The psychology of eating is balanced as a feast for the eyes and the palette. With the structure of charcuterie, it is a progression of mixing the right tastes: the tart with the sweet, the sugary with the salty. Combining this journey of the senses through house-made jams, crackers and local pastries creates a concert of flair that is the cornerstone of Bramble & Brie Charcuterie Co., launched last year by co-owners Niki Scott and Patti Brunk.
A new approach
Scott says when they were first brainstorming and “dreaming” about Bramble & Brie, she and Brunk spoke of their love of cooking and wanting to incorporate some of those elements they created in their personal kitchens into the business. She cites a secret weapon in Brunk, who is their “master cracker baker,” which is something most similar businesses do not have in-house.
The best integration in creating charcuterie boards, Scott says, comes from that melding of taste at a flash point where two flavors come together. She uses the example of their home-made peach lavender jam with a brie cheese, while Brunk mentions the mix of strawberry balsamic jam with prosciutto.
Scott continues that there are “so many different things on our boards to choose from that you can mix and match to your taste preference.” One person might like a salty component. Another might like more of a sweet fig jam. “But that is one of the fun things about a charcuterie board is that we love to put those different tastes, the sweet, the salty, the sour, all of those things into a board so that everybody can find something that they like.”
Unique ingredients of seasons
Seasonal approaches are also undeniable since they offer the ability to mix new ingredients. Right now, cherries and figs are in season, explains Scott. “Soon our great Palisade peaches will be in season, as [well as] the cantaloupes from Rocky Ford.” Bramble & Brie always incorporates what is fresh and in season in their monthly boards/boxes or around a holiday.
The art of their jam creations reflects in their boards as well, no matter what the season, Scott says. “So, we’ll take our strawberries since we have a lot that we don’t use at the end of the week. They’re still perfectly good to eat but they just might not be as beautiful as we want them to be to go into a box.” They turn these strawberries into jam.
“Right now, we have a ginger strawberry jam and a balsamic strawberry jam. And we really want that second flavor note to come through, so we’ll add some extra ginger or some extra balsamic to it just because we want there to be just the nuance of different flavors. We don’t want just a straight strawberry jam. Nothing wrong with that. But just adding that different note really helps things to blend in with the different meat and cheeses.”
A variety of boxes
Scott says when they were talking about opening Bramble & Brie last year, they knew they wanted to offer a variety of boxes/boards. While they had numerous ideas, they wanted to narrow it down to maybe five or six.
“The date night box was one that we knew for sure we wanted to do. We wanted to give it that really romantic kind of feel with the heart cookies and the French macarons and the darker jams and the darker grapes, and just really have that feeling of romanticism.”
She contrasts it to the picnic box, which is fun and quirky. “It has beer cheese in it, and then including dill pickles, it’s just a totally different vibe for a totally different occasion for people to get together and be outside and just enjoy a picnic in the park.”
Brunk also says they bring in the influences of their travel and those varied tastes into their creations. “I was in Europe about four years ago and really noticed at breakfast time, it looked a lot different than it does here in America.” So, when they developed their European brunch board, it was reflected in that those cultures eat certain types of meats and cheeses for breakfast or brunch.
Reflections of culture-influenced taste
Every culture eats differently. Brunk cites the fact that Italian blue cheese is Gorgonzola, which is different from blue cheese that Americans might know here in the States. “We want to experiment more with doing different cheeses and different meats.” They are hoping to, in a future monthly special, do a Greek board, focusing on Mediterranean flavors incorporating dill or maybe an Italian board with focaccia bread.
Their American brunch board, by comparison, is more pastry focused. “We still love our pastries and our fresh fruits”, says Brunk. Both are offered but the European Brunch board is more popular.
Bramble & Brie is made local but does not have a retail store front, so most orders are done online with email available for questions. The business was launched during the depths of COVID-19, so the business model conformed to that structure. Scott and Brunk have also been amazed at how popular the gifting aspect of their boxes has become. “It’s been very rewarding to see the excitement on our customers’ faces,” says Brunk.
Scott closes saying they are humbled by their repeat customers and how Bramble & Brie has become part of the community’s life. “We have a gal that we built for last week, and she’s getting boards ordered for next week. It’s so fun to see how people enjoy it. And we’ve always said from the beginning that almost all of life’s occasions are marked by a special meal. Whether it’s a wedding, an anniversary, even a death in the family, we mark those things with a meal. And so, it’s just fun to see how our customers do that.”
