Godiva was founded in Brussels, Belgium in 1926 by Joseph Draps. A master marketer as well as chocolate maker, Draps’ use of the Godiva story quickly helped establish the company’s reputation. Introduced to the United States in 1966 (the Campbell Soup Company secured North American distribution rights in that year) Campbell’s purchased Godiva outright in 1972. Today Godiva/Campbell has over 200 boutiques and 1000 retail outlets in the United States alone.

Many people know Garrison Confections founder Andrew (Drew) Shotts through the televised Pastry Team Championships on Food Network. However, that is just one aspect of the personality and talents of this very talented pastry chef, and one of the real pleasures of my job is to get to watch people mature, craft, develop, and hone their own particular chocolate vision and vocabulary (not to mention eat the results of all that work). Garrison Confections is one of the few Prestige Chocolatiers using Guittard chocolates (which is not surprising given Drew’s work for them as corporate pastry chef), especially those from the E. Guittard line. Drew also uses others, include white chocolate from Felchlin, a Swiss manufacturer.