An Interview at Bissinger's
by La Confectionista -10/2/11
Dave Owens certainly looks the part of Chief Chocolatier.  The crisp clean chef’s coat embroidered with those very words doesn’t hurt either.  But he doesn’t need it.  He’s a pro and it shows.  Heading a team at a place like Bissinger’s, he has to be.  Their Maryland Plaza space is fairly new but the team functions like a well oiled machine throughout the night.  We had the treat of talking with Dave and staying for one of their wine and chocolate pairings.

We had so many questions:  How does a product go from idea to a new truffle in the case?  Where do your beans come from? ( cote’ ivory) and the all important “What’s with the Pandas? “  While I tried to be unique and original in my questions, seasoned Dave has heard them all, and it was nicer just to hear him dish about the upcoming chocolate and Bourbon tasting, the story of product development and how much he loves working with his wife, who was his sous-chef before she was his soul mate.  The Counte and I learned what the “Rainforest Alliance” is, the full back ground on the wine grapes and by the time the night was over I discovered a new found love of pumpkin bark.

For the record, the dramatic vision I had of a CEO awakening in the middle of the night with a new dream truffle isn’t exactly accurate.  Rather frequently a client or supplier comes to them and says “Can you make that” or “What can you do with this?”  In fact that is the secret of the wine grapes.  A supplier approached them with large moscato (like the wine) grapes and said “What can you do with these?”.  In true Bissinger’s fashion the answer was “cover them in chocolate”.  While in the case of the Pandas, a hole was seen in the market, because no one was selling high quality gummy candy to adults.  Then the realization that they are just the folks to fill it and win a few awards while they’re at it.  Sometimes an idea is pitched from the team of 2 concepts that seem to “scientifically” go together and sometimes ideas are pitched for flavors that “artistically” go together.

The self named “vice president of taste” humbly tells us about the SOFI awards they’ve won, the trends of sweet ( like salt caramels returning) and how the team tries to maintain the Bissinger’s name.  The answer to that?  “Try not to screw it up”!

At its heart, Bissinger’s is a retailer and Dave tells us how very important all the little details are, even down to the bows on the bags.  You can tell everyone at Bissinger’s is practically obsessed with the perfection of their confection.  And they must aim for this perfection not just year after year, but decade after decade.  The commitment to quality continues to increase.

As the night progresses and we try various chocolates with wines to match ( My fav. was the pumpkin bark with Moscato) the intimate group learns all sorts of interesting things.  Like the fact that Bissinger's uses 400,000 lbs of chocolate a year.  Chocolate Liquor is not alcohol at all, but rather roasted and ground cocoa beans before any other processing.  We also learned that some of their chocolate is Rain Forest Alliance Certified, which means they pay more for their beans to help the forests and the people who work them.   And as we sip and savor through the evening while learning all sorts of neat things about beans and bars, I realize school would’ve been much better if it was set to sweets(and wine) and instructed by people who were all so passionate about their subject.