For chocolatier Gaylene Steinbach, Christmas will always remind her of a cold room, a marble slab and the smell of chocolate.
Every year throughout Steinbach's childhood, her mother transformed an empty guest room into a chocolate production space.
Steinbach watched as her mom carefully handcrafted bonbons and topped the treats with cursive letters to mark the fillingÌý— 'A' for almond, 'C' for coconut, 'L' for lemon.
"I grew up with my mom doing that in our house," she said. "I was familiar with it, I was surrounded by it, but the bug didn't hit me until much later when my mom sent me some of her chocolates for a birthday."
Decades after watching her mother for the first time, Steinbach said the taste blew her away, inspiring her to delve deep into the craft and eventually start her own business.
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"It took me back home and it piqued my interest," she said. "I was so interested in how someone could create such indulgent tastes within this tiny morsel and so I just began reading everything I could on making chocolates and started to experiment. Pretty soon, my family and friends were encouraging me to make this into a business."
Just as her mother shared the tradition with her, Steinbach kept her children close throughout the process, going so far as to name her emerging business after them.
A combination of their nicknamesÌý— Lulu and BeeÌý— merged together to create the face of Steinbach'sÌýchocolatiering journey: Lulubee.
Today, Lulubee Artisanal Chocolates is one of 70 stops in theÌýÌý— anÌýannual tourism promotion effort that encourages travelers to visit a variety ofÌýmuseums, parks, restaurants, wineries, retail stores and more across the state.
The 2023 Nebraska Passport program runs from May 1 through Sept. 30, and for the next five months we'll have a weekly feature highlighting stops along the passport.
Participants can qualify for prizes based on how many locations they visit during the program, collecting physical or digital stamps at each stop.
Steinbach's business started production out of a coffee shop kitchen in the North Bottoms in 2014, but demand quickly outgrew the space's capacity.
In November of 2020, Steinbach opened a brick-and-mortar store of her own in Lincoln's Village Gardens. She said it allowed her to increase production and, for the first time, gave her a retail space.
Before, Steinbach did business solely through her online store, event outreach and wholesale customers.
Now that the shop has foot traffic and people wandering in the front door, she said the dynamic has changed completely.
"I could talk about chocolate for days and days," she said. "There's always something new, there are flavors that we have yet to explore, endless combinations of flavor and texture differences. To me, it's just never ending possibilities and it excites me, it motivates me."
While the store is stocked withÌýtruffles, caramel, turtles, toffee and artisan chocolate bars, Steinbach said if customers were going to walk away with one item, it'd have to be their gourmet bonbons.Ìý
Some of Steinbach's most memorable bonbons include a mint flavor, her favorite piece her mom made when she was a kid; a root beer flavor, linked to memories of summer and childhood; and a pina colada flavor, stemming from travel and living abroad.
"I talk about them being rooted in the past, but these are indulgences, these are gifts to be shared," Steinbach said. "The flavors are rooted in my past experiences, that I want to share with the customers. ... I don't think you can ever go wrong with the gift of chocolate."
These TikTok cookie recipes will satisfy your sweet tooth
1. Cookie Monster Cookies
You don’t have to be a kid to appreciate this viral cookie recipe from @matthewinthekitchen. These Cookie Monster inspired cookies are packed with white and semi-sweet chocolate chips and stuffed with extra chocolate.
COOKIE MONSTER COOKIES ARE INSANE! Never enough chocolate
2. Blueberry Cookies
TikTok foodie @justine_snacks paired up with the Blueberry Council to create these blueberry cookies. The frozen blueberries keep the recipe plant based while keeping the texture soft.
Reply to @heyheyheyyyyyyyy7 Blueberries or nothing 🤩 @blueberrycouncil #cbfbb
3. Key Lime Cookies
If you’ve ever wanted to eat key lime pie in cookie form, you need to try this super simple but super delicious recipe from @easyfamilyrecipes.Ìý
Maybe double the recipe, because these cookies disappear FAST!