Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Laketown Chocolates

Whether you are Irish or just pretend you are on St. Patrick’s Day, we hope your day is filled with luck, parades, corned beef and cabbage, green beer, and shamrock shakes.

How much do you really know about St. Patrick’s Day and the Irish?

• St. Patrick’s Day is the traditional religious feast day of Saint Patrick.
• 34.7 million U.S. residents have Irish ancestry. That’s more than 7 times the actual population of Ireland.
• Irish is the nation’s second most frequently reported ancestry, German is the first.
• Approximately 144,588 current U.S. residents were born in Ireland.
• Roughly 26.1 billion pounds of beef and 2.3 billion pounds of cabbage were produced in the United States in 2009.
• The first St. Patrick’s Day parade in the U.S. took place on March 17, 1762, when Irish soldiers that served in the English military marched through New York City.
• More than 100 St. Patrick’s Day parades are held across the United States. New York City and Boston have the largest celebrations.
• There are seven places in the United States named after the shamrock,  including Mount Gay-Shamrock, WV; Shamrock, TX; Shamrock Lakes, IN; and Shamrock, OK.
• Sixteen U.S. places share the name of Ireland’s capital, Dublin.

Enjoy your day and even if you aren’t Irish, celebrate St. Patrick’s Day like you are.

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Fact Source: http://www.history.com

Get Dipped on National Potato Chip Day

Saturday, March 14th is National Potato Chip Day. It’s just another one of those wacky national holidays where potato chip lovers across the country rally together to celebrate this most amazing salty snack.

Fun Facts about Potato Chips*:

• The potato chip as we know it, was invented in 1853 when a customer at a restaurant kept complaining that is potatoes were too thick and soggy. The chef, George Crum, came up with the idea to slice the potatoes extremely thin, fried them to a crisp and topped them off with salt. The customer loved them and they soon became a regular item on the restaurants menu. They called them “Saratoga Chips.”
• Mike-Sell’s Potato Chip Company was founded in 1910 in Dayton, OH and deems itself the oldest potato chip company in the U.S. However, New England based Tri-Sum Potato Chips, originally founded in 1908 as Leominster Potato Chip Company also claims that title.
• The first potato chip queen was crowned in 1946, and she had a court of five members.
• Flavored potato chips starting popping up in the 1950’s.
• Potato Chips have been considered America’s top snack food spot for over 50 years! 
• A potato chip factory can make 7,000 pounds of potato chips in just two hours.
• Worldwide sales of potato chips are over $15 billion a year.

If you are anything like the folks here at Laketown Chocolates, then for you, the combination of salty and sweet is about as good as it gets. We don’t stop at just potato chips. We dip those bad boys in chocolate. Never tried it? We suggest that you do.

The “chipper” as chocolate dipped potato chips are more formally known as,  were thought to first be produced by Fargo, North Dakota company, Widman’s Candy. North Dakotans have been enjoying these salty and sweet snacks for years.

Make your own homemade potato chips:
Ever tried to make potato chips from scratch? Here is a great recipe to get you started. Don’t forget to dip or drizzle them in chocolate!

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*Fact Sources:
http://www.punchbowl.com
http://nationaldaycalendar.com
http://wikipedia.com

Chocolate and Wine tasting at Schram Vineyards!

We will be at Schram Vineyards this Saturday, March 7th for their season opening day and the unveiling of their new tasting room. Schram will be releasing their new dessert wine, Last Course and we will be pairing the wine with our yummy chocolates from 4-6pm.

There will also be 7 beers on tap:

• Blonde Ale
• Cream Ale
• Red Ale
• Minnesota Pale Ale
• IPA
• Mocha Monkey Coffee Ale
• PLUS, a very limited release of their Brett & Barrel Sour Saison!

AND Filius Blue Food Truck will be on-site from 12-6pm.

Schram Vineyards is located at 8785 Airport Road in Waconia, MN. Stop by this Saturday to check it out.

Last Minute Valentine’s Day Gifts

Most of you reading this are likely thinking, it’s only 3 days until Valentine’s Day and I still have not gotten my Valentine’s gifts. Fear not procrastinators, Laketown Chocolates is here to make sure that your sweetie pie is tickled pink (or red) this Valentine’s Day. No matter who you are shopping for, we have the perfect item for you, with a huge selection of Valentine’s Chocolates, Gift Sets, and even small treats your kids can use in their school Valentine’s. Stop in at either store location, Waconia or Excelsior, and get your last minute Valentine’s Gifts for your special someone.

Valentine’s Day Gift Baskets

Chocolate Roses on a Stick

Chocolate Lips

Chocolate Hearts

And Heart Shaped Rice Krispie Treats with a Twist

The True Hockeytown

Now that the NFL season is over, professional sports fans switch their focus over to basketball and hockey, at least until baseball season starts (pitchers and catchers report in less than two weeks). Unless you are a Minnesotan, in which case hockey has likely been your focus since the season started. Along with a few others in the northern U.S., the great state of Minnesota has long been a die hard hockey state. You’d be hard pressed to see pond hockey tournaments happening in Texas.

