Recent Press

Sweet Profile / Candy Wrapper – Candy Industry, August 2009

As the only American producer of this European confectionery process for nearly 20 years, Duke was gradually able to expand her business regionally and then nationally. In 2002, she opened a retail store Chocolat, taking advantage of the tourists coming through Fredericksburg and increased interest in fine chocolate.

This month, the company teamed up with the Virginia Wine Board to showcase that state’s fine wines in barrel-shaped chocolates containing wine from six different vineyards and wineries that represent six Virginia wine regions.

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Texas Woman – Spring/Summer 2009

This is a woman who LOVES to see people enjoy a loving, sensual, breathtaking, one of a kind experience, when they taste her chocolates. Her Quintessential chocolates are simply the best of the best. I can assure you; Lecia Duke has definitely earned the crown of Chocolate Diva. But how did all this evolve? Is there a correlation between chocolate, creative energy, craftsmanship and love? Is there really a difference between chocolates? Oh; dear ones, I assure you …there is!

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CHOCOLATES AND COCKTAILS - DOC LAWRENCE - Atlanta’s Finest Dining, Spring Issue, 2009

Approaching her 25th year in business this April, Duke has made liquid-center chocolates with over 150 storied beverages including legends like Frangelico, Amaretto, Crown Royal, Crème de Menthe, Hennessy Cognac, various Kentucky Bourbons, Tequila, and Tennessee Whiskey plus wines of the world including Champagne, Bordeaux, Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Port. Her specialty is custom-made spirits and wine liquid center chocolates, making this perhaps the only company in the American marketplace with such capability. Her recent appearance at the National Candy Show in Atlantic City stirred enough buzz to attract producers from the Food Network.

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LOVE, CHOCOLATES AND JACK – SEASIDE LIFESTYLES - DOC LAWRENCE – Jan 30, 2009

Her chocolates are arguably a confectioner’s miracle. “Everything is made with love,” says Duke. “This is a happy place to work, and since everything is handmade, there is a personal connection with those who get to enjoy the chocolates. Everything,” she adds, “Has to be beautiful,” a reference to the hands-on process and the original design employed for gift boxes. “I knew that being a architect would be handy someday,” she says laughing, “If everything isn’t beautiful, it doesn’t leave the store.”

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QUINTESSENTIAL CHOCOLATES INTRODUCES TWO NEW FLAVORS – DOC LAWRENCE - Press Release, 2009

Food journalist Doc Lawrence, a highly regarded veteran gourmet products critic and former chairman of the Food and Beverage Sections of the Public Relations Society of America previewed Quintessential’s latest chocolates. Mr. Lawrence described the new chocolates as “almost divinely inspired, true culinary art works advancing the quest to find cutting-edge taste thrills that until now have only been in my wildest dreams.” Lawrence, who is also Director of Wine for the International Food and Wine Travel Writer’s Association, added that he has long been a fan of Ms. Duke’s chocolates. “I confess bias in favor of these delights,” Lawrence said, “and I have been to the production headquarters and written about the process and the outstanding product. I can state without qualification that these chocolates are a stand-alone gourmet product in the United States.”

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LUSCIOUS EUROPEAN CHOCOLATES – TWITTER.COM/OFFBEATTRAVEL 2009

The espresso Liquid Praline from Chocolat was divine. The rich luscious chocolate with just the right sweetness had given way to an explosion of intense coffee. Savoring the flavors brought a grin of delight.

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EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK, THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY, A FOOD AND WINE LOVER’S PARADISE, Terry Thompson-Anderson

After apprenticing under a Swiss chocolatier to learn how to make chocolates with liquid centers, Lecia founded Quintessential Chocolates in 1984. Her company became the sole U.S. producer of chocolates made with the fine confectionary process known as the Liquid Moisture Barrier Technique.

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CHOCOLATE MEETS BOOZE; PALATES REJOICE - EDIBLE AUSTIN – Summer, 2007

Duke’s memories spurred her to begin making large-scale chocolates for corporate promotions in the shape of whatever customers wanted: buildings, cars, once even a chocolate LP for the famous Country-western singing family, the Judds. When a client asked her to make Jack Daniels-filled chocolates, Duke apprenticed with a Swiss master chocolatier to learn the technique. The resulting confections, “super-saturated with Jack Daniels,” she remembers were a revelation.

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MAKE ROOM FOR TEXAS CHOCOLATES – TEXAS HIGHWAYS MAGAZINE – Feb, 2007

Lecia’s specialty – European-style liquid-center chocolates – has been bringing smiles to people’s faces for more than two decades. A former architect and graphic designer, she founded Quintessential Chocolates in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1984, after apprenticing under a Swiss master-chocolatier to learn the almost-lost confectionery art form known as liqueur praline (sugar crust). Now, at Chocolat, you can find chocolates with a range of liquid centers, including premium spirits, wine, and non alcohol flavors like Southern pecan coffee and black cherry nectar.

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CHOCOLAT – COUNTRY LIFESTYLE – PAULETTE DININNY – Country Lifestyles Magazine, Oct/Nov 2005

The shop called Chocolat is about as close to chocolate heaven as you can get. Texans should rightfully add the Fredericksburg confectionery to the list of state superlatives.

