Name: Joanne

Location: Ramona, California

What is your favorite ingredient? Sea salt (after CHOCOLATE of course)

What is your favorite chocolate bar? Milk chocolate, sea salt, toffee bits, and whole almonds.

What is your favorite blog entry? Yes. The yearbook awards are cute and clever!

Have you ever submitted any recommendations to us? Yes, I am the one who recommended sea salt a few months ago! Thanks so much for taking my advice!

Why do you think you are a Chocomize Superfan? Because I tell EVERYONE about your website, I have made suggestions for you to market them to the Bonnie Hunt Show and Ellen Degeneres Show (why would I care if you succeed if I wasn't a HUGE fan?) and I give GIFT CERTIFICATES as birthday gifts because one, I know the recipient will love it, and two, I know they will tell others about you!

What she says:

-“ Chocolate - The only vitamin C I need.”

Thanks to everyone who sent in responses and all of our great friends out there!

Nick

There is still one more ticket left! Good luck to everyone who orders during the rest of the month, we’ll keep you updated on the winners.

Nick

The first recorded stories of the Easter bunny occurred during the early 1600’s! It is based on the German fertility God ‘Oestre’. Her favorite animal was the rabbit because it symbolized fertility. Eggs (another popular Easter theme) were also closely associated with her because of their obvious representation of fertility.

The Germans were also the first to create edible Easter bunnies which were made of sugar. The first Easter candy was created in Germany during the 1800’s. When Fabian found out that the legend of the Easter bunny AND the first Easter candy came from Germany, he was insufferable the rest of the day. Every time one of us made a chocolate bar with an Easter bunny or egg, he would lean over our shoulder and say in a smug voice “do you know who invented these delicious ingredients?”

So if you’re worried that the Easter bunny might not bring you something good this year, check out our decorations tab where we have a lot of delicious Easter themed ingredients. Whether it is chocolate eggs or sugar ducks and rabbits, you’re Easter egg hunt should end with Chocomize!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

We at Chocomize are all about customization. We already have a ton of ways you can customize your chocolate bar (see our previous blog posts for a detailed lists of all the ways you can customize at Chocomize.) Well we are proud to offer a new way: Name your own chocolate bar!

If you have ordered from us in the past day or two, you will have noticed a change. We have a brand new checkout! Throw out your username and password, you don’t need them anymore. We’ve made things a lot simpler and easier to manage so that you have an easier time ordering your chocolate. The only thing that didn’t change was our great security system. We are a completely secure website, always have been and always will be. This means that you never have to worry about your information being compromised, you are always safe at Chocomize.

In addition to making things simpler in our checkout, we’ve added the ‘Name Your Bar’ feature. On the first page of the checkout, you have an option to write a name that will appear on the back of the packaging of your chocolate bar. If you look at the picture I took of the checkout, you will notice that I named my bar ‘Nick’s Awesome Bar’.  So far we’ve been getting a lot of great responses to this feature and people have come up with a lot of creative names. Have any good ones? Also we should mention that it is FREE!

Let us know if you can think of some good names and we’ll come out with a blog post soon of some of the best ones. Thanks for being fans!

Nick

Thanks to everyone who has voted for their favorite ingredients! So far raspberry leads the field followed by lavender. There is a three way tie for third between peanut butter cups, chocolate chips, and milk duds. Cookie dough isn’t too far out of the hunt, however. The contest will end this weekend, so make sure you check out our post below and vote on your favorite ingredients! The top three ones will be added to our list.

We’ve been getting a lot of requests recently to add more ingredients to our list. We can’t decide which ones to add, however, so we are going to let you guys choose for us! We picked ten of the best ingredients that were suggested to us this past week. Vote for your favorite by writing a comment to this blog post. The top three most popular ingredients will be added to the list. We’ll keep the contest running until next Sunday. And the contestants are:

Chicklets: These are bite sized gum pieces that come in many different colors. We don’t have any gum on our site, so this would be a first!

