For the Love of Chocolate
You’ve waited patiently all summer while we tested and perfected our new line of vegan fair-trade chocolates. Well, your wait has finally come to an end. This week we’ll be unveiling our completely reformulated and even-more-gourmet vegan peanut butter cups, peppermint creme patties, luscious artisan truffles and caramels and peppermint bark just in time for the holidays! 
But why, you may ask, did we go to all this trouble reformulating chocolates that were already top of their class? The answer is perfection. Here at Allison’s we’re always striving for perfection and we knew that, as good as our chocolates were before, we could do better. As Allison put it a few days ago, “Our chocolates before were great, these are as close to perfection as I’ve ever taste (and I’ve tasted a LOT of chocolates)!” Amidst all the craziness of launching a new product line, I sat down with Allison last week to get the whole chocolate story from her. Here’s what she had to say:
I love chocolate, but until recently my love affair extended only to tasting and enjoying chocolate in its many forms. Over the past 15 years, as Allison’s Gourmet has grown from a simple vegan bakery to a complete confectionary and gift boutique, I have delighted in creating new decadent goodies to add to our repertoire. The only thing that seemed beyond my patience to master was chocolate. Although I am a supertaster and an accomplished chef and baker, when it came to the realm of the chocolatier, I was intimidated. It’s true.
You see, chocolate is complex and temperamental; it needs to be treated with great care and respect to allow for the fullness of its beauty to unfold. Perhaps that’s why women adore chocolate so–it’s our mirror! There are numerous subtleties involved in chocolates and one false move could land one in the dreaded territory of seized chocolate. The exactitude of the craft make it pretty much impossible to create quality vegan chocolates exclusively by trial and error, and in the past I wasn’t prepared to learn everything I needed to know to be a true chocolate expert. So, in 2005, when I decided to add chocolate gifts to our Allison’s Gourmet family of sweets, I turned to a professional chocolatier to create our products.
This worked well for some time, but as the years passed, I continued to dream about offering chocolates of my own creation with varied flavors and ingredients that matched my predilection. I have a well-developed palate and had eaten enough chocolate in my years of business that I could taste something and tell you what I liked about it and what I would change. I had even helped a friend perfect her chocolates, but still, I hadn’t experienced the art of making chocolates myself. So what’s a perfectionist to do in this scenario? Obey the nagging of my palate and take a Chocolatier course, delve into volumes of research, hours of practice, and weeks of recipe testing of course! And like a good palatal (of or relating to the palate) slave, that’s just what I did.
The chocolate course I embarked on proved immeasurably useful, and the sheer scope of information I learned about chocolate was astounding. It’s been months in the making and I’m pleased to announce my new line of vegan chocolates, lovingly handmade with only the highest-quality ingredients in the exact flavor profiles that delight my palate.
Throughout the last couple of years we’ve sampled a lot of vegan chocolates in our quest for chocolate greatness, and in my opinion, the truffles and caramels she’s created are by far the best I’ve ever had. If you loved our chocolates before (or even if you didn’t) you simply must try these new versions of our classic favorites and some exciting new flavors that we’ve had so much fun experimenting with. 
Our abundant 20-piece chocolate assortment includes eight alluring varieties. Four truffle flavors: Coconut Joy, Orange Blossom, Peppermint Snow, Raspberry Blush and four caramel flavors: Pure Vanilla, Salted Chocolate, Butterscotch Pecan, Mocha. We’d love to know what you think of our new formulas for luscious vegan peanut butter cups and peppermint creme patties, too.
Welcome to the AG Chocolate Revolution!
Nourishing the Body & Soul
I love to eat. Amidst the American food culture of fad diets and weight obsession, that can be a hard thing to admit. But the truth is that, for most people, eating is not just a process to nourish the body. 
Good food nourishes us in many ways, giving us pleasure, security, and a sense of well-being as well as the carbohydrates, fats and protein that we need physically. The best and healthiest foods in my mind are those that fulfill all of our needs, from great taste and good nutritional value to a positive and fulfilled feeling in the body.