Duke’s specialty is the spirited liquor, liqueur and wine-filled dark chocolates made in the centuries-old European style. Flavors are neither injected nor are they anything like the syrupy cherry-filled, overly sweet candies. Among the other confections also made fresh each day are non-alcohol chocolates filled with Taste of Old San Antonio coffee, pecan flavored coffee or espresso and fruit nectars.

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VOCATION VACATIONS – www.vocationvactions.com/DreamJobHolidays/chocolate.php - Oct 2005

How would you like to make consumable art that feeds the soul? Or maybe the movie “Chocolat” inspires you to move to an enchanted small town bringing your consumable art to the locals? Meet Lecia Duke – a real-life chocolatier who has seen her art inspire love, tolerance and change – one truffle at a time!

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RED HAT SOCIETY – RED HAT SOCIETY MAGAZINE - July/Aug 2005

If you think you know what you’re getting into when you bite into a piece of chocolate, a stop a Chocolat might just teach you something. Popping the candy in your mouth, the experience is at first like any other-rich, delicious chocolate slowly coating your taste buds. But bite down, and suddenly, the explosion hits: a sweet crunch of crystallized sugar, followed by a rush of warm liquid-liquor, the flavors combine and the concoction makes its way to your tummy, you realize that chocolate as you know it has changed-for the better.

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TREAT YOURSELF TO QUINTESSENTIAL CHOCOLATES ; SUITE 101 ENTER CURIOUS – © Eve Carr

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/gourmet_passport/115406

Dinner was a gourmet treat, and you don't want it to end. For dessert you're thinking of serving liqueurs and luscious fruit nectars or perhaps gourmet chocolates. Which shall it be?

If you serve Quintessential Chocolates, you don't have to choose--you can have both. Since 1984, entrepreneur Lecia Duke of Fredericksburg, Texas, has been creating chocolate delicacies that literally burst with luscious
liquid flavor inside your mouth.

These are not your average liquid-injected chocolates. Instead, she produces this European style confection that separates the liquid from the chocolate with a delicate sugar crystal moisture barrier. This prevents the
chocolate from absorbing any alcohol or liquid and allows the thinnest possible chocolate shell. That means that there's more room for liquid, so you really get enough to let you savor the delicious flavor.

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Past Press

• QUINTESSENTIAL CHOCOLATES, INC. – DISCOVER TEXAS HILL COUNTRY – May/June 2004
  Duke uses her variation of the Swiss technique to handcraft each batch of her chocolates. She designed and built some of the equipment used to create her unique candies. The liquid center is made first when liquor is cast into cornstarch indentions which then form delicate sugar crystalline shells. It takes five days for the sugar to encapsulate the balance of the liquid. The liquid capsules are then covered with the rich, dark chocolate.
  
• SWEET SUCCESS – COUGAR ENTREPRENEURS HOUSTON ALUMLINE – Leslie Limbo
  For the past 20 years Duke has created liqueur praline (thin shelled chocolates filled with liquors such as Cutty Sark Whiskey, Sam Hoston Bourbon, French cognac, or cabernet sauvignon, which she sells worldwide through her store “Chocolat” in Fredericksburg Texas.
  
• ENTREPRENURIAL SPIRIT AWARD EARNED – FREDERICKSBURG STANDARD RADIO POST Nov 14, 2001
  Lecia Duke, chief executive officer of the Fredericksburg based Quintessential Chocolates, earned the “Innovator” honor during the 2001 Entrepreneurial Spirit Awards ceremony for the National Association of Women in Business Owners held Nov. 2 in San Antonio.
  According to NAWBO information, the Entrepreneurial Spirit Award “honors women who exemplify leadership, are visionaries in their field, serve their community, deliver exceptional customer service, are pioneers of innovation, are advocates for women’s business, through programs and opportunities they provide.”
  
• Chocolat was privileged to host world class chocolatier and Executive Pastry Chef Vincent Pilon from the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas, last November 2006, as he created a chocolate sculpture for a "Fantasy Wedding" held in Fredericksburg, Texas. This sculpture can be seen on the Food Network's "Fantasy Weddings" episode, scheduled to air during the last week of April, featuring Food Challenge host Chef Keegan Gerhard's own wedding.
• "If you think you know what you're getting into when you bite into a piece of chocolate, a stop at Chocolat might just teach you something. Popping the candy in your mouth, the experience is at first like any other -- rich, delicious chocolate slowly coating your taste buds. But bite down, and suddenly, the explosion hits: a sweet crunch of crystallized sugar, followed by the rush of warm liquid - liquor, wine, coffee, or fruit nectar, depending on your pick. As the flavors combine and the concoction makes its way to your tummy, you realize that chocolate as you know it has changed -- for the better." ~ Red Hat Society Lifestyle, July 2005
  
  
• "Whether you live in Fredericksburg or just passing through look for the large Chocolat sign hanging outside Duke's cozy shop. She welcomes visitors who stop in and sample her delicate and delicious dark chocolate treats. Judging by the smiles on the faces of the folks who stop into the shop and partake of her chocolates, Lecia Duke has acomplished her goal of creating something that brings pleasure to others." ~ Discover the Texas Hill Country Magazine