FREDERICK (AP) — Forget long lines at the polls, hanging chads, and red states and blue states. There is a sweet alternative to this year’s election process — chocolate truffles.
Chocolate is a bipartisan favorite. It’s something Democrats, Republicans, Independents and those of any other political persuasion can agree on.
So, Chef Randy Olmstead of The Perfect Truffle in Frederick has started a campaign to see which party or presidential candidate will get the chocoholic’s vote. Customers can choose the Democratic truffle, decorated with donkeys, or the Republican truffle, decorated with elephants.
Other than that, “they are identical in every way, shape and form,” Olmstead said. Standing behind a display case filled with his signature truffles, including displays of the election truffles, Olmstead noted that the Democrat truffles are on the left, Republican truffles to the right, “with a narrow aisle between them.”
“They come from the same batches,” Olmstead said. As the truffles are made, transfer sheets with the two party designs are placed on the trays of warm truffles.
The transfers are made from white cocoa butter, which Olmstead said is a component of the chocolate itself.
“Cocoa butter is the fat part of the chocolate,” he said. The warm chocolate melts the fat and it becomes part of the chocolate again.
This is the second presidential election Olmstead has offered the truffles. Four years ago, “patrons of Frederick actually predicted who the president would be,” he said. He kept daily tallies of how many of each was sold, with a final tally of 376 Democrat truffles and 368 Republican.
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Related Photos
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Chef Randy Olmstead, of The Perfect Truffle in Frederick, Md., begins the process of making his special election truffles by mixing chocolate, cream, and butter in his Shab Row shop, in Frederick, Md. Some of the election truffles can be seen in the foreground trays. AP Photo/The Frederick News-Post, Sam Yu
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In this Sept. 21, 2012 photo, some of the Republican election truffles made by Chef Randy Olmstead at The Perfect Truffle in Frederick, Md., appear on display, in Frederick, Md. AP Photo/The Frederick News-Post, Sam Yu
Frederick chocolatier making voting sweet with truffles
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