GRiker

@pastrygirl Thanks for sharing your experience about some other ways to do samples! Very intrigued by the display case. I like the idea. I put some out in boxes but I think this kind of display would be more striking.

While this is an old topic, I still used the advice here on my first outdoor event this last Saturday in Central Texas. It was really nice to read everyone's experiences and advice. Thanks to all who have shared! The list of items to bring was helpful. This is mine: utility knife duct tape scissors bandaids pens/sharpie pad of paper clipboard change (count before and after) water to drink chairs gloves garbage can (just used a 5 gallon bucket under the table. extension cord battery tablecloth lights tables microfiber cloths business cards zipties price/product list weights for canopy (hadn't thought of this ahead of time. Ran home to get something. Just used 5 gallon buckets with water and rope) hand sanitizer Things I'll bring for next time Signage for pricing each type of item. I had everything listed on a product sheet but it was overwhelming for people to look at. Some kind of visual for showing the bon bons. Also only listed on product sheet and verbally by me. This event was a replacement for our Fourth of July Fireworks that was cancelled due to weather. Better for me since I can't do chocolate outside in July in Central Texas. Some notes: Twenty percent by dollars was purchased with cash. I was glad to have brought some change. I brought about $150 in small bills. Way more than was needed but I felt prepared. I priced with even dollar amounts to include sales tax for each of transaction. Definitely the right choice. Most transactions were tap to pay with Chase POS on my phone. Only had one person's card have to be entered manually. Yes people used cards for small purchases, just buying one of the least expensive item but I felt happy they bought something. I forgot that I could have used Zelle. I had printed and laminated my Zelle QR code but forgot to use it. Would have saved me the cc processing fees if used. Having some premade boxes of bon bons is a great idea. I had six different bon bons in milk and dark chocolate. While I have 6, 12, and 24 piece options, Only the 6 piece boxes sold and probably half were of one each of milk or dark. I showed filled boxes covered with plastic wrap and taped in the back so the wrap stayed tight. They held up well. Event went from 6- 10pm. Who knew we had to arrive so early (1pm) but it worked out okay! My husband came back at 5:30 once the sun was down with the chocolates. DIdn't have any issue with melting etc at about 80F but no sun. I ordered a custom tablecloth (plug here for mustny.com who was great) and some lights for the booth. Tablecloth has an open back so we stuck all the bins and things we didn't want seen in that space. We decided to use cool white lights instead of warm white so the colors of the bon bons would look nice. We had one person stop by and say we had the nicest looking booth which felt good. Front table had the display, side table stock. I created a pick sheet to know where each flavor was located but next time I'm going to tape a sheet to each top lid. It was cumbersome to look back and forth to the sheet and color coded trays. I second the suggestion to have directors chairs instead of regular outdoor chairs. I didn't sit down but for a few minutes during the entire event and I could tell later! I felt much more engaged when standing and connecting with the passersby. Even a simple wooden barstool would have been nice. I did not generally hand out samples. I had some of the least expensive salted caramel bars that were seconds that I did share occasionally, but the least expensive ones sold themselves for someone who wanted to buy chocolate. The most expensive items, bon bons, would have likely sold more if I had given out samples. At the same time there were people who walked by rushing to somewhere else who wondered if I had samples. They clearly weren't planning to purchase but would have taken a sample. I didn't have any bon bon seconds so samples would have come out of my sales stock. While I would have sold more, what would that advertising have cost? I'm still torn. For my last event of the season the shop owner would like me to offer samples. She's not charging a booth fee and it's my last event, so I'll probably do it there and maybe understand a little better the customer sentiment. Last year at the Dallas Chocolate Festival the organizers put significant limits on how the attendees could get samples from the vendors. They dissallowed any kind of storage container. People were wanting to come in with large containers then they'd just go around and collect samples to take home. These were small businesses and I think the sample mentality was out of hand by attendees and costly for the vendors. I'd love to hear your opinion on offering samples. I had a lot of stock leftover which I froze for another event in a couple weeks. As I had never done an event of this scale before I had no idea what to expect and decided I could freeze leftovers. Will help with prep work for the next event. Hope this report is helpful for someone else!

