Northshore Magazine

November 2014

Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.

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retail partnerships, and plenty of plans for future growth. "It was an overnight success," Pous- sard says, though she was a bit surprised at how quickly her candies caught on. For as long as Poussard can remem- ber, her entire French-Canadian family has gathered every Christmas to make mountains of these caramels destined for holiday gifts. Traditionally, at these events, the group has made just two varie- ties of caramel: vanilla and walnut. Caramels de Bouchard, however, offers up some modern twists on the family clas- sics. Poussard has concocted more than a dozen flavors including matcha green tea, cashew with chocolate fleur de sel, and eggnog. Her personal favorite flavor—and one of the biggest sellers—is My Cherry Amour, a chewy caramel studded with tart dried cherries. And new flavors are always in the works; right now Poussard is tinker- ing with lavender and curry versions. Poussard refuses to use artificial fla- vors in her caramel. She uses vanilla beans to make her own extract and mixes actual Sweets ne 58 nshoremag.com November 2014 Grab and Go Eat Cake! is one of two retail suppliers of the caramels. Below, Lauren Poussard online. These days, she works out of the kitchen at Newburyport's Eat Cake!, which recently became one of the first two retail outlets to sell Caramels de Bouchard (the other is Goodies Ice Cream in Danvers). Each six-pound batch yields about 500 pieces of candy and takes two hours to make. Poussard—still protecting the secret recipe—is the only one who makes the candy, though she hires help to cut and package the finished product. As the caramel thickens and darkens, a buttery, toasty smell suffuses the air in the kitchen. Ingredients are blended in at three different stages, and the caramel must be simmered at precise tempera- tures after each addition. Poussard must stir the mixture constantly throughout the entire process. "I find this incredibly therapeutic," she says, swirling a wooden spoon through a pot of thick, bubbling caramel. "It smells good, it feels good, it tastes good." And what does Poussard's mother think of the company's sweet success? "She loves it, of course, because it was her idea," Poussard says. "She says, 'I told you so.' Yes, mom. You were right." caramelsdebouchard.com pumpkin into the pumpkin spice flavor. "One of my rules is that it has to be real," she says. The first caramels were cooked in Poussard's home and sold exclusively

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