Products We ♥: Sweet Angels Gourmet Fudge

IT IS SO AMAZING I ACTUALLY SHOULDN’T BE SHARING THIS….While stumbling around the Rosebank Rooftop Market one Sunday we came across a table of fudge delights that made us look at fudge in a completely new way. My favourite was Persian Rose; it tastes like normal fudge until you breath in and the fragrance of rose petals wraps around your tongue – its magical. Even if you are not a fudge lover I dare you to try it , I know it is just fudge but it will probably change your life  

We interviewed the magician behind the fudge Craig Zimmerman from Sweet Angels Gourmet Fudge:

Why did you start your business?
I had made chilli fudge some years ago and it was as a first experience astoundingly good. I somehow sensed then that this was something special. Being distracted with other things… Life I suppose… I never really carried the idea forward. Then in 2011, having a number of exhibition stands at Innibos Expo, Nelspruit, I decided to fill some spare capacity with a small fudge stand. I called in the assistance of my wonderful cousin, Sharon, to make chilli fudge and nut brittles. Well feast Mpumalanga did that year. I had always known that Chilli Fudge was something special… But it was then at Innibos that I saw it was something that deserved attention.

Where are you based?
Sweet Angels manufactures in the Weltevreden Park area but supply the fans at Hazel Food Market in Pretoria on Saturdays and at the Rosebank Rooftop Market on Sundays. We do of course supply by courier and deliver big orders for weddings etc.

What is the core focus of your business?
Mmmm… pleasure and joy. The delivery of – through creation.
Be it Sweet Angels or any other commercial initiative I design and create, none is built on the acquisition of excess money or ultimately disproportionate profit, but rather the delivery of Joy… Joy and Creation.  This means that our focus will always be on the delivery of Joy to all we deal with. Not only staff but our suppliers, our distributors, our customers… our families, ourselves... all those whose lives brush against this small company. It has to be a natural consequence that if there are constant warm and positive outcomes; Trust, confidence, innovation and energy have to convert into creation. Creation of “things” yes… jobs, buildings, products, turnover, etc. but the cycle comes back to all our lives being more fulfilled… and this has not been gained through mercenary greed expressed as profit.  No, rather any profit created now merely becomes an instrument of further growth… which is creation – This has no other option but to simply happen.  And so our strength and relationship with you is built… as you enjoy a fudge experience that can be found nowhere else.

What makes you passionate about what you do?
My passion is the design of products, services or business infrastructure… Sweet Angels has opened up this wonderful opportunity to create and work through intense inspiration.  Then there’s the response to what I produce… This is the most gratifying aspect… Bringing my product to market… And the wonderful thing is that when people are paying for something, they are ruthless in their criticism… I relish that. Because by my customers telling me face to face about how my fudge affects them, so can I adjust my art form. I grow through this.

What makes your product different?
The first thing is that at Sweet Angels we make Slow Fudges – Nothing rushed… pleasure never is. Thrill is to cheap speed as deep pleasure is to gentle and slow touch. We refuse to make straight-laced  “classic” fudge… thick, bland and pastey lust fudges. There is no expense spared in the making of our artisan fudges… No bulking fillers; only pure natural ingredients. Sweet Angels offer a new concept in extra sensory fusion recipe design – engaging scent as well as hedonistic taste. This is exquisite flavour which has love bordering on Eros as its prime infusion.

I knew that Sweet Angels had arrived when a Master Chef, doing demonstrations at the Rosebank Rooftop Market, proclaimed our fudges as perfect and the first fudge he’d tasted that was what it said it was – one didn’t have to guess with some effort a tenuous flavour suggestion.

The art in making all the different flavours has really come in combining wet fruit pulps to fudge… water and fudge don’t go well together, so the trick has been to get fudges to set consistently to the ideal “snap” texture but packed with natural fruit… or spice… or homemade (And fudge specific) preserve. The basic fudge recipe does not change… for anybody – but each fudge flavour demands a different cooking technique.

What is your favourite product?
Well that’s a bit of a Sophie’s Choice question…  No, they are all special but I suppose I must acknowledge that Chilli Fudge made this all happen… but the Chocolate and Orange fudge is exquisite. It should be… it takes double the time to make and is the most fragile as well. I’m always proud of a new flavoured fudge I release. Salt and Cashew which has just been released deserves a cheer… it is special. As with Persian Rose, Cashew and Salt is a breakthrough flavour as far as originality goes. We are edging toward 30 original flavours… In only our first year! How does one choose?

What is the cost of your product?

R20 per packet. We do offer discounts for bulk orders.

How and where can people find you:

Every Saturday at the Hazel Food Market – http://www.hazelfoodmarket.co.za/
Every Sunday at the Rosebank Rooftop Market – http://www.craft.co.za/
We will post information on our website as we open up in new food markets and retail stores

Tel: 082 459 2872
Email: craigz@mweb.co.za
Website:  www.sweetangels.co.za

Enjoy

x

Natalie

PS. All the interview answers are written by the company themselves and are not necessarily the opinions of Cheap Luxury.