I now totally understand what it would be like to work at the Dairy Queen. You know how you stand at the counter of a Dairy Queen and look at all of the ice cream treats and wrestle with which one you are going to order? Each one sounds great. Do you get the Buster Bar or a hot fudge sundae? Oh, if you could just have both. The whole time you are wrestling with this decision, the fifteen year old who is waiting on you has a slightly nauseated look on her face. I now understand this whole scenario only too well. Here is the back story....
About four years ago, I started to make chocolate covered strawberries for my family. I would take trays of them to family gatherings and parties. They were a huge hit. At one of those events my aunt off-handedly mentioned that she thought customers would buy them. The thought had not crossed my mind. But I began to wonder if our customers really would buy them. We always put our fudge case away right after Christmas and it basically sat on the shelf and gathered dust until the next Thanksgiving. It would easily hold a few chocolate covered strawberries and showcase them right there on the counter.....but would people buy them?
I did some research on the internet and found scary prices for chocolate covered strawberries. I knew our customers wouldn't pay upwards of 3.00 per strawberry...that was crazy! But I was in an unique position of being able to go through the strawberry flats and pull out the largest ones and dip them in a really nice chocolate....again the question remained would customers buy them?
My staff was reluctant. I think the words, "she is crazy" were whispered behind my back...okay they say this a lot and most of the times it isn't a whisper...but I persevered. The first day I dipped strawberries and put them in the case they sold at a nice pace. Maybe she isn't crazy was whispered.....nah, I am flattering myself....they still thought I was crazy. What they didn't know was we were all about to be very crazy!
We actually began dipping strawberries in January and decided we should advertise them for Valentines Day. All I can say is Oh My Goodness! We were totally under prepared for the fire storm that created. We were inundated with orders, customers literally lined the store and out the door all day that year. We ran at full speed from about five in the morning until we put chocolate on the last strawberry we could find in the store at the end of the day. I left covered in chocolate from my sleeve to my shoes and I am not kidding. Diane who has worked for us for quite a few years looked at me and said, "you have now ruined every holiday for me", she now schedules her vacation each year over Valentines day....but I digress... ask me how much I wanted to eat a chocolate covered strawberry at the end of that day? Not so much.
In fact I rarely eat them, if ever. Once you have stood for that many hours and dipped them, smelling the chocolate, you quickly lose your appetite for them. I can now completely sympathize with all people who work in the ice cream or bakery industry and are surrounded by the smell that we find tempting and delicious. It really loses it's cache in a hurry.
I can't tell you the last time I have eaten chocolate covered strawberry. I can tell you that our customers tell us they are outstanding. I know we use a wonderful chocolate. It is a mix of milk and dark, it walks that center line perfectly. We decorate them with a terrific white chocolate and we box them up for 15.00. We will deliver them on Valentines Day to your sweetheart in the Somerset area. We also put them on trays if you want to order them for a party. (445-4852)
We usually stop dipping them by Mother's Day. The really big strawberries are over by that point and as soon as it starts to get warm out it gets more difficult for customers to keep them looking great and well frankly, it is a good time for us to just stop. We like to do them as more of seasonal treat.
Call today if you want to order strawberries for your sweetheart for Valentine's Day. Oh and me, I will gear up for another event that will ruin chocolate covered strawberries for me for another year....sigh....
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