Hey Chocomize Fans,

We currently have a new addition to our creation station. Chocolate label plaques! Our new labels are made of decadent white chocolate with a neat inscription. We currently have a few in stock, including a Congratulations plaque and Class of 2012 (for all your graduating family members and friends). There is currently a poll on our Facebook page asking customers and fans what new plaque they'd like to see added to the creation station.

Cruise on over to our Facebook page and vote for your favorite! Current options include "Get Well!" "I'm sorry," "Happy Father's Day!" and, of course, Other. We would love to hear any suggestions you may have. Post it on our page! While you're at it, check out our Favorites page and the newest additions from our Facebook "Create Your Own Bar" chocolatier competition: Up and at 'Em, Peanut Butter Jelly Time, Captain America bar, and the Sweet and Salty Utopia.

-The Chocomize Team

We're proud to say we have very creative customers. Since our launch, we have received millions of imaginative chocolate bar combination orders. We're still pleasantly surprised to witness new combinations, and sometimes we get so excited that we give the combination a try for ourselves.

It's your turn to shine, you chocolatier.

Anyone that's ordered from our site knows that the combination possibilities seem almost infinite. However, we already know your creations are so carefully crafted - toppings complimenting toppings, sweet and salty converging, mouthwatering combinations - we believe it's innovative art. And we'd like to see your best.

Part 1)

Until Friday, April 13th, visit our Facebook page and write your perfect combination on our wall. Give it a witty and fun name, too. Once your ingenious creation is published on our wall, encourage your friends to visit our Facebook page, like us, and like your chocolate bar on our wall. The more "likes" your bar gets, the closer it will get to the top 10. You can post more than one bar and ask your friends to like it but we will only pick one bar per person (the one with the most likes) for the top 10.

Part 2)

On April 13th 10am EST, we will choose the 10 creations with the most likes and they will be photographed and posted on our favorites page by the following Monday, where they will battle it out. You can use the 'FB share', 'Twitter', and 'Google+' functions on the product details page to create buzz for your chocolate bar, get your friends to find your bar, and LIKE it.

The contest will end on Monday, April 23rd, 10am EST. The most liked bar will be deemed "Choctastic" and earn a permanent spot on our "Favorites" page. The clever chocolatier will win perks that include free chocolate!

Prices:

1st price: $100 Chocomize gift certificate + 3 of your suggested favorite bars

2nd price: $50 Chocomize gift certificate + 3 of your suggested favorite bars

3rd price: $25 Chocomize gift certificate + 3 of your suggested favorite bars

With Easter right around the corner, we chocolate enthusiasts have put together three special Easter bars!

Easter Egg Hunt is an egg hunt in a bar. The bar is dark chocolate with an edible Happy Easter plaque, peanut butter chocolate, colorful jelly beans, and a chocolate Easter egg. A rich bar with a burst of fruity flavor and spring themed color.

Our second bar is Peep My Bunny! This is a delectable milk chocolate bar with an edible Happy Easter Plaque, sprinkles, mini marshmallows, and sugar Easter bunnies.

Our third bar is an Easter Delight. This is a creamy white chocolate bar with an edibly Happy Easter Plaque, a chocolate Easter egg, yogurt pretzels, and sugar Easter bunnies.

Besides our popular Easter bars, you can make your own! Head over to the creation station. Choose your base: milk, dark, or white. Then get creative with your toppings. Under "Decorations" you will find the Happy Easter plaque, sugar Easter bunny, and the chocolate Easter egg. Satisfy your sweet tooth with candy for a very Easter themed bar, including jelly beans, Nerds, Sour Patch Kids, or Pop Rocks for an extra fun bar. The possibilities are endless! Our Easter themed bars will only be around until Easter day, so stock up! They're ideal for all ages, and kids will especially love them.

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter.

-The Chocomize Crew

From Aberdeen to Belfast, down through Manchester and London, Chocomize is now shipping to the UK.

That's right. For a flat rate of $9.50, order as many bars as you desire. Our latest weather forecast promises chocolate delivered to Britain during the next year will arrive in mint condition. We're happy to announce that beginning immediately, we will be shipping your wildest chocolate dreams to you. You can run rampant in our creation station now and instead of designing a bar and looking at the preview longingly, you can actually order one and have it delivered to you in a matter of days.

