Let's talk chocolate "freshness"

We hear them all the time and they are genuinely good and incredibly important questions. 

"How long is your chocolate good for?" 

"How long will this chocolate stay fresh?" 

"Are your chocolates/fudge made fresh?"

If you're in a rush, here it is. 

-The vast majority of the chocolates made in our facility are crafted with simple, high-quality ingredients and will be in an exceptional condition for your pleasure, relaxation and gratification for at least two months from your purchase date.

-Chocolate Covered Fresh Fruit is the exception and is best enjoyed the day of purchase or the day after. We always advise our freshly dipped fruit to be kept in the refrigerator .

-In order to ensure the highest level of excellence, we encourage you to keep your bounty of handcrafted excellence in its original packaging, out of direct sunlight and in a cool place. 

Now if you're not in a rush, have a seat.

It's thrilling to know that the people you're serving actually care about the products that were crafted with them in mind. Beneath these questions of "freshness" is the understanding that everything we produce within our facility is intentionally thought out, lovingly designed and prepared to bring the highest quality, American-made chocolate to everyone. I'm going to be honest, it feels really incredible to serve people who's intentionality mirrors our own.

(Okay. Pull it together, Adam! I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to cry.)

ANYWAY! While these queries of "freshness" are heart warming, they're also a little challenging to answer BECAUSE how each individual defines "fresh" is often very subjective. 

For the sake of getting us all on the same page, let's once and for all define "freshness" in regard to chocolates and chocolate products, such as fudge. Don't worry about your hard candies, they'll survive the Apocalypse (8 months). 

Simple. Right? Let's break this down quickly and sweetly (you see what I did there?)

Chocolate's Preserving Power

The COLOSSAL factor to note is that a chocolate coating acts as a natural (and the most delicious) preservative. Chocolate itself has a surprisingly long life-span, with dark chocolate, kept in the proper conditions, lasting up to two years, while milk and white chocolate hold their ideal state for about a year. 

The moment we've added a robe of chocolate to any piece, whether Butter Creams, Pretzels, Cordial Cherries, Oreos, Truffle ganache, Almonds and so on, we've immediately sealed that product away from the harmful affects of light and air, ensuring all the vibrant flavors and dynamic textures are pure experiencial gold for MONTHS to come. No joke, quality chocolate is just that awesome. 

Proper packaging certainly adds to our "Chocolate Freshness" time allotment but possibly more important are the tactics and strategies we've created and labor over to ensure 100% turnover of our time-sensitive products. This precarious but exciting balance is coordinated to ensure that each chocolate piece you enjoy is just as perfect as they were the moment after completion, if not even better! 

If we're being technical, you just can't achieve that satisfying "snap!" of a milk or dark coating without the beta crystals of perfectly tempered chocolate having enough time to set properly. This process completes days after the chocolate fully cools.

Chocolate Covered Fruit is the obvious caveat when we're talking about the beautiful, preservative power of a chocolate coating and perfect packaging. This is simply because we're talking about a whole different set of enzymatic reactions. As stated earlier, Chocolate Covered Fresh Fruit is best enjoyed the day of or the day after purchase. 

The Cost of Simplicity

"So how is it that other companies create chocolates with a much longer lifespan?" 

Well, simply put, their products are not simple. Those longer lifespans come with ingredient labels which rival the Bible in their length and lists of words that contain impossible numbers of consonants, lining up like a long row of terrifying, mutant baby ducklings. Very often they also take a "pass" on the overall experience of their products, with flavors fading and textures becoming dull as they sit for months and years on a grocery shelf or in a gigantic warehouse or forgotten on the Isle of Misfit Chocolate. 

Let us have a moment of silence for these un-flavorful cretans.

Made Upstairs in America

"We're not only made in America," says my dad. "We're made by us; the same people pumping your Non-Pariels, cooking the Fudge, rolling Bourbon Cherries, crafting Signature Truffles, building your Custom Assortments, wrapping your gifts, handing your selection across the counter or mailing it across the nation."

"The fear of purchasing a less than incredible experience because your chosen product has been sitting on a random shelf for an unknown quantity of time is a real one but it never has to be a source of anxiety when purchasing from us. We time our offerings to be at the summit of their quality, for people to enjoy and share at their leisure for a solid two months with hard candies expending far beyond that."