My name is Valerie Gamble. I am a chocolatier and the owner of Expressions Fine Chocolate. I started this company seven years ago. I make hand made European style truffles and other confections. This is truly a labor of love. I use Callebaut coveture, I do not use preservatives, therefore the shelf life of my products is shorter.
You will not find any of my products sitting on a shelf for months. Most of my business is through Sysco Food distributors, shopnbc.com or other corporate or wholesale orders. The front or retail portion of my shop is pretty empty as I have found that the product stays fresher and safer from the sun in the kitchen. If you come into my shop, I will probably take you into the kitchen and show you what I have. You may then order or take what I have available. I try always to keep a bus tub full of Almond Florentine at all times. And a least five or six kinds of truffles, turtles and assorted barks.
I guess the reason I have decided to start a blog is to let people know how and why my shop is different from other chocolate shops or retail stores they may be used to. I have a very good friend (Mary) that fusses at me constantly about how much business I am losing because I do not utilize the retail portion of the business. I have tried to tell everyone that will listen that a traditional retail shop will not really work for me.
I am a single mom and I have to leave to pick my daughter up from school at 2:30. I try not to return to the shop after that because I feel that it is not fair to my daughter to take her up to the shop everyday after she has already been in school for eight hours.
Yes, I have hired people to run the shop when I am not there. All with disastrous results. Any small business owner reading this will understand exactly what I am talking about. The next reason is that when I receive an order from Sysco Foods or shopnbc.com I have twenty-four hours to get those orders shipped. If I get several orders, I must get those orders out. This may wipe out my entire inventory. I fill the orders that are placed by retail clients, Sysco, Shopnbc first. Then anything else goes to the retail storefront.
Now you are asking, Why don't you just make a lot of product? Well, the answer to that is, I make as much as I can. I refuse to use cheap chocolate or preservatives. In my opinion there is no truffle better than the one with freshly whipped ganache. It makes the truffle so much more creamy. There is a HUGE difference in fresh candy and stuff that has been on a shelf.
Okay to the real reason I started this blog. A lady left me the most horrible message the other day. I totally sold out on Easter, so much so that my daughter did not even get a chocolate egg. The lady came on Monday, the day after Easter. Like who wants chocolate then anyway? Well, I of course had the doors locked as I had nothing to sell. She called and I explained this to her. I gave her my cell phone number and told her to call before she came if she was coming from the other side of town. I told her to come back the next day and I would have fresh product. She did not. The day after that my daughter came down with a serious illness and had to be kept home from school and taken to the doctor. This lady came to the shop then, and called and left me the most ugly message (I saved it, it was so bad). She was yelling in the phone about how angry she was that I was not there and how do I stay in business, and my location is bad, there are no apartments around me, how could I sell out on Easter and have no product on Monday? She wrote a food blog and basically threatened me with a bad review. Blah, Blah, Blah
I texted her from the doctors office apologized and told her I would be happy to deliver candy to her when my daughter got better. Then that night I came home and re-listened to the message. That is when I decided to write this blog.
If you would like the freshest, finest quality chocolate in town, call me and come to my shop. If you are a rude person or someone that does not understand the definition of Artisan Chocolate, do not come to my shop. My chocolate work is something I do for the love of the product. I am not interested in making money by quantity or cheap ingredients. I use the highest quality ingredients and take the time to make every piece by hand, not machine. So yes, rude lady, it takes longer, and sometimes I sell out of product. If my daughter gets ill I will take care of her.
I do this job because I love and get a tremendous amount of satisfaction knowing that I give people something special that they cannot get just anywhere.
I am happy to give my clients my cell phone 281-841-6096. Feel free to call, place an order or make an appointment or just stop by. I have enjoyed writing this blog. I will continue.
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