Chef Linda's Confection Commentary

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On the Essential Douglas Fir Shortbread “Fence”?

The guest testimonials for our Essential Douglas Fir Shortbread™ are gratifying:

 

“… exquisitely delightful”

“love the moisture content… slightly soft interior while retaining a thin crust”

“had to taste a piece of the shortbread, first thing”

“I could not have been more pleased”

“love the balance of the Doug Fir and lemon”

“… never overpowering”

“… continues from the first flavor on the tongue to the lasting aromas at the end”

“great product!”

“really unusual… I want to go back and have some more”

congratulations on getting your TOTALLY new product out into the world!!!”

“we enjoyed it with wine”

“I think you’ve created your own kind of shortbread!”

 

 

The Dec order window for Essential Douglas Fir Shortbread™ and both varieties of Essential Panettone™ runs through this weekend. Second-day shipping for both products will be no later than the 13th – 15th of Dec – well in advance of Christmas.

 

If you live in Oregon or Vancouver, WA Metro and prefer to forego the delivery charge, please note that you may pick your order up. Simply email me directly with your order details (of any quantity), and I’ll bill you from Square’s secure website.

 

Need a quick primer on Essential Douglas Shortbread?!

 

www.EssentialConfection.com

#essentialconfection #essentialpanettone #essentialdouglasfirshortbread #shortbread

 

Remembering That Scent Evokes Memory…

The taste of poetry borne of its own fragrance,

a line of citrus unfurls sweetly over the tongue through the senses

connecting the  intoxicating language of place and time

 

Scent, not taste, evokes memory. What memory do you have that’s attached to the scent of a particular food? The earthy, spiciness of baked pies at your grandparents’ house? The intoxicating scent of freshly baked bread in your own kitchen?  The shared experience of rich, sugary cookies you bake with friends at an exchange?

 

The pleasure of French press coffee has taken on new meaning for me as I have placed it in my diet exclusively on the weekend. On Sat morning, the anticipation of dark roast sets the stage for the scent that’s activated while the beans are grinding and the coffee is steeping, then adds to the pleasure of sipping it. Scent goes directly to the brain’s smell center, known as the olfactory bulb, triggering detailed memories of time and place.

 

Remembering that scent evokes memory, the way to seed a permanent association to you with friends and business associates is through a gift that etches you indelibly in your recipients’ minds.

 

Our guests tell us that one of the most notable pleasures of Essential Douglas Fir Shortbread™ is how the scents of fir and lemon linger in the nose and on the palate. Another striking feature is the shortbread’s tender, luscious texture.

 

Wouldn’t you love these qualities be those that attach you to your relationships with the people you care most about?

 

The Dec order window for Essential Douglas Fir Shortbread™ and both varieties of Essential Panettone™ opens this weekend and runs through Sat, 4-Dec. Second-day shipping for both products will be no later than the 13th – 15th of Dec – well in advance of Christmas. If you live in Oregon and prefer to forego the delivery charge, please note that you may pick your order up. Simply email me directly with your order details, and I’ll bill you from Square’s secure website.

 

Know that we do have a sense of humor at Essential Confection. If you’d like a break from the planning and stressing and cooking, have a look at our blooper reel here. The third time was not quite the charm. I consider the error a sign of the time. The finished video with our new branding is here.

 

May the simple pleasures of appreciation and gratitude be yours this season – however you celebrate.

 

www.EssentialConfection.com

#EssentialConfection #EssentialDouglasFirShortbread #EssentialPanettone

The Long and [Douglas Fir] Short[bread] of It

Tiny seed cones, awash in pollen secretly giggle

at their Douglas fir moniker – a fir, no!

Deeply furrowed brows of age;

Resin blisters secret its fragrant beauty.

His Majesty presides over dappled shade,

Filtered sunlight politely suspended over its understory.

 

BOUNDARIES & EXPECTATIONS

Most of us have had the experience of pushing through some imagined boundary.  Nearly all imagined boundaries are malleable enough for us to slip through. Often, the result is the delightful realization that it wasn’t a boundary at all.

 

Then there are the super-imposed boundaries that we have the opportunity to field and negotiate. This holiday season, the boundary is shipping. It may be fair to say that each of us has had or is currently having experience with delays in product orders and/or the shipping process. I certainly am.

 

Our primary goal in the upcoming holiday season is to delight you with the highest quality artisan products. Our secondary goal is to support our first goal by skillfully negotiating the national shipping quagmire, swampy as it will likely be for the foreseeable future.

 

 

Testing is complete. We have created a product with the unmistakable taste and scent of our beloved Doug Fir. It has the lovely complement of sweet lemon in the nose and the succulent mouth feel that is unmistakably shortbread.

We are taking the following steps this holiday season to deliver delight:

We’ve scaled our shortbread to a petite size that makes it extremely affordable for gift-giving. Smaller product size (in weight) carries the additional benefit of lower shipping cost.

 

Ground transportation is rocky nationally, and the large carriers have dissolved their previous commitments to abide by their companies’ standards. Consequentially, all orders outside Oregon/Portland Metro will require 2-day air.

