Story of the Tibby Bar:

One day Deedee Lumb came to my house and said get your pocketbook and I'm taking you somewhere. We drove to an area I had NEVER been before and wondered if I would ever find it again. We arrived at The Hudson Chocolate shop. Well, that was a surprise and I was impressed the minute I walked in the door--with the beautiful chocolates and with the beautiful people who owned and ran the shop. Francisco Migoya, his wife Kris and daughter Isabella and Annie Kamin met us at the door. Francisco is the owner and chocolatier, with the help of his wife and daughter and Annie is their right hand chocolatier. Francisco and Kris are graduates of the CIA and Professors at the Institute. Annie gives the tours, helps make the chocolate, decorate etc and I have to say are the nicest, kindess, fun, creative and expert chocolatiers ever!!! We immediately bonded. Yes, I bought practically every piece of chocolate they displayed. I have given it for Christmas presents, Birthdays, Valentines Day etc etc. Now THAT'S CHOCOLATE. The Mexican Hot Chocolate is amazing as well. I was going back regularly and one day Francisco said "we would like to name a chocolate bar after you as you are such a good customer". He said I could go home and my family and I could "design" it. Well that we did.
Danika said you like stroopwafels so why not start there. Henry suggested dark chocolate with a little salt and thought the name "Dutch Treat" would be good but The Tibby Bar stuck instead.I know Tara was in on it but she doesn't think so---we asked her for her opinion and she did a taste test and it passed!! They had to "tweak" it a bit and The Tibby Bar was born. You can check it out on the Hudson Chocolate website. They do a lot of mail order business as well.
Just to mention: when you go there Annie gives you a tour where you can taste all the different chocolates. They try to incorporate local flavors and create some amazing shapes and tastes. Each holiday has its own special creative chocolate forms and tastes.
Years back, I lived in Holland and LOVED going to the bakery or to the street markets where you could get fresh hot stroopwafels (a thin waffel type cookie with carmel between the layers--yum!!Whenever anyone would come here to visit from Holland I would ask them to bring some with them. One day in the mail a funny record arrived (see how long ago by the size of the record. Here's a picture of the cover.

As you can see, everyone knew my love of the stroopwafels, even though this was a singing group!!
If you are in this area, I do hope you'll go to check out Hudson Chocolates. Only open on the weekend noon to 5, unless its a holiday, then sometimes they are open the week before. Go to the web site and get directions--Cottage and Smith Street-Poughkeepsie,NY    You will be greeted by these wonderful people and get to taste their wonderful chocolate. 5 stars in my book!!