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Candy is for kids, but Caramels are for adults!
I go to many many events each month as a guest, and the party favor that generates excitement time and again are the candy bars where your guests can fill a box or bag of their favorite treats. I recently went to a few events that had candy bars. Some were professionally done, the others by candy companies. Now, I love chocolate. I actually crave chocolate. All. The. Time. I never crave caramels to be honest (except for the cherry ones), perhaps because I am surrounded by them all the time! So, I was excited to fill my favor bag full of chocolates.
On the way home, I couldn’t resist and reached into the bag for a piece of chocolate. I grabbed a large round candy-coated ball thinking it was a malt-ball or some other candy coated chocolate treat, but to my surprise it was a gum ball. Bubble gum. A hard, chewy, granulated-sugary gum ball.
Honestly, I was so put off by this. One, I hate sugary candy (I know, doesn’t make sense given what I do!) and but two, at the event I had just come from, I was probably one of the youngest people in the crowd! Who over 50 is looking for bubble gum as an after-dinner treat. I could certainly see if it was a kid’s party or a younger demographic, but not in a business or gala setting. I think I would have been happy if it had been a sugar-free minty gum, but I can understand how that just doesn’t present well in a pretty apothecary jar.
I speak to people all the time about teeth strangely enough. Everybody is always worried about their teeth, especially as dental is so expensive and everyone seems to have had work done. It is one of the reasons where I err on the side of “soft” when making our caramels. I don’t want anyone to have to work at eating them. I once had a caramel that was supposedly “gourmet” at the till of a store and when I bit into it I thought I was going to lose a tooth. The owner of the store looked at me and said “Aren’t they awesome?”. I couldn’t actually respond – I was fighting my urge to spit the damn thing out into the wrapper but I didn’t want to insult the person. So I wrestled with it for about 5 minutes and we made joking faces at each other as I did this….but I couldn’t hide it, I had to say something. That was the hardest damn caramel I had ever had AND it had no flavor.
There’s another reason I make the caramels softer – the less you have to wrestle with it and the more it can actually melt in your mouth, the more you will taste the flavors of the butter and sugars as they hit certain flavor receptors on your tongue. Go on and try it. First, chew a piece of caramel, then, let the second piece kind of melt in your mouth. You will get to savour the flavors longer AND they will be more intense.
So, while it’s true, our caramel bar is definitely more money than a candy bar, I think you AND your guests will be more satisfied with a hand crafted artisan caramel experience! Your guests are going to LOVE you for it!
A Caramels de Bouchard Caramel Bar comes in two varieties: WE SUPPLY or DIY.
WE SUPPLY
is for local customers on the North Shore of Boston. We can deliver a caramel bar to your event complete with the following:
- 8 varieties of caramel, each in their own vintage glass or apothecary jar (you can opt for more at additional cost)
- staging for the jars and signs for the flavors
- tablecloth and decorations, ie, our light-up lights that say “Treats”
- white paper candy favor bags (customizable packaging upon request, costed separately)
- Setup and breakdown for your event.
DIY
is chosen by those further afield who do not want to pay for the shipping/liability of the jars and props:
- 8 varieties of caramel, shipped bagged
- signs for the flavors
- white paper candy favor bags (customizable packaging upon request, costed separately)
Let us know how we can help you plan the perfect event with our Caramels de Bouchard Caramel Bar!
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April 5th is National Caramel Day!April 5, 2019 - 8:43 am
We are 6!January 29, 2019 - 8:25 am
April 5th is National Caramel Day!
Wow, there’s a day for everything! But this time we approve!
Celebrate our favorite day of the year by treating yourself, a friend or client to a beautiful box of gourmet caramel!
Use promo code CARAMELADDICT and enjoy $4.95 off your order of a pound or more!
And remember, celebrate responsibly. 😉
We are 6!
We started Caramels de Bouchard on a whim, six years ago. It was always my mother’s idea to sell them someday. We were under strict instruction to never give out the recipe just in case. But six years ago I decided to put my web development and marketing skills into hyperdrive and see if I could launch something over a weekend, Super Bowl weekend in fact. Most people give themselves more time… but I didn’t want to spend too much time on it in case it really didn’t go anywhere. Within 48 hours we had a website, a logo, social media presence…. and orders for 11 lbs of caramel. The following week we sold over 50 pounds of caramel and had inquiries about wholesaling…
Six years later we have a dedicated following of Caramel Addicts and Caramels de Bouchard have been shipped the world over. They are still made the way my grandmother and her mother made them – small batches, by hand. We haven’t changed the original recipe at all, except of course, we went from Memere’s original two varieties to about 20 new and exciting ones. It’s been an awesome journey.
