A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

I received an email from Garrison Confections (Andrew Shotts) for Valentine’s Day-I’m on their list. I first saw them years ago on Rachael Ray-featuring their Rocky Rhode Island. They had a retail store in Rhode Island, that closed back in 2008 (?), but they open up their factory store during the holidays. So this past Saturday, we took the trip down to Cedar Falls, Rhode Island, to see what we can find. It’s almost a straight short down 95 from Boston, about a 45 minute drive. We drive through a residential neighborhood, and I am convinced that we are lost. We pull up to the address and I am even further convinced that we are lost-its a nondescript building-you have to ring the bell to be let in. The “factory store” is a small room with chocolates on display for purchase.

The outside of the building.

Chocolate display case

The counter (above) and the wall of sweets (below).

Of course we pick the Rocky Rhode Island, but we also pick up some toffee, a white chocolate lime bar and a box of assorted chocolates. Here is our review:

The Rocky Rhode Island. Mini marshmallows set into a peanut butter ganache atop a graham cracker crust, drizzled with dark chocolate. I love the graham cracker crust, I wish it were more than just the bottom of the bar, it would have been nice if it had run the length of the bar. I like the flavor of the peanut butter ganache. I wasn’t a big fan of the marshmallows, maybe because I don’t like marshmallows that much, or maybe it was the actual marshmallows. They seemed a bit chewy to me.

The “ultimate toffee”. It’s covered in milk chocolate and rolled in ground nuts. The toffee is an excellent mix of sweet and salty. The pieces were pretty thick, so I wouldn’t recommend trying to bite into them, you might lose a tooth, instead, try breaking up the pieces into smaller, easier to chew pieces.

Everything is packaged in clear bags with a black Garrison ribbon.

It sounded a little different, so I gave it a shot. It’s made with sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, soya lecithin, vanilla extract and natural lime oil. The back says “kind of like a key lime pie without the crust or the meringue”.

When you open up the foil of the chocolate you are immediately met with a strong lime smell. I cautiously take a bite, and it’s….delicious. The chocolate is smooth and the lime flavor is actually quite subtle. An excellent choice!

 

Garrison Confections

72 Ledge Street
Central Falls, RI 02863

401-725-0790

www.garrisonconfections.com/

Sign up for emails to find out when the store will be open, otherwise, order some chocolate online!

Tags: chocolate