m a g a z i n e

New forSpring

S P R I N G 2 0 0 9

B L I S S N O . 5 C H O C O L A T E S

O F F I C I A L M A G A Z I N E

S T A T E

S T O R E

C I T Y & S T A T E

Bottle Creek

Portland, Oregon

2007Y E A R O F O R I G I N

101 s e r i e s

BY J A N E T W E I S S

t y p e o f a r t i c l e

These are the tools you will need to turn your kitchen into a little chocolate factory. Actual measurements depend on the quantity of chocolate you wish to produce.

You can find all of these prod-ucts from a gourmet reseller. Please remember to supervise children when making choco-late. Use common sense when handing any of the tools listed below.

•Oven or store-bought cocoa bean roaster•Cocoa mill/grinder•Blow dryer•Electric cocoa grinder•Concher/refiner (do not use a food processor)•Bowl•Spoon•Syringe or pastry bag•Candy thermometer•Candy molds in specialty shapes or bars•Cocoa beans of course!

1. To get started, roast the beans. Roasting sterilizes and reduces the risk of infection. If using an oven, set to 300

degrees fahrenheit and roast for 18-20 minutes. Do not use a coffee roaster as the outer husks of cacao beans are flam-mable.2. After roasting, crack the beans into nibs. Use a hammer if you have one handy!3. Grind and liquefy the nibs. You will need pro tools here, as common household grinding items like your food processor will not work. Use a cocoa mill; this process will ultimately produce chocolate liquor. Have a mop and broom handy, as this part is guaranteed to be messy.4. Refine the chocolate li-quor with the concher, continue this process for 10-36 hours. This will affect the taste and consistency of the mixture.5. Add cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla beans, and powdered or condensed milk - how much sugar and milk you use will af-fect the type of chocolate you intend to make. 6. Temper the chocolate, warming to 120 degrees fahr-enheit. This is where choco-

late begins to get its sheen. Use your oven or the stove but watch carefully to prevent burning. 7. Transfer roughly half of the chocolate mixture to a bowl, cooling to 100 degrees. Remove bubbles by spread-ing mixture onto a flat clean non-porous surface. Mix with remaining chocolate at 100 degrees, bringing the total temperature to 90-92 degrees. If you go over 92 degrees, you will have to repeat the entire tempering process. 8. Use your chocolate to coat your special candies or make basic bars by using candy

molds. Using a syringe or pas-try bag, disperse chocolate and leave them at room temperature to cool. Re-temper chocolate if you want to start the molding process all over again. 9. Eat your chocolate right away, or store at room tempera-ture, up to one week.

W h e n y o u c a n d e p r i v e y o u r s e l f o f o u r c h o c o l a t e , t r y t h e s e f o o l - p r o o f s t e p s

t y p e o f a r t i c l ec o ve r s t o r y

pastilles

t h e b e g i n n i n g

After centuries known only as a bitter drink, the beginnings of chocolate as we know it started to appear in about the 18th cen-tury Europe, shaped into tasty bars and delicious little solid pieces known as pastilles. In 1863, Gerardus Johannes Droste opens his chocolate firm in Haarlem, Netherlands and starts selling his little chocolate drops called Pastilles Droste, which are still sold and consumed to this day. Pastilles are most always round and have been manufactured in many forms besides chocolate. Incred-ibly rich and decadent, pastilles are a great to give or receive!

Our Pastilles maintain traditions of centuries past and were creat-ed with “melt in your mouth” satisfaction in mind. Using only the best organic Dutch chocolate, our pastilles are rounded on the

top and flat on the bottom. Each drop fits perfectly between your tongue and the roof of your mouth. Generally, pas-

tilles are served alone to savor the flavor of each small bite. We suggest that you enjoy our pastilles with

milk if you plan to eat the whole bag!

w h a t ’s o n t h e m e n u?

Our Pastilles are a joy to make and we have many flavors: Milk Chocolate, Milk Chocolate infused with Dark Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, Extra Dark Chocolate, White Chocolate, Cof-

fee, Salt Caramel, Herbal Chai, and Pomegran-ite Chocolate.

h o l i d ay s p e c i a l s

We are having a special on Pastilles just in time for the spring holidays. If you buy any two bags of Pastilles,

A Dutch favorite, now in stores nationwide

t y p e o f a r t i c l e

we will give you one bag in any flavor we make, for free! Please note that during the Spring holidays specialty flavors Coffee, Salt Caramel, Herbal Chai, and Pomegranite Chocolate Pastilles are in high demand and require 2-day shipping on all phone, catalog and Internet orders.b e i n s p i re d...t o e n t e r o u r c o n t e s t!

Starting now, we are sponsoring our first contest of the year. In a maximum of 200 words, tell us what (and why) we should name our delicious new chocolate pastilles, as shown. The grand prize is the best yet - your name printed in permanent ink, listed among the credits on the box!

Our new blend is exotic - we’ve been experimenting with some new spices we uncovered on our last trip to India! The result is extremely dense. Unlike other chocolates, this new pastille has enhanced cocoa butter so that the chocolate actually melts on the tongue faster than you can say namaste.

The scent of our new pastille is wonder-fully nutty, embraced by a smoky aroma. There is texture from the sprinkles, and on the tongue the disk melts right away without a second thought. Thanks to the one-two punch of toasted coconut and savory curry spices, there’s a pretty immedi-ate bitter bite to it though followed by a puckering dryness that’s intriguing enough to take you to a far away land.

