The melting point of chocolate
Whew. What a time this is been for folks in the food business, and significantly so for chocolate makers and chocolatiers! While we are navigating a barrage of changes, we are also excited about some changes we’ve made here in our little corner of the world, and future ones to come. Here’s a rundown of recent challenges, and our plans to keep our small business thriving.
As you may have seen in news headlines, chocolate prices are through the roof as chocolate crops suffer and supply is limited, and we have seen our costs soar. While COVID had us pivoting to online sales and shipping, which turned out to be a savior for our little business, as the warming trend continues we have had to pause shipping as the heat settles in for longer periods across the country, which is now most of the late spring and summertime. Reality is hitting hard.
The summer heat was a big part of our decision to open a downtown shop, where we have a climate-controlled space to sell chocolates directly to customers. That and we missed seeing people and being able to connect with friends and our community, as well as being able to give out tastes and chat about confections. It has been absolutely wonderful to see everyone, and we are so excited to be in our beautiful, gracious space! To further connection, the downtown shop also has a lovely back room that opens up onto the building’s atrium, a cozy event spot for tastings and pairings and chocolate hangs.
The chocolate shop, of course, also adds the expenses of rent, utilities, insurance, internet, payroll, furnishings, etc., so we took on a big chunk of outgoing cash flow, counting on our loyal local customers and food loving tourists to come to us for our creative treats, gifts and gatherings. You have not disappointed us! THANK YOU! We envisioned our spot with an exquisite, transportive, calming vibe, so all of what we do makes our visitors feel like they are doing something special for themselves by walking through the door. We hope you’ve found it just so.
We continue to make our chocolates by hand with premium couverture from Latin America and the very best local ingredients, like the organic heavy cream we source from nearby Miller Farm, and foraged spruce and mint from Halifax Hollow. The best ingredients make the most flavorful chocolates, ones where you can taste the thought, care and quality we put into every single one of our creations, so they speak about our locale and the many hands that go into making each piece from farm and forest to bonbon and bar. We want our chocolates to have the human touch, where you can see that hands made them, that don’t look like they were made by machines or with artificial colors and loud designs, just the beauty of the ingredients themselves, elegant and simple.
Transitions, challenges & abundance
While we have had to raise prices on some of our products, we have only done what we absolutely need to do to keep the doors open and the chocolate flowing. We refuse to compromise on our standards, the quality or sourcing of our ingredients, and we want to well compensate our hard working staff and offer them more.
Our approach remains the same
- Best quality, ethically sourced direct trade, single origin chocolate from Latin America
- Locally foraged and farmed foods that speak of our locale
- Premium global spices, nuts, and other ingredients we can not source locally
- Balanced sweet and savory flavors so they pop across your palate or combine to create a new flavor experience as you enjoy them and don’t overpower the flavor of the chocolate
- Hand crafted without gimmicks or flashy packaging, just mindfully, painstakingly made slow food
Highlights from the past year
• Chocolate prices soared and we saw our costs go up again this year, so we’re getting creative, refusing to sacrifice the quality or vision of our craft. We began experimenting baking cookies and pastries, and exploring confections like caramels, toffees, mousse, chocolate covered marshmallows and bonbon recipes that use even more of our local bounty. We will continue to roll out more recipes this coming year, diving into other confectionery delights to add to our chocolate offerings. Our chocolate suppliers in Ecuador continue their farming and sustainability efforts and amazing craftsmanship as they navigate the climate and economic world.
• Temperatures are climbing nationwide during the summer making it risky to ship our chocolates, so we imagine closing our online shop during a portion of the summer for the foreseeable future, one of the reasons we opened our climate-controlled brick and mortar shop, so come visit! We will offer online ordering for local pickup during our regular summertime hours.
• We had a super busy season, juggling the online and downtown shops, our New England distributor, and the stores throughout the Northeast that we supply. We couldn’t have done it without our amazing crew, and their hard work, ingenuity, creativity, efficiency, and commitment to making beautiful, delicious things, all while keeping a great sense of humor and high standards. Dream team!
• We got our event space up and running! Located in the back of our downtown shop, it’s a cozy, elegant room for tastings, pairings, and chocolate hangs. We’ll be hosting more events and gatherings in the future, so watch for announcements on social media and in emails!
• We began offering our seasonal, holiday chocolates for pre-order online so we can make fresh batches and ship them out right before the holidays, allowing us to plan and know where best to put our efforts and energies when navigating our busiest times and keep our brick and mortar shop stocked. Keep your eyes peeled for announcements when new holiday collections drop!
•YOU were the reason we had a busy season, and there are no sufficient words to describe just how important that was to our business and how grateful we are.
•And YOU are the reason we do what we do, and that means the world to us! Thank you!
Check out this story in Food&Wine Magazine and this one in The Guardian for more about chocolate costs and supply