Shop for yourself, your family, loved ones, and friends. Let everyone know Chocomize is now shipping to the UK. Your friends will thank you endlessly for telling them about us. Need another reason to spread the word? You can get 15% off your next order. Simply like us on Facebook and click on our "Refer a Friend" tab. Tell your friends about us and you'll get a special promo code for 15% off your order.

Shipping to the UK and 15% off your order when you suggest us on Facebook.

300 million chocolate possibilities have never been more tempting.

-The Chocomize Crew

Spring is a time of renewal and new beginnings. Believe it or not, spring is also the most popular wedding season. As couples take to wedding magazines to pick themes, decorations, color schemes, food, and flowers, why not add something creative to your reception - say, a custom chocolate bar?

With Chocomize, you can order a bar that fits your taste and suits your wedding theme. Perhaps you've chosen a black and white theme, and calla lilies are your flowers of choice. Your guests can indulge in a white chocolate bar with dark chocolate chips, blueberries, and lavender. Or perhaps - in the spirit of spring - your wedding is colorful. Your guests can enjoy a milk chocolate bar with jelly beans, cantaloupe melon dices, and crystallized rose petals.

Pick your favorite toppings:
Some couples have compromised on one bar, while others have divided the bars between the two and designed two different bars that suite the different tastes of each.

Design your box:
Not only are the bars all you, but so is the presentation. You can customize our traditional Chocomize

box with photos, the date of your wedding, or even a love poem.

Final touches:
Personalize your bar even further by adding our labels made of edible icing sheet and edible ink. Choose words of love, the date of your wedding, or anything else. The label goes right on the bar and is completely edible.

Making your dream chocolate bar for your dream wedding is our mission.

If you would like to get a quote, please shoot us an email at weddings@chocomize.com. The price of each order largely depends on your toppings and the size of your order. If you're overwhelmed by the endless selection, check out our creation station to virtually see what your bar would look like, or get some inspiration from our Facebook page where you will see suggestions other Chocomize enthusiasts have tried and loved.

-The Chocomize Team

We are happy to announce that our Facebook page has recently hit 30,000 likes! That's huge! And it's thanks to all of you. As promised, we are offering our 30% of coupon code (Thanks30kFans), which expires on February, 25 2012 at 11:59pm PT.

Use this promotion to splurge on your favorite bars, explore new combinations and toppings, get your friend that bar you've promised but always ended up eating yourself, or create a special bar for someone special, just because.

We'd like to thank all of you thoughtful and loyal customers for your continued support. Keep spreading the word! Now, go forth andcreate.

The Chocomize Team

Hey Chocomize Enthusiasts!

As you may have noticed, our presence in the blogosphere has been somewhat (very) sparse since the summer. You were probably all wondering where we went. In reality, we really didn't go anywhere… except New York!

The past few months have been an adventure. Our latest and most exciting news is our change in location. We recently embarked on a mission to expand our production and send out more mouth-watering, rich chocolates to more customers - more quickly. We are now producing our fine custom chocolates in Long Island City, New York. Our office space is new and impressive, and renovations and design are still under way. The past few months have been a blur of expansion, moving equipment, and making our new nest here in New York. We are incredibly happy to be here and have received many warm welcomes from the New York Daily News, and were featured on ABC7. Kemberly Richardson really digs our chocolate.

NBC also recently set out to ask New Yorkers what their dream chocolate bar would be, and they seem excited to have us! Check out this video and you'll also get a glimpse at our production.

Our new location is an impressive 5,500 square feet, almost four times as large as our previous location in New Jersey. More space means more delectable chocolate. Thanks to our new location and our expanding staff, we successfully fulfilled thousands of orders over the winter holidays and Valentine's Day. We are coming along really well and enjoying our new location, and we're excited to move forward and continue letting your chocolate imaginations run wild.

