Blast from the Past--Dean and Deluca

This “Blast from the Past” series was an idea to catch up on some amazing things that has happened to Cocoa Dolce the past few years. One of these great stories is when we were featured in the Dean and Deluca’s Halloween Catalog. The story follows…


If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again!

At one point, we had been asked to submit some of our chocolates for review by the Chocolate buyer with Dean and Deluca. We were all elated at this opportunity. The company (Dean and Deluca) had always been a subject of interest with Beth. So, when we were asked to “try-out” we were all so excited!

This excitement helped “fuel the fire” in making an assortment of chocolates for review. Since we had never been asked to do this before, we apparently over-shot this a little. I guess they buyer had wanted just a sampling of our chocolates. Instead, they received a sample of almost everything we made. Little did we know, when they ask for a small assortment that’s what they really wanted. Oops!! The feedback was mixed. The flavors were good but the size of the chocolates were a little too big..among other comments. All in all, it was constructive criticism that helped us get better.

After a little while, we had one of our regular customers send a gift to Leslie Rudd, the owner of Dean and Deluca. After he tried our chocolates, he wanted us! We were a HIT! Our product “Cranky Jack-O-Lanterns” was added to the 2008 Halloween catalog. And, here’s the best part…we were the #1 seller the week before Halloween! All of our hard work had paid off!

Lucky for you, these little “cranky” creations are still a big seller at our retail location in Bradley Fair.

And...that's the Sweet Stuff!!

The front of the Halloween Catalog

The Back: to include our "Cranky Jack-O-Lanterns"