolate IQ by attending Zingerman's chocolate tastings. This month we are hosting world-renown chocolate expert Chloé Doutre-Roussel for two nights of choco-learning, tasting, and discussion... read more about her visit below! We're also getting ready for the 2nd Annual Zingerman's Next Door Kids Halloween Hootenanny.

New stuff Duff is really excited about:
(1) What the Fudge! Bar
Unless you are 100 years old, you've probably never tasted anything like Zingerman's Zzang! bars. Created by Zingerman's own Charlie Frank, who is on a mission to "bring great flavor back to candy," the Zzang! candy bars are simple yet transcendent. Charlie's newest creation, the What the Fudge! Bar, is making huge waves at Zingerman's Deli, where staff and guests have the chance to sample it for the first time this month.

Charlie's candy bar recipes are inspired by different methods of manipulating and cooking sugar. Having already successfully experimented with nougat (the Zzang! Original), brittle (the Ca$hew Cow), and marshmallow (the now-retired Wowza), Charlie decided to play around with fondant. He ended up developing a malted milk cream fondant, then pairing it with milk chocolate fudge and muscavado brown sugar caramel.

Are your teeth aching with sugary desire yet?

Realizing that the fondant, fudge and caramel made a lovely trio, Charlie dipped them all in 65% dark chocolate from Vintage Plantations — the same chocolate that coats the Zzang! Original and Ca$hew Cow bars — and thus the What the Fudge! Bar was born.

The great thing about Charlie's candy bars is that they are made up of really simple, really good ingredients. As he puts it, "We're not inventing new-fangled combinations... We're imagining what candy must have tasted like in the age before artificial ingredients and off-tasting chemicals." Charlie is basically bringing the traditional American candy bar back to life! Help us celebrate our candy-man and his newest invention by stopping by the Deli and sampling the What the Fudge! Bar... You'll find it at the counter, wrapped in verdant green foil with a sweet yellow label, next to the Zzang! Original and Ca$hew Cow bars.

(2) Chocolate Halloween Suckers from Cluizel
Hold it in your hand and it won't melt — it's chocolate on a stick! These chocolate suckers are made with rich milk chocolate and filled with a generous layer of Cluizel's praliné à l'ancienne — slow-roasted hazelnuts and almonds finely ground with caramelized sugar. The suckers are decorated in five spooky designs: Citrouille (Pumpkin), Fantôme (Ghost), Chauve-Souris (Bats), Sorcière (Witch), and Chat noir sur les toits (Black Cat on the Roof). Go ahead — buy one for your best friend, or your mom, or your sweetie. This is the ultimate Halloween treat.

(3) Ecuadorian Hot Chocolate
All month long, we're serving up cups of Ecuadorian hot chocolate. It is the drink of the month! We're using the Vintage Plantations 55% and 65% dark chocolate — the same chocolate we use to dip our Zzang! bars. We love this chocolate because it is made tree-to-bar in Ecuador using sustainably grown, shade-grown cacao. In fact, all of the farms that produce cacao for this chocolate are certified by the Rainforest Alliance, a certification body that ensures the environmental safety of several tropical crops and the social welfare of the people who farm them.

To make the hot chocolate (which is served in an espresso cup), we chop 55% and 65% Vintage Plantations chocolate and mix it with just a wee bit of Calder Dairy's un-homogenized whole milk. We gently steam and stir the chocolate and milk until they are combined, resulting in a velvety, flavorful shot of hot chocolate. The taste is earthy and wholesome — sweet, but not too sweet.

Coming next month...
Equitrade chocolate from Madagascar
World-debut of Yummy Earth's Artisanal Candy line
Zingerman's first-ever candy tasting!

Best,

Chocolate Lady Duff