Farmers markets, grocery stores, hardware stores, indie book stores and other local spots are among our favorite places to go souvenir shopping when we're on the road in the Midwest.
Here's another edition of Midwest Market Basket feature about some of our favorite Midwest products, shopping discoveries and where to find them.
DeBrand Chocolates represents a sweet childhood dream that came true for Cathy Brand-Beere right in her hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Cathy's high-quality chocolates are not only sweet treats, but each beautiful piece of candy and its beautiful packaging is a work of art in its own right.
Cathy grew up working in a wedding cake and supply business run by her mother and began working with chocolate by the time she was 8 years old. She loved the creative challenge of making chocolates that not only tasted good, but that looked good as well, and she dreamed of opening a "real chocolate shop" as an adult.
Cathy made and sold custom-designed wedding cakes as a summer job as she attended school, making her dream come true in 1987 when she opened her first chocolate shop in a 100-plus-year-old house on Wells Street in Fort Wayne. That first shop is no longer standing, but her chocolate business is still going strong, drawing customers from around the country...and around the world.
Celebrity sightings at DeBrand's include Marilu Henner, Patricia Heaton, Clinton Kelley, Jessica Simpson, George Lopez and Stedman Graham (which might help explain DeBrand's multiple appearances on Oprah's television shows, magazines and annual "favorite things" lists).
It was easy to see why we heard so many good things about Cathy's candy when we visited the DeBrand Chocolate store and cafe at Jefferson Point Shopping Center earlier this summer.
It was difficult to know where to start among the candies nicely displayed in the store's showcases, but we managed!
We each sampled a chocolate and then settled on a 14-piece box of assorted classic flavors to take home with us.
Tim is more of a fan of dark chocolate, while I tend to like milk chocolate and nuts in my candies. The woman behind the counter suggested the collection with its mix of dark and milk chocolates as a good starting point for us to sample the company's chocolate.
It was a good choice.
Flavors in the collection included things like Orange Cream and Mocha Cream that Tim really liked, while I particularly liked flavors like Strawberry Rhubarb and Maple Nut Cream.
DeBrand Chocolates are so rich that you only have to eat one at a time to satisfy your chocolate fix, so the box lasted the two of us more than a week!
I also like seeing that DeBrand makes an effort to use local products in creating many of their fillings, like a set of premium chocolate bars flavored with oils and vinegars from Fort Wayne's Olive Twist, a store I profiled in this feature earlier this year.
The store also includes a small cafe where visitors can enjoy some coffee, chocolate or an ice cream treat featuring DeBrand's chocolates and sauces...so we decided we should have a sundae (for research purposes of course!).
Our candy counter consultant advised us that the sundaes were large enough for sharing, and we found that to truly to be the case. Our sundae featured raspberry and caramel sauces over ice cream on a bed of fresh pecans, topped with a dark chocolate wafer. It was so beautiful that we sort of hated to eat it...but we managed that, too.
DeBrand has store locations in Fort Wayne at the Jefferson Pointe Shopping Center and Glenbook Shopping Center on Coldwater Road, as their corporate store on Auburn Road and a mall location in Kuwait.
We didn't get a chance to go over to the Auburn Road during our last visit to Fort Wayne, but we're hoping to get there in the future to take one of the company tours offered by DeBrand at that location. Tours are $5 and include a $5 rebate on purchases of $10 or more. The tours last about 30-45 minutes and typically occur on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can also schedule a group tour for 12 or more people on other days of the week.
Check out DeBrand's online catalog for year-round ordering information.
You can connect with DeBrand on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram.
Thanks to Visit Fort Wayne for sponsoring my recent visit to Fort Wayne, Indiana, providing lodging, meals and help arranging interviews and tours of area attractions for my review, with no further compensation. I was free to express my own opinions about this stay and experiences, and the opinions expressed here are mine.
© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved
Comments