A veritable dessert buffet tumbles out of the buoyantly beautiful boxes at the right. From top left: Milk Almond Toffee, Mint Brownie, Chocolate-Glazed Macadamia Caramel Shortbread and Jam Jewels.
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KAREN HOCHMAN is Editorial Director of THE NIBBLE™.
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May 2007
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Harvard Sweet Boutique
Homemade Gourmet Brownies, Cookies & Toffee
CAPSULE REPORT: Good things come in small packages, and in this case, the small packages are themselves good things. Harvard Sweet Boutique is a new company that knows that it’s not just what’s inside that counts. Fortunately, they fill their beautiful boxes with baked goods and toffees that are on everybody’s favorite nibbling list. The products are all natural and made in Harvard, Massachusetts.
It’s only May, but we already know that Harvard Sweet Boutique has won the award for best packaging of the year. We don’t know if the typical man has an eye for the gorgeous boxes and grosgrain ribbons and matching tissue papers—none of which most women would dream of throwing out. Yet, the company’s biggest client is a major NBA franchise, which gives these buoyant boxes as birthday gifts to everyone in the organization. And our completely non-metrosexual editorial assistant, who we would not have thought would notice the difference between Armani and Army surplus, was captivated by them.
 Harvard Sweet Boutique makes old-fashioned favorites from scratch, by hand, mixing the freshest ingredients, fine chocolate (Guittard from San Francisco, Lindt from Switzerland and Schokinag from Germany) and double-strength Madagascar vanilla extracts to make a veritable roster of crowd-pleasers. The company was founded at the beginning of the year by Susan George, a software engineer who, like a number of people in the specialty food industry, followed her passion, talent and entrepreneurial instinct.
With Mother’s Day coming up, we can’t imagine a sweets-loving recipient who wouldn’t gush to receive a box of these, and keep the box as a memento, as we have. The other nice thing that can’t be described until you take a bite, is that each item tastes as if it were personally home-baked for the recipient, with lots of love.
Products
First, let us say that while some people worry about their energy bills, we can’t help but think about Ms. George’s butter bill. The scent of fresh butter wafts from the box, and everything she makes is redolent of it.
- Brownies. The brownies— Chocolate Fudge and Mint Chocolate Fudge—are three-inch squares of fresh-baked moistness. They are rich enough that eating one at a time would suffice for most people. (See photo at top.)
- Chocolate-Glazed Macadamia Caramel Shortbread Bars. It’s a big name for a little bar, and it pretty much describes itself. But, so we can earn our keep: There’s a layer of shortbread topped by a layer of caramel topped by a layer of chocolate, artfully striped with white icing (photo at right.)
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Chocolate-Glazed Macadamia Caramel Shortbread Bars. |
If the bars are small and ladylike, the cookies can satisfy a linebacker. The cookies are chewy in style (not hard and crunchy) and are three inches in diameter—the Chocolate Toffee Cookies are a whopping four inches. (If you’re looking for a little cookie, there are 1-3/4" Jam Jewels, also known as Thumbprints.)
Chocolate Chip Cookies.
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- Buttercrunch Cookies and Chocolate Toffee Cookies. Our favorite of the line, the Buttercrunch Cookies are packed with jumbo, chocolate-covered chunks of toffee. The Chocolate Toffee Cookies have the same toffee chunks, but are a far sweeter cookie (for a real sweet-tooth).
- Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal Raisin. These two cookies are iconic: We all bake them, and everyone has his or her favorite recipe. It’s hard to say if Harvard Sweet Boutique’s will top yours, but they do taste wonderfully homemade, and the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies have more raisins per square inch than any others we have ever seen.
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- Toffee. Harvard Sweet Boutique makes two variations on a popular theme: bittersweet chocolate swirled with white, and milk chocolate. Both are packed with chopped, roasted almonds.
If it makes you happy (and hungry) just looking at the photos, imagine how happy someone will be to receive a box—or four boxes! Then, when the goodies are gone, they can create a wonderful leaning tower of boxes sculpture reminiscent of the home decor items of elite design firm Mackenzie-Childs. And you don’t have to worry if the kids or dog ruin it—just console yourself by ordering more cookies.
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Milk Chocolate Almond Toffee. |
HARVARD SWEET BOUTIQUE
Homemade Classic Treats
BROWNIES & BARS: Chocolate Fudge Brownies, Chocolate-Glazed Macadamia Caramel Shortbread Bars, Mint Chocolate Fudge Brownies
COOKIES: Buttercrunch, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Chip Sand, Chocolate Toffee, Jam Jewels, Oatmeal Raisin, White Chocolate Macadamia
TOFFEE: Chocolate Swirl Almond, Milk Chocolate Almond
- Brownies
6 Pieces, $12.00/$15.00
12 Pieces, $20.00/$22.00
(Price Depends On Flavor)
- Shortbread Bars
8 Pieces, $16.00
16 Pieces, $30.00
- Cookies
8 Cookies, $16.00/$20.00
16 Cookies,
$30.00/$35.00
(Price Depends On Flavor)
- Toffee
1 Pound, $20.00
2 Pounds, $35.00
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You get to select the box the gifts arrive in, so when you receive thanks and the packaging is mentioned, you can take credit for that, too!
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Purchase online at HarvardSweetBoutique.com
Shipping additional. Prices and flavor availability are verified at publication but are subject to change.
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