"Hi Rita, could you make a few types of savoury custom bonbons for our private event using our product?"; "Dear Rita, could you create bonbons with kimchi flavour?"; "Could we incorporate four types of whiskey, the colours of the barrels they were aged in, and top it off by matching each drink's flavour profile to a specific fruit?"
All the above are the requests I often receive. At Carambole, we’ve done numerous custom bonbon flavour development projects for companies in the food industry. If your product has potential and meets Carambole’s standards, I'm happy to collaborate! Nothing is too quirky for Carambole, and the sky's the limit.
Our clients typically want something utterly unique to surprise their own customers and let their own product shine, through flavour as well as design, by including it into a bonbon.
Doing flavour development is a meticulous process: it involves a lot of attention, diving deep into the details and wishes of our clients. "Could we get bonbons with different cheeses for our cheese company party?"; "Could you create gift sets for our specialty coffee company, where each bonbon flavour connects a specific coffee and chocolate origin?"; "What about using our essential oils in your bonbons?"; A special story, a hidden surprise, a riddle to solve, and a flawless flavour combo - all these things make the flavour development so exciting for me.
When I take on a task like this, my first step is to dive into thorough research on my client's product to grasp its story and identify key elements that I can highlight with my chocolate miniatures. I then spend a few days finding the perfect chocolate match: "Is it gonna be the chocolate from Cuba or Tanzania, or maybe Thailand? Milk or dark, or maybe white with fruit infusions? What would work better - a fruity flavour profile or a mysterious smoky one?",- the smallest differences could make or break the magic.
Sometimes the connection comes from the country of origin, sometimes from the production style, and other times the flavours themselves do all the talking.
Once flavour combinations and texture ideas are ready, we discuss them with the customer and I forward the first samples-this is when project refinement begins. Everything is important: "Do the bonbons need more or less sugar?"; "Is the flavour intense enough?"; "Does your product shine in the bonbon?" We also need to know the exact serving date, as bonbons continue to develop their flavours after being piped into moulds. I sample each recipe on the 2nd, 4th, 7th, and 14th day to understand how the flavours evolve and intertwine.
Once the flavours are perfected, I move on to the final stage of development - the design. The process is both creative and analytical - bonbon's beautiful exterior is what you see first, it needs to be enticing but also match the whole story.
The development stage requires significant time and effort, as well as extensive testing. This is why we charge for the development of each recipe; the fee is higher if it’s a unique recipe with exclusive rights and lower if it’s a recipe that can later appear on the Carambole menu. Whether our clients want bonbons that are more classic or avant-garde, we can do it all!
Collaborations like these help us gain new friends in the food industry, new customers for our regular Carambole boxes, new partners, and colleagues. And of course, we get to learn about interesting ingredients and food-making processes.
Got a crazy idea for a custom bonbon for your company event? Tell us about it! A quick email to sweet@crmbl.nl would unleash the famous Carambole creativity!
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