 

The Long and Short[bread] of It

To fulfill our primary and secondary goals, we have established our Nov and Dec order, production and shipping windows. They are, as follows:

Essential Panettone, both Artisan Milanese and Northwest varieties: available for delivery in Dec only. The 1-week order window for delivery before Christmas is Sun 28-Nov through Sat 4-Dec. Shipping is the 5-day period between Tue 13-Dec and Fri 17-Dec. The only shipping option outside of Oregon is 2-day air. Oregon/Portland Metro orders will ship using ground transportation unless you specify 2-day air.

Essential Douglas Fir Shortbread. Shortbread is available for both Nov and Dec deliveries. The 1-week order window for delivery before Thanksgiving and Hannukah is Fri 29-Oct through Sat 6-Nov. The 1-week order window for delivery before Christmas is Sun, 28-Nov through Sat 4-Dec, the same as for Essential Panettone. Shipping is the 5-day period between 13-Dec and 17-Dec. The only shipping option outside of Oregon is 2-day air. Oregon/Portland Metro orders will have a flat fee.

 

A video launching Essential Douglas Fir Shortbread as the next in our stable of signature products is now available!

 

We’re hoping that a bit of deft planning results in the best of seasons.

 

Thank you for your continued support of Essential Confection.

www.EssentialConfection.com

#essentialconfection

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shipping Goblins are in the Air

Shipping Goblins?

A set of uncertainties may impact nationwide product delivery in the approaching holiday season.

Inconsistent availability of ingredients due to supply chain fluctuations, highly irregular inter-state delivery times and changing delivery costs are converging to impact most holiday purchases.

Personal experience abounds. A FedEx wine shipment from California took seven days to leave the state and evidently spent the next eight days moving in and out of the Portland hub with zero delivery attempts. The major issue is understaffing. FedEx is performing at 60% of normal capacity. They declared the shipment as ‘lost’ when I inquired. There has been no FedEx truck in our community for at least three weeks.

As was our practice last year, we will have specific, three-week pre-order periods for our flagship products, Essential Panettone Artisan Milanese and Essential Panettone Northwest. In an attempt to offset holiday delivery issues, we will back that order period up by, perhaps, seven days. Unless shipment services improve, we will be required to ship all out-of-state holiday products via second-day air because what is important to our guests is the value of the gift to the recipient.

Essential Holiday Tin

Our first annual holiday tin, Essential Douglas Fir Shortbread, will be available for pre-order, as well. If you wish to be on our pre-holiday list for either product, please email me directly. Specific order details for each product will follow.

In+Dulge™

Essential Confection has another pre-holiday announcement. Recipe formulation and testing for our most-special chocolate cookie is complete. Packaging, pricing and shipping details are yet to follow in a formal product launch. Our new chocolate cookie is called In+Dulge™.

Accidentally gluten-free!  Here’s a “taste” of In+Dulge™’s heavenly qualities: bittersweet 72% Guittard chocolate and a luxurious mouthfeel, punctuated with a bit of the finest flaked sea salt. In+Dulge™ will always be shipped second-day air to allow you to bake them directly from your freezer at home.

 

“This moment’s indulgence is tomorrow’s nostalgia.”

 

We will continue to proactively communicate with you as shipping goblins ebb and flow. We value our relationship with you, and will make extraordinary effort meet our commitments.

 

Please feel free to email with your interest in joining our pre-holiday order list.

 

Linda

wwwEssentialConfection.com

linda@essentialconfection.com

#essentialconfection

Low Touch, High Impact

Producing a highly labor-intensive, high ingredient cost product in a professional kitchen is a dance. We skillfully balance light surface touches – always respectful of the safest possible protocols – with the need to give equal space and protection to others with whom we work.

So it is with gift giving an artisan product. The quality ingredients permeating panettone like a line of ore are one step of the dance that manifests in a successful loaf. The dance truly occurs when one develops a feel for how the dough responds to humidity in a proofer or various oven temperatures we might test when baking off sample loaves. Quality and skill marry to give our guests confidence in purchasing Essential Panettone as gifts.

Today ends the order period for Essential Panettone Artisan Milanese and Essential Panettone Northwest.

The only exception we can make is for larger gift orders that specifically target the December holiday season. So, if gifting to co-workers or professional contemporaries is a consideration this year, keep in mind that shipping time to the Midwest and East Coast is 4-5 business days. We would need an order for those gifts a full 14-days ahead of your requested delivery date.

 Please email me directly at linda@essentialconfection.com with any such requests so I can ensure that our production aligns with your request.

 Courier charges to Portland Metro zip codes are only $5 per package. Shipping elsewhere in the U.S. is $12 per package.

 “Ultimate” annual purchase, and Essential Butter Cake orders, as always, may be placed anytime.

 This is the story of Essential Panettone.
https://youtu.be/ytyU652HAw4

We so appreciate your support.

https://www.essentialconfection.com/q4-2020

 

#essentialconfection

 

 

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