Cookie Crisp Cereal: This is a popular cereal made up of tiny chocolate chip cookies. They are about the size of a nickel and would go great with chocolate.

Chocolate Nibs: These come from the center of the cocoa been and taste quite bitter. They do make a great addition to a chocolate bar, however, and would be especially good in a milk or white chocolate bar.

Lavender: This herb is actually quite popular in chocolate bars. Lavender is known for its taste and its health remedies. It’s been used as an anti-inflammatory, but we’re not doctors so we suggest it only for its great taste.

Kit Kat: This popular candy bar consists of a wafer covered in chocolate. We would break the bar up into parts and place it throughout your Chocomize bar.

Milk Duds: These are caramels covered in milk chocolate. We actually already offer caramel on our site, but this might be pretty tasty in white or dark chocolate.

Rosemary: This is another tasty herb that has a great aroma to it. Studies have also shown that carnosic acid, which is found in rosemary, can help shield the brain from free radicals and hence lower the risk of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig’s. We’re not an expert on the matter, however, and think it just tastes good in chocolate!

Raspberry: We actually aren’t sure why we didn’t think of this earlier. Raspberries are an absolutely delicious fruit that would taste great in chocolate. This has actually been one of the most requested ingredients.

Cookie Dough: This is a popular addition for ice cream and would be a great ingredient for your chocolate bar. We would use cookie dough bites, the popular candy usually sold in movie theatres.

Peanut Butter Cups: There isn’t really much better of a combination than peanut butter and chocolate. We actually already offer peanut butter drops, but this would make a tasty addition as well. We would break up the peanut butter cup and place it throughout your bar.

Vote for your favorite ingredient in the comments section of this blog! The top three most popular will be added to the list.

Earlier this week we wrote about the history of mass customization. We thought it might be interesting to talk about some of our favorite companies who are currently taking advantage of this new worldwide trend. Businesses in many different industries are letting their customers custom design their own products, here is a couple we think you will like:

What really separates this custom cereal company from others is that all their cereal is made in a gluten free dedicated facility. As we mentioned in our previous post, as people become increasingly health conscious, mass customization in the food industry is becoming more and more important. This is especially true for people with food allergies, whether it is to nuts, gluten, etc. Custom Choice Cereal gives people with celiac’s disease the ability to custom create their own delicious cereal without having to worry about the effects of gluten! So check them out if you want to create your own custom gluten free cereal, we highly recommend it.

-Blue Nile is another company taking advantage of the mass customization trend. We pride ourselves that at Chocomize you can custom design the ultimate romantic gift. But at Blue Nile, an online jewelry store, you can custom design your own diamond rings, pendants, earrings and more. This might be the one company to outdo us in the romance department (we still think that a Chocomize bar would make the gift even more romantic, and ask us about our ‘marry me’ plaques if you are thinking about popping the question.)

-Scrapblog is a company that lets you custom design your own scrapbook. You go to their website, pick your scrapbook theme, add your own pictures, and have it shipped right to your door! This is really great because it takes all the stress of putting the pictures together yourself. So if you’re looking away to get all those photos you have lying around your house together in one place, we recommend you check out their website.

-Tastebook is a custom cookbook company. You can search from a variety of different recipes on their website and choose your favorite to put together in your own book .They even let upload your own recipes and pictures. We know that there are a lot of food lovers that read our blog at Chocomize and we’re guessing you guys will like this company.

Do you know any other mass customization companies? Any recommendations for us? Let us know your ideas and comments.

-Give someone the perfect custom chocolate bar. We have many premium ingredients tailored for someone’s birthday. Whether it is a plaque that says ‘Happy Birthday’, a sugar candle holder with an actual candle, a heart that says ‘I love you’, or some candied rose petals, our ingredients can really separate your gift from others.

