Elegance and confection. Pleasingly ingenious. My own interpretation of the word elegance would include simplicity; however, simplicity isn’t always present in an elegant solution. In electronics, in technology, in manufacturing those solutions tend to be quite complex. We recognize elegance when we see it: in clothing design, in the manufacture of small appliances, in an iPhone. So, what does elegance have to do with confection?
One thing that makes elegance so attractive is precision. We admire products
and services that are seamless and precise. Handcrafted furniture, a high-quality pen or watch, a beautifully engineered hygrometer that’s available to us for just a few dollars.
We’re mapping out our production through the end of the year, including the launch of an annual flagship confection product that will have its roots in elegance: the Essential Confection Box. Remembering that our two product qualifiers are superb single-flavor and textural development, we’re building a stable of our best recipes confected with the glorious fruit of the current Pacific Northwest season.
Cookies of impactful design like swirls of Italian amaretti; fat, cracked thumbprint cookies of house made hazelnut butter; three flavors of Essential Cantucci Mini™ we
sell only to restaurants; our beloved HazL+Nutly™ (currently in use as bookends of summer gelato sandwiches); a glorious candied fig butter cookie (yes, we’re candying fresh figs next month); our never-
before-released to consumers pistachio shortbread (have you ever had pistachio butter?) to name a few. Dark, sweet Oregon cherries and our own Marionberry jam (an Oregon-grown-only berry) will make appearances. And sparkle will definitely have its day.
Marionberry, blackberry, lingonberry, elderberry, black raspberry
There was a time when we didn’t know each other by name, only reputation
The reputation of my grandmother’s exquisite black raspberry jelly
So precious it only made appearance in the tiniest of jars as if incognito
And it changed my understanding of what gifting was about
Funny how a little fruit can do that
Elegance makes an entrance in the svelte silver cookie tin. We believe in functionable reusability, and this box will find a permanent home among your keepsakes.
At this writing, we can only hope to keep up with the infusion of flats of Marionberries, apricots and dark Bing cherries. Next month’s bounty includes peaches, figs and tiny artisan grapes.
For our personal use, we’ve been producing savory blueberry jam for turkey and lean meat sandwiches, and a fabulous savory umami Marionberry sauce for grilled chicken and fish.
Simple Excellence is Essential Confection’s tag line, and it’s hard to express how much value we place on simplicity and excellence as components of the gifts we create. It circles back to my interpretation of elegance: pleasingly ingenious – with simplicity.
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As an example, we’re working on a proprietary hazelnut cake for our restaurant partners. The richness of Oregon
hazelnuts is foundational to flavors that punctuate and complement it: espresso, fig, almond. Figs – in this case, CA Mission figs because we’re out of season – offer sweetness, a lovely contrast to the robust, bitter flavor of espresso. Almond paste adds a succulence that’s savory and a bit mysterious. Through trial – and more trial – we find the sweet spot where distinct flavors are present in the senses and they become the building blocks of the whole.
