[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 53 (Thursday, May 2, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3837-S3838]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  COMMENDING TOM AND SALLY FEGLEY, OWNERS OF TOM AND SALLY'S HANDMADE 
                               CHOCOLATES

 Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I rise today to commend Tom and 
Sally Fegley, owners and operators of the award-winning Tom and Sally's 
Handmade Chocolates. For over a decade, Tom and Sally have been making 
world-class chocolates at their Brattleboro, VT, facility.
  Leaving corporate positions in New York, the Fegleys started anew in 
Vermont with the dream of making high quality chocolate. Starting in 
1989, with little knowledge of the chocolate business, the Fegleys 
volunteered their time as apprentices with a Jersey City chocolatier. 
After learning the trade, the Fegleys remodeled a vacant warehouse in 
downtown Brattleboro to house their new business. Through trial and 
error over the years, the Fegleys have developed and perfected their 
superb technique for making fine chocolates. Their diligence, passion, 
and entrepreneurial spirit have been richly rewarded.
  Tom and Sally's Handmade Chocolates is a true Vermont company. While 
building their business, the Fegleys have remained involved in their 
community, allowing school groups and tourists alike to visit their 
facility and learn about the chocolate-making business. Moreover, their 
efforts are incredibly innovative, incorporating traditional techniques 
for making fine chocolates with novelty packaging and light-hearted 
humor. No doubt, their success can be attributed as much to their 
creativity as to their business savvy. And with their long commitment 
to producing the best chocolate possible, they've brought their 
chocolates to the world through the Internet at www.tomandsallys.com.
 Thirteen national awards and 1.5 million chocolate cow pies later, 
the Fegleys continue to make their amazing hand-crafted chocolate in 
Brattleboro. I am proud that my home State of Vermont has attracted and 
produced such outstanding entrepreneurs as the Fegleys.
  I ask that a December article from the Rutland Herald be printed in 
the Record.
  The article follows:

                [From the Rutland Herald, Dec. 23, 2001]

                         Chocolates and Laughs


    at tom and sally's handmade, the sweets are sprinkled with humor

                            (By Ellen Ogden)

       Most people will eat sweets any time of the year; but in 
     the high spirit of the holidays, it would be tempting, if 
     only it were big enough, to dive into a box of chocolates. 
     Especially the handmade kind: hand-dipped and decorated with 
     crystallized violets or fancy fillings, packaged as if each 
     bite were a piece of gold. A joy to the eyes as well as the 
     taste buds.
       Chocolate is such a treat, you would think anyone who makes 
     it for a living would have fun. ``Truth is,'' says Sally 
     Fegley, co-owner with her husband Tom of Tom and Sally's 
     Handmade Chocolates, ``many fancy chocolatiers take 
     themselves way too seriously.'' Making world class chocolate 
     involves more than just a devotion to the art. It requires 
     expensive packaging and a marketing plan to match. But the 
     Fegleys have learned how to play up the pleasurable side of 
     making chocolate.
       Tom and Sally's Handmade Chocolates are the best in their 
     class--they've won 13 national awards--but many of their 
     products are packaged in silly ways. For example, their best 
     selling item is a chocolate cow pie, a loosely formed plop of 
     rich Belgian chocolate mixed with a handful of nuts. The idea 
     came to Tom one morning while shaving and they've sold over 
     1.5 million of these pies, expanding on the line to include a 
     range of over 50 other animals. There are moose pies with 
     almonds, sheep pies with hazelnuts and elephant pies with 
     peanuts.
       The irony is that Tom and Sally's Handmade Chocolates set 
     out in 1989 to make serious chocolate. ``We left high paying 
     corporate jobs to move to Vermont and make chocolate,'' 
     explains Sally. Dressed in a floppy white chef hat, blonde 
     hair curling out from around the sides and large gold hoop 
     earrings, Sally Fegley laughs easily. Her buoyancy seems 
     consistent with the delightful chocolate aroma that fills the 
     air of their 11,000-square-foot warehouse. She and Tom are 
     wearing matching outfits, white chef top with a chocolate 
     brown apron, each with their names spelled out in big 
     letters.
       At age 42, they were too young for retirement, but they 
     knew they wanted to live in Vermont. It is a classic story of 
     a couple seeking a career change. They knew they would make a 
     good team. They also shared a love of good chocolate. ``We 
     were convinced that there was no one in the U.S. who was 
     making first-rate chocolate and we were determined to be 
     the first,'' says Sally. While still holding their 
     corporate jobs, they devoted a year to market research. 
     They read, consumed and visited every chocolate venue 
     around New York City.
       And since they trained in corporate America, they are 
     highly organized and goal oriented. ``From the time we left 
     our jobs and moved to Vermont, we gave ourselves three months 
     to find a building, build the inventory and open the store 
     doors,'' says Sally. Reading and eating chocolate is one 
     thing, but actually making it was something else. They needed 
     hands-on experience before the big move. They offered 
     themselves as volunteers to several chocolate makers around 
     New York to obtain some form of basic training. But they were 
     rejected until they looked beyond the city, and found a 
     three-generation family-run chocolatier in Jersey City who 
     agreed to let them in on some secrets. The both began an 
     apprenticeship to learn about chocolate.
       Everything was moving along like clockwork. They left Wall 
     Street where she worked at Bank of America and he was at 
     Metropolitan Life. They found a vacant building at 6 Harmony 
     Place in Brattleboro, formerly a bar and electricians' 
     warehouse. ``Right up until the opening day, every batch of 
     chocolate we made failed,'' confesses Sally. It is clear she 
     has told this story many times. Now that they have been in 
     business for over a decade and have won those awards, it is 
     easier to admit to early problems. ``It was still perfectly 
     edible and delicious, but no matter what we did, the 
     chocolate kept coming out gray and streaky.''
       Before a chocolatier can mold the chocolate, the chocolate 
     must be melted or tempered. This breaks the crystals and the 
     butterfat; but it must be done at an exact temperature that 
     matches the original chocolate. What the Fegleys had learned 
     to make in Jersey City was based on a domestic chocolate, 
     while what they selected for their Brattleboro operation was 
     a premier Belgian brand, Callebaut. This brand has a more 
     finicky tempering habit and wasn't responding to their 
     learned methods.
       ``To me, having your own business means trying on all the 
     knowledge and all the skills you've learned in your entire 
     life,'' relates Sally, who called upon an eighth grade 
     science class when the couple had to set up an experiment 
     involving an empirical method and deduction. They set up the 
     marble tables with candy-making trays and thermometers and 
     filled each while keeping close tabs on the temperature and 
     the procedure. They finally determined that the thermometers 
     they were using had different calibrations. ``Each batch was 
     off by as little as two degrees, but this made all the 
     difference.''
       They are now so confident of their method that they offer 
     educational tours of the process to the public every day. 
     Located five miles north of Brattleboro on Rt. 30, Tom and 
     Sally's is a favorite site for school children who arrive by 
     the busload. It is a pristine facility, with an open floor 
     plan and

