By CHARLES MELTON
Editor
The term “oh fudge” took on a rather sweet meaning Tuesday morning at Bremerton High School as six student-submitted flavors vied for first place in the second annual Dare Not To Swear program’s fudge judging contest.
Each of the finalists received a gift certificate from The Candy Shoppe for their entries.
The winners Amani Williams and Olivia Patik were very surprised and pleased that their fudge selection was voted the best by their peers, said BHS Dare Not To Swear program leader Madonna Hanna.
“Olivia commented that she and Amani thought about all of their favorite flavors and combined them to create ‘Choco-Toffee Swirl,’” Hanna said.
The winning entry combined Swiss milk chocolate with swirls of butterscotch topped with toffee crumbles and dusted lightly with powdered sugar.
“We had seven flavors last year, but this year we had 64,” Hanna explained. “It’s been great.”
From the 64 submittals, Sandy and Rebecca Charbonneau from the The Candy Shoppe in Port Orchard, had the enviable task of narrowing the field down to six for students to select as their favorite fudge flavor.
“It took awhile to narrow it down,” Rebecca Charbonneau said. “It’s amazing what they came up with.”
Although The Candy Shoppe has more than 300 fudge flavors, there were more than a few that, Rebecca Charbonneau admitted she hadn’t come up with even though she experiments with different varieties every day.
Among the six finalists were pina coloda smoothie, white Snickers and Milky Way.
“I like coconut and pina colada and Island things,” said BHS freshman Tarah Turner, who came up with the pina coloda smoothie flavor, which is a mix of milk chocolate fudge with coconut and pineapple. “I told my mom about and she thought it sounded good.”
Fellow BHS freshman Hoang Quan got his inspiration from Reese’s peanut butter cups and found a way to bring those flavors into the fudge medium through the use of a mix of caramel, peanut fudge and milk chocolate fudge in three separate layers.
“I really like the layers of chocolate with peanut butter in the middle,” Quan said. “I think it turned out great.”
Not to be outdone by underclassmen, BHS senior Ashley Banks was among the finalists with her Milky Way submission.
“I love Snickers, and I like white chocolate also, so I thought I might as well put them together,” Banks said.
The winner of the contest will have their flavor become the official Dare Not to Swear fudge for the current school year, which will not only be sold at The Candy Shoppe, but also given to special guests and dignitaries when they come to the high school, Hanna said.
“When state Attorney General Rob McKenna came last year, he got some of the official fudge,” Hanna said.
While fudge was the flavor of the day, all three students said the Dare Not to Swear program has made a positive impact on their lives.
“I think it’s good, because I used to swear a lot, but now I don’t,” Turner said.
As a senior Banks said she has also noticed that the program has helped teach students that it’s not cool to swear and has made a positive impact on the school environment.