There is great debate about where the true “HockeyTown” is located. Many cities and towns have claimed to be THE Hockeytown over the years.

• Binghamton, New York has laid claim to the title Hockey Town USA since the 1970’s.
• Detroit, Michigan took the bull by the horns and incorporated the phrase HockeyTown into the Detroit Red Wings logo. Okay so they’ve won a few titles.
• Montreal, Quebec has been described as the “Best Hockey City in North America.”
• Other cities have jumped on the hockey town bandwagon including: Boston, Buffalo, NY, Chicago, Philadelphia, Saint Paul, MN and even Sarpsborg, Norway.

But it is Warroad, Minnesota that wins the prize, being referred to Hockeytown for over 50 years now. The small town of less than 1800 people at the very northern part of Minnesota is home to many great Hall of Fame NHL players and Olympians.

Wherever you are from and wherever you declare the true HockeyTown USA to be, what better way to celebrate hockey than with hockey related chocolates for your game day celebrations.

The Hat Trick Kit includes a chocolate hockey stick and solid chocolate hockey puck wrapped in black foil. Packaged in a cello bag.

View all Hockey related products.

Love, Sweet Love

Throughout the ages, there is but one thing has stood the test of time and endured. LOVE. Love makes us feel like we are on top of the world, that we can take on anything and overcome it. It makes us feel young and innocent. It can make us do crazy things and take chances we would never consider otherwise. It takes shape in everything around us. It can be found in the most unexpected of places. It inspires us to write songs, poetry, novels and plays. It lives on even after we have gone. Love is a very powerful thing.

This time of year, we can’t help but feel giddy and we hope that feeling is contagious. This Valentine’s Day, share the love with your special someone and let them know just how much you care. All kinds of goodies are hitting our shelves in anticipation of the season of love.

Here are some of our favorite Valentine’s Day Gifts:

Or Click below to view details of our best selling Valentine’s Kits.

Mini Heart Basket
Be Mine Basket
Ultimate Valentine’s Basket
Mini Valentine Cube
Valentine Kit

View our full selection of Valentine’s Day chocolate gifts.

Stay tuned for more great Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas for your special someone to help you share the LOVE. If you don’t have a love song or two stuck in your head by now, try rereading this post.

And the winner is…

The holidays are over. New Year’s has come and gone. So, what’s the next chance to get together with friends and family and indulge a little? Award Season!

The Academy Awards are on Sunday, February 22nd. Millions of Americans tune in to watch the Oscar’s each year. It’s our chance to get to see Hollywood’s biggest stars all in one place and find out who is the best of the best. It’s also a chance to live like they live for a night and throw an amazing star studded gala of your own.

Oscar parties have grown in popularity over the last few years. If you are hosting an Oscar party, we’ve come up with some creative ways that you can incorporate chocolate into your party.

1. Create your own awards categories for your guests and present the winners with a giant chocolate award statue.

2. Use smaller chocolate award statues and gold stars as decorations.

3. Include truffles in your Swag Bags.

4. Create a candy buffet with a variety of bulk candies that your guests can snack on at the party and take home in customized container.

5. Have a chocolate fountain with an array of sweet and salty snacks, fruits and other goodies that guests can dip. We love using strawberries, pineapple, pound cake, potato chips, marshmallows, and pretzels.

Looking for other fun Oscar party ideas? We found some great tips and some really fun ideas to make your party a real winner.

Starry Night Party
Oscar Party Food and Drink Ideas
Oscar Party Games

Use a few of these ideas to throw a killer Oscar party that leaves your guests feeling like stars and you feeling like the big winner.

12 Shopping Days til Christmas

It’s crunch time friends and that means it’s the perfect time to swing in to Laketown Chocolates to pick up those last minute holiday gifts for friends, family, teachers, co-workers, employees, and bosses. Need a few things to fill up the stockings? Or a larger gift for a gift exchange? We’ve got you covered.

The stores are fully stocked with holiday themed chocolates and gift ideas for everyone on your list, naughty or nice (yes we even have chocolate lumps of coal for those naughty folks).

Gifts for everyone on your list

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! The holidays are here and you are likely busy decorating, shopping, baking and getting into the holiday spirit. It’s holiday central at Laketown Chocolates and we are gearing up for the busiest time of the year. We’ve got great gift ideas for everyone on your list.

View all of our Holiday Gifts

View our Holiday Chocolate Shapes

 

Shop Local on Small Business Saturday

Hope you and your families had a wonderful Thanksgiving! With Thanksgiving over, it’s already time to start thinking about those holiday gifts. Saturday is Small Business Saturday and shoppers are encouraged to shop local for their holiday gifts. Get your shopping done early and support your local businesses.

Our Laketown Chocolates stores are open and fully stocked with great ideas for holiday gifts and stocking stuffers. Find unique chocolate gifts, fun, holiday-themed chocolate shapes, gift baskets and boxes or you can even create your own custom gifts.

Waconia Store:
141 West 1st Street, Suite 2
Waconia, MN 55387
Open Saturday: 9am-4pm 

Excelsior Store:
270 Water St.
Excelsior, MN 55331
Open Saturday: 10am-8pm