[[Page S3838]]

     overhead signs explaining every step of the production. Large 
     picture windows allow natural light, while a dozen employees 
     are busy at the production and packing stations.
       A typical tour begins in the back of the room, at the nine 
     vats of melting milk, dark and white chocolate. Each vat 
     holds between 125 pounds and 200 pounds of what many consider 
     to be the finest chocolate in the world. Tom, the master of 
     the production , is stationed at one marble table cutting 
     slabs of caramel and marshmallow that will be combined into a 
     layered candy and then hand dipped in dark chocolate. This, 
     his favorite concoction, is dubbed Miss American Pie.
       Sally explains that there are basically three methods of 
     making Tom and Sally's Handmade Chocolates. They begin with 
     shell molds, trays of high-grade plastic with decorative 
     depressions. The molds are filled with liquid chocolate. Each 
     chocolate piece is hand filled and hand painted, then cooled 
     before another step in the process. It is an exceedingly 
     skilled and time-consuming process. ``The molds are imported 
     from Europe,'' says Sally. ``And they cost $22 apiece. We 
     have hundreds of them.'' The molds, as are all of their 
     equipment and inventory items, clearly labeled and neatly 
     stacked according to the design motif. The high-end 
     confections that result from this molding process sell for 
     $34 per pound, about a dollar each.
       A more mechanized method is done on what Sally loves to 
     call the ``I LOVE LUCY'' machine. It is otherwise known as an 
     enrober, a conveyor belt with a series of ``waterfalls'' 
     allowing a cascade of chocolate during which each piece of 
     fruit, creme or chocolate filling is given a chocolate 
     coating. ``Remember the `I Love Lucy' segment?'' says Sally 
     with a wide smile. ``Where Lucy and Ethel reverse roles with 
     Ricky and Fred? They take a job at a chocolate factory,'' she 
     explains in vivid detail. Unfortunately, the conveyor belt 
     starts running too fast and they have to determine what to do 
     with all the chocolate. ``There is little choice but to fill 
     their mouths, stuff their pockets and hide chocolate in their 
     shirts in a vain attempt to keep up with the output of the 
     enrobing machine,'' says Sally. This skit encapsulates 
     Sally's fondness for the machine--a comedy routine that 
     reflects her own fun with chocolate.
       Finally there is the funneling method, and this is where 
     the cow pies fit into the story. Using a large metal funnel 
     filled with warm, tempered chocolate and equipped with a 
     wooden stopper, two-ounce globs of chocolate are ``plopped'' 
     onto a marble table. It is cooled and hardened into a solid 
     mound of chocolate, and then packaged in a clear plastic bag 
     with a catchy novelty tag that describes the contents in a 
     whimsical way. The cow pies began outselling the truffles.
       Each year Tom and Sally do something new to make chocolate 
     lovers laugh. In fact they are so good at the marketing that 
     they've had to trademark everything to prevent other 
     companies from using their ideas. ``We just spent many 
     thousands of dollars protecting our trademark on Chocolate 
     Body Paint,'' says Tom, of a product that originated as a gag 
     present for the president of the local Rotary Club. Packaged 
     with a paint brush, the label on the treat reads ``heat to 
     98.6 and apply liberally.'' It is essentially a delicious 
     chocolate fudge sauce for ice cream, but the name was catchy 
     and it sells the product.
       While making the best chocolate in the world is still their 
     goal, Sally admits that their typical customer is more 
     interested in the funny packaging. Most of their novelty 
     chocolates are sold wholesale to over 8,000 stores across the 
     United States. ``Our niche in the world of chocolate is that 
     we are creative,'' says Sally. ``The best thing about having 
     our own business is that we have the freedom to be 
     creative,'' she adds. ``Can you imagine trying to get 
     approval to make something like chocolate cow pies in a 
     corporate world?''

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