This is a re-posting of an article that appeared at Halloween time in 2013; Happy Halloween!
Vermont is awash with candy possibilities for Halloween. It doesn’t take much planning to find some local treats, from pumpkin cupcakes to maple candies to fine chocolates. But, to focus on the candy is to forget an important part of food on Halloween – the journey to find it. Now, the traditional approach would be to walk through the neighboorhood knocking on doors. At DigInVT, we offer tools for planning grander travels, entire trails of food exploration. . .what should our Halloween trail look like?
Boston-based author Steve Almond set the standard for traveling in search of candy in his 2004 book, Candyfreak, which tracks his tour of regional candybar producers. Vermont’s own Lake Champlain Chocolates gets a chapter, in which Steve describes their 5 Star Bars in ecstatic terms not suitable for a family oriented blog. He wasn’t overstating the pleasure of a 5 Star Bar by much, though.
How about a tour of Vermont candymakers who bring in global tastes? It’s like a tour of the world. There is the goat’s milk caramel at Fat Toad Farm in Brookfield that follows the Mexican cajeta tradition. Then there’s My Brigadeiro in Norwich with Brazilian sweets. Or the exotic spice blends of a chocolatier like Black Flower Chocolate in Charlotte, which uses ingredients such as cardamom, curry, Turkish mulberry, green tea, rosehips and Mayan spice.
And of course Vermont’s classic maple sugar candies, available from sugar makers around the state. Want to make your own? Here Vermonter Dan Harlow shows Martha Stewart how it’s done.
You can also create your own pairing trail. The Vermont Grape & Wine Council has a spring Wine & Chocolate weekend, but why wait? Search for Wineries & Distilleries on our Places page to see open hours, and then check out the confectioners and bakers nearby.
We’re just scratching the surface here. If you put together a Halloween Trail, where would you go? Collect your places on our site, and build your own trail. When you’ve selecting a list of places, you’ll see the site gives you an option to submit it for consideration as an official DigInVT Trail!
Chocolates from Daily Chocolate in Vergennes
Source: Dig in VT Trails