June 2003 (Newstream) -- Confectioners at Heart's Desire Chocolates, the North Bay's premier creator of specialty sweets, have devised a delicious remedy to California's latest fiscal crisis: a candy bar dedicated to the state budget debacle.

The "California Budget Crunch Bar©" blends Heart's Desire's charitable interests with its famous chocolate. "We're donating ten percent of the proceeds from every Budget Crunch Bar© to the California State Education Fund," says Diana Calderón, Heart's Desire CEO. "This is our way of showing our community that we're doing our part in these tough times." Heart's Desire is sending samples of the Budget Crunch Bar© to state legislators, Governor Gray Davis, and U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

The Budget Crunch Bar© sports a unique combination of California-grown tastes. Bits of real orange pulp and chunks of almond are whipped into both milk and dark chocolate varieties of the bar. The candy is handmade in Heart's Desire's Rohnert Park kitchen, then finished in colorful custom packaging. "It's the wrapper that really sells the concept," says Calderón. "Our yellow and blue label features a caricature of the state of California, straining against a belt tightly cinched around its waist." Under the wrapper, the Budget Crunch Bar© is clad in pink foil-"symbolizing the pink slips so many California workers have been handed recently," Calderón adds.

The bars, retailing for two dollars each, will be available in Heart's Desire's two Sonoma County stores beginning June 26. Telephone orders can be delivered anywhere in the U.S. via cold-pack express shipment.

The Budget Crunch Bar© is the latest innovation from a company renowned for community activism for over 20 years. Heart's Desire owns a legacy of charitable involvement, from such national efforts as the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the American Cancer Society, to local schools and police and fire departments.

A Sonoma County institution, Heart's Desire Chocolates has been led by current CEO Diana Calderón since February 2001. From its stores in Rohnert Park and Santa Rosa, Heart's Desire Chocolates manufactures and distributes award-winning, handcrafted confectionery, including wine and champagne truffles, caramels, fudges, and a line of sugar-free candies, all of which are made fresh daily. Visit Heart's Desire at www.heartsdesirechocolates.com.

Produced for Heart's Desire Chocolates