At Allison’s we focus on all aspects of making great food, from feeding the physical body to nourishing the soul. Our desserts feed the body with good fats like coconut oil in our vegan fudge and confections and sunflower in our vegan bakery items. 
Fats and oils are often maligned in modern cooking, but the truth is that fats are essential building blocks of life. Good fats, like coconut and sunflower, contain no bad cholesterol, nurture and support your body, lubricate your joints and give you long-lasting energy. Coconut oil is especially nutritious, containing essential vitamins and minerals as well as lauric, capric, and caprylic acids which help maintain heart health and metabolism as well as a host of other health benefits. Good fats make our bodies feel good, and they taste good too, which also makes us feel good.
Chocolate, in any form, whether it’s brownies, vegan peanut butter cups, or hot cocoa, is another one of those feel-good foods, and most women can tell you that it’s a great mood-elevator. 
New research is also coming out that dark chocolate, like ours, is actually physically good for you as well. It contains a treasure-trove of antioxidants (on the same scale as blueberries and green tea) which protect your cells and may help to fight cancer and keep you looking and feeling younger. Recent studies have also shown links between dark chocolate consumption and cardiovascular health.
What you put in your body certainly effects your health and how you feel, but what you don’t put in your body can be just as important. At Allison’s we are committed to using only organic ingredients because we know that petro-chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers are not things we should be putting into the earth or consuming ourselves. We’re also adamant about using 100% fair-trade chocolate to insure fair wages and good working and living conditions for the farmers and their families.
Of course even good-for-you foods are only good in moderation. 
Eating too much of anything (except maybe kale) can be detrimental to your health. Luckily, we’ve found that premium quality super-delicious foods, both sweet and savory, are more satisfying and nurturing to body and soul and therefore can be eaten in moderation while still imparting nourishment and satisfaction. Enjoy savoring every bite.
Weekly Wrap-up: Birthday Season, Contest Entries and You!
We hope you’ve had as nice a week as we did here at Allison’s! Great contest entries continue to ro
ll in for our first ever Tee and Tote Design Contest. Public voting begins in mid-September and then we’ll have some lovely designs printed (on Tees and Totes!) just in time for the holidays. Yummy…
Seems like there were a million birthdays this week among our Facebook friends, so again, a happy birthday to all of you! Gift baskets sure make a birthday even more special! Whether the person you’re shopping for would just be happy with a monthly subscription or fall in love with a gourmet coffee gift basket that pairs premium-quality fair-trade coffees with cookies, brownies and confections like toffee, caramels and vegan peanut butter cups,
Tessa reviewed our price and size selection that ranges from modest Classic Elegance to superb Ultimate Nirvana decadence in her blog post earlier this week.
And you can still (I know, still?!) vote for us in VegNews, if you haven’t already…we’re so humbled to be nominated for three awards this year: best online vegan bakery, best confection, and Allison herself is nominated for best column in VegNews, Veganize It!
Keep your comments coming in over on Twitter and Facebook–we love hearing from you!
Gift Basket Giving for All Types
We know that not everyone loves shopping. While some people enjoy looking at all the options and weighing the pros and cons of each product, other customers simply want to find the quickest and simplest way to a beautiful and delicious gift. 
Now, lovers of shopping are pretty easy to please, as our website offers a multitude of delectable treats of all kinds, each with its own mouth-watering photo. But, we try to cater to all types here at Allison’s. We offer a wide range of products to please all tastes, our clientele includes vegans and non-vegans alike, and we do our very best to make shopping as involved or as simple as each person wants it to be.
So, how do we please those clients who don’t like shopping or who simply don’t have time to look through our whole product inventory for that perfect present? 
For these non-shoppers, we’ve done the work for you to make gift-giving easy and enjoyable. Stop shopping around and look no further than our elegant vegan gift baskets. We select and pack them with the utmost care and attention to detail, they make gorgeous and delicious gifts and are available in a range of sizes and prices. We work hard to make sure that our collections include something for everyone. Our gourmet coffee gift baskets pair premium-quality fair-trade coffees with cookies, brownies and confections like toffee, caramels and vegan peanut butter cups, while our price and size selection ranges from modest Classic Elegance to superb Ultimate Nirvana decadence.
