The bold idea behind a one-of-a-kind American chocolatier
April 4th marks the 42nd anniversary of starting our unique business. After four decades, we are still the only chocolatier in this country hand-crafting liquid liquor, wine, & coffee filled chocolates. I thought I wanted to grow up to be an architect. Instead, I became the architect of my life and a new confection. When you realize that your life is 100% your responsibility, it, in essence, empowers you to shape your own destiny. Your choices are your own. However, you never go it alone.
Life hands you opportunities. Make good use of them. While completing my architectural degree in Europe, I fell in love with great chocolate. At the time, American chocolate just didn’t hold a candle to European chocolate. Historically, there are reasons for that…but that is another story. I returned to graduate with honors, then went to work with a client in Nashville. This is when I found myself in the right place at the right time for something creatively new and different.
I was also dabbling in chocolate at the time, creating my own chocolates for gourmet dinner parties while distributing Lindt’s mass chocolate to local chefs. One Nashville businessman approached me in October regarding European liqueur chocolates and asked if I could make an American version by Christmas, made with Jack Daniels. I jumped at the chance. I immediately contacted the head of Lindt Sprungli, the line of chocolatiers who perfected the Liqueur Praline centuries before. I simply asked if they could train me to make it in this country. Soon, I met with Art Oberholzer, Lindt’s Master Chocolatier.
We also knew the upper management of Brown-Forman Beverages who owned the JD brand headquartered in Nashville. This seemed like a natural connection to me. Art soon came to Nashville to train me, and he stood by my side as we made the presentation.
The management group asked Art how quickly Lindt could have it on the shelf. My heart fell to my feet. Art answered, saying that I intended to make and distribute the product in this country. They asked him again, Art said, Lindt could deliver in four months. I blanched. Then they asked me the same question. How long to design (business plan, packaging, infrastructure), build (equipment, facilities, contacts), manufacture, market, and establish (legal) distribution channels for a never-before-seen in this country, new product? I blurted out “nine months,”; only because I had just found out that I was pregnant.
Five months later, they did a market test at the Dallas Gourmet Market in September. The response was phenomenal, and we were off to the races.
While Art was training me, I asked, “Could I change the shape or make a non-alcoholic?” He stated flatly, “No, it has not changed in almost 190 years”. The process was perfected based on distilled spirits. In Europe, the Liqueur Praline is 25% alcohol and about 3.5″ long, called a “baton” in French for a stick. Europeans recognized the shape and placed the entire piece in their mouth from cheek to cheek, while Americans simply bit it in half, dribbling down their chin. If I was going to make this work, I also needed to change the shape to create a uniquely American bite-sized version.
Our copyrighted shape is only about a half a teaspoon of liquid. But you have enough oxygen in the roof of your mouth, just from speaking, to fire off the amount of alcohol in the piece, and suddenly it feels like you have just had a shot! It is an illusion: we form an edible moisture barrier between the liquid and the chocolate, trapping the essences that make each spirit unique.
In America, our regulations did not permit more than 5% alcohol, by volume per piece; by lowering the alcohol content, you can taste the difference between two straight bourbons side by side. You can taste the distiller’s craft.
Initially, there were limited legal states in this country in which to make this kind of product…and Tennessee wasn’t one of them. To launch this product, I had to relocate. I started in what are known as “control states”: state governments that control the sale of liquor in state liquor stores…even though it is a food product.
Forty-two years later, we are still crafting an experience that is our very own, and I am delighted to have returned home to Texas.
