I sat down with Katie, the owner of Sundaes Best Hot Fudge to talk with her about how she was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and where their delectable hot fudge recipe comes from. Check out the new episode of Bite Me below.

How did Sundaes Best get started?

“Well I think is started when I came out of the womb. I’ve always been a chocolate lover and as a little girl, my favorite thing was always hot fudge sauce. My mom has a sweet tooth, I have a sweet tooth and my grandmother, God love her, she lived to be 96 and the last week of her life she was still eating hot fudge sundaes. As a little girl after church, if we were good, I was able to go get a hot fudge sundae. That’s when Stewart’s used to have the little sit down make-your-own sundaes and it was the perfect treat. I have always loved hot fudge.”

Where does the original recipe come from?

“It is my husbands mothers so my mother-in-law, it’s her recipe; Marilyn Shinaman. She perfected the recipe probably in the late sixties in Skaneateles, NY. When Jeff was a child she would make it for church goers, friends and family members and it used to be a huge process. When the recipe started we only had a small little double boiler on the stove that would make 3 jars so my father-in-law, he was a big thinker, he went and invested in a bigger double boiler. They would go to the church kitchen and use the church burners and make the jars of hot fudge one batch at a time.”

How did you come up with the other 12 flavors you now carry?

“We have so many flavors. The first couple of years that we did it, we made it with one jar, one flavor and one price- it was easy once we figured out how to make it in big batches! Then 4 or 5 years in, we decided “oh wouldn’t it be fun to have some flavors” and people were like what’s new, what’s new? I said OK, lets start some flavors. The flavors we decided on first were something I wanted to be recognizable so we started with raspberry and chocolate which is perfect, especially this time of year. Then we went to mint so those were our two flavor introductions.”

What’s your favorite flavor?

“I am an original. I like the bittersweet but I also love the java. I mean I never met chocolate that I didn’t like but I love my chocolate plain. I do like them all though.”

How do you recommend people enjoy your fudge?

“I think spoons. I make these little fried wontons that are pretty delicious for a treat. You take the wonton wrappers and instead of putting in sausage and vegetables, you put a little chocolate sauce in there and fry them up then sprinkle them with powdered sugar. People are very creative. Although it is also funny because as a marketer, I always struggle with hot fudge because it’s immediately ingrained in your head that it has to go on ice cream. Customers at shows and festivals say “oh you can eat it on a spoon” and the more conservative people look at them like “really?” I am like yup, try it! It’s the best way and that way you don’t get as many calories because all of the calories are just in the chocolate.”

Where can people find your products?

“Up until the pandemic, we sold nationwide and we still sell nationwide but we sell online mostly now. We’ve really changed our swim, our stroke. We’ve gone from wholesale and retail direct shows like the Philadelphia flower show or craft shows but now we sell online at SundaesBest.com”

In addition to the hot 12 hot fudge flavors and chocolate cake mix you can get online, keep an eye out for their all natural fruit and pretzel dip in the refrigerated section of your local grocer.