A chocolate experience

Do you remember as a child standing mesmerised in front of a candy machine watching whirls of sticky pink candy slowly form around a stick!! You could not wait to sink your lips into the gooey candy. Or remember, the sweet memories of taking a scrumptious lick from the home-made chocolate cake batter before mom placed it in the oven?

It's these special magical moments in one's childhood which the American chocolate company, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory strives to recreate in their shop at the Al Muhairy Centre in Abu Dhabi. In one section of this recently-opened outlet, you can come across a French-trained chef, Fadi Katkhda stirring up assorted chocolate goodies in a large-sized, copper vessel placed over a temperature controlled stove.

You could easily be in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory (remember the movie?) and actually get a peek at how chocolates are made. You can probably catch him spreading thick chocolate fudge on the table with the biggest kitchen spade you have ever seen or stirring the ingredients for caramel chocolate with a huge ladle.

Or just maybe, chef Fadi might let you dip an apple into the caramel chocolate and then smear the apple bottom with nuts!
This kind of interactive in-store cooking is the most unique aspect of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Points out Sanjay Duggal, Al Muhairy Group's projects manager, "No doubt, this in-store concept is a major marketing tool for the rest of our store but, it's also about giving the experience of smell and touch to eating chocolates. We want people tucking into a candy bar or a caramelised apple to have a complete experience.''

So children or adults visiting the store can expect to see and even participate in caramelised popcorn being made or watch the chef coat a round cookie with liquid chocolate rolling out of the enrober machine. The concept is all about making eating chocolates more fun and exciting. For example, during Chocoholics, a recent promotional evening held in the Rocky Mountain outlet, the women gathered around the chef's corner going wild writing their names in chocolate.

Bright red strawberry dipped in caramel, sweet ginger in chocolate, cookies dipped in chocolate or yummy old-fashioned fudge, chocolate pretzels, tiger butter chocolate (which is basically peanut butter and white chocolate in the shape of a tiger), M&M's in chocolate, sugar-free chocolate dips and much more are made right there at the store.

Presently, the Rocky Mountain chocolate shop store just stocks the popular, rocky pop (caramelised nut popcorn) and chocolate dipped cookies, while more perishable fruit items like strawberry dips is made on and off, explains Fadi.

Conjuring up interesting chocolate combinations forms just 20 per cent of Rocky Mountain chocolates. The shop concentrates on selling different varieties of chocolates, be it English toffee, chocolate clusters, snowball truffles, raspberry chocolate, milk chocolate, peanut butter buckets or a range of smaller chocolates.

The shop's wooden decor, along with a cart stacked with chocolates parked outside the shop and a large-sized teddy bear, their mascot Truffles (who's incidentally up for grabs in a raffle held by the company every 15 days for customers who spend more than Dhs 40) is all aimed at being warm and friendly!

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory was founded in 1981 in Durango, Colorado. The philosophy behind the shop was to recapture the charm of a Victorian candy store... and as their reputation for handmade fudge grew, they became America's top confectionery store with over 250 stores in USA. The chocolate wave spread to Canada, and now it's the turn of the Gulf to get a taste of the all-American dream.