Chocolate Lady to the rescue
Weez Colburn continually presents her customers with new products
As Charles M. Schulz once said, “All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”
For those having chocolate withdrawal in the Yarmouth area, the Chocolate Lady of Carino Confections can deliver.
Normally, Weez Colburn can be found on Saturday mornings at the Yarmouth Farmers’ Community Market, but now that it’s closed due to COVID-19 safeguards, she’s gone mobile with her chocolate wares.
Colburn, who once worked in telecommunications and banking, began making chocolate and candy items as Christmas gifts and treats for her work crew almost 20 years ago.
“I loved doing it. My husband gave me a small tempering machine, which was a major improvement with production,” she says.
She was hooked.
After some research, she found no one in southwest Nova Scotia was making a diverse line of confectionery products. So, as soon as Colburn, formerly from Massachusetts, got her residency, she jumped in as a vendor at the Yarmouth Farmers’ Market at the Canadian Tire parking lot with “a big smile and a lot to learn.”
Currently, she offers a line of about 20 confectionery products (not all are chocolate-based) year-round. She tries to include at least one or two different “experimental” options to keep it interesting.
Other items are seasonal, depending on fresh/local availability. Then there are the big “candy holiday” novelty offerings. She says she is always open to requests and enjoys making special orders. Her products are handmade, from marshmallows to the candy canes used in peppermint bark.
“I try to source as much as I can locally, often driving peer vendors and Yarmouth retailers crazy with requests,” she says.
She only produces in small batches to ensure product integrity. Customers are continually presented with new products. Colburn says being based in
“the Carino” on Morris Island is pretty self-isolating, so she takes advantage of alone time to do lots of reading to keep up with trends in the industry, methods and techniques, flavour pairing and online interactions with peer chocolatiers.
“Playing with unexpected flavours in chocolate can be very entertaining, especially when you get that ‘aha’ moment and want to immediately share it,” she says.
She finds most of her customers prefer flavours that are familiar favourites. Anything spicy or herbal is a hard sell to most, but then there are exceptions, too.
“Right now, chocolate with anise seems to be on the rise. Chocolate with fresh blueberries has been a great hit, but I doubt I will ever stop making peppermint patties.”
Colburn has always had delivery available as a convenience when customers could not make it to the market, especially around the holidays and for large-event orders. She says the service will continue when the COVID-19 crisis is over.
The response to ramped-up deliveries has been good so far, something she really appreciates.
Easter is one of her busiest times.
“Right now I have 100 bunnies at home,” she laughs.
All of her products can be found on Carino Confections Facebook page.
A small selection of the products created by Carino Confections.
Springtime on hand-crafted confections.
Fish sticks.
Beautiful chocolate-covered hearts.