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18 balance to the diet. "For example, in the fall the air element is domi- nant, which means that element can go off balance in you very quickly," she said. "So that's when you eat more grounding foods, like beets, sweet potatoes, foods that grow in the ground. You eat warm spices too." Beyond providing nutrient- dense, delicious chocolate to cus- tomers, Elements Truffles also donates 25 percent of its prof- its to the Care for Children project by the Art of Living Foundation, a non- profit. The project helps educate under- privileged kids in India. And it's not just chocolate bars at Ele- ments Truffles. The company also sells Tu r m e r i c - I n f u s e d Drinking Chocolate, truffles infused with flavors like turmeric or cardamom or lavender, and gift boxes that contain an assortment of all the company's products as well as smaller bars in the Pantry Edition line. All the bars come in a card- board box, with a fabric label hand-stitched onto the box, colored with vegetable ink. On the back, consumers can read about Ayurveda and Ayurvedic doshas, right above the nutri- tion facts. Suggested retail prices are $6.99 for the bars, $4 for Pantry Edition bars, $12 for drinking chocolate, $12 for a small box of truffles and $35 for a large box of truffles. KN a little grocery store in 2012, then a little cafe and then a bigger restaurant near Wrigley Field. "We were having kids at the time – we now have three," he said. "We decided to get out of the restaurant business and focus on the wholesale busi- ness, which is now the full-time effort." His Jolly Posh product line comprises five products - two flavors of Bangers, a Back Bacon made with pork loin, and Black Pudding (blood sausage) and White Pudding (pork and oatmeal sausage). His banger sausages come in two different fla- vors: the classic Traditional Pork Bangers seasoned with white pepper, nutmeg and ginger and a Pork and Herb Banger that's seasoned with sage, thyme and parsley. "We stuff them in natural pork casings, and when you cook them, they're plump, juicy and nicely sized," Spencer said. "When you cook them, it's just like buy- ing them from your local butcher back home." The fully-cooked bangers pack- aged for retail sale have five links in a 12- ounce package that retails for $7.99. "Microwave it, fry it, bake it – whatever you fancy," Spencer said. "All you have to do is warm it up." Jolly Posh also offers Back Bacon, bacon that's made from the loin of the hog – es- sentially a thinly-sliced pork chop – so it's a lot leaner than American bacon. "It's cured and not smoked for a lovely, meaty texture and flavor," Spencer said. The 8- ounce package retails for $6.99 to $7.99, and a larger foodservice pack is also avail- able. The final two products in the range include the Black Pudding and White Pudding, which are generally eaten as part of a full Irish breakfast, Spenser said. "One fun fact about the bangers is that in Britain, we don't really have a concept of the breakfast sausage, so we'll eat bangers for breakfast, lunch or dinner," he added. For breakfast, the main item on the plate might be bangers, while at lunchtime, the bangers might appear in panini or sandwiches. At dinner, the meal might consist of bangers and mash, which is bangers served with a gener- ous helping of mashed potatoes, gar- den peas and gravy. Bacon is likely to ap- pear on the table in sandwiches, in a pasta carbonara or even on top of a ham- burger or a dish of macaroni and cheese, Spencer said. Jolly Posh Foods products are distrib- uted nationally by European Imports and Sysco, in the Midwest by Fortune Gourmet and Great Western Beef and by Food Innovations in Florida. For more information, email nick@jollyposhfoods.com or visit in the European Imports booth throughout the Summer Fancy Food Show. KN and popularity of wine over the last 20 years. "Since so many of us drink wine, gift wine, dine with wine and, yes, cook with wine, I simply felt that this has the potential to be quite exciting," said Medei. He likes the way that red wine's com- plex flavors and subtle acidity brighten up and enhance the flavors of food. By using a high-quality wine powder from Europe along with other ingredients such as porcini powder, garlic, butter and many other ingredients he came up with his first four Wine It products: T.A.P., an all-pur- pose blend, Savory Steer for beef, Here Chicky Chicky for poultry and Sooey! for pork. He is currently creating new blends to be launched later this year along with another line of pasta sauces and other products. "I am so excited for my cus- tomers to use Wine It and to simply have fun in the kitchen with their family and friends," he said. His marketing plan for Wine It Foods involves both online sales to con- sumers and direct to spe- cialty food retailers around the country. For more information about Wine It Foods, visit www.iwineit.com. KN KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW • JULY 2019 • www.kitchenwarenews.com ELEMENTS TRUFFLES Cont. from page 17 BRITON BRINGS TASTE Cont. from page 17 FOOD ENTREPRENEUR Cont. from page 17 For Love of Chocolate: DeBrand Fine Chocolates BY LORRIE BAUMANN Cathy Brand-Beere puts a lifetime of ex- perience in confectionery, cakes and chocolates as well as retail sales into each of the Chocolate Art Boxes for which De- Brand Fine Chocolates, the company she founded in 1987, is well known. The company makes a wide variety of prod- ucts from Hot Chocolate on a Spoon through chocolate truffles in avant-garde flavors, but the handmade Chocolate Art Boxes stand out as a unique touch of lux- ury and indulgence. DeBrand's Draped in Gold Art Box, with its 24-karat gold leaf atop the 8-inch diameter round box is at the top of the line, the Polka Dot Art Box is decorated with a chocolate ribbon around the edible chocolate box, and the Black Rose Art Box is the chocolate box topped with the chocolate flower. Each has a hand-molded chocolate bowl, and they're available either empty or filled with individual chocolates. But while the items in the Art Box col- lection are DeBrand's top of the line items, the company offers a wide range of arti- sanal chocolates at price points that are accessible to most consumers, even though Brand-Beere insists that she's never obsessed about the prices she was charging in her company's five retail stores in Indiana or the prices that her wholesale customers end up charging in their stores. "You can't be the cheapest and the best," she said. "It's quality. It's not cheap, but there's a huge variety of price points, so it works for most retailers." She said that those wholesale customers understand that, just as her experience running DeBrand's own stores gives her insight into what other retailers need from her. That's why Brand- Beere is meticulous about providing retailers with the art work and the photography they need to merchandise and market their DeBrand selec- tion to retail customers as well as a wide range of prod- ucts to meet most every price point, so that the DeBrand products can do well in gift shops, gourmet shops and even floral shops around the U.S. "People fall in love with our brand and come back occasion after occasion," Brand-Beere said. "It's the repeat business that's really great." DeBrand's selection includes three gift box collections and bar collections. For more information, email wholesale@de- brand.com, call 260.969.8331 or visit de- brand.com. KN

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