Blast from the Past--President Obama

*#$% Oprah, Let’s Go to the White House!

One of the challenges of promoting a small business is getting your product or service in front of influence-makers, whether they are local or more well-known.  Such had been our practice of routinely sending media kits and samples to celebrities, newspapers and magazines.  And one celebrity in particular had been on our radar since our opening.  You guessed it; we wanted Oprah Winfrey to taste our chocolates.  After several failed attempts, one day I said, @#&! Oprah, let’s go to the White House!

Fortunately, I said that to a friend of mine, Judge Richard Green.  Judge Green is the Chief Justice for the Kansas Court of Appeals and a good friend of our former governor, Kathleen Sebelius.  In fact, then Governor Sebelius appointed Judge Green to the bench.  All it took was a little wine and brainstorming and we were on our way!  Richard dropped a letter to Secretary Sebelius and asked if she could lend a hand in presenting chocolates to the White House.

Not only was she thrilled to lend a hand, she offered to hand-deliver our goodies to the President of the United States at the first cabinet meeting of the New Year.  Needless to say, we were thrilled beyond belief!  And so the waiting and planning began—what should we send?  How much chocolate?  After much thought and research, we decided to send a box of our assorted chocolates along with several boxes of Grey Salt Caramels and a Chocolate Survival Kit for Michele and the kids (why not?). 

We formulated a letter of congratulations to President Obama on the anniversary of his inauguration and threw our hat in the ring to be the Official Chocolatier to the White House!  Richard Green drove our goodie bag and letter to Topeka and personally delivered the package to Secretary Sebelius the week after Christmas.  About two days after her arrival in Washington, Richard got a call from her staffers informing him that the chocolates had been delivered.  Not only that, they were so well-received that President Obama requested an official White House photo of the event.

We could not have been happier!  And the waiting began in earnest!  Finally, in late April Richard dropped off the most amazing envelope we had ever seen.  Inside were a lovely handwritten note from Secretary Sebelius and a very official envelope from the White House.  The envelope contained a wonderful photo of the president with the inscription, “Beth, thanks for the chocolates!  Barack Obama”.

I’m not sure about you, but that was one of the coolest gifts I’ve ever received.  How many of us can say that the leader of the Free World took a moment to write a personal thank you to them?  I can tell you, not many!  We proudly display the photo on our ‘brag wall’ and continue to hold out hope that maybe, just maybe we will be appointed Official Chocolatier to the White House!

Remember, unless you dream it, you can’t realize it!  Dream Big!

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"

Coming Soon!

In an effort to be better bloggers, we have taken a little time off to create some exciting topics to write about.  We are almost finished compiling our list. Stay on the look-out for some exciting new posts.  Some include a "Blast from the Past" series,  Cocoa Dolce "in house" traditions, "Get the Know the Staff" series and much more!  

Cocktails & Cookies

For the second year now, we have participated in an event called "Cocktails and Cookies".  It benefits the Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland.  Their event is the culmination of another successful cooking-selling season.  Since half of our staff was a Girl Scout at one point or another...it's hard to say no to participating in this event.  Plus...who doesn't love Girl Scout cookies!!

The event promotes the Girl Scout cookies for that season.  Each chef is asked to create some sort of dessert using cookies.  The "hardest" part about this event is having to taste test each possible dessert.  Someone's gotta do it...right?!?

This time, we decided to do something a little different than last year.  (Last year we made a Trio of Mousses in Chocolate Cordial Cups) We decided to make a cookie with 9 layers.  We named our creation "The Kitchen Sink and the Baby Too!"  

The night of the event went well.  We heard great things about our dessert.  We even had people in the crowd trying to help us "woo" the judges. One lady, in particular, wanted to make sure the ABC Cookie Executive ate our dessert right in front of us.   The judges eventually did a Top Chef-type judging table and discussed each participants dessert to the crowd.  I believe the words "decadence on steroids" was mentioned when describing ours! 

Although we didn't win any prizes, we were nothing but positive compliments from the judges!  

We were happy to be a part of such a fun evening that benefited a great organization!  

Here is the recipe...in case you wanted to give it a whirl!!

Kitchen Sink Cookie Bar

1 sleeve of shortbread cookie crumbs

1 sleeve of shout-out cookie crumbs

½ cup melted butter

Combine crumbs with melted butter and press into bottom of 9 x 13 inch pan.

1 cup chocolate chips (70% the best)

1 box Caramel Delites—cut in 1/8s

1 box Peanut Butter Patties—cut in 1/8s

Layer these in the pan, then top with:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Add:  1 1/3 cups coconut and 1 cup chopped pecans.

Pat the coconut and pecans down into the sweetened condensed milk.  Bake at 350 degrees for 32 minutes.

Cut and drizzle with milk and bittersweet chocolate!  Makes approximately 90 one-inch servings.

Until next time...that's the Sweet Stuff!!

Introducing the Two Newest Members of the Cocoa Dolce Family!

