Melted Mess (My Fault!)
So, a few weeks ago I had a brilliant plan.
At least, it had all the makings of a brilliant plan.
With snowstorms raging in the U.S. (it being the middle of winter and all), I thought it would be a perfect time to chance shipping chocolate to the tropics.
With such cold temperatures, the chocolates were sure to be fine in any delivery trucks. Shipping offices (the box passed through quite a few on its trip south) are air-conditioned. I think. Furthermore, it hadn’t been 110º Fahrenheit (43.33° C.) locally… lately. (85° maybe, but not 110°).
So, I took a chance, ordered a box of chocolates* I wanted to try, and hoped for the best.
It turns out that the chocolate must have spent a lot of time in the un-airconditioned belly of an airplane. Or perhaps on the tarmac in 85° F. weather awaiting processing? Or maybe shipping offices aren’t as air-conditioned as I thought!
As you can see, I had a little bit of a melted mess on my hands.
This shipment was an experiment, a risk I was willing to take to see what happened.
In regards to my hopes of being able to obtain non-local boxes of chocolates in the shape the manufacturer intended, the experiment pretty much failed.
In regards to the opportunity to take photos of pristine truffles, the experiment was also pretty much a failure.
However, the purchase wasn’t a total disaster. The truffles were easy to remove from the box after a few hours in the fridge, and, oh, were they fantastic! They tasted incredible, even if they didn’t look it.
So, to summarize… If you purchase chocolates online, there are a few things you might want to consider.
Like:
(a) How close you live to the source
(b) Splurging on cold packs or faster shipping
(c) Being fine with the fact that the chocolate might not be picture perfect
Until next time…
*The name of the chocolate is being withheld to protect its innocence. Neither the shipper or the chocolate company are at all responsible for the chocolate arriving in the state it did. Both strongly suggest cold packs and/or 1-day shipping. Both are just more than a little impractical (read: expensive!) for me.