A lot of people have been asking us, “What makes your handcrafted Belgian chocolate so smooth and creamy?” Well, we’re finally going to let you in on some of our secrets…

The Belgian Chocolate recipe differs from other chocolate in that it contains no vegetable shortening. The absence of vegetable shortening helps create that pure cocoa flavor that Chocomize customers have grown to love in their customizable chocolate bars. Our mouth-watering milk chocolate is made using cocoa paste, sugar, milk, and cocoa butter. To master the recipe like us, you need the perfect proportion of each ingredient, which can take years for chocolatiers.

Dark Belgian chocolate contains a larger percentage of cocoa. Our white chocolate differs from milk and dark by extracting only butter from the cocoa. This removes the bars brown color while still containing that rich chocolate consistency and flair.

Since Chocomize chocolate bars usually ship within 1-3 days, each hand made order avoids sitting on a grocery shelf for weeks waiting to be eaten. The chocolate is preserved and delivered fresh to each customer as soon as possible.

With prices of cocoa, sugar, and other commodities rising, some chocolate companies have gone to great new lengths to assure large annual profits. In an effort to reduce costs, companies are now adding “air” to the recipe. You heard me right, AIR!!! Chocolate makers lower the amount of chocolate in each bar and bulk up the sweet treat with carbon dioxide while adding little to no additional cost.

Chocomize cares more about the quality of our personalized chocolate bars and pleasing our customers. It’s safe to say that we will never pump air into any of our chocolate bars in an attempt to reduce costs!

Thanks to everyone for your ongoing support as we continue to grow.

Our Time was created to bring together young Americans with an important theme, “Alone we are weak, but together we can accomplish anything!” A non-profit organization, Our Time focuses on motivating the country’s youth to stick together and influence change. In an effort to reach out to young entrepreneurs, Our Time has partnered up with Chocomize as a media of support and promotion.

Integrated in Our Time’s campaign, “Buy Young” Chocomize offers a discount off select bars over a weeklong period.“Buy Young” presents discounts on products while supporting young businesses.

Want to voice your opinion about our nation’s health care system? Check out their “Save Money, Stay Healthy” campaign. Our Time also offers a source for the unemployed to search through available openings on their “AfterCollege” page. With so many great channels of information open to everyone, Our Time will be an important foundation for Americans under 30 to turn to in the future.

For more information, feel free to visit Our Time.

As you know by now Chocomize bars make for a delicious snack, are the perfect gift for any occasion, and are also widely popular for wedding favors. In addition to that we have also had the pleasure to work with dozens of great companies that used our bars for corporate gifts. The folks from Google, for example, can't seem to get enough of our bars. Yahoo!, People Magazine, Cheerios, Melitta, and Nordstrom have been a couple of other companies that we have worked with in the past in addition to dozens of lawyers, doctors, real estate agents, and schools that used our custom chocolate bars for promotional gifts.

This time we wanted to introduce you to a really creative promotional campaign we recently conducted with top notch portrait photographer Dave Moser. Dave took the the pictures for the Chocomize feature in the Costco Connection Magazine. As a creative professional he was looking for an out of the box campaign to leave a long lasting impression with his clients.

Here is what we did:

Dave sent out a very creative letter to everyone on his mailing list which contained some information about his work and most importantly a "golden ticket". The golden ticket invited his clients to create their own one of a kind chocolate bar on Chocomize.com.

The coupon codes that we set up for the promotion covered the chocolate and shipping and allowed up to separate Dave's orders from our regular orders. To strengthen the connection between the chocolate gift and Dave Moser photography every bar got one of Dave's signature stamps on it in the form of an edible image. In addition to this logo, each bar had a custom label on the back of the packaging that read:

"Just what THE ADMIRAL ordered! Your own custom-blended chocolate bar. Enjoy something you don't taste every day, from a guy who specializes in images you don't see every day. Thanks for your chocolate-loving guidance and for visiting www.davemoser.com"

It got even better: After having taken a couple of bites from the chocolate bar his clients would discover three sample pictures between the chocolate and the packaging. What a great way to get people interested and actually make them think about what they are seeing!

Needless to say the campaign was a huge success. One of his clients, a major entrepreneurship magazine, called it the best promotional campaign they have seen in 15 years! We are happy to have been a part of this idea and would love to explore similar opportunities in the future. If you think this is exactly what you have been looking for shoot us an email and let us know what you have in mind.

