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Chocolate Truffles By Azurelise

Writing "About Azurelise", I realized the extent to which experiences I had as a child probably, subconsciously at least, determined my decision to embark on a career as a businessman who makes and sells chocolate truffles.  For a long while I considered myself half-insane, at best, for making that decision because I considered myself completely unprepared. I no longer do. To the contrary, I am convinced Mrs. Ethel Hartman taught me everything I need to know about making and selling Azurelise chocolate truffles in the early 1950's. 

Mrs. Hartman. with her husband Ray, owned and operated Ray's Fruit Baskets on 16th and West Walnut Street in Milwaukee. The Hartmans, who were German immigrants, lived in the flat above their shop and rented the house behind it to my family. Mrs. Hartman made chocolate truffles for Ray's and would share them with me whenever - it seemed - she saw me. 

Sometimes Mrs. Hartman would ask me "Reginald, whose chocolate truffles are your favorite chocolate truffles above all others?"  She never asked me what the "best" chocolate truffles were, only what my favorite chocolate truffles were. I would tell her the truth: "Yours are, Mrs. Hartman."  My proof for this was that, from time to time, Mrs. Hartman would offer me other chocolate truffles and, in some way or another, they always disappointed me and I would never finish eating them. By doing this Mrs. Hartman instilled in my uncorrupted palate a very clear idea of what chocolate truffles ought to taste like for me. That's all I really needed to know about making Azurelise chocolate truffles. 

When I decided to start a chocolate truffle company in 2002, my very vivid memories of Mrs. Hartman, her chocolate truffles and The Golden Rule guided me to a simple core resolution: "I will not put a chocolate truffle on the market unless I can honestly say it is my favorite above all others."  I was confident that if I were serious enough I could make a chocolate truffle that not only was my favorite but also the favorite of enough other people to make my chocolate truffle business a success..