Old Fashion Caramels Hit Convenience Stores

Maud Borup Chocolates


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Kim Kalan
Maud Borup Chocolates
612-781-2106
99 year old Maud Borup Chocolates
launches its new convenience store caramel program

“Unique Recipes Made in Small Batches”

Minneapolis, MN – Maud Borup Chocolates announced its launch into the convenience store market with a POP (point of purchase) caramel program.

“It seemed like the right time for us to expand into the convenience store market,” says Mercy Wester, director of convenience store sales. “We are a 99 year old company that makes some of the best caramels in the United States, and we are very excited to move this product into mass market,” says Kim Kalan, VP of sales and marketing.

The POP display will be available to convenience stores starting this March featuring Old Fashioned Vanilla and Chocolate wax wrapped caramels. These caramels will sell for 3 for $1.00 and will be featured in a wooden display crate that can sit on a counter top or near the check out area. Maud Borup caramels are currently being sold at Dunn Bros Coffee, Nordstrom’s e-bars and about 2000 other specialty gift locations across the country.

“Our caramels have been a hidden secret for almost 100 years as we have only marketed them to specialty retailers. This launch will allow the mass market accessibility to our product,” says Kim Kalan.

Maud Borup’s caramels contain fresh and natural ingredients and are made the old fashioned way with real cream and butter. They are hand made over an open fire in large coppers kettles the same way they were made in the early 1900s.

“You will be seeing a lot more of the Maud Borup name and you will notice a difference when you taste one of our caramels because they truly are the best,” says Mercy Wester.


Maud Borup
Background
The daughter of a prominent St. Paul family, Maud Borup had a personal passion for great candy. Making it from her home kitchen, she would give her candy to friends and family as gifts. At their praise and urging, Maud Borup became a pioneer for women entrepreneurs. In 1907, Maud began selling chocolates on a card table in the back of the Holm & Olson Flower Shop on Fifth Street and St. Peter Street in downtown St. Paul. Soon, she had enough business to open a whole counter in the small shop. As her patrons recognized that her passion for quality and her cardinal rule of "no substitutes" meant an unbelievable product, Maud found herself in business for herself. Over the years the business grew and created such a loyal customer base, that standing orders were continually filled as new generations took over. Today, Maud Borup chocolates are made in small batches and dipped by hand following the exacting standards set by Maud herself.


The Secrets of Maud Borup
It's one thing to say you use only the freshest ingredients, which Maud Borup still does. But what you do with them is a different matter entirely. In this day and age many companies take their fresh ingredients and hand them over to machines. Not Maud Borup. Just as carefully as they select the items that go into their candy, they also carefully prepare the small batches by hand, using the rules and standards that were set nearly a century ago by their founder.
Candy making of this nature is today, as it was then, an art rather than a production. The generations who have learned the art have mastered the use of the copper kettles. Evenness of heat throughout the batch is most important in candy cooking to assure smooth creams and chewy caramels and this can be best achieved by cooking in copper kettles. There is no substitute for the final hand stirring with wooden paddles enabling the cook to carefully test the batch so that it will finish to just the desired consistency when poured on the marble slab.
The Hand Dippers are truly the most amazing chocolate artists. Each center that comes from the kitchen must be sealed in its final dress coat of chocolate and topped with an identifying mark. Hand Dippers work the tempered chocolate and know by experience when the temperature is right. They carefully coat each piece and, with an elegant hand motion, mark the top with its defining pattern.