Like a kid in a candy store

It wasn't the typical weekly meeting for my chit-chat group of Italian friends called "Le Matte."
This week we met at a chocolate factory. And it was bliss.

The above photo is of some marshmallow "peeps" after a dip in milk chocolate.

Here is a photo of the dipping machines - white, dark and milk chocolate.


This magical place is the David Bradley Chocolatier factory, in Windsor, New Jersey. We were lucky enough to be given a tour by Christine O'Brien, daughter of the owners Robert and Marcy Hicks, who founded the company in 1978 under the name "Sophisticated Chocolates."

First, she let us choose some fruit and dip it into those chocolate tanks. Some of us chose big luscious strawberries. Some of us chose big fat orange segments. Some of us chose big luscious strawberries and then went back for big fat orange segments. Dipped in dark chocolate.
Yum. Excuse me while I savor the moment.

But that's not all. We kept touring the place and tasting as we went along. Solid chocolate, potato chips dipped in chocolate, oreos dipped in chocolate, you name it. You like milk or white chocolate rather than dark? Chris was very accommodating and gave us samples of whatever flavor we liked. Of course, we all shopped and shopped later on in the outlet store next to the factory.


In addition to their three retail outlets, in Windsor, N.J., Cherry Hill, N.J. and Manalapan, N.J., the company sells to lots of stores across the country, including upscale places like Barneys in New York. Many of their products are also sold under private labels. Their busiest time is Christmas, when lots of corporate clients place orders. But they're pretty busy right now too, with bunnies and eggs and other Easter items taking priority. Chris said that they go through about 2500 pounds of chocolate a week.
Everything is made to order and made fresh daily. "We are working a little harder, but it's going to taste better," Chris said. Their stuff doesn't go to the big box stores where you don't know how long ago it was made. If you're buying candy for Easter from their shelves, you know it was made within a day or two.

Here's one of the workers filling the molds by hand.

And here are some of the bunnies that are ready for packaging:

dark
or milk:

They also make novelty items like chocolate lollipops in the shapes of stars. They'll also make specially-designed items for events like baby showers, weddings or other occasions. You can check them out on their website: http://www.dbchocolate.com

And here's a photo of some of "le matte" getting ready to checkout -
Milena, Eleanor, Paola, Shirley, Dede, Rena and Linda