FRAMINGHAM — Chocolate is a crystalline product, made from roasted cacao seeds. It’s often temperamental to work with and requires exacting measurements to create the perfect shine and snap.
That’s according to Jules Remenar, owner of Dulce D Leche in Framingham and Ashland. He’s a foodie with a Ph.D. in chemistry and materials science who spent about 20 years in pharmaceuticals — crystal engineering, formulating compounds and drug discovery are all skills that have come in handy while working with chocolate.
Especially recently.
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As with many other industries today, supply-chain issues have affected local chocolatiers. Dulce D Leche also offers baked goods, so the price of butter and eggs affects the business as well.
Remenar said butter has risen from $75 to $80 per case to $150 to $160. The chocolate he typically uses previously set him back $260 to $280 a case, but now it rarely costs less than $310 — and a case of chocolate can go as high as $350.
He said he’s been careful not to scare away customers by changing prices too quickly.
“I’m hoping we don’t have to increase any more,” Remenar said. “We basically adjust the prices as slowly as we can, just to have enough to pay our bills and not really flourish.”
And that’s just if the staff can source the ingredients they’re accustomed to.
Switching products isn’t often an easy swap: the wrong cocoa butter and sugar content could spell disaster for carefully calculated flavor profiles — a ganache that is too firm, a chocolate mousse that is not firm enough, Remenar said.
“That’s where the chemistry comes in handy,” he said. “Before, my blends might have had two ingredients to get a unique profile — now they might have four ingredients to get the same profile and all those ingredients are more expensive than what it used to be.”
Remenar has turned to spreadsheets, rewriting recipes and adding additional ingredients to keep the fat, sugar and cocoa content the same. Then staff need to get used to the new recipes — and switch back to the original when and if ingredients come back in stock.
Pam Griffin, owner of Chocolate Therapy in Framingham, said her business has had to make do without sacrificing quality. But it’s not just chocolate products that may be more expensive and harder to come by. The four-piece boxes they’ve been using were backordered for months.
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“Hopefully, there’s an alternative that you can rely on — but it gets really hectic in here,” she said. “Unless you’ve owned a business or experienced it, it’s just hard to explain to people: the highs, the lows, the in-betweens … you just have to keep moving.”
Griffin said she didn’t need to adjust her recipes in the same way Remenar has, but she had to buy more expensive products because more affordable go-tos are out of stock.
During her interview with the Daily News, she was frequently knocking on wood for generally good fortune — in between almost constantly stirring a batch of caramel cooking on an induction plate. It’s something she does at least once a day, usually more around the holidays. She’s in the market for a caramel cooker, but a new machine would cost about $10,000.
Her other equipment — knock on wood — is working fine.
The upcoming months are going to be busy — between host gifts for Thanksgiving, chocolate at Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter and Mother’s Day — September and October are traditionally the calm before the storm.
But that also means businesses have difficult decisions to make: Remenar said one of the biggest challenges facing him this holiday season is whether to stock up now or risk running out of key ingredients later.
“The question is whether to take out a loan or accept some debts to buy surplus butter and chocolate to have in your fridge so that you don’t run out when you need it or try to buy just in time like most businesses do,” he said. “That’s kind of the trade-off — the guessing game — that we all play right now.”
Griffin agreed that the unpredictability is particularly difficult: she doesn’t know how busy the upcoming months are going to be. Many of her customers shop online, particularly after Chocolate Therapy was featured on “Good Morning America” last year.
Chocolate Therapy also offers virtual tasting classes for parties and companies and Griffin is preparing a host of unique flavors for the holidays and will even have hot chocolate bombs in limited supply.
“Massachusetts, they’re very supportive of local, and I just find that amazing,” Griffin said. “That’s been a godsend.”
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Ultimately, Remenar urged customers to give the shop a heads-up for baked goods or chocolates.
“Buy local, order in advance — just so we have an idea of what’s coming,” he said. “Things are expensive, but nobody is gouging. At least, nobody I know is gouging. People are really trying to be as respectful of the customers’ budgets while being able to pay the bills.”
Lillian Eden can be reached at 617-459-6409 or leden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @LillianWEden.