Sweet treats at Seneca Signature Scents

WATKINS GLEN--Her position as director of communications and marketing for the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce gives Stephanie Specchio unique insight into what the area needs. One of her tools at work is looking ahead at what each day is known for during the year. For instance, Specchio was interviewed on "National Hot Chocolate Day"--or "National Bubblewrap Day" for those who are not fans of chocolate. But if you're one of those, you might want to stop reading here, right after you learn this article is being published on "National Pizza Day."
When Specchio came upon "National Fudge Day," last June, she found to her dismay there was no longer a local maker and seller of fudge. "A tourist, and a tourist town needs fudge," she says, with the heartfelt conviction shared by those of us who feel chocolate to be absolutely essential. Already the owner of a downtown shop, Seneca Signature Scents at 304 N. Franklin, she has the perfect place to market fine chocolate.
Stephanie and husband Alan Specchio began Seneca Signature Scents in 2017, partly to offer an opportunity for customers to blend an individual medley of scents from a combination of personally pleasing fragrance oils. The process can take as little as 20 minutes on up to two hours, depending on how long it takes for someone to decide what smells best to them. While contemplating pleasing aromas, it can be fun to explore the rest of the store. And with sweet scents in the air, and a gazillion wineries to visit, what could be better than chocolate to complete the experience than the romance of chocolate?
A combination gift-emporium, antiques mart, and showcase of regionally-created hand-crafted usefully-unique creations, Specchio was already selling meat rubs, hot chocolate mixes and ice cream toppings made from her own recipes and packaged at Glen Copack in Watkins Glen. "We're really lucky to have them here," she says. And, she adds, the shop regularly changes with different assortments of items for sale.
This part of her chocolate journey began last May, with a lot of research into the nature of chocolate and its performance in fudge, its many flavors and the best ways to work with it. She took courses online to learn some of the definitions and details of working with chocolate--the things most of us take for granted when we bite into a satisfying piece of chocolate and let it melt on the tongue. For example, she says, having even one drop of water fall into a batch of chocolate can cause it to "seize" or take on a brick-like hardness. There's a culinary rescue for the problem, but Specchio had a simpler solution to her one delicious but problematic batch--she ate it.
Then she worked with a mentor, in this case, local chocolate legend Sue Sullivan, whose candy creations, "Sullivan's Sweets," formerly graced both sides of Franklin Street. Sullivan advised her on the supplies and equipment she needed. Sullivan is also the sister of Jim Guild so she was able to take Specchio on a tour of the kitchen at Ben and Jerry's to see how a commercial kitchen needs to be set up.
Specchio took that advice and added a small commercial kitchen behind the retail area of Seneca Signature Scents. There she and Alan currently create the 29 varieties of fudge that may be ordered on her website speccsfudge.com. These range from plain chocolate to bubblegum to Tabasco-infused Mango Tango. She'll also take special orders, whether those involve layering two flavors of fudge or making a batch with a less-often made flavor, like the cherry cordial fudge recently requested by a customer. "I've got at least 300 different fudge recipes," she explains. The variety of flavors make the adventure of fudge-making perennially interesting.
She began selling fudge at the end of November 2021. During the winter, apart from the four or five fudge varieties available in the store at Seneca Signature Scents, she makes additional batches to send out in online orders. The fudge offerings will expand to about a dozen in-store during the summer months, and she expects to also branch into other fine chocolates. Chocolate is her passion, and "This is a perfect fit for me," she says. "I feel like I'm doing something that is me."
Chocolate can be a mood-changer on a bad day, or celebratory on a good day - Stephanie and Alan have a family tradition of regularly commemorating family milestones with hot fudge sundaes. Now they're creating a new one as they ramp up their fudge manufacturing for Valentine's Day, spending their time after work together... sweetly.
Learn more about her fudge or buy some at speccsfudge.com or call Seneca Signature Scents at 607-331-4276.