Chocolate Candy Eglė – about pink cocoa beans and the “Chocolate” hostel established in an old workshop | Lifetime

It started with huge figures of Santa Claus.

When asked why he decided to start a chocolate delicacy business, E. Ilgauskaitė-Yildirim, founder of the Saldita company, said that this idea did not come out of nowhere.

The beginning was determined by the fact that Eglė’s father worked for a long time in the candy factory “Rūta”, as an engineer, then as a technical director, and even later he became one of the owners of “Naujoji Rūta” . Traveling abroad contributed to the changes in the cessation of mass production and the start of the production of artisan chocolates.

“When we started the business, we had assembled a team of ten people. We produce more specialized products for supermarkets: approaching Christmas – hollow figures of Santa Claus, Valentine’s Day – hearts, etc. We also try to make sweets, but not real chocolate. More than 20 years ago no one appreciated good chocolate, there were all kinds of glazes and chocolate substitutes.

Our entire business is built on unconventional things.

Seven years later, we got tired of mass production: there was complex and very intense competition, so we gradually stopped cooperating with supermarkets, mass production, abandoned poor putty and started working only with Belgian raw materials. This idea, to participate in the production of artisanal chocolate sweets, chocolate desserts like fondue, was born after traveling abroad: Belgium and the Netherlands.

So we open a small café in the same premises as the old workshop, where we sell all of our products, just outside the wall, we produce it and organize educational programs – from bachelorette parties to chocolate birthdays, through which people can produce for herself ”, said the interlocutor.

It is worth mentioning that the place where Egle’s business operates is an old workshop: a century ago, scones and cookies were baked here.

“Then the workshop was sold at auction, during the Soviet era there was a” Shatrija “confectionery, then we baked twigs, cakes and finally we bought this place, we restored it to what it was a hundred years ago,” said the interlocutor.

Sophisticated candy fillings and chocolate piñatas

Today, all the company’s products are made by three people: Eglė and her husband Canu (he came to Lithuania to live from Istanbul) and another employee.

When asked if she had graduated from any food-related specialty, the interviewee said that it was all due to internships and training.

“I graduated from Kaunas University of Technology with business administration, it had nothing to do with food, everything was practical, tests, I participated in trainings organized by suppliers for many years, I do internships with them,” said Eglė, adding that this family business is very useful and complete. studies, because she handles everything from product ordering, production to sales and marketing, with her husband.

The family buys chocolate for sweets from suppliers in Belgium, and they make the fillings themselves. Egle emphasized that he only makes artisan sweets and only real chocolate. Their range includes blue cheese candies, gold champagne truffles, chilli candies (hot peppers), which have been loved by customers for a decade.

“We also make sweets with mold cheese and dried tomatoes, powdered green tea, and freeze-dried powdered drinks like wine. We buy these products from various suppliers abroad, ”said the interviewee.

In addition to handmade sweets, non-traditional cakes were started last year, made from numbers and letters, and the top of the cakes is decorated with homemade chocolate figurines, handmade chocolate sweets.

Eglė also includes chocolate piñata among its non-traditional products. “We Mexicans are whipping piñatas full of candies on birthdays, we can whisk chocolate with us,” said the interlocutor, laughing, adding: “All our business is based on unconventional things.”

How to distinguish chocolate and its 5 types.

The chocolate candy maker said that when creating products, they have to do a lot of maneuvering, to pay more attention to customers’ wishes, not their own.

“We don’t like it sweetly, but I’ve noticed that people really like it. With our fondue, we don’t make it with dark chocolate, but with dark chocolate, which contains about 60 percent cocoa products, so in itself It’s pretty sweet, but I’ve seen more than once when people keep drinking sugar while eating this fondue.

Children love milk and white chocolate. Myself, only once, but I can’t offer my taste to people, I have to maneuver. And there are really cases where you produce, you are happy, it looks so delicious, so beautifully decorated, but it’s not worth it, ”said E.Ilgauskaitė-Yildirim about the behind-the-scenes work.