Happy 2011!  Where did January and February go?  In a heartfelt effort to post some interesting content on our blog this year, here is my attempt. 

I get regular inquiries about how we develop new products and flavors.  It’s really pretty simple…we brainstorm and then we experiment.  A great example would be our new artisan bar flavors launching next week.  When we started our bar line, the first few were easy—solid milk, white and bittersweet chocolate and the obvious additional almond variations.  Then it got a little more interesting…based on staff discussions, we brainstormed additional chocolate amendments—cherries, raisins, peanuts, hazelnuts, etc., etc., etc.

 

Then the really hard work began.  We had to taste test these combinations—tough work, but someone had to do it!  After exhausting testing we chose our winners and produced them for sale.  Now let’s flash to fall of 2010.  At least once a season, we look at our sales trends and assess objectively AND subjectively our winners and losers.  One of the pillars of Cocoa Dolce is a commitment to creating great tasting chocolate confections that make our customers happy.  Sometimes even when we think we have a winner you, our real voters, tell us differently.

That leads me to our new flavor launch.  After our last rigorous analysis of which of our kids failed 5^th grade, we found a couple of drop-outs.  After looking at flavor trends and, quite frankly, what our staff palates dictate, we proudly announce our two new bar flavors:  grey salt caramel in 57% bittersweet Belgian chocolate and toffee in Belgian milk chocolate. 

So here’s the scoop:  grey salt caramel bar--we made a fresh soft caramel and added French grey sea salt while it was cooling.  Once cooled to room temperature, we piped it into a bittersweet bar shell and then filled the rest of the bar with bittersweet chocolate.  When we break this bar into sections, it cracks and this delicious salted soft caramel oozes out…be still my heart!   Bar #2--we LOVE toffee and think that we make some of the best English toffee around.  So we crushed our buttery toffee base and mixed it with our premium Belgian milk chocolate.  It seems to us that we have a real keeper with this flavor combination…crunchy and sweet.

grey salt caramel bar

crushed toffee bar

Who could resist?  We hope you can’t!  Here’s to you loving our new kids.  If you do, drop us a line and let us know.  In the meantime, have a great March and here’s to dreaming big!

Beth

Autumn & Art 2010

Autumn & Art Blog

We had our first concession stand experience this weekend at a new Bradley Fair event, Autumn and Art. The event took place behind the shopping center, along the lake. Artists came from all over the country to show off their work and we were one of several Bradley Fair food vendors represented in the food tent.

8 AM Saturday arrived very early after a fun night at the VIP Preview Party Friday night. Everyone enjoyed great food, music and a chance to get a shot at the art prior to the public opening. 

Our decision to sell chocolate, Italian sodas and gelato turned out to be a bit of a challenge in the 90+ degree weather, but with our amazing ice machine and the use of dry ice, we made it work.  We had a great turnout on Saturday; our Palazzolo’s gelato and refreshing Italian sodas did a great job refreshing the visitors while they strolled through the show.

Highlights of the weekend included college graduates try to count change (we didn’t even use a calculator) and watching Jay (Beth’s husband and Cocoa Dolce right-hand man ) transport and entertain us with his frequent ice runs in which he filled his large hiking backpack with bags of ice. 

Year one down! Next year...less gelato, lower temps and case quantities of club soda! ~ Just a bit of flavor!

Santo Caffeina!

Holy Caffeine!  I'm so excited right now!  Last week, we proudly rolled out our own line of artisan coffee!  As a small business owner, a challenge over time is to keep things fresh and exciting.  It's often easier for me to think of chocolate innovation, but this time the opportunity came to our hip little lounge.  Through a serendipitous convergence of business relationships and family connections, Mountain Goat coffee came calling.

A subsidiary company of a local restaurant chain, Mountain Goat Coffee is the real deal.  When these guys decided roasting their own coffee would yield better profitability as well as quality for their restaurants, they became coffee experts.  They traveled, studied and practiced.  And our paths crossed!

After three cuppings (intense coffee tastings) with customers, family and staff--we felt like we were onto something amazing!  Tasty, nuanced and smooth, the feedback was fantastic and the buzz began!  In addition to joining forces with such creative coffee artisans, we also got a chance to develop and visually brand a new addition to the Cocoa Dolce family of products.  Since we are blessed with so many creative and talented staffers, I gave much of the branding decision to my right AND left-hand adviser's, Angie and Amber.  In collaboration with our dream designer, Paul Fountain.

So how did we do?  Coffee has been roasted, packaged and consumed since almost the beginning of time.  It's hard to reinvent any aspect of coffee...but let's see how we did?? How about this for a label design??

The Cocoa Dolce Think Tank came up with the tag line:  Shattering Expectations!  And look at the cup!  Paul came up with this idea to carefully break one of our coffee mugs and then show the coffee bursting out of the cup.  Genius!  

And the rest is the beginning of history.  Sales are great, customers are happy and we have these really cool new products to talk about.  So if you see any of us, ask us about our coffee!