Mixing things up on the midcoast: Scone Goddess teams with Bixby Chocolate

Photo / Provided Veronica Stubbs, left, of the Stone Goddess, and Kate McAleer, of Bixby Chocolate, have joined forces to create a new premium scone mix that will make its debut at a Portland trade show next week.

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By Renee Cordes

Two midcoast food brands are mixing things up with a new premium scone mix set to make its debut at the New England Made Giftware & Specialty Food Show in Portland next week.

The new product, Cherry Chocolate Almond Chunk, is made by the Scone Goddess, a Northport brand with national ambitions, using bar chocolate from Rockland-based Bixby Chocolate.

Veronica Stubbs, founder and CEO of the Scone Goddess, said the collaboration comes about four years after she connected with Kate McAleer, founder of Bixby Chocolate.

“Kate and I met right before the pandemic,” Stubbs told Mainebiz. “The Scone Goddess had just started to gain traction in the area with our fresh baked scones and I was visiting Bixby Chocolate, dreaming up new flavor ideas.”

Fast forward six months, when Stubbs switched gears from baking to making mixes. Then as her business grew, the supply chain shrunk, and Stubbs reached out to Kate in hopes of buying chocolate and other ingredients that both used in their recipes.

“Bixby Chocolate’s willingness to share their inventory was pivotal” to the survival of the Scone Goddess, Stubbs said. “Had that not happened, we likely would have failed.”

As the scone business continued to grow, the two started testing scone mix flavors to find a joint concoction..

“After trying multiple flavor combinations, Cherry Chocolate Almond Chunk is our most favorite,” Stubbs said. “The tart cherries, crunchy almonds and giant chunks of silky Bixby Bean to Bar Chocolate are an exquisite combination that represents the quality that both the Scone Goddess and Bixby Chocolate are known for."

The product will be officially launched at the 40th annual New England Made Giftware & Specialty Food Show, set to take place March 16-18 at the Fireside Inn in Portland. After the show, the new mix will be sold at Bixby Chocolate in Rockland, on the websites of both companies, “and any of our retail partners that decide to carry it,” Stubbs said.

McAleer, who was honored as a Mainebiz Woman to Watch In 2022, has high hopes for a long-term partnership with Stubbs.

“I think if this mix does well there are so many possibilities,” she told Mainebiz.