Part of the reason I've been such an abysmal correspondent lately is that I planned my travels poorly. Yesterday was the first time since November 7 that I had a day off work without having to travel anywhere. Today, my second day off in a row, feels so luxurious - maybe that's because until today, I haven't had two days off work in a row without traveling anywhere since October 15. I just counted - that's more than six weeks! It makes me tired all over again just thinking about it. Between a trip to Baltimore for Halloween, a swim meet, a trip to Chicago and Madison to visit old friends, Thanksgiving, and the fact that I work for a company that does the vast majority of its business in November and December, it's been a crazy couple of months. The even crazier thing is that after today, there are only three more Mondays until Christmas. Just three more! Then, maybe I'll return to some semblance of normality again. For now though, there's nothing to do but to embrace the madness. And to eat as many candied chestnuts as possible - that part is very important.
But I didn't come here today to gripe about the fact that I'm happily employed or that I travel too often. Nope, I'm here on much more important business. I'm here because I need to tell you about the chocolate.
So remember how I said I went to Chicago? Going there was kind of an afterthought - I was headed to Madison for the weekend, and didn't want to have to make the whole trip out there in one day, and I have friends in Chicago, so I thought, "Why not spend the night?" And once I had decided to spend the night, that also meant I had a morning free in Chicago, so I thought, "Why not visit Vosges?"
Mo, the founder of Zingerman's Mail Order (where I work), is good friends with Katrina, the owner of Vosges Haut Chocolat in Chicago. We sell some of Vosges' chocolates, including (of course!) the eponymous Mo's bacon chocolate bar, and our companies have a good working relationship. Taking full advantage of that relationship, when I was in Chicago two Fridays ago I spent a few hours behind the scenes at Vosges with Emily, the director of new product development, talking shop and touring the production area. It was a great, great day. There is so much that I could say about it that I hardly know where to begin, so I'll try to let the pictures do most of the talking. I wish I could include smells, too, though - upon entering the production facility, you are engulfed in the subtle yet persistent aroma of fresh, warm chocolate - it's pretty delightful.
The offices at Vosges are just lovely: elegant, dramatic, vibrant, luxurious. Those are all words I would use to describe their products, too - I don't think that's entirely a coincidence.
While I was there, I saw some of the toffee production. Toffee is cut on a large, heated table, which keeps it warm and malleable as workers slice it very carefully.
Vosges uses all sorts of unusual, exotic flavorings in their chocolates. They have bins and bins of ingredients like these:
Vosges's signature products are truffles. Here are some, mid-way through production:
All truffles take a ride through the enrober, AKA (according to me) the chocolate waterfall. I can't tell you how hard it was to not stick my finger in.
Dried rose petals, ready to top truffles:
I especially loved the visit to Katrina's office. Katrina is, in Emily's words, "a collector of stuff." The shelves in her office were piled with all manner of things: vintage wedding cake topper couples, books on chocolate, bright colored feathers, molds, packaging options. Everything was jumbled together, and yet there was a rhythm, an order to the chaos. I only wish my own haphazard piles of things could look so intentional! Emily picked up a few of the items and told me their stories; I wish we could have taken an hour just to go through them all.
The headless bunny, for example - its head is missing because it's currently being used as a model for lollipops that will come out around Easter. I love that.
There are so many reasons I love my job, but the connections that allow me to have private, behind-the-scenes tours of fantastic chocolate companies? What an incredible perk. I am a lucky, lucky girl.
Many thanks to all of the wonderful people I met at Vosges - come and visit the next time you're in the Ann Arbor area!
