68 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM sweet indulgence woodsidechocolates.com {food coloring} is sourced from close to 17,000 cocoa producers spread out in the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Africa. The day after filling the bonbon shells with ganache, Andi and her partner use a capping machine to make the flat bonbon bottoms. For Valentine’s Day, a box of bonbons included white chocolate raspberry rose, dark chocolate caramel and a “vibrant” milk chocolate passion fruit. Of the seasonal flavors, Andi favors the gingersnap cookie bonbon they concocted for Christmas. As for what you might find in future boxes? Who knows! Constantly inventing, Andi says there’s no telling what the next flavor combinations will be. She subjects new possible combos to a series of taste-tests, gathering feedback from her apprentice and Bacchus partners. What should Peninsula gourmands be on the lookout for? Three words: hot chocolate bombs. “Those are so much fun; they look like little bath bombs,” Tim says. “You drop them into hot milk and they melt and explode.” Changing its offerings with the seasons, Woodside Chocolate Company crafts snowmenshaped bombs filled with hot cocoa mix and peppermint marshmallows at Christmas as well as heart-shaped bombs featuring heart-shaped mini-marshmallows for Valentine’s Day. Their chocolate bars also come in all sorts of intriguing flavors, ranging from strawberry shortcake to chocolate pistachio, green matcha tea to cookies and cream, or cherry and almond, and white chocolate with strawberries. Tim’s personal favorite: a dark chocolate bar topped with Cadbury’s crunchy mini-Easter eggs. “Everyone has a different palate,” Andi reasons. And the Woodside Chocolate Company sweetly embraces them all.
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