For more information on 'The Admiral', check out Dave Moser Photography.

Does your dad love mouth watering chocolate? If so, we've got two great new favorite bars made specially in mind for Dads everywhere.

• Dark Chocolate with Almonds, Raisins, and Caramel Pieces

• Milk Chocolate with Banana Chips, Butter Toasted Peanuts, and Kit Kat Bars

Both bars feature our, "Happy Father's Day" plaque, but if you'd prefer to make your own, the plaque is still available as a limited time topping in our creation station.

In addition, remember to check out our new Hot Chocolate on a Spoon available in three great flavors, which can be found in the Favorites Page.

From the Chocomize Headquarters, we wish everyone  a Happy and safe Father's Day!

Calling all Chocoholics,

Chocomize Dark Chocolate Bars will now feature 73% cocoa content! Although some might assume this increase will add an extra bitter taste, its safe to say that our new dark chocolate will still keep the same great balance between smooth taste and strong flavor. Wow, I'm salivating just thinking about the new recipe now.

A bar of dark chocolate a day keeps the doctor away?

Not exactly, but cocoa beans do contain flavonoids, which act as antioxidants. Antioxidants protect the body from aging along with decreasing the likelihood of heart disease. Dark chocolate actually contains nearly 8 times the number of antioxidants found in strawberries!  Flavonoids can also help relax blood pressure and reduce bad cholesterol by up to 10%.

With a rich full body blend filled with distinctive flavor, we know you'll enjoy every last minute of our new dark chocolate base.

Love Hot Chocolate? Love Chocomize? Wish the two were together? Well now they are! We’re pleased to announce the arrival of our newest product…Hot Chocolate On a Spoon!

Here at the Chocomize Headquarters, we’ve been working hard to bring you the latest and greatest in chocolate innovation. After many long nights up tasting chocolate (so much chocolate) and experimenting with flavors, we’re proud to bring you our newest addition that we know you’ll love. All you have to do is put your Hot Chocolate On a Spoon in a mug filled with milk, heat the milk and chocolate till hot, stir until the chocolate has completely dissolved, and finally the best part…enjoy the delicious hot chocolate!

Initially, we have 3 flavors to enhance your hot chocolate experience, but you can expect that number to greatly increase as we continue to perform tests here at the factory.

• Milk Chocolate with Creamy Hazelnut

• Dark Chocolate with Nutty Amaretto

• White Chocolate with Vanilla

Look for them on our Favorites Page!

Let us know what you think about our Hot Chocolate On a Spoon. What flavors would you like in your Hot Chocolate?

Remember back in August of last year when Chocomize had broke the $2,000 mark on our charity count? Well now the charity count is close to approaching the $10,000 mark!

As many of you know by now, Chocomize donates 1% of the proceeds from each order to one of our selected charities chosen by you. Our newest charity, A Drink For Tomorrow (ADFT) has already raised over $2,300!

Founded several years ago by Stephanie Weaver, ADFT is a non-profit organization raising awareness of the lack of access to clean water sanitation in impoverished communities around the world. All of the money donated is used to help implement water projects and teach sanitary habits. In 2009, ADFT was able to complete its first project, a dug well in West Bengal, India that now brings 140 people arsenic-free water. Through a significant amount of growth after two years, they were able to fund 5 similar projects in Haiti, Botswana, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, and Guatemala.

We chose ADFT as one of our feature charities because we love supporting fellow local entrepreneurs like Stephanie. We’re excited to work with ADFT and look forward to a great partnership. For more information on A Drink For Tomorrow or any other of the charities Chocomize supports, visit our Charity Conscious page.

Hey Chocomize Chocolate Fans,

Known for having one of the best ranked mini bars in the hotel industry, Trump International Hotel in Chicago is about to get even better with its newest addition…Chocomize custom chocolate bars! Our personalized chocolate bars are now available at the Trump Chicago Hotel. Future guests of the hotel can look forward to four mouth-watering varieties.

