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Scott Witherow is quick to admit that he might be a borderline hoarder of things from the past. His East Nashville bean-to-bar chocolate factory, Olive and Sinclair, is brimming with telltale traits: vintage metal signs, salvaged light fixtures, the two massive 100-year-old stone mills he uses to grind cacao beans.
But this deep-seated need to amass antique tokens is more than just a hobby. It's Witherow's way of tapping into the past in order to innovate for the future. Consider his latest venture, Seersucker, named for that classic summer suit, which is a line of Southern-inspired craft confections that lives under the Olive and Sinclair umbrella. Launching this month with three styles of liquid-filled chocolate balls, it all started as a way to create a better bourbon ball.
'Don't get me wrong, there's something awesome about traditional bourbon balls,” Witherow says. 'But it's like trying to reinvent Grandma's roast chickenit just shouldn't be done.”
Instead, he's improving upon it, like with a chocolate sphere filled with liquid salted bourbon caramelit's affectionately called the Muzzle Loader. The other two sweets in the line are the Cherry Bomb (a pickled maraschino cherry adds an acidic and savory bite to the center) and the Seersucker Original, a traditional chocolate ball with a liquid sea salt center.
'I'm inspired mostly by flavor combinationsespecially things that have historically been produced in the South,” says Witherow. Even the packaging gets a nod toward the pastthe tins they're sold in are inspired by old phonograph tubes, which Witherow started collecting a year or so ago.
'I wanted our team not to lose the platform or creative outlet that Olive and Sinclair had provided us,” he says. 'Instead of just putting it under [that label], we decided to put it under something else that didn't pigeonhole us.” Still, the line remains true to Witherow's mission of creating craft confections.
'Everything is piped by hand, which is why we'll do small runs to start,” he explains.
For now, Seersucker products are available online and at the on-site factory store, retailing at $16.99 for a package of eight balls. 'I like the idea of a small release,” Witherow says. 'Once we get it launched and slow walk it a minute or two, we'll make a decision on how to grow from there.”
1628 Fatherland St., 615-262-3007; seersuckercandyco.com