Community Connection
Wanders Bring Fine Chocolate to Area
By Karen Akerlof, Photos by Norma Burton
Eating a Wanders truffle is a very sensual experience – and not just because of chocolate’s reputation as an aphrodisiac. When you put a bite-sized piece in your mouth, it immediately starts melting, releasing a concerto of subtle flavors composed by Prince William’s new artisanal chocolatiers, Wilhelm and Melanie Wanders.
When most Americans think of chocolate, they think of the candy aisle next to the grocery-store check-out, but Wilhelm, 29, and Melanie, 27, are banking that Americans, particularly those in the D.C. metro area, are ready for a more sophisticated, handmade product.
“It’s definitely a product that you have to taste,” explained Melanie Wanders. “I don’t think they realize how unique it is until it’s actually in their mouths.”
The couple, who met in Walpole, New Hampshire working for famed chocolatier Larry Burdick, started looking about a year and a half ago for a place to open a gourmet chocolate business. Wilhelm’s family has been making confections and pastries since the 18th century in Elten, Germany. Today, Wilhelm’s uncle runs the centuries-old family restaurant, and his parents operate a café specializing in pastries and confections in nearby Kleve. While both Melanie and Wilhelm are only in their twenties, they have amassed impressive culinary resumes, studying with some of the best chefs both in the States and Europe.
After L.A. Burdick Chocolates, Melanie returned with Wilhelm to Germany to learn European confection and pastry methods at his parents’ Stadt-Café Conditorei Wanders. They were married, took positions as chefs in North Carolina and began saving to start their own business. “We knew that we wanted to do chocolate, because that’s what we do best,” said Melanie. They canvassed the East Coast looking for the right market, and say they found it in D.C.
“We liked Prince William County because you are still close to the city, but it’s a nice quality of life here,” said Melanie. Her husband joked, “And it’s called Prince ‘Wilhelm’ County.”
If you need to taste Wanders chocolates to fully appreciate them, Melanie and Wilhelm are working hard to make sure you have the opportunity, participating in local wine and chocolate tastings as well as reaching out to the area’s retailers and restaurants.
The Wanders term their chocolates “artisan,” and after seeing how they make them it is easy to see why. Producing chocolates in their Manassas facility is a blend of skill and art. Wilhelm explains, “Melanie comes up with the different flavors and I have to make it happen.” The master pastry chef with the continental accent is clearly at home with the technical side of chocolate-making, demonstrating the equipment and gadgets that monitor the chemistry of the product, keeping the chocolate a dark, glossy brown and giving it its “snap.”
Wanders Chocolaterie has four permanent confections in their assortments – Earl Grey, cinnamon, espresso and raspberry – with Melanie creating another four chocolate varieties every three months to reflect the season.
In the Earl Grey variety, one of the chocolates I tasted, the Wanders infuse cream with the tea and bergamot oil, then whip it into chocolate ganache, which becomes the center of the confection. Chocolate then enrobes the ganache, and lavender delicately decorates the top and adds another level of flavor. “The lavender plays off the bergamot oil,” Melanie explains.
Wilhelm says that they use the best chocolate they can obtain and combine it with fresh ingredients, such as cream, to produce a high quality product that doesn’t rely on fillers like high fructose corn syrup, sugar and preservatives.
Like wine and even coffee, chocolate is experiencing a shift toward region-specificity. The cacao tree, which originally came from South America, is now grown worldwide along the equator. Due to the nuances of soil and climate, each region produces cocoa, or cacao, with its own chemistry that affects everything from taste to how it reacts during chocolate production. These regional differences are termed “terroir.” Knowing where their chocolate comes from is another factor that Wilhelm and Melanie take into account in structuring a confection of complementing flavors.
Chocolaterie Wanders has only been in business a few months, and right now it’s just the couple working in the Manassas industrial park facility off Route 234 (the site is a production facility only, all direct retail orders are through their website www.chocolateriewanders.com. But they anticipate hiring soon, and said they already have had interest from students at a Culinary Institute of America, Melanie’s alma mater. They are designing a larger dessert chocolate for the restaurant market, and hope eventually to expand the business into a café selling not only chocolates and chocolate drinks but pastries and sandwiches, perhaps within the next 3-5 years.
While in December the Wanders were still contending with their first large influx of sales, they said they were looking forward to Valentine’s Day and would have a new series of truffle varieties for the holiday.
The Wanders say that it is the attraction of making something with their own hands and the appreciation of those who enjoy their chocolates that inspire them. Perhaps it is that inspiration that flavors the chocolates as well, something that mass-produced chocolates are lacking. Melanie said their goal is for people to feel luxurious when eating their confections: “It turns into an experience, it’s not just a candy bar you’re munching on your way to work.”
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