Mudita Sweet Story is a local Yukon business that creates high quality artisan sweet treats like gourmet marshmallows, nougat, and caramels. Learn more about Mudita Sweet Story in our interview below.
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Mudita Sweet Story Yukon Business
What inspired you to open your business?
Fundamentally, I’m a food lover. Since I made my first organic sourdough loaf in 2012, I was eager to get my hands on every kind of food that I enjoy dearly. My then-partner and I initially started selling our baked goods under the business name “Mudita” in Nelson BC in 2014. Nougat has been my favourite candy since childhood. I’ve been making nougat and twisting the recipes since then, mainly as gifts to friends and families.
After moving to Whitehorse in 2019, we started to sell our nougats at the local Christmas market and it’s been warmly welcomed. I set up an Etsy store and named it Mudita Sweet Story then started listing the confections that I wanted to share with the Whitehorse community and sweets lovers across Canada.
How would you describe your business?
Like many small businesses, Mudita Sweet Story starts with the passion of the business owner. For me, I strive to offer the best possible version of the candies that I love dearly. It all starts with the best ingredients, delivered with the proper technique and blends with one’s unique flavour profile.
Nowadays, people are very concerned about their sugar consumption. I’d like to provide the healthiest choices of confection. I carefully select every ingredient, most organic, including all the sweeteners, nuts, dried fruits, dark chocolate, cacao butter, etc. In Mudita’s kitchen, you absolutely can’t find any artificial colors or flavours. I only use organic natural food dye.
Both my baking and confection-making, I benefit a great deal from the French artisans and their generation’s tradition. Other than 2 days spent in an Australian wood-fired artisan bakery, I’ve never enrolled in any professional institutes, but years learning from numerous books, websites, YouTube videos. I can’t express enough my gratitude to those masters and artisans who generously shared their knowledge and techniques. Most importantly, how they demonstrate their love, passion and dedication, as well as their humble attitude towards food making.
When you master the basic technique and know how the fun part is to create the flavour tailored to your own taste buds. That’s the crucial process to make those candies “Yours”. I use Canadian honey in all our products. I love the metaphor of honey, it’s the outcome of the eternal love stories between bees and flowers, what could be sweeter than that? I love fruity, nutty, floral, spicy, coffee, black sesame…etc, you can easily find all these flavour profiles in my making.
What’s your best selling product and why is it so popular?
Nougats!
Nougat has been my favourite candy since childhood. Even my childhood version mostly made from peanuts. For me it has that captive texture, it is crunchy, nutty, and at the same time, it is pleasantly soft and chewy. In one bite, you have the rich and fruity aroma that comes from a variety of nuts and dried fruits, all blended into a balanced sweetness. Our basic nougat recipe has adopted from the French tradition, with a generous application of Canadian honey and a heritage variety of cacao butter. It enhanced the floral aroma of the end products, giving it an elegant character.
Because I’m such a nougat lover over the years I’ve been keen to develop different nougat flavours besides the classic nougat blanc and gianduja chocolate flavour. We also have fruity choices including Rose Berry and Passion Mango. With my Asian background, I can’t forget my fondness for flavours like toasty black sesame and ginger. So, we provide a number of choices for consumers to experience.
What’s your favourite product from your own shop?
Gosh, my favourite products? To be honest, it’s always a difficult question to answer, because I only make the food I like to eat! As a nougat lover, I am quite satisfied with the selection I’ve achieved.
I really love the playful character of marshmallow, it is just like biting into a cloud. I love to make them and they are the only bouncing candy. You can throw them into a bowl, they won’t complain. It’s nice you can play with your candy in the delicate confection business.
I really love caramel too. I love their sophisticated personality and they have a very complex rich flavour profile. I always hold deep gratitude to the first person who discovered caramel. A simple sugar syrup can develop such a complex flavour. It’s a kind of candy you have to savour slowly and be mindful to discover the rich texture and flavour.
After all, I am always amazed by the magical nature of candy making. With simple ingredients like sugar and egg white, how many different textures and flavours can one create?
What’s your favourite local Yukon business?
In Whitehorse, we have a great array of artisans, and many inspiring local businesses. Personally, I really appreciate High fHive Beeswax Co.. Their candle is made from pure beeswax, with lots of lovely designs from local artisan Lara Melnik. They are the most beautiful beeswax candles that I’ve bought. Always a great gift for myself and my dear friends.
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