Posts Tagged with candy

Ethereal Confections Chocolate Bars – Beautifully Delicious

Friday, January 27th, 2012

On a side street tucked into a shop off the square of a small town, closer to the Wisconsin boarder than to Chicago, a confectionary churns out magically tasty and stunningly beautiful chocolates. It’s here – in Woodstock, IL – that two women compose a symphony of sugar, nuts, fruits, and of course chocolate to create these wonders. They masterfully construct decadent truffles, impeccable meltaways, chunky chocolate bark, and more – but what caught our collective eye was their chocolate bars. In the wide world of chocolate bars, there are those few that we find so stunning in flavor and design, than those from Ethereal - their local to boot!

Most other bars would have the flavors peppered in trace amounts though the bar, forcing your tongue to do all of the heavy lifting trying to pull out the flavors. Ethereal’s Pistachio Cranberry bar has massive cuts of those tasty green nuts as well as hunks of dried cranberry, a feast for the eyes as well as the belly. All of the their chocolate bars have hunks of tasty treats trapped in smooth and rich dark chocolate – just ripe for the munching.

Grab a bar of these amazing chocolate confections and taste what locally made artisan “choco-love” tastes like.

Holiday Treats – straight to your stockings

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

Christmas party incoming? Holiday party tomorrow? Need to pick up something, but it can’t just be anything to a get together? We’ve got the solution – food and candy. Everyone loves both, and those who say they don’t are lying.

Grab from the plethora of items on our shelf. We may be small but we have a really diverse selection. Know someone who was naughty this year? Grab a Hammond’s Candy Coal for that rascal. Everyone loves chocolate and we’ve got loads of things for the chocoholic: TCHO’s Christmas boxes, Mille Lacs’ Trinkets, Mittens, and Snowflakes, Chocolate covered Hostess pretzels, fantastic chocolate covered grahams, too many more to name! Hard candy? Covered. Cookies? Handmade right here in the store, ready to devour! We’ve got jams, jellies, conserves that we make here – or take the bread pudding pancake mix over the grandma’s and make them in the morning for the family.

Fill up on stocking stuffers or full on gifts before it’s too late. And enjoy the holidays!

truffle truffle – So good they named it twice

Friday, December 17th, 2010

Truffles, easily made, but infinity tough to perfect. That is for us commoners, but for those with the chocolate version of the Midas Touch, like Nicole at truffle truffle, whirl the ingredients and textures together into the perfect little pearls.

What are the flavors?

Ah, glad you asked. There is an ever changing bundle of flavors from truffle truffle. Each season gets their own collection, this winter is gingerbread, peppermint bark, spiced orange & roasted pistachio. Yeah, it sounds awesome, but try them – oh boy. We carry just the seasons, but there is broad stroke of themes on their site – each tasty and delicious. But truffle truffle doesn’t just make truffles, they create heavenly caramels, luscious s’mores, and more! The caramels also come in seasons too like this winter’s current selection: chestnut honey, poached pear, eggnog and pomegranate blood orange. The eggnog is one of our favorites, a surprisingly rich flavor mixed in with the caramels, creamy and hints of dark liquor and nutmeg – so good. Or grab a seasonal s’more; talk about decadent! Pulling in the flavors of the season they create collections packed neatly into handmade flavored graham crackers, with their own marshmallows stuck in between then enrobed in chocolate – no open flame required. Each confection is made with love and passion, something you can taste in every bite.

Is it just one person?

Oh no, Nicole has a great team of people. They all used to saunter into our bakery in the middle of the night to make their treats, but now have moved to a space all their own – thats what happens when you do things right. Nicole does all of flavor profiling, using her staff as the guinea pigs. After serving in the Army, she wanted to do something a little bit less stressful – chocolates. Little did she know that her business would grow so quickly – leaving her barely enough time for sanity; for a good reason, her sweets are incredible. We’ve searched and these are the best truffles Chicago has to offer, hands down.

Where are they available?

Here at Southport Grocery of course. We try and keep our collaborative effort, the Southport Grocery Cupcake Truffle, in as well as their seasonal collections – the twelve pack tins and the cupcake truffles available individually. Want something more, special, or we’re low? Let us know, we can order it and get it in for you! Give truffle truffle a try, your sweet tooth will thank you.

Oaks Chocolate Bars, melty is in the name

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

MeltyBars_0018

Have a taste for chocolate? Pick up an Oak’s Melty or Malty Melty Bar.

Chocolate bar, aren’t there 1000 of those?

Not likes these. Whipped chocolate center and a snappy thick chocolate coating. Oaks have a thick layer of smooth, rich chocolate coating the outside, providing a snap when biting into the bar.  The inside is whipped chocolate, not too heavy and not too light. There are two types of Oaks bars: the Malty Melty has a center with  Malt powder – like those sweet shakes from your childhood, and the Melty Melty is all chocolate all the time.

Who makes them and where are they from?

For over 100 years and five generations Oaks Chocolate has been making chocolate candies in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and we now bring that delicious tradition to you!

Just need a small bit of something chocolaty?

Yeah, we all do sometimes. We’re often overwhelmed by ‘King’ sizes and even regular sized candy bars – packed full of over sugared caramel and too much of everything. The Oak bars the the perfect size and never overwhelming. Oak’s bars are the ideal quell to your chocolate addiction – so much so even Saveur Magazine couldn’t ignore them, mentioning them in their top 100 of this year

Want to pick one or five up?

We’ve got them for you. If we’re low or out, we can always order some for you.

TCHO Chocolate, intensely obsessive chocolate

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

TCHO_A_DAY_30Obsessively good chocolate.  All very dark and all very delicious – TCHO chocolates are rich with all those ‘good things’ that chocolate provides: powerful antioxidants, amino acids, and happiness.  Here at Southport Grocery, we carry the 30 day prescriptions as well as single 5gram bars, small enough for a nibble.  Four types in the TCHO family: fruity, nutty, citrus, chocolatey – each with a distinct flavor and slightly different percent of cacao to bring out the richness of the chocolate.

A technology and chocolate came together to make TCHO, a chocolate manufacturing company at it’s core – one of the few artisan chocolate makers in the US. They don’t just melt other’s chocolate, they themselves create the chocolate in their factory on the famous San Francisco waterfront.  They are constantly checking the quality, from pod to bean to the machines. Small batch, tasty, hand picked – what is not to love?

TCHO obsesses over their chocolate and we’re sure you’ll do the same after one taste.

Grown-up Halloween Candy

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

Who says Halloween is just for kids?

Southport Grovery & Cafe has dedicated an adult candy-aisle for the sophisticated sweet tooth. The selection offers superior quality homages and twists on old classics.

Chicago’s own Whimsical Candy Company has created the next generation Milky Way. It’s signature La-Dee-Dahs ($4.99) are swirled nougat, caramel and chocolate.

Vosges, also based in Chicago, has updated the classic Reeses combination of peanut butter and chocolate in it’s trademark PB Bon Bon ($10 for 4 pc).

Malt flavoring harkens back to the days of soda shops. That’s what make’s the Retro Malted Milk Bar ($3.50) such a special treat, Whoppers for foodies!

The ultimate sign of change in the adult candy palettes may be the Pate de Fruit ($3.25 for 2 pc) by Charles Chocolates of San Francisco. These treats infused with 5 different wine varietals
make Dots look like the “boxed wine” of candy.