Waggoner Chocolates Ultimate Assorted Party Gift Box

Designer Chocolate:
Known as the food of the gods, nearly two-thirds of women eat chocolate candy or desserts weekly. Chocolate surely is a trend that has taken hold and has the masses clamoring for more; and the latest trend is not just any old chocolate... it's designer chocolate.

Scrumptious, smooth, creamy, rich, delectable and indulgent are just some of the adjectives often used to describe chocolate, the delightful substance of which the average American consumes 10 pounds each year. A cultural pastime and a sweet-tooth favorite, chocolate's taste and texture incite passion unlike any other confection. From hot chocolate to truffles to cookies to cakes, chocolate is well established as a substance Americans love to love. It makes some of the best gifts for just about any occasion.

Making Designer Chocolate:
Especially passionate for chocolate are chocolatiers, those who create fine chocolate with masterpiece-like artistry. Here's how they do it:

Chocolate's pleasure comes from the painstaking process that yields the finest varieties. Chocolate begins with the seeds from inside the fruit of the cacao tree, native to regions that include South America, Africa and Indonesia. These seeds are known as cocoa beans.

The beans are fermented and dried in the sun before they are ready to go to the chocolate maker. The chocolate maker roasts the beans, sorting and blending beans from different locales to create their own distinct flavors. Next, the beans are winnowed, a process that removes the meat, also known as the nib, of the cocoa bean from the shell. The meat or nib is then ground into a substance called chocolate liquor, which is pure, unsweetened chocolate.

Much talent is required to turn this chocolate liquor into fanciful and delectable treats. The chocolate maker adds sugar, flavoring (such as vanilla) and milk (found in milk chocolate) according to his or her own special recipe. Then conching occurs; this is done with a special machine that blends ingredients. The process can take from two to six days. Next, chocolate is tempered. This involves slowly heating the chocolate then slowly cooling the chocolate in order to let the cocoa butter solidify without separating from the rest of the ingredients. The exact processes and ingredients used by each chocolate maker determine the texture, quality and taste of the final product.

Ingredients:

• Peanut Brittle-Ingredients: Sugar, peanuts, corn syrup, baking soda and salt.
• Caramel Corn-Ingredients: Popcorn (corn oil, beta carotene and salt), brown sugar, corn syrup, butter (milk, salt), molasses, coconut oil, baking soda, soybean oil, soy lecithin. Manufactured on shared equipment with tree nuts, soy, dairy and wheat.
• Honey Roasted Snack Mix - Ingredients: honey nut mix (peanuts, almonds, cashews, sugar, honey, peanut oil, calcium stearate [anti-caking], tapioca maltodextrin, xanthan gum, salt), honey sesame sticks (enriched wheat flour [unbleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron {reduced iron}, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], soybean oil, sesame seeds, sugar, wheat starch, honey, bulgur wheat, maltodextrin, xanthan gum, salt, beet powder [color], turmeric [color])Manufactured in a facility and on shared equipment that processes peanut, tree nuts, soy, wheat and dairy products. Contains: Peanuts, Tree Nuts (almond, cashew), Soy and Wheat. May Contain: Tree Nuts.
• Milk Chocolate Buckeyes-Ingredients: sugar, milk, cocoa butter, chocolate liquor, chocolate liquor (processed with alkali), peanuts, palm kernel oil, palm oil, nonfat milk powder, whey, hydrogenated (cottonseed, raspeseed and/or palm kernel oil), dextrose, soy lecithin (an emulsifier), salt, vanilla, vanillin-an artificial flavor. Manufactured in a facility and on shared equipment that processes peanuts, tree nuts, soy and wheat products. Contains: Milk, Peanuts and Soy. May Contain: Tree Nuts and Wheat