Feel the Love

Congratulations to Justin and Dessa!  They celebrated their marriage and shared the love with their friends, family and guests via some Stella Leona chocolates created especially for the occasion.

 

 

These specially created heart boxes were tasty gifts for the bridal party.  We were so excited about them and getting the entire order packed up for the big day that we forgot all about taking pictures of the platters of assorted chocolates for guests and the reception favors which were our chocolate covered pretzels in eggplant and white to match the wedding colors.  That’s too bad because they were adorable! 

Check out all our wedding and event favors by clicking here.  We also love customizing chocolates to be uniquely yours, so contact us if you are interested in a variation of the favors on our site.

Artisan Bars Debut

They’re here!!  The new Artisan Bars by Stella Leona are here and just in time for Mother’s Day.  If you’ve been following the blog, you have witnessed part of the development process.  The final four flavors have been chosen and are now in production and available in our Pettisville location.  They will soon be available at Red Rambler Coffees and hopefully at other locations near you.

The winning flavors are:  Cherry Almond in a 61% semisweet chocolate and Peanut Butter Crunch in milk chocolate (shown above), as well as Espresso and Raspberry each in our 61% semisweet couverture.  These flavors were chosen based on feedback from our professional taste testers.  It’s a rough job, but somebody’s gotta do it!

For now you’ll have to stop by the shop to check out the bars.  We’ll let you know as soon as they are available for purchase directly from the Stella Leona web site.

Sammy Loves Stella Leona Artisan Bars

This is our friend, Sammy. 

Sammy is one of our youngest professional taste testers of potential new products.  He is developing a taste for fine chocolate at an early age and seems to have quite a discerning palate.  We hope this is only the beginning of a lifelong relationship between us!  We will soon be announcing the release date of the brand new Stella Leona Artisan Bars.  Hopefully you will enjoy them as much as Sammy does.  Thanks Sammy!

Thanks to Kent Nafziger Photography for the photos!

We’ve Been Nibbled!!!

It was an exciting day for Becky and Nancy!  We realized late yesterday that Stella Leona has been nibbled.  If you are not familiar with The Nibble, it is a gourmet food magazine and web site for people who love to eat and drink the best specialty foods.  It focuses on product reviews of specialty foods and beverages.  Readers include the foodie, food lover, fine food enthusiast, and connoisseur as well as the student who wants to learn about gourmet food.  Reviews are based on editor opinions that these are “the best of the best” products.  To quote them directly, “If we write about it, we would spend our own money on it.”  We consider this review an honor!

Click here to see the review of our one-and-only Birch Cream Caramels and Xocolatl Chocolates.  A review of our Orange-Glazed Pecans can be found here.  Of course you can order any of these items by clicking on the product name above or on our website www.stellaleona.com where you can check out all of our hand made chocolates.  Mother’s Day is quickly approaching and a gift of Stella Leona chocolates has appreciation written all over it!

New Chocolates!!!

Now that the major chocolate holidays have come and gone, it’s time to get down to some creative work in the kitchen!  Late spring and summer is the time of the year that we focus on developing new flavor profiles and product types.  Frankly, it’s my favorite part of being a chocolatier.  Our professional taste testers are plenty content when this season rolls around as well!

Here you’ll get a sneak peak at one of our new lines as it develops.  We are currently working on developing some artisan chocolate bars that we can hand make in a way that will allow us to make them available for resale in a variety of retail settings.  This is something we’ve been asked about for a long, long time.  We have not done any wholesale business up until this point mainly out of concern for freshness and the short shelf life of our soft center chocolates.

So………………we decided to work on a line of artisan chocolate bars that will be much more shelf stable AND be hand made, beautiful and wildly delicious.  Only time will tell, but we think we’re on to something.

We start with the same delectable chocolate you have come to expect from Stella Leona.

Then we added fruits and nuts and a couple of other not-yet-to-be-shared ingredients. 

All that added together equals some combinations you will want to be sure to taste for yourself.

Watch for complete product photos including packaging (which is always mind-blowing coming from our amazing designer, Chad Shirey) coming very soon!!!

Peter Cottontail’s New Friend

We thought you’d want to know how content Peter is in his new home.  Here he is with his new best friend, Addie.  Thanks to the Bucksteiners!!!

And the winner is…………

Richard Bucksteiner!!!!!  Congratulations!  Richard is the lucky winner of the amazing, like-no-other Grand Easter Bunny table centerpiece!  He is a whopping 3 pounds of milk chocolate and stands 24 inches tall adding a BIG splash of color to a celebration.  Thank you to all of you who registered either in our shop, at Pettisville Meats or via email.  Keep watching this blog for further giveaways this summer.  Have a blessed Easter!!!