Theonistas Unite!

UPCOMING EVENTS AWAY FROM THE FACTORY

MARCH 12th-14th
Natural Products Expo West Anaheim, CA
This is a trade event, so if you are one of our retailers in So Cal, please stop by and say hello at Booth #2328.

MARCH 18th-21st
NY Go Green Expo New York, NY
Press only 3/18, Trade on 3/19, Open to the public on 3/20 and 3/21. Stop by Booth 533 for free samples and some Theo love!

MARCH 26th-28th
Energy Trust Better Living Show Portland, OR
Open to the public all 3 days, free admission, free chocolate samples!

APRIL10th-11th
San Francisco Green Festival San Francisco, CA
Join Theo in Booth #233 for one of our favorite green events of the year!

APRIL16th-18th
Philadelphia Go Green Expo Philadelphia, PA
Trade only on 3/16, Open to the public 3/17 and 3/18. Stop by our booth for free chocolate samples and Theo love!

COME CELEBRATE EARTH DAY AT THEO!

 
WEDNESDAY APRIL 21st at 6-8:30pm

Join us for a special evening with special guests from The Woodland Park Zoo! Learn more about the conservation work conducted by the Zoo, take a free abbreviated factory tour and sample other products that benefit the Jane Goodall Institute, including Late July cookies and Rishi Tea!

Special tour times are at 6pm, 6:30pm, 7pm & 7:30pm, please call us at 206.632.5100 to make a reservation!

BUILD YOUR EASTER BASKET WITH LOCAL FLAVORS

Traditional Easter baskets contained things like cured meats, dairy products, salts, and chocolate. To celebrate this delicious food heritage, come take in:

Seabreeze Farm and their on-farm restaurant La Boucherie: Selling hand-crafted and pasture-raised cured meats, naturally dyed easter eggs, handmade mustard and more. Chef Meredith of La Boucherie will serve delicious Seabreeze bites.

Mt. Townsend Creamery: Selling show-stopping cheese for sale and sampling.

Guided Tastings: Theo employee and South Carolina butter tasting champion Abby Culin will lead two tastings of chocolate, cheese and charcuterie at 6:45 pm and 7:45 pm

Theo Chocolate: Seasonal Easter bars of toasted coconut in dark chocolate and salted almond in milk chocolate, and adorable Easter marshmallows will put the cute in your Easter basket.

THURSDAY, APRIL 1ST at 6:30-8:30pm
This event is FREE. NO reservations required.

*Little know fact: The best part of a chocolate covered marshmallow bunny is the bunny belly!

CHEF CONFECTION PROJECT Chef #1: Maria Hines

Featuring: Maria Hines, chef/owner at Tilth, Seattle, James Beard '09 award winner, Top Chef Masters contestant.

It was a thrill when Maria Hines accepted the invitation to collaborate with Theo to create the first of many 'chef inspired confections' we’re crafting.  We’ll be sharing stories and pictures from this project along with other kitchen sessions  --  but you’ll have to wait a while for the unveiling of the confectionary “fruits” of our labor!

Our mouths were watering when Maria shared her ideas, writing “I'd love to explore savory caramels: white truffle, spot prawn-anise-hyssop, triple lemon, sumac-marcona. I love cardamom, olives, onion jam, dried strawberries, those tamarind-chili-lime dried mangos, Woodford Reserve..." The Theo team, lead by chef-in-residence Chad Fuhreck, assembled a variety of ingredients for her to play with. The processes for caramel vs ganache making (chocolate + cream) are quite different, so before she arrived, we agreed we would focus on developing savory caramels.

Upon arrival, we shared our basic caramel recipe with Maria and started exploring ingredients. She is a fierce advocate of local food and as things got underway, she shared a couple of exceptional local ingredient sources with our team. Chocolate and caramel highlight flavors in distinctive ways, so Chef Hines and chef-in-resident Fuhreck talked through ideas.Then the real fun began... the sumac was flying, various dried fruits were tossed and macerated in bourbon, and tamarind paste and lime zest got to know each other intimately...

For the first round of tasting, the caramel was “naked” without its chocolate coating. The truffle oil caramel made a few of us weak in the knees. Maria also wanted to pursue a traditional 'Manhattan' combo of ingredients - bourbon and cherries. Flavors transform once you enrobe caramels with chocolate, so we sent our 5-6 experiments through our chocolate waterfall for coating in 70% dark. Decorations are the final opportunity to add an extra zing of flavor, and Maria selected white truffle salt, pink Himalayan salt and Marcona almonds as possible adornments. Of course, tasting again was required.

Our work is not done! We need to finesse, and Maria will no doubt offer brilliant insights on how to further these delicious experiments.For now, feast your eyes, whet your palates and stay tuned for what comes out of our kitchen next…