I wish raspberries were my birthstone....

From Miette

The dainty, bejeweled raspberry tartlettes are here!
Delicate little pastry tart shells are filled with rose-geranium pastry cream, and topped with the freshest-possible raspberries from the Ferry Building Farmers' Markets!

Raspberry Tartlettes
Price: $5
Availability: Ferry Building only; available for pick-up at other locations by Special-Order
Notes: Must be refrigerated!

Pride & Buttercream

From Miette

The Ferry Building shopgirls 'stached up in honor of San Francisco's LGBT Pride Celebration! Gorgeous, don't you think? You make us proud, girls!

Oh My Freaking Goodness.

Here at Miette, we find candy very exciting. But this is almost too much. To express our enthusiasm, we'll need italics & pom pons & a whole new form of punctuation...

From Miette

...an exclamation point covered in sprinkles.

The Go-Max-Go bars have arrived! These are brilliant, delicious, all-natural, veganized versions of classic candy bars. Eeeeee!

The Twilight, above, contains caramel & nougat, covered in rice-milk chocolate. This was the first bar we were able to try, and we flipped out. But there was so much fun to follow...

From Miette

Jokerz! Chock-full of nougat, caramel, & peanuts, and covered in creamy rice-milk chocolate. We love the saltiness & roastiness of the peanuts, and how perfectly they contrast with the sweet elements. One (of a million) great thing about these bars is that they are nice & sweet like you want a candy bar to be, but not too sweet! The elusive perfect point of sweetness!

From Miette

None of us expected to fall for the Buccaneer. Nougat? Meh. In candy bars it's usually spongey & eggy & mysterious. But today we understand nougat. It's gooey & sweet & simply lovely.

From Miette

And oh, the Mahalo. I've been eating two a day. And a sensible dinner! Creamy, gorgeous coconut center topped with three roasted almonds, wrapped in rice-milk chocolate. I was eating a Mahalo while I took this photo. How can you resist that pretty pretty wrapper?

In conclusion! Be very, very excited. Our expert non-vegan testers verified that these are better than the traditional versions, and they are certainly better than the way I remember the candy bars of my youth! We love love love that they're vegan, but the fact that they don't contain any artificial ingredients!!!! Artificially-flavored treats always leave you feeling like, "Um, did I eat that? I think I tasted it, & maybe I enjoyed it...". But when you eat one of these bars, you feel like, "Yeah! I just ate a candy bar! Let's ride our bikes to the pool! Yay for fun!"

Go, Max, Go Vegan Candy Bars
Price: $3/each
Availability: Only at Octavia (for now!)

*Update 8.6.09 We are SOLD OUT of Go Max Go bars, but there are more on the way! We will let y'all know when we have more!

*Update 8.20.09 They are back in! (Um, except for the Mahalo which is already sold out!)

A Sweet, Sweet, Bride-To-Be

Last week Miette Confiserie hosted our first-ever Candy Tasting Party! It was awesome! Even though I was super-nervous & clumsy!

The party was created for a lovely bride-to-be and 6 of her delightful friends. They listened to me ramble about the history, chemistry, and all-around fun of candy for an hour: any excuse to talk about candy!
We started with sugar at it's purest with Grapefruit Cotton Candy, and explored other "sugary" candy options: Italian Fruit Fondants, French Violet Hard-candies, "Humbugs", and Fancy Lemon Marshmallows!
Now, if you caramelize that sugar, you get...caramels! A Miette staple! Salted butter caramels from France! Salted butter caramels from Oakland! Maple-honey caramels from San Francisco! Salted Carambars! The sugar is kickin in!
Then we took it down a notch for some serious licorice investigation. Even the licorice-non-enthusiasts loved the marshmallowy Griotten, but the ammonia-intense Riksen were universally NOT a hit. No argument here! Good thing there's minty Schoolchalk to cleanse the palate, and Dark-Chocolate Licorice Lentils to lead us on to....

...Chocolate! But I forgot to take a photo before I hacked the bars to bits! Just trust that they were gorgeous & chocolatey & added a little caffeine to our sugar-fest.

The ladies performed some heroic feats of candy-eating. I was seriously impressed, and I eat candy for a living! Thank you, everybody! I hope you have recovered from the sugar crash!

Candy-Tasting Party!
Availability: Octavia
Please email for details: tess@miette.com

When in Doubt...

From Miette

...just run a picture of a pretty girl with a chocolate moustache. A blogging tip from Miette to you!

Cakey Clouds, Italian Strawberries

From Miette

Every summer, just in time for strawberry season, we make Lemon Cloud Cake. Like a cross between angel food cake & lemon custard, it goes perfectly with macerated strawberries & fresh whipped cream. Or, you can wear it like a bracelet & snack on it all day!

Price: $12
Availability: Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut on Weekends

P.S. Those little strawberries are actually milk chocolate with creamy centers & bits of freeze-dried strawberry!
Price: 75cents
Availability: Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut

Miette Loves Dads, & Dads Love...

...Non-Pareils! If you're taking a dad to the movies this Father's Day, sneak him in a bag of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Non-Pareils. They're made here in San Francisco by E.Guittard, and are the best combination of chocolate & sprinkles we've ever found.
Price $7.50 per bag
Available: Octavia, Chestnut
Notes: Vegan
...Licorice Pipes! They just make a man look dignified. Perfect along with a first-edition book, and perhaps some elbow patches.
Price: $1.50
Availability: Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut
...Poco Dolce Tiles! We love these little dark chocolate & sea salt squares for lots of reasons (their deliciousness, the awesomeness of the creator Kathy who hand-delivers our orders) but we especially love the elegant & somewhat masculine packaging.
Price: Single Tile $2, Box of 8 $18, Box of 16 $35
Availability: Octavia & Chestnut
Notes: Available flavors vary by day!
...Sardines! Dads love sardines, they just do. And if the dad in your life doesn't eat fish, don't worry! These silvery babies are milk & dark chocolate, and the dark sardines are vegan!
Price: $1.50
Availability: Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut
...Sardine Tins? Seriously, what could be better!
Price: $14 per tin
Availability: Ferry Building, Octavia, Chestnut
Notes: Tin is milk chocolate only.

We have lots & lots more fun stuff for dad-types, including moustaches (see below)!