As a special bonus for those of you who do love shopping around for your own selection of treats, we also offer a semi-secret custom gift basket option. Simply add this Custom Gift Basket to your cart along with all the things you’d like us to put in it. We recommend that you include at least eight items in your custom basket to ensure an elegant and abundant presentation. Happy shopping (or not)!
Friday with Friends: Ari Solomon
This week we’re very pleased to welcome blogger and activist Ari Solomon to our Friday with Friends feature. Ari blogs at Ari on the Daily and is co-owner of the amazing vegan candle company A Scent of Scandal with his sister, Heather.
Allison’s Gourmet: The names of your candles creatively match their scents (ONE NIGHT STAND smells like margaritas, for example). When creating a new candle, which comes first, the scent or the name? And how do you come up with them?
Ari Solomon: Well, it starts with a bottle of wine! Joking! No, sometimes it’s the name. Like we knew we had to do a REHAB candle a couple years ago when it seemed like every celebrity was either checking in or checking out. 
But then sometimes we’ll get in a fragrance oil that just smells incredible and I know I’ll have to come up with a fun name to include it in the line.
AG: Does your working relationship with your sister ever extend into the kitchen? If so, what’s a favorite recipe the two of you enjoy making together? Do you and your husband Mikko enjoy playing in the kitchen together?
AS: My sister lives in New Jersey and I live in Los Angeles, so unfortunately, we don’t get much kitchen time. My husband and I, however, are constantly cooking and having dinner parties. We do a lot of middle-eastern inspired recipes. 
I’m half Syrian and a lot of the delicious Syrian recipes I grew up with happen to be vegan by default: homemade hummus, baba ghanouj, lentils with rice and caramelized onions. Yum! I’m also a huge kale enthusiast and prepare kale at least once a day either raw in a salad or slightly steamed.
AG: From FM radio host to animal- and gay-rights activist, you have had a varied and prolific career. How did you get involved in writing for animal and human rights? Is your family supportive of you on both those fronts?
AS: After learning about how animals are abused and tortured for “food” and other various commodities, I felt compelled to speak out. So, I started my own blog and began writing about these issues. From there I got asked to guest blog for other websites and that eventually landed me a spot writing for The Huffington Post. I only hope that what I write starts a conversation with people who have never considered animals before. Don’t get me wrong, the support from the choir feels great, but my goal is to reach the fur-wearing, meat-eating, circus-going crowd. As for my parents, they’re pretty supportive these days. But when I told them I was vegan, it was a hot mess! Gay, great! Vegan… not so much. It was definitely rough at first but they’re coming around. My mom has now read Skinny Bitch and The China Study and she’s watched Earthlings. She gets it.
AG: What’s next for A Scent of Scandal in terms of products, fragrances, and events?
AS: We have our summer fragrances coming up called The Boys of Summer: THE CABANA BOY smells like mojito, THE LIFEGUARD smells like dreamsicle, and THE POOL BOY smells like suntan lotion. They’re amazing!
AG: What are some of your favorite vegan sites to peruse?
AS: Oh! There are SO many!! OK, my favorites: Food Fight! Grocery is genius for vegan candy and hard-to-find vegan food items. I also LOVE Alternative Outfitters to find the most amazing gifts. Also, GirlieGirl Army. It’s SO much more than fashion. Chloe (the founder) takes no prisoners. Another fantastic website is Our Hen House — I appear on their podcast! And, of course, A Scent of Scandal!
AG: What’s your favorite Allison’s Gourmet product?
AS: The vegan toffee!! Hands-down the best thing you’ll ever eat in your life! Last year, my friend bought a bunch of it and took it to the movie theater with us. We were in heaven! I want that recipe! If I got to play with Allison in the kitchen, I’m not sure what we would create, but I know it would involve chocolate and lots of peanut butter!
Sounds great, Ari! If you like chocolate and peanut butter, have you tried out vegan peanut butter cups?
