Cookie Jar Chronicles

Posts Tagged ‘MA’

Getting Ready for the Holidays with Harvard Sweets

November 14th found us at the Harvard General Store Holiday Fair, displaying our goodies for shoppers who were looking for unique ideas for the fast-approaching season of sweet treats and gift-giving.

Among the items that drew the attention of savvy shoppers were our Thanksgiving towers of goodies, including the brightly-colored three tier “Triple Tall Fall Tower,” and the  spectacular “Sparkle Tower,” a stack of five festive boxes filled to the brim with Chocolate Fudge Brownies, Raspberry Chocolate Fudge Brownies, buttery White Chocolate Iced Snowflake Cookies, Double Chocolate Peppermint Crunch Bark, Chocolate Almond Toffee, and Cinnamon Sugar Candied Pecans.

We raffled off our Celebration Gift Basket in one of the new tray styles we now have available, as seen below:

HSB Featured on BayStateParent.com

We here at Harvard Sweet Boutique love being a part of a lively New England community that favors local products. To us, that can mean going around the block or taking a ride all the way to the end of the Mass Pike. We’re proud to have some particularly unique offerings that have been getting attention from the local press.

Bay State Parent recently featured our Back to School care packages and our Big Book of Cookie Bites in their special section “Junkdrawers” which strives to highlight the products, people and places of Massachusetts.

Do you use nuts in your products?

Yes! Great nuts. All our nuts are from local purveyor Arcade Snacks, a family-owned company based in Massachusetts since 1986. Arcade began in of the basement of the family’s home in Acton, MA, where they roasted cashews that were sold in Boston’s Logan Airport. Over twenty years later, the product line has expanded to include custom-roasted nuts, dried fruits and snack mixes using the highest-quality ingredients from around the world. There is an Arcade Nuts retail outlet near their newly renovated roasting center in Auburn, MA, and the accompanying wholesale division serves hotels, restaurants, bakeries, confectioners and retailers all across the country.

Arcade’s roasted, unsalted, unblanched almonds are used in Harvard Sweet Boutique toffees, while their roasted, unsalted macadamia nuts are used in our chocolate glazed macadamia caramel shortbread bars and our white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.

While we’re simply nuts for Arcade’s nuts, we give their dried fruits plenty of love, too. The plump, red dried cranberries are featured in our White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies (also known as “Coco Crans”), their crystallized ginger shows up in huge, sweet, chewy chunks in our Ginger Crack Cookies, and their tasty raisins make an appearance in our Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.

In an entirely different category are Sue George’s favorites (not for baking, just for eating!). First are Arcade’s Chocolate Malted Milk Balls, with a tremendous,  thick layer of chocolate surrounding a flinty, crisp malt center. Also worth noting is the 19th Hole Snack Mix, which includes Honey Roast Sesame Chips, Honey Roast Peanuts, Cajun Corn Sticks, Oriental Rice Crackers, Unblanched Almonds and Wasabi Peas. Sue claims the honey roast sesame chips to be “out of this world,” and whenever a bowl of the snack mix gets poured in the George household, Sue and her daughter Katrina fight over the honey roast peanuts.

Arcade’s retail location can be found at 205 Southbridge Street, in Auburn, MA, and can be reached by telephone at 508-832-6300.

Odyssey Cruises of Boston & HSB Team Up for Special Events

Sue George of Harvard Sweet Boutique was recently seen in downtown Boston, aboard the Odyssey cruise ship, at Rowes Wharf, where she was showcasing her beautifully packaged favors, displayed in several eye-catching centerpieces. The pieces were on view for local event planners, who were visiting the harbor to learn about hosting their events on board the ship.

George, who had previously partnered with the the luxury cruise ship to offer a special online promotion, was pleased to accept an invitation from the Odyssey to join them for the event, saying “Folks really seemed to enjoy the displays. There’s a lot of interest in using unique approaches to make a special event sparkle. And when people hear how much the centerpieces can help them save over floral centerpieces, their eyes just light up.”

If you are planning to host a special occasion on the Odyssey, you can ask your Event Consultant about using Harvard Sweet Boutique centerpieces, or you can contact Sue George directly at (800) 5-SWEETS.

The Harvard Farmers’ Market Needs Your Vote!

Harvard, MA is a fantastic place to live and work. Our favorite time of year is the summer, when everything is blooming, and folks are outdoors enjoying each other’s company. Nowhere is that more apparent than at the Harvard Farmer’s Market, which takes place every Saturday from 9-1 at the Harvard Elementary School.

As a proud, season-long vendor at the Market this year, Harvard Sweet Boutique has the luck to spend lovely summer mornings sharing space with the organic produce, grain-fed beef, herbs, cut flowers, lamb, sheep and goat products, organic stone ground chocolate, rustic breads & baked goods, and jams brought by all the other vendors. Not to mention all the excited people, curious puppies and talented musicians that round out the scene each weekend. When you come visit, be sure to stop by our display for our giant Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Ginger Molasses Cookies, or Chocolate Almond Toffee.

This year a special opportunity was presented to the Market, and we want to share the news with you. “Love Your Farmers Market,” a contest that launched on June 19, right as the market season began, and sponsored by Care2.com and LocalHarvest.org, was organized to raise awareness of local foods, family farms, and community farmers markets. The contest will reward America’s favorite farmers market–determined through an online vote–with a $5,000 gift. Voting is free and everyone can help with the click of a mouse.

“People across the country are rediscovering the benefits of local food,” said Erin Barnett, Director of LocalHarvest.org. “Not only is the food at your farmers market fresher, tastier, and better for the environment, it’s also good for your local economy. By supporting farmers markets, we support family farmers and help them stay in business.

That’s something we love to get behind. We hope you will too. Cast your vote for Harvard Farmer’s Market today! The earlier you vote, the more likely they will be to win a gift of some sort (in addition to the final, $5000 gift, weekly and monthly gifts will also be awarded). Contest ends Sunday, September 22.

Are you in Harvard Square?

We get this question a lot. With a name like Harvard Sweet Boutique, it’s easy for people’s minds to imagine a quaint little bakery in Harvard Square, near that Harvard that everyone knows–Harvard University, in Cambridge, MA. But our little operation is based about 30 miles to the west of THAT Harvard, in a town called Harvard, MA. It’s a small community with a general store, a town common, and our very own local newspaper, the Harvard Press. We’re known for the apple orchards that dot our rolling hills, and for Bare Hill Pond, which is a welcoming place to relax on a blanket with book (and a few cookies).

Our cookie business is run entirely online–there is no storefront bakery in either Harvard, MA or Harvard Square. However, if you’re itching to get your hands on a few cookies or brownies today, you can also purchase our freshly baked sweets in some of the local establishments near Harvard, MA, such as Idylwilde Farms and Johnny Appleseed Visitors Center. Be sure to tell them we sent you….