TRUMBULL COUNTY Oh, fudge! Flavors go on the road

The owner's daughter provided the inspiration for unusual flavors.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A sweet taste of the city is hitting the road next month.
Fun Flavored Fudge, part of Top-Shelf Sweets 'n' Gifts, 1813 Elm Road N.E., will be featured Sept. 21 on "Roker on the Road" on The Food Network. In the program, Al Roker, weatherman from NBC's Today show, "takes his love of food and his fascination with people across America," says the Food Network Web site. The program airs at 9 p.m.
Michele Newman, a city resident, started Fun Flavored Fudge.com about four years ago when her daughter, Danielle, then 4, asked her mother to make bubble gum fudge.
Once Newman figured out a way to turn her daughter's request into a delectable treat, she started out to create other unusual fudge flavors.
The result is 64 fudge flavors from cappuccino and caramel apple to root beer and pina colada. Newman expects to add six more for the holidays.
Taste-testers
Danielle and Newman's other children, Garet, 9, and Adam, 5, suggest flavor ideas.
"They are my tasters," Newman said. "If it doesn't pass them, it doesn't make it up on the board."
Mayor Michael J. O'Brien presented Newman with a key to the city Friday, the first time a city resident has received the award in more than 20 years.
"I'm going to start doing that with all new businesses that come into the city," O'Brien said.
Newman opened the Elm Road retail store in November.
"I had 1,000 pounds of marshmallows in my son's room and sugar and everything else," she said. "It just got to be too much."
She sent an e-mail to The Food Network last year and after several follow-up calls had given up. But in June, on her daughter's eighth birthday, the show called to confirm that it would make a stop at her business. Roker's producer and a crew visited last month.
The fudge marks Newman's first business venture on her own.
"I'm having the time of my life," she said.