• Dark Chocolate with Pineapple, Cranberries, and Coconut Flakes

• Dark Chocolate with 23 Karat Gold Flakes

• Milk Chocolate with Almonds, Gold Flakes, and Dried Cherries

• White Chocolate with Cranberries and Crunchy Almond Croquant

With Chocomize chocolate stocked in each room, Trump Chicago will continue its success providing the finest mini bar. We hope all of Trump Chicago Hotel’s guests have as much fun eating them as we had making them!

Chocomize would like to welcome the newest summer intern to the hardest-working team in customizable candy websites.  I’m a senior at Pace University majoring in Finance, and a veteran chocolate-eater. In my free time, I like playing sports outside, traveling, and eating. On my first day I already tried the milk, dark, and white chocolate bars, but can’t wait to taste all of the 300 million combinations. I’m excited for a great summer with Chocomize and look forward to contributing to Chocomize’s growing success.

It’s that time of the year again. As some of you may remember, last year we held a golden ticket contest in honor of the epic ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. This year there will be two golden tickets added to random orders., the lucky recipients of these orders will receive a 3 month subscription to our Chocolate of the Month Club. Is there anything better than biting into a hand made Chocomize chocolate bar only to be rewarded with more chocolate? Maybe jumping into our chocolate river, but our diving board is not yet complete.

We will be giving away two tickets in the next two weeks. Order now for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to our Chocolate of the Month Club.

Imagine driving a chocolate Volvo, and we are not talking about the paint job. Earlier this month Toya Green, a member of the Charleston County, South Carolina school board discovered her car was covered in chocolate when she returned to the parking lot after a series of meetings. The driver’s side doors and windows were covered in chocolate syrup.  Local authorities are looking for the sweet-toothed vandals but have yet to come up with any leads. Hopefully suspects can be narrowed based on the fact that we are certain the vandals did not use Chocomize chocolate as no gummy bears or pop rocks were found at the scene of the crime.

Here at Chocomize, customizing ingredients in premium Belgian chocolate bars is what we love to do. We have had a lot of luck and a lot of fun building personalized chocolate bars for our customers, and we hope that it has been just as much fun designing and receiving your bars.

However, we're always looking for ways to improve and expand our business and we were wondering the other day: what other forms could mass chocolate customization take? If people like to have their own tasty combinations of toppings and treats on their candy bars, then what other items in the chocolate world might people like to customize for their own preferences (or for chocolate gifts).

Since we like to keep our collective finger on the pulse of the chocolate industry, we have come up with a few options so far in our brainstorming:

1. Customizable Chocolate Milk: Okay, you're probably thinking, "Chocolate milk is chocolate milk. I can get it at any store. Why would I want to customize it?" Well, there are methods that people use, primarily available in Europe up until now, of melting chocolate into milk from what looks like a chocolate popsicle. The milk is heated and the chocolate melts of the end of the "popsicle" to flavor your (hot) chocolate milk with premium, high-quality chocolate. What we have in mind are things like: white chocolate milk with a slight orange aroma, or dark chocolate with raspberries. The kind of things that are more special than the same old stuff you find in supermarkets.

2. Customizable Chocolate Truffles: We've all (hopefully) tasted the deliciousness of a chocolate truffle. The sweet, succulent taste of the soft chocolate, often with a little something filling it in the middle. Now, imagine you get to choose what is in the middle of your chocolate truffle, what type of chocolate you want (dark, milk, or white), and even the shape of your truffle. There are probably even more things that people would like to specify. Before we think about all the details, though, we just wanted to run these ideas by you to see what you think.

Would you be interested? Do you have any other chocolate items that you would like to see us customize to your choosing one day? Please, let us know in the comments section here or on our Facebook page.

Our ingredients poll has come to an end and we are excited to announce the winners. The top three ingredients are:

- Reese's Pieces

- Rice Crispies

- Caramel Popcorn

We will try to get our hand on these ingredients asap so that the next time you make your own chocolate bar you can choose from even more options.

Here are the detailed results of the poll:

Thanks to everyone who voted. We hope you had a good time and your favorite made the selection. If not, maybe it helps that we will have our next ingredients poll up in a couple of months. In the meantime, you can think about other goodies that you would like to see on your future custom chocolate bars.