Feel inspired? Tell us all about it! Email your brilliant entries to contest@blissno5.com. Only one entry per customer, please. The contest ends on May 23rd - and the winner along with the top three entries will be announced in all their respective glories on June 5th. i n c o n c l u s i o n...

We think that you will love our Pastilles, a candy with a long and distiguished history that thrives on reinvention. Stop by any of our stores for complimentary samples and find your favorite today.

Our beans are harvested from tropical trees in

South and Central

C a c a o B e a n s

This def ining element provides the creamy texture you

know and love

C o c o a B u t t e r

Vanilla beans provide pods that

provide the balance between bitter and

Va n i l l a

T H I N G S T O K N O W . . .

t y p e o f a r t i c l ej e n’s c o r n e r

happy anniversary,seattle!

Our new logo, designed to capture the fun and whimsy of our take-anywhere candy

without further ado I am happy to introduce Bliss no.5 Caramel Sticks!

It took a few tries to get these right but I hope you will agree that these are a welcome addition to the Bliss family. We just created the new logo as you can see, and the packaging designs have just

h e l l o f ro m s e a t t l e!Hello there, I am writing you from the table outside our Seattle store, located in the beautiful Queen Anne neighborhood. We are celebrating our 5th anniversary here and to show our appreciation to all of our customers, we are offering 30% off on all tins, which include our famous Baking Chocolate, Organic Hot Chocolate, and our Truffle Making Kits! You can find these awesome savings only in our Bliss no.5 stores. Also, don’t forget to enter our Pas-tilles contest! See page 5 for more.

c a r a m e l s t i c k s Over the years I cannot tell you how many people have asked us to expand our caramel line - and we have done so in a great way...

New products include Spicy Organic Hot

Chocolate

Bliss no.5 has 8 free-standing stores, with more to come

in 2010

The f irst confection was the infamous Choco Bacon Bar

Bliss no.5 was founded in 2001 in Portland, Oregon

t y p e o f a r t i c l e

express delivery is required so as to maintain freshness.

s p i c e d h o t c h o c o l a t e

Powerful emotions, reminiscent of far away places where flavors are enhanced with fragrance.A bold, multi-faceted world opens its doors to you with our always elegant Spicy Bliss Organic Hot Chocolate Collection, coming soon to a Bliss no.5 store near you.

Our four new flavors are extraordinary with powerful yet subtle fragrances that go straight to your heart and warm your belly!

You will be amazed by flavors such as Chocolate Chai, Chipotle Chile, Black Truffle, and Mexican Chocolate. Serve with a dollop of fresh whipped cream. True Bliss awaits!

in co n c l u s i o n...Time definitely flies when you are having fun - it’s already been five years in the Seattle store - take advantage of our special Anniversary Sale and celebrate with us when you are

come back from the printer so we’re hoping to get these in stores by mid-Summer! Caramel Sticks are individu-ally wrapped, and will be sold in bulk packages of 15 and 45 count. Fun and delicious, they make great snacks to take along to any of your Summer destinations.

g i f t s e t s n o w o n l i n e

Custom candy boxes have always been a big seller in our stores - now you can customize your gift selec-tions online!

With our new Flash-enabled Blissful Gift Cre-ator launching on June 1st, you can select from our array of individual chocolates based on type of flavor, taste, mood, and recipient.

As always, you can purchase choco-late gift sets from 2 to 100 pieces per box. Try our Tea Asian Squares, Dutch Chocolate Squares, Bal-samic Ganache, and Raspberry Truffles.

Bliss no.5 Gift Sets start at $4.99, and include our signa-ture ribbon. Please note that

“With the Blissful Gift Creator, select products based on type of flavor, taste, mood,

and recipient.”

t y p e o f a r t i c l e

S T A T E

W E B S I T E U R L

C I T Y & S T A T E

www.blissno5.com

Portland, Oregon

2009Y E A R O F O R I G I N

n e w we b d e s i g n - l a u n c h e s j u n e 1s t

As Bliss no.5 Chocolates continues to grow (and just get better), we have found (as have many of you) that our Website has not aged as well as we had hoped.

Besieged with webhits and orders, our little “engine that could” ultimately could not keep up with demand. It’s the Pastilles, we think! We profusely apologize for the major delays many of you faced getting online especially the day after Thanksgiving!

We value the opinions of our customers, and over the last three years we have been able to make several improvements - all thanks to you! Through your input we have created a world class online experience for everyone who visits our site.

With your help, we have identified several areas that had to be addressed. In addition to making the site easier to read and navi-

Learn more about our company and our great

new products and create cool custom gifts for all your

friends

our new website

t y p e o f a r t i c l e

gate, and working the Blissful Gift Creator into our online store, we have made changes and added functionality that will generously improve your experience.

f e a t u re s In addition to increased band-with and straightforward navi-gation, some of the cool new features include a virtual tour of our facilities, 24-hour live chat, Jen’s Candy Blog, amazing demonstrations, delicious reci-pes, and of course, all our lovely candies and specialty goods are available for purchase, with the added benefit of the Gift Creator. With all of our new goodies our wish is that we will be able to handle your choco-buying business anytime of the year.

Thanks so much for being you! We appreciate your time and opinions, and hope you all will enjoy the snappy new features. We suggest that you look us up on June 3rd, and maybe you will see your ideas reflected

Save big on all of our tins for the entire month of May, Valid at Bliss no.5 stores only.

N O W O N L I N E :Buy Chocolate!

Take a tour of our facilities

Real Baking DemosCandy Blog

Chocolate Recipes

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