For Valentine's Day, my son sent me a box of chocolates from Black Dinah. I asked about the company since I'd never heard of them & he told me they were featured in MS Living recently. I don't read MS mags so never saw the article. Then, yesterday, they showed up on NECN (New England Cable News) as a special interest spot. The reporter paid them a visit on Isle au Haut off the Maine coast. They're a man/wife making chocolates in their home kitchen. Gotta love their company philosophy also.

This is taken from their website:

"At Black Dinah, we make our ganache by infusing locally produced cream with a wide variety of locally grown, organic herbs, flowers and fruits, and whole spices. After carefully straining these out, we add locally produced butter and the very best Belgian, Venezuelan, and rare Peruvian chocolates. The result is a very smooth, appealingly firm ganache that we then enrobe or mold with hand-tempered chocolate into beautiful shapes.

Because the very best chocolates deserve the very freshest, tastiest ingredients, we buy from local farmers and producers whenever we can. And because we believe in sustainable agriculture and feel strongly that farmers of the best cacao in the world should get an above market price for their products, we use single-origin Venezuelan couverture that has been fairly traded and grown with respect for the land and the human and animal communities that live there.

Our chocolates are made from fresh cream and no preservatives, and for this reason (if you really need a reason), they should be enjoyed immediately."

Anyway, the chocolates are a bit unusal & very good if anybody's interested in something different as an Easter gift. They don't ship anywhere the temperatures might be over 70 degrees. Mine arrived very well packaged & insulated. Last night, I had the pistachio, rose, & cardamom in a dark ganache & dipped in bittersweet chocolate.

I think the Farm Market Collection looks interesting.

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: Black Dinah Chocolatiers