I didn’t do a very good job of finding a lot of stuff at the end of Candy Season with the post-Easter sales. I think I did much better on the post-Valentines front and here’s one of the items I picked up at that time.
I’d never heard of Stephany but the side of the box said “always the perfect gift” which must also mean, “always the perfect after holiday bargain.” Though the box had hearts on the outside, nowhere did it say Valentines Day or love or anything like that, so I thought it could just be their regular design. It also had a smart little label that said that the candy was good until June 1, 2006!
Inside the box were four pieces of almond toffee covered in chocolate and rolled in crushed almonds. The chocolate was thick and sweet and the toffee hard but with a good toothsome cleave to it. The toffee had a good salty bit to it and the chocolate far outweighed the toffee in sweetness. The ample nuts were good and fresh.
What was also nice was the price and the fact that I could get something from Colorado (what is it about Colorado and toffee?) at my local Target.
But I guess the big news here is that Stephany’s Chocolates is no more. They closed down their factory and retail stores about 10 days ago according to news reports. I considered not posting anything at all about this candy, but I figured I bought it and took a photo and then ate it, I may as well document it so that other candy fans will know what happened.
Damn.
I think the Colorado and toffee thing is related to the grande dame, big poobah of Colorado candy, Enstrom’s Toffee. Now *that’s* a candy you need to review.
I found some of Stephany’s Chocolates at a Target after Valentine’s Day a few years ago, and have since looked for it (after Feb 14th) to no avail! I guess I won’t bother looking any more. Too bad - I remember enjoying it!
maybe that’s why it wuz on sale, eh
jeez, how sad. pretty fishy that a wife of one of the co-owners was described as a creditor, and that another one of owners committed suicide 2 WEEKS before the company went down. gotta wonder what kind of drama was going on there
TheMatt - I’ve got some Enstrom’s, I’ll try to put it up this week! (I didn’t want to do too much toffee back to back.)
Tricia - yeah, but I think you might like Enstroms ... which isn’t sold at Target though.
tg - that story just gets weirder and weirder. I started following it a few weeks before I posted this when it was some local blurb about one of the stores not being open and a former employee said she quit because they weren’t paying their bills.
Hey all.
Stephany’s has been back in business 6 months now, and they have a distribution agreement with an online company. You can buy their chocolates, and hopefully soon their mints and toffees, online at http://www.theawesomeblossom.net/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=113
Next entry: Limiting Limited Editions
Previous entry: Scharffen Berger Tasting Squares