When asked how white chocolate should be treated, because it is often said to be no longer chocolate, Egle explained how one chocolate differs from another:

“White is also chocolate, only cocoa powder is not added to it, so as not to give color, but a lot of cocoa butter is added. They are all chocolates that contain cocoa butter. Only both cocoa butter and cocoa powder They are dominated by different percentages: white chocolate contains only 25%, milk – 35%, dark – up to 65% and bitter can contain up to 96% cocoa products.

Non-chocolate is a product in which producers do not add cocoa butter but use vegetable fat.

Although blank at least, more sugar and milk are added to it, but it’s still chocolate. The most useful, of course, bitter, because it contains the least amount of sugar and additives.

Non-chocolate is a product in which the producers do not add cocoa butter, but instead use vegetable fats, usually palm oil. So that when buying chocolate (mosaic) it is easy to distinguish, just read the composition. True, if you buy chocolate sweets and contain vegetable fat, do not be intimidated, because vegetable fat is used for fillings and is indicated without excretion, in the total composition. They don’t have to be when you buy a candy bar. “

Speaking of the types of chocolate, the interviewee mentioned when there are now four, as usual, instead of five:

“There has always been white, milky, dark and bitter chocolate, and two years ago the fifth type was officially recognized: Ruby (pink). It is possible to think that it is painted, but in fact the cultivation of pink beans has begun, the fact that they are freshly bred. It’s like rubbing brown powder from ordinary cocoa beans, it’s like rubbing pink from these cocoa beans. “

Tourists are attracted to “chocolate” lodging house

The smell of chocolate predominates not only in the “Chocolate” of the family, but also in the established nearby hostelyje. It is not surprising that it has become a demand among tourists: they are attracted to “chocolate”. hostel idea, and the guests who arrive are certainly presented with chocolate.

“Foreign hosteliai very popular, I travel and use them myself. I like this type of accommodation, I like meeting new people, I don’t like hotels.

Over time, this place of ours has become attractive: just minutes from Kaunas Castle, we decided that it would be too luxurious to use all the facilities for production only, so we decided to include tourism. We rebuilt, three rooms with bunk beds came out, we can accommodate about ten people.

We call it the “chocolate lodge” hosteliu) because it is outside the wall of our workshop. We treat the guests with chocolates, the smell of chocolate everywhere, we also adapt the decoration – we name the rooms chocolate: “White”, “Dairy”, “Black”, said the interlocutor, adding that before the coronavirus pandemic it was exit. flow, still. “But we hope things pick up.”

It survives because it focuses on a specific niche

E.Ilgauskaitė-Yildirim calls this family business work-pleasure. The woman admits that it is possible to earn more by participating in mass production, the turnover is not high and the competition is huge.

“I would say that competition has become like this because in our country – few people, affordability – low and the big ones do the same as the small ones – there is no difference. The factory produces mass production, small workshops could produce sweets. But no. With us, the factory produces both that and that: at one end of the factory there is a workshop where artisan sweets are made, at the other, mass production.

The same goes for hotels, of a higher class: they don’t buy products from small workshops, they have their own pastry chef who does everything on site.

And we don’t have a coffee culture yet, because there are still cases where people who come to the cafe bring their own water, order coffee, but take out their own cookies. Although I can be glad of the young, the older people still tend to.

The competition has become like this because in our country – few people, affordability – the low and the big do the same as the little ones.

So it is very difficult to survive. But we try, with new ideas, in cooperation with old partners, we do a lot of business orders, we offer not only educational programs, but also entertainment: we bake Belgian waffles, we produce Churros (Spanish donut), vegan fondue, etc., we sell our gift vouchers in collaboration with online gift portals.

I would say that our business is sustained because we focus on a specific niche, we like unconventional things and we try not to stand still. I am observing what is happening in the world and still wondering how we could apply that here. And we don’t always do everything for the money. Because if we just looked at them, the other in our place would have been closed long ago. But it all depends on the attitude ”, Eglė finished the story with a smile on his face about his business and what inspires not to stop.