To celebrate, we decided to give away six pounds of caramels in a “Random Act of Caramel”. Facebook friends nominated deserving people to send a sweet treat to – the response was overwhelming and the stories heartwarming! I can’t wait to hear the reactions from the recipients, who are all over the country and range from a household of nuns, to a school, to deserving friends and parents. We may have taken more than six winners – the stories were just too sweet 😉
Thank you for making Caramels de Bouchard part of your gift giving – I know my grandmother looks down from heaven with a smile knowing her candy is making so many so happy.
Don’t forget to use promo code CARAMELADDICT for a discount on your next order of Caramels!
Merci et bon appetit!
-L
We Are 5!
How’d that happen!?!?
It’s unbelievable to think we are already 5 years old, where did the time go?
Oh, I remember, it was spent in the kitchen, stirring
…stirring…
..stirring…
.stirring…..
We’ve literally made tens of thousands of caramels, all by hand, over the last few years, thanks to you, our fans.
THANK YOU for supporting our family-owned business. Because of you, we get to keep our grandmother’s memory alive, as the marvelous aromas that fill the kitchen with every batch evoke the happiest of memories.
Please celebrate our birthday with us and take $4.95 off your next pound of our gourmet caramels by using coupon code CARAMELADDICT when you shop.
MERCI everyone!!
The Perfect Christmas Gift
Whether you are looking for a special host/hostess gift, something to put in the Yankee Swap, a gourmet gift for your favorite foodie, or a self-indulgent treat, Caramels de Bouchard are sure to delight!
Christmas is our busiest time of year and we LOVE IT! It brings us RIGHT back to the good ol’ days of making caramels together with Memere. It just FEELS like Christmas!
Thank you for making Caramels de Bouchard part of your holiday tradition!
Wow, we are 4!
We’ve been making caramels for fun for generations, but we’ve been making caramels for you for four years! Time flies when you’re stirring stirring stirring!
To celebrate we’re giving our logo, packaging and website a little update. You may experience delays during this time and for that we apologize. The Christmas season drained all of our supplies so it’s time to reorder, and we thought if we were going to do that we might as well step things up a notch!
Please use promo code WEAREFOUR up until May 30, 2017 and help us celebrate our anniversary!
Thank you for loving our caramels as much as we do!
It’s fall! Time for PUMPKIN EVERYTHING!
My grandmother (not Memere Poussard of caramel fame), but my maternal grandmother, Memere Grenier was big on pies. Salmon pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie…. I have to tell you – I am not a pie fan. at. all. I never once touched them, not even pumpkin pie. Nothing about it sounded remote appealing – plus – it’s in a pie! But then I started making curried pumpkin soup, followed by the pumpkin-everything craze, and I realized I had missed out on the whole pumpkin thing most of my life. And Memere’s pies. What CAN’T you do with pumpkin?!
So last year, I decided to come up with a pumpkin spiced caramel to keep up with the Joneses, and it came out amazing. It’s still Memere’s traditional recipe, slightly modified to accommodate organic pumpkin, with added pumpkin spices, then topped with pepitas and a little sea salt – and I have to say, it’s dee-lish. I have no idea how it compares to Memere’s pumpkin pie, now I wish I had tried them because she’s not around to make me one, but I hope she’d like them. I know everyone who’s tried them LOVES them, and I hope you will too! I named them after my mom Jackie as they originally come out around October, and we thought we’d have fun with the name.
Give JACKIE-O-LANTERN a try! They’re out for a limited time, until Christmas.
Keep It local and Shop for Christmas at the Holly Jolly Food Boutique – Dec 5 2015
Please join us for an afternoon of shopping, sipping and sampling at this annual event featuring artisanal food producers from all over New England. Get unique holiday gifts or prepare for your feast! Enjoy a wide variety of locally made baked goods, cheese, jams, relish, oils and vinegars, caramel, fresh produce, dog treats and much much more. Admission is FREE.
Can’t wait to see you there at the beautiful SAGE INN P-town!
Looking for the perfect Christmas or Hostess present?
Every year at Christmas our family would get together working in shifts to make batch upon batch of Memere’s delicious caramels to give to friends, teachers – you name it. You can’t imagine the reactions we’ve been getting over the decades. EVERYBODY loves receiving our handmade caramels – even people who aren’t keen on caramels LOVE our caramels. So we know with some certainty that your friends and family are going to love them too!
We have recently added gift cards to our product line, so be sure to include a card and we will hand-write out your message in our best Catholic school handwriting for that personal touch and send them directly to your recipient.
Businesses, why not thank your clients with packing with YOUR logo on it? Your clients will be grateful and you will make a lasting impression. We always include a coupon for your customer, so that they can receive a discount on their next order.
