"How To": The Making of the Easter Dino

There are many steps to creating one of the beautiful chocolate dinos in the Cocoa Dolce kitchen. Lets watch as we walk through step by step…

Step One: We always polish our molds with a cotton cloth before we put any chocolate in them. We do this to remove any possible “left-over” cocoa butter that might prevent the final product from releasing from the mold properly. 

Step Two: Some of our molds, including this one, have design indentions in them. We use these indentions as the dino’s spots and paint each of them individually with chocolate.  Since the dino is going to be filled with a different kind of chocolate, you will be able to see the spots in the end.

Step Three: After the spots have dried, we can start creating our shell. We use metal clips to hold both sides of the dino together and this allows us to pour our chocolate into the mold. We then rotate the chocolate filled mold around until the entire inside surface is covered with chocolate.

 

Step Four: Once the mold is covered with chocolate, we must get the excess chocolate out. We tip the mold over and hit the mold with an off-set spatula, letting the chocolate flow out. 

Step Five: After our chocolate shell is finished, it must sit and air dry. This completes the first cast of our dino. Once it is completely finished drying, we repeat steps 3 and 4 and let it dry and harden into a shell.

Step Six: Once the drying is done, we must create the base for the dino.  We spread a small amount of chocolate on a tray, creating a thin layered bottom. Then we take the mold and place it in the center of the chocolate base. We put it in the refrigerator to finish the shell mold.

Step Seven: After about 10 to 15 minutes in the fridge, we remove the mold and break the excess chocolate off of the bottom. We also take off the metal clips holding the mold together.

 

Step Eight: The final step. We carefully remove the chocolate dino from it’s mold. If we did everything correctly, it should come out with ease! And you are left with a beautiful hollow DINO!

Isn't Dino so cute?

Here is the Dino in it's finished state...with eggs and all!

Meet the Staff: An Interview with Angie

For those of you familiar with the Cocoa Dolce family, you can’t have missed Angie. She was Beth’s very first employee when this little shop got started, and she has been a huge part of it’s success ever since. In the six years we’ve been open, her job has changed dramatically with the needs of our store. So how did it all get started?

Angie was in nursing school at Newman University and looking for a little something to do with her spare time, when her good friend Jacob told her about a chocolate shop his step-mom was opening. What could be more fun than spending your free time working with chocolate? So she signed on. Her first day was a three hour shift, spent behind the counter helping customers and making hot chocolate with a small machine that heated and frothed the mixture for two minutes. Beth was having a “Friends and Family” meet and greet that evening to introduce the store to the area and celebrate the opening. It was right after her shift, so Angie (wanting to look cute) wore boots with a small heel, which she says she will never do again. Making chocolate might be fun, but we are on our feet a lot. So after that experience, she decided fashion would always take a back seat to comfortable shoes. 

After a while Angie decided nursing wasn’t for her, and she wanted to go full-time. Beth was more than happy, and began giving her more responsibilities, the first of which was creating the schedule for the other employees. 

Now, things have changed. She’s now our Manager of Business Development, and most days, you won’t find Angie behind the counter. She’s still at the shop, but she also has a brand new office located at our production facility to give her a “more quiet” place to get the job done. She also takes care of all of our custom ordering. If you’ve had a wedding or party and wanted custom chocolate for it, you’ve talked to Angie. She then, has ordered your boxes, tags, cocoa butter transfers, ribbons, cellophane, and anything else you’ve needed to get exactly what you were looking for. Finding all that stuff isn’t always easy, but Angie somehow comes through. Now she has a list of vendors, and go-to guys for any occasion we might run into. 

She also manages all of our corporate customers. We now do quite a bit of wholesale, all of which Angie keeps track of. Whether it’s logo bars for Chester’s Chophouse, candy bars for the Warren Theatre, or wholesale truffles for our vendors in Kansas City, it all goes through Angie first. She has also organized our shipping department to facilitate our customers who wish to send chocolate to their grandmother in Florida without it melting. 

There are about a million jobs Angie now does that she didn’t in the beginning, but some things haven’t changed. She still loves what she does and the people she works with (although that number has grown considerably too!), and the family oriented atmosphere we try to hard to maintain. Her favorite chocolate is still the Maple Cream, her favorite drink is a Raspberry Peach Italian Soda, and she says her favorite thing about watching us grow is watching the world around us grow too. We have the best customers, some of which have been there from the very beginning. She has watched a married couple become a family of five, has made personal friendships with the faces we see most often, and the staff even receives birthday cards from customers that started out with us in the very beginning, just like Angie. 

As we continue to grow in the future, we know that Angie will continue being a part of what makes Cocoa Dolce great.

Valentine's Day History

Since it is so close to Valentine’s Day, we figured we would see how this holiday came about.