I found it. Thanks! were you successful is adopting some of her techniques?

We did do some stamping, Robyn showed her monochromatic decoration which was beautiful, but not a whole lot more than that.

@Rajala Nice! Thanks for sharing. It’s inspiring! I haven’t moved into the airbrushing world yet so I like to see how color is used without airbrushing.

@Rajala I really like the yellow stripe of cocoa butter. Simple yet classy. Would you share what tool you used to apply the cocoa butter to the mold?

Welcome @Sweet-Tempered I’m in the Austin area. Good luck to you!

https://kristagilbert.com/davenport-soft-peanut-brittle-recipe/ Had it posted over in the workshop follow up.

@Rajala Have you tried the soft peanut brittle recipe linked here? It is relatively easy and is so good! I’ve decided for now it will satisfy. Might be good enough to put off attempting that very difficult leaf croquant recipe for a long time.

Made the Soft Peanut Brittle Recipe from the workshop. It worked great! I fully enrobed to protect from the humidity. Super happy with how it turned out.

Thanks for those tips!

Thanks for sharing again! It's on my list. So you kept the pan you would pour on hot in the oven until you needed it. Any other tips for making?

I used the Nougat Montelimar recipe from Notter's The Art of the Chocolatier. Mostly because it calls for all liquid egg white. I think Greweling calls for powdered egg white - which we didn't have on hand at the workshop. I was very careful to heat all the ingredients as specified. I figure that temperature of the syrup would have a very large influence on the feel of the nougat. Rodney lent his expertise to the making at the workshop. As it was mixing, he felt it wasn't "dry" enough and used a heat gun to heat the side of the KA bowl. I didn't have that kind of eye so didn't heat it more during the mixing. I would say this second batch was a bit softer than the first, but still firm enough. Notter says to mix "on low speed until it cools, about 20 minutes." I was probably mixing on medium-low. I did count how long I mixed and it was about 16 - 17 minutes until the bottom of the bowl was only warm to the touch and not hot. I used my bread hook for just a bit to mix in the inclusions without breaking too many of them. I didn't want to knead them in like I did at the workshop where we couldn't find anything besides the whip and didn't want to ruin anything. The nougat was very sticky which made it difficult to work with. The second batch was less sticky.

It was interesting that the cranberry flavor infused into all the nougat making it taste overall very fruity. Good but not what I was expecting. Think I’ll try chocolate next!

@curls walked me through nougat at the eGullet Workshop - thanks again! Got around to making some on my own this week. Happy with how it turned out. Inclusions are dried cranberries, roasted pistachios, almonds and hazelnuts.

I'm wanting to email Robyn from St. Croix chocolates. She gave a correction to her email address listed in the workshop booklet but I didn't write it down. Will someone who did PM me her updated email? Thank you!

https://kristagilbert.com/davenport-soft-peanut-brittle-recipe/ Posting the recipe here.

Me too! Love this so much. Butterfinger is one of the few candy bars I still occasionally eat because I love the peanut butter insides. Now, if I could just make this myself... If I remember correctly @Kerry Beal made this one using "The Davenport Soft Peanut Brittle Recipe" from our workshop booklet. Am I remembering right? Any tips on how to successfully make these using the recipe in our booklet?

It’s white.

Me neither! Thanks! I’ve tried to make nougat before but it just didn’t come out right. I mentioned that I had not been successful and Donna walked me through it with some help from Rodney. It did taste as good as it looks!

Got some pictures posted. Someone please post the group picture! Loved my first eG workshop! A highlight was meeting wonderful people and coming together to support and encourage each other. I especially was touched by watching the way those who have chosen chocolate as a profession leaned on and commiserated with each other. I was grateful for those willing to support and teach me. Never would have made nougat without @curls or PdF without @Kerry Beal. Thanks for your encouragements and hand holding. It was fun to meet in person those I've only met on this forum and to meet so many others. Thank you everyone for a fun learning experience.