-If you can’t figure out the perfect bar for someone’s birthday, how about you let them design their own with a Chocomize gift certificate. Our gift certificates are extremely popular for birthday gifts. You can send it to your friend online or print it out and deliver it in hand. Either way it’s a great gift for that special day.

-Give the gift that keeps on giving with our Chocomize chocolate of the month club. You can sign someone up for three, six, or twelve months. The recipient will receive four unique and specially designed chocolate bars every month. Not only will your recipient thank you when they get it on their birthday, you’ll be in their minds every time they receive the perfect bar from Chocomize!

Give someone the perfect birthday gift with Chocomize!

And if you missed the behind scenes look at Chocomize on News 12, check out our home page to see the clip.

Eric, Nick, and Fabian

Chocomize is SOLD OUT for Valentine's Day! Thanks to all our fans who ordered custom chocolate bars. The last couple days have been a race against the clock. Not only have we been getting nonstop orders which we had to have sent out by noon today, we got word of an impending blizzard. This morning, as we were making the last of the chocolate bars, the snow started to fall and we were in a race against time and weather. Luckily we managed to get all the chocolate bars out in time, and we can’t wait to hear the response from you guys!

If you weren’t able to order in time, fear not. You can always give someone an e-gift certificate. Check out our chocolate of the month club or our gift certificate page to make sure that you are still giving the gift of chocolate on Valentine’s Day. Thanks again to all our fans.

They liked us so much that they mentioned us on their website as a great Valentine’s Day gift! You can see what they wrote about us by checking out their blog here:

http://blog.teamfox.org/2010/02/02/a-special-valentines-day-idea/

We totally agree with them (we are huge narcissists at Chocomize.) In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve added a new Valentine Day’s ingredient tab that contains all our special ingredients just for the holiday. We recently received a shipment of new toppings from Switzerland that is sure to delight anyone who gets them on their custom chocolate bar.

We recently had a photo shoot at our office. Chocomize is going to be featured prominently in one of the biggest magazines in the country (in terms of circulation.) While we are keeping the publication secret until it hits stands, we are interested to see if anyone can guess which magazine it is. The person who correctly guesses which magazine we will be featured in will win two FREE custom chocolate bars of their choice. Below is a photo of one of the photographers setting up his equipment. Good luck guessing!

Our friends at hangrypants.com are doing a 40 dollar giveaway on their website. To read about the contest check out their website.

Good luck to the winner!

Chocomize revolutionizes the American chocolate market

Chocolate exactly the way you want it. No matter how unusual. This is the innovative idea behind the startup company Chocomize.

At www.chocomize.com, customers can select their favorite chocolate base (dark, milk, or white) and then add up to five out of 83 fine ingredients to create their choice chocolate bar. This allows for more than 10 billion possible chocolate combinations. In other words, if every citizen of New York City ate one different chocolate bar a day, it would take over 3 years until two people had exactly the same chocolate bar.

Chocomize uses only premium Belgian chocolate and the finest ingredients for its chocolate creations, be it Pecan Halves, Banana Chips, Pineapple Dices, 23 Karat Gold Powder, Rose Petals, or Bacon. Each chocolate bar is hand-made to order and is shipped right to ones doorstep only a few days later. Chocomize bars are great for gifts, whether it’s that special someone’s birthday or a business thanking one of their clients. The chocolate bars start at $3.85 and increase in price depending on the selected ingredients.

The heads behind this concept are three 23 year old college graduates and entrepreneurs who reconsidered the traditional corporate career path after the breakout of the economic crisis. Committed to making change, the company donates a part of the proceeds to charity and makes the customers a vocal point of the venture. Not only was the company’s name “Chocomize” chosen by customers, but most of the ingredients are suggestions of the company’s followers as well.

If you are interested in further information about the company, send an email to info@chocomize.com.

Chocomize – Customize your Chocolate!

Eric Heinbockel
Fabian Kaempfer
Nickolas LaCava
 Founders & Managing Members