One story dates back to Roman times when Claudius didn’t want men to marry before enlisting in the army.  He felt single men made better soldiers.  Bishop Valentine went against Claudius’ wishes and held secret marriage ceremonies.  When Claudius found out, Valentine was jailed and later killed on February 14th.  He was later named a saint and February 14^th became a feast day for many Christians.

In the Middle Ages, people believed birds began to mate on February 14^th.  Because of this, the people began sending love letters on this day.   Men and women would also draw names out of a bowl to see who they would be paired with for the next year.  When they drew the person’s name, it was placed on their sleeve so everyone in the town would be able to see who they were paired with.  This later coined the phrase “wear your heart on your sleeve.”

In the 15^th Century, sung valentine’s were later replaced with hand-written notes and poems. 

Chocolates were given as gifts in the 1800’s.  Chocolate was also prescribed by doctors to their lovesick patients to soothe their nerves and calm their emotions.  Richard Cadbury produced the first box of chocolates for Valentine’s during this time as well.  

And the rest is history……

Did you know?

-Over $1 billion worth of chocolate is purchased for Valentine’s Day in the US.

-73% of people who buy flowers for Valentine’s Day are men.

-Manufacturers of Conversation Hearts introduce 10 new sayings each year.

-189 million stems of roses are sold on Valentine’s Day in the U.S.

-More than 35 million heart-shaped boxes will be sold for Valentine’s Day. 

Happy New Year!

When each New Year begins, we have a chance to look back at our accomplishments as well as our mishaps. We have a chance to see what we did great and what can be done differently. The New Year allows us for a new beginning.

At Cocoa Dolce, we also looked at this New Year as a new beginning. We are excited for what 2012 has in store for us. But, before we got ahead of ourselves in planning for the future, we reflected on how the days of 2011 helped us grow into the business we are today.

As we talked about what a great year 2011 was, we decided to find out what our top sellers were. The Top 5 Items are listed below!

Thanks again for making 2011 Chocolate-filled!  Here’s to a great 2012!!

1.Caffe Mocha
2. Caffe de Cocoa Coffee
3. Latte
4. Mexican Hot Chocolate
5. Cappucino

1. 57% with Grey Salt
2. Solid Milk
3. Milk with Peanut Butter
4. Milk with Almonds
5. Single Origin Java

1. Vino Cobos Felino Malbec 2009
2. Lioco Sonoma County Cardonnay 2008
3. Small Gully Mr. Black’s Concoction 2006
4. Elio Perrone Sourgal Moscato Biano 2010
5. Lindemans Frambroise

1. Champagne
2. Crème Brulee
3. Salted Caramel
4. Mayan
5. Strawberry Balsamic



'Tis the Season

It's NEVER too early to start thinking about your holiday orders! 

Newest Members of the Cocoa Dolce Family

We are happy to introduce two new members of our Cocoa Dolce Family!  These bundles of joy arrived in October. We are so happy to have them in our "extended family".  We'll have more of their stories after their moms and dads can catch up on sleep and get used to being first-time parents.  Congrats James and Molly and Leah and Ben on these amazing new little ones! 

Adelaide Noel Tully
Born October 12th at 3:28 pm
10 lbs 13 oz
20.5 inches long

Ethan James Jung
Born October 22nd at 1:25 pm
6 lbs 9 oz
19.25 inches long

Guest Writer--Palazzolo's Artisan Gelato and Sorbetto

We decided we wanted to have select "outsiders" write on our blog.  In an effort to get a different perspective on some of our products, chocolates classes, wine/beer tastings, etc...we will have periodic blogs from those outside the official "Cocoa Dolce Family". 

Davie Seidel, the Head of Accounts and Business Development with Palazzolo's Artisan Gelato and Sorbetto, is a great example of this.  He was the first person we talked to about the possibility of carrying Palazzolo's products in our store.  Thank you, Dave, for taking the time to tell us his version of this story...

Roasted Pistachio

White Chocolate Raspberry

I hadn't been working with Pete Palazzolo for very long when Beth Tully rang in. Actually...I think the first call was from her husband. He was doing some checking around for her as they were looking for a good gelato manufacturer and a quality gelato display source. Luckily...we're both!

After he understood that our gelato is from all real and perishable ingredients...(versus the artificial and powder-based ingredients that most of the other manufacturers rely on)...he cleared the way for his wife.

 The next contact from Cocoa Dolce was Beth. Gotta love Beth! I simply informed her of our products and our ability to produce whatever our customers want...and she was quickly up and running. I remember thinking...well...this should be a fun job if other customers like the Tully's keep calling. And they have. We're truly not salesman over here...we simply answer the phone and offer up the information.

Join us if you can and we'll have as long a relationship as we're currently enjoying with Cocoa Dolce.


Thanks again Dave!!  Until next time....that's the sweet stuff!  You can find out more about Palazzolo's by checking our their website www.4gelato.com.