By Steve Smith / Hartford Courant
Posted on Nov 22, 2019
Patterson Family Chocolates joined the CT River Valley Chamber of Commerce and marked the occasion with a ribbon cutting, on Nov. 19.
Ed Patterson, the company’s president, said the chocolate retail business began in 2003, using its family gourmet recipe of European-style, milk, and dark chocolate truffles.
“They’re works of art,” he said. “That’s how we look at them.” Patterson said they also want to have a good footprint in the community.
The chocolate company doesn’t have a brick-and-mortar store, but bases its
operations at an office in Glastonbury, and the chocolates are only available online. Patterson explained that there is a shipping process that keeps the chocolates from melting, and they are not delivered in the summer.
“They’re all presented in cold packs and protected, and shipped out in one or two days,” he said. “We do close down right after Mother’s Day. It’s a little too warm. We don’t have non-meltable chocolates. We come back, and we say the Oct. 1 is the first day of chocolate season.”
Patterson said there are two signature lines – the House Assortment, which include sark, milk, and white truffles, and the Caramel Carousel, which includes dark, milk, and white chocolate-covered salted and unsalted caramels.
The family recipe is followed by several chocolate manufacturers, and sold via the company’s retail operation. Patterson said there may come a day, as business expands, that the company might add its own chocolate factory.
Patterson Family Chocolates also provides personalized business gifts, customizable with company logos on the boxes.
One of the company’s first clients was the Los Angeles Lakers, providing hundred of boxes for a benefit. They have also worked with NBC 10 Providence, Merrill Lynch, and many smaller businesses.
