Chocolaterie Wanders offers you the world's finest handmade gourmet chocolates.

And we are very busy. You probably noticed this, since I am not writing on the blog…..

Well, on upcoming Friday night we will be tasting out chocolate confections at Thos. Moser in Georgetown. It is necessary to RSVP - you will find all the details in our newsletter, which will go out tomorrow night (sign up, if you didn’t do so yet!).

Some of you may have noticed our ‘Christmas Trees’ at Biagio Fine Chocolate in Adams Morgan or here at Jan’s Opera House Gourmet in Manassas - if you are intrigued then hurry - there is only a limited number out there and quantities are decreasing fast. We are not sure if we will be able to make more of those delicious treats (they are made with slivered, caramelized almonds coated in dark Valrhona chocolate).

It’s cute alright

I will be posting again soon (before Christmas) and let you all know the order deadlines. One thing is for sure: The earlier you order, the better for everyone! We gladly ship all orders to your loved ones or family, wherever they are

Have a great week,

Wilhelm

Hey Chocolate Conoisseurs,

Sorry for the late notice, but tonight we will be tasting our chocolate confections at Artfully Chocolate in Alexandria, VA.

RSVP is advised - although we will bring enough chocolates to cover a good amount of walk-ins as well. We wouldn’t want you to lose out

If you haven’t been to Artfully Chocolate, get ready for an eclectic store that greets you with bright paintings and of course delicious treats by local artisans, such as us.

See you tonight!

About Sweet:

“The premier culinary festival for New York City’s” Food Network’s New York City Wine & Food Festival” is deeply concerned that more than 35 million Americans are at risk of hunger. That is why “We’re Sweet On” the Food Bank For New York City and Share Our Strength, two of America’s leading hunger-relief organizations and the hosts and beneficiaries of SWEET. ”

Why am I telling you this? Well we wanted to let you know that we participated in part in this event, as in providing Perrier Jouët with a specially made Wine Pate de Fruit made with pairings of:

- Perrier Jouët’s Grand Brut champagne paired with green apple puree

- Blason Rose champagne paired with fresh-squeezed pink grapefruit juice

Every visitor of the show will receive a complimentary favor from us and Perrier Jouët:

We were very happy to work with Perrier Jouët and to be able to contribute to the good cause of the event.

We were also surprised how well the champagne went with the Wine Pate de Fruit! In particular the Blason rose champagne and pink grapefruit make a good combination.

We will make up some boxes of this special selection for our upcoming one year anniversary - but that’s for another post!

How beautiful the weather was the last few weeks. We got a chance to get out and get ourselves some freshly pressed apple cider and explore some more of Virginia’s Vineyards.

This photo shows the church across the Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Virginia. It reminds me of our time in New England, when the trees appeared to be on fire - so vibrant the colors.

Melanie and I got into the Vineyard through a small whole in the fence and got up close to the grapes This picture was actually taken last Sunday (10/28) … the grapes were harvested today and experienced two cold nights (first frost on Monday). They tasted nice and sweet, but we’ll have to wait until 2010 to enjoy the wine from them.

This week we are in full swing again with making and enrobing chocolate confections all day. Tomorrow we have more meetings, put chocolates into cups and package a few boxes. On Thursday another enrobing day and more to package.

We have our first order from Japan - the mother of a bride we provided the wedding favors for called in and she happens to live in Tokyo. She is getting a 12# package next week and we’ll spread the word about our confections in Tokyo

Don’t think that we go international now though - we are here to stay in the US  ….. well, you know … Manassas, Virginia that is

So long and expect our Newsletter for November in your email box shortly! Not signed up yet? You might want to do so, we will tell you about our upcoming tasting events, new products for this season, specials and much more. You can sign up here.

Sounds good, doesn’t it?

We will be at Chrysalis Vineyards as part of their 7th Annual Norton Wine & Bluegras Festival. Bring a friend and enjoy good music, good wine and good chocolate on Saturday and Sunday from 10AM to 6PM. Of course there is a lot more to it as well. More info on the festival is here.

See you tomorrow or on Sunday!