We know your friends, family, clients, teachers are going to LOVE getting Caramels de Bouchard this Christmas! But be warned, they may expect getting them from you year after year!
Caramels de Bouchard Caramel Bar – the perfect party favor for bridal and baby showers and corporate events
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I go to many many events each month as a guest, and the party favor that generates excitement time and again are the candy bars where your guests can fill a box or bag of their favorite treats. I recently went to a few events that had candy bars. Some were professionally done, the others by candy companies. Now, I love chocolate. I actually crave chocolate. All. The. Time. I never crave caramels to be honest (except for the cherry ones), perhaps because I am surrounded by them all the time! So, I was excited to fill my favor bag full of chocolates.
On the way home, I couldn’t resist and reached into the bag for a piece of chocolate. I grabbed a large round candy-coated ball thinking it was a malt-ball or some other candy coated chocolate treat, but to my surprise it was a gum ball. Bubble gum. A hard, chewy, granulated-sugary gum ball.
Honestly, I was so put off by this. One, I hate sugary candy (I know, doesn’t make sense given what I do!) and but two, at the event I had just come from, I was probably one of the youngest people in the crowd! Who over 50 is looking for bubble gum as an after-dinner treat. I could certainly see if it was a kid’s party or a younger demographic, but not in a business or gala setting. I think I would have been happy if it had been a sugar-free minty gum, but I can understand how that just doesn’t present well in a pretty apothecary jar.
I speak to people all the time about teeth strangely enough. Everybody is always worried about their teeth, especially as dental is so expensive and everyone seems to have had work done. It is one of the reasons where I err on the side of “soft” when making our caramels. I don’t want anyone to have to work at eating them. I once had a caramel that was supposedly “gourmet” at the till of a store and when I bit into it I thought I was going to lose a tooth. The owner of the store looked at me and said “Aren’t they awesome?”. I couldn’t actually respond – I was fighting my urge to spit the damn thing out into the wrapper but I didn’t want to insult the person. So I wrestled with it for about 5 minutes and we made joking faces at each other as I did this….but I couldn’t hide it, I had to say something. That was the hardest damn caramel I had ever had AND it had no flavor.
There’s another reason I make the caramels softer – the less you have to wrestle with it and the more it can actually melt in your mouth, the more you will taste the flavors of the butter and sugars as they hit certain flavor receptors on your tongue. Go on and try it. First, chew a piece of caramel, then, let the second piece kind of melt in your mouth. You will get to savour the flavors longer AND they will be more intense.
So, while it’s true, our caramel bar is definitely more money than a candy bar, I think you AND your guests will be more satisfied with a hand crafted artisan caramel experience! Your guests are going to LOVE you for it!
A Caramels de Bouchard Caramel Bar comes in two varieties: WE SUPPLY or DIY.
WE SUPPLY
is for local customers on the North Shore of Boston. We can deliver a caramel bar to your event complete with the following:
DIY
is chosen by those further afield who do not want to pay for the shipping/liability of the jars and props:
Let us know how we can help you plan the perfect event with our Caramels de Bouchard Caramel Bar!
[df_button title=”Email us Today” font_color=#ffffff color=#dddddd color_hover=#0f0f0f link=”mailto::caramelsdebouchard@hotmail.com” target=”_blank” link_title=”E-mail Us!” btn_size=xs btn_position=]
How to eat a caramel (bet you never thought you’d need help with THAT!)
Ok, so you probably know how to eat a caramel.
What’s there to know, right? Open mouth, insert caramel, chew, gulp it down!
Well sure! But I find that if you actually take your time and let it dissolve a bit in your mouth first you will notice that the flavor is much more enhanced. Obviously taking your time is the sensible thing no matter what you’re up to! One, you just get to experience things longer, but two, the sweet and salt receptors of your tongue are out front, so letting it dissolve means you hit those receptors more and the flavor will be intensified. Seriously, give it a try. Eat one “normal”, then eat another one letting it dissolve in your mouth for a while. The smooth buttery sweetness is intensified when you take your time.
Many people are also concerned about caramel and their dentrifice. This is caramel after all so we make no promises! However, this is another argument for taking your time and letting it dissolve – the chances of it damaging any dental work is minimized. I had braces as an adult and did not pop a single bracket testing caramel, but i did go slow, did not chew, – and enjoyed every last second.
Personally, i hate chewy things. Anything I have to struggle with or get messy eating is something I avoid, so I try to make our caramels somewhere in the middle in terms of hardness. Because everything is hand made, and they are very sensitive to the weather and temperature, there will be variations in hardness, it can’t be helped (well, unless we automate, but then they won’t be made by hand and with love now will they!).
So take your time and savor them!
Bon Appetit!