I want to start by thanking everyone who agreed to be my taste testers. ?I had a hard time narrowing down the list of 36 to just 9. ?Just so you don’t think this is a total dictatorship I’ll let you know how we came by the final list you will all be voting on starting November 2nd.
First we asked you to nominate you to nominate flavors. ?That’s done. ?The total count was 56 comments on 36 flavors. ?I complied the list of flavors and the corresponding votes. ?I then separated the list into new and what we’ve done before. ?The top 4 of what we’ve done before was put into the final voting list. ?From the new flavors we looked at what had the most number of votes and those that looked intriguing. ?There were some that had more votes than those that were selected for taste testing, but we made judgement calls on what would be do-able and that would actually taste good. ?I will say, there were quite a few votes for coconut, but neither Derek or I can stand the taste of coconut so that was a no. ?Sorry. ?If I have to make them I have to be able to taste them.
We narrowed the list of 36 down to 9. ?I then made small test batches of those 9 and asked the people who nominated or voted for one of the selected flavors to be the taste testers. ?So don’t think I threw everyone’s into a hat and pulled at random. ?I also included notes on what I would do differently in the final production of each flavor. ?The test truffles were thrown together very quickly (in fact, I did them in the microwave).
The final list of 9 was: Curry, Lavender-Vanilla, Key Lime, Mint Julep, Cherry, Chai, Amaretto, Orange-Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter.
16 people were taste testers and they were asked to vote on the Sweet Hope site on a scale of 1-9 (1 being their favorite and 9 their least). ?I confused them a little bit because the blog ranking system is ?little wonky. ?They were all good little lab rats and did their jobs. ?A few left comments (which you can now go read, just click on the individual flavor pages). ?They were given 3 weeks to complete their task and everyone finished up early. ?Shocking!
Last night I tallied the votes and the 4 flavors with the top votes are: Cherry, Key Lime, Mint Julep and Orange. ?I was a little surprised that all of the fruit flavors made the cut. ?They were not my personal favorites. ?By the way, neither Derek or I voted. ?We couldn’t finish the truffles by the deadline. ?In fact, I still haven’t tasted Cherry or Orange.
It was a rather long and involved process to come up with the 8 flavors readers will be voting on. ?I liked the system and it seemed to work well. ?Taste testers were very objective during their trials and had excellent feedback.
The 8 flavors you will be voting on are Pumpkin Spice, Chili, Irish Cream, Mocha, Cherry, Key Lime, Mint Julep and Orange. ?Of those 8, 4 will join Candy Cane and Milk Chocolate/Dark Chocolate in the full dozen boxes and single variety boxes.
In addition, we are adding 2 new products for you to choose from. ?A 1 Dozen box of Sea Salt Caramels will be available and a small box with 2 Caramel-Sea Salt truffles will round out the list. ?The Caramel Sea-Salt truffles will not be available in the 1/2 dozen nor will it be included in the mixed boxes. ?It is a 7th truffle flavor only available in this little stocking stuffer sized box.
Voting for the final flavors will begin November 2nd and everything goes on sale November 9th.
Hmmm
I must have been the anomoly in the taste tester group. The fruit flavored ones were by far my least favorites. If I beg and plead and promise to fly to Washington to wash truffle-related dishes will you make me a batch of just curry truffles. I thought those were absolute heaven.
Oh, and how fun that you’re doing the caramel-sea salt ones. Can’t wait to try those!
Maggie and I must have voted the same! I loved the curry ones as well!!!
see.. I did not like the curry ones at all… I loved the orange and that shocked me.
Hee hee! 2 of our favorites made the list! Let’s see if they make the final cut… can’t wait to shop!