We are heading towards our friends at the Sugar Cube Sweets in Alexandria. We already know that many will miss their favorite Rhubarb Caramel, but we have really fantastic new flavors lined up for the Holiday season. Also, our assortment grows to 12 different flavors, which we are proud of and think that each one is unique in flavor profile and appearance.

Come and visit us at The Sugar Cube Sweets and discuss our new flavors with us - or just enjoy!

We are in!

In the District that is

  William and Biagio from Biagio Fine Chococolate will start to carry our confections this week. We have a tasting on Thursday, September 27th from 6:30-8:30 PM.

We will have all of flavors of our standard assortment PLUS all new Fall/Winter flavor. You will see some old favorites of ours, but also new exciting flavors - well worth a trip to DC on Thursday!

On nother note, we are preparing seasonal gift baskets for this season. One of them is pictured below, we chose a lovely looking red tin to hold all of our gift box assortments, chocolate caramelized almonds, chocolate covered dried fruits and marzipan confections. Fully customizable, you will see it in our online store soon as well - if you need a couple for gift giving, just ask

MOCHA is the new book by Michael Turback after writing “Hot Chocolate”.

We were very happy to be able to assist Michael with his write-up, as we provided information about the Wanders’ Pharisee - a hot chocolate infused with mocha and rum, finished with a dolip of cream and a bit of cinnamon. Our parents have been serving the “Pharisäer”  since they opened their pastry shop in 1981 and with success we might add

The Pharisäer is being served throughout Germany with similar ingredients and originates probably from the northern part of Germany (don’t tell the bavarians!. Originally it is served with just hot coffee and rum and whipped cream on top - our parents added the chocolate to add some variety to it. Rich Valrhona Caraque (my favorite couverture from Valrhona) just seals the deal for us on this drink.

 The cover of the book also shows the Pharisee, which is listed first under category “cocktails” in Mocha. As we read more into the book itself (we got it yesterday and didn’t have a chance yet!) we will keep you posted and tell you about all the other interesting recipes you can find in there.

If you can’t wait to get it, here it is -> link.

When the temperatures drop we will publish the recipe of our (now) famous Pharisee here, so stay tuned

Maybe it was a little windy to begin with. We were honestly not sure if the tent would still be standing - you see, we put it up on Friday night, so that we would be faster with setting up in the morning. Speaking of Friday night …. we ate at a German “Döner” stand. At a WHAT ?!? Yeah that’s right: Döner

“fresh lean meat from the rotisserie in a hot flatbread with a choice of salad and sauce” is what it says in the description - well, we know Döner of course from Germany ….. it got very popular there, due to its lean meat (the fat drips off of the rotisserie) and all the salad thats on it - you find it practically everywhere - as I remember the food came from Turkey or the Middle East. Anyway, it was delicious - if you visit the Hamburg-Döner guys on Catoctin Circle in Leesburg, VA say “Hi” to them from us and get the ’small’ version (unless you are REALLY hungry!

Alright, I really wanted to write about the festival though …. We were worried that the tent would have been blown away, since there were 30mph wind gusts throughout the night and even in to the morning …. BUT a little tape here and there and artistic usage of floral wire (to attach empty display gift box assortments to a water bottle, not to fly away!) and everything was in place.

We had fantastic weather otherwise and enjoyed all the buzz (literally) around. Saturday seemed a little more hectic than Sunday …. maybe just because we had to get into the rhythm though. We ran out of samples of our Pate de Fruit on Sunday afternoon and were completely out of samples by closing time on Sunday - so we were very happy with our estimation for those

All in all it was a fun event for everyone I think. We were happy to be able to add numerous folks to our mailing list and everyone promised us to keep us in mind for their Christmas gift giving.

We will unveil our Fall/Winter flavors soon and actually make a first batch this week to test the new recipes. We have a few tasting sessions coming up and I will keep you posted on those in a later post.

Until then!

I know, I know ….. I am letting you know so late - but - we have been incredibly busy this week and do not only prepare for the upcoming tasting at our favorite wine store in Alexandria [-> Unwined], but also for the Wine festival in Leesburg the next week - more on that later though.

So, we hope to see y’all at Unwined on Sunday 09.09.2007 from 5:30pm - 7:30pm …. there will be plenty of good wine and chocolate - who could resist?

See you there!