Dear Chocomize Fans,

As the holiday season approaches, we thought we would give you an update about everything going on at Chocomize, as well as tell you about some great gift ideas.

Our website was successfully launched last month to huge success and fanfare. We want to thank everyone who wrote to us with suggestions about updating and changing the website. Our number one goal is to make the Chocomize website both easy and enjoyable to use. Keep sending us e-mails about what you like and don’t like about the site, and how we might improve it. We have had a lot of positive feedback so far but we are always looking for ways to improve.

We’ve also finished adding the charity portion of our website. Customers can now donate to the charity of their choice. It is important, especially so during the holiday season, that people give back to the community and elsewhere. In this spirit, in addition to donating part of our sales to charity, we have participated in other socially conscious projects. We recently heard about a program that was sending chocolate to troops in Afghanistan. We immediately decided to participate and we are happy to report that we sent a lot of chocolate overseas! To find out more about this charity, check out our blog on our website. If you hear about any other ideas, or think of a way to give back on your own, we would love to get involved. Send us a message at info@chocomize.com.

The holidays are a great time to relax and spend time with family and loved ones. If your holidays are anything like ours at Chocomize, however, they can also be hectic and stressful. We at Chocomize think we can make your lives a little better this holiday season. Not only are our custom chocolate bars fantastic gifts, but they are also extremely affordable. Skip the long lines and the hassle of driving all over town. Chocomize bars are a unique gift that is guaranteed to put a smile on everyone’s face. We offer great customer service and fast turnaround to make sure you get your chocolate in time for Christmas. We do recommend, however, that you give yourself at least five days prior to Christmas as it is one of our busiest times of the year. In addition, we are offering a special holiday discount for all our Chocomize fans. Simply type “holiday2009” in the coupon section of our checkout and receive a 10% discount off your next order.

One of our most popular holiday gifts has been the Chocomize “Chocolate of the Month Club”. The recipient receives four different chocolate bars every month for, 3, 6, or 12 months. It is a great way to try new and delicious combinations of ingredients, and is literally the gift that keeps on giving. In addition, customers can save up to 25% off the regular price!Our custom chocolate bars have also been really popular as corporate gifts this holiday season. They are a great way to thank clients or reward employees for a job well done. To find out more about our custom packaging and design options, check out the bulk order section of our website or send us an e-mail at info@Chocomize.com

If you are looking to give the perfect custom chocolate bar, we have some great options. Check out our Christmas tree decorations. They are sure to put even the biggest scrooge into the Christmas spirit! In addition, our rose petals, mint leaves, violet petals, 23 karat gold, and chocolate butterflies make every custom chocolate bar really stand out (not to mention taste great.) If you are looking to give a fun present, check out our bacon, cayenne pepper, and sea salt ingredients that have proved to be highly popular. For those out of ideas, check out our favorites section that has a list of our most popular Chocomize bars. We will also soon be offering gift certificates, so keep checking our website for the latest news.

We love hearing all your comments. Whether they are about new ingredients, suggestions for the site, or just how great your custom chocolate bar tasted, we get excited every time we get a new e-mail in our inbox. Keep them coming! In addition, if you did not receive our newsletter and would like a copy, just send us an e-mail letting us know you'd like to be added to the newsletter list and we'll send you one right away.

Happy Holidays,

Your Chocomize Team

Our ingredient of the week is coffee! Right now we offer whole Arabica beans by eight o’clock coffee, one of the most popular coffee producers in the world. Like all our other ingredients, we guarantee that our coffee beans are fresh and of the highest quality.

Chocolate covered coffee beans have been a popular snack for a long time. Now, however, you can enjoy them in your custom chocolate bar as well! We’ve been getting a lot of requests to add coffee to our list of ingredients, and we’re proud to be able to add Arabica beans to our list. Thanks for those who’ve written in and requested them.

Not only do chocolate and coffee taste great together, but they make for a great pick-me-up. A lot of the customers who’ve been requesting coffee for their custom chocolate bars are college students looking for a delicious snack to help them stay alert in their studies. As holiday season approaches, however, it’s not just students who might need something to give them a little boost of energy. If you’re looking for a custom chocolate bar that will give you a boost, we recommend you try dark chocolate with coffee and honey roasted soybeans. Take it from us, this delicious custom chocolate bar tastes great (it’s one of our favorites at Chocomize) and packs a helpful punch to get you through the day.

Right now we only offer one type of coffee bean, Arabica. The Arabica bean is indigenous to Yemen, and is thought to be the oldest cultivated coffee bean in the world (estimates range to up to 1,000 years old). The first written record of coffee was from Arab scholars who wrote that coffee was useful in keeping them awake in their studies. A thousand years later, things have not changed that much. Coffee is still used to help scholars pull those all night study sessions, and we here at Chocomize are proud to say that we love eating our custom chocolate bars with coffee to keep us attentive when making your chocolate!

We plan on expanding our coffee ingredients to not only different types of coffee beans, but also to ground coffee as well. As always, we are looking for suggestions of the type of coffee bean you want. Everyone has their favorite type of coffee that gets them going in the morning, and if you want to see your beloved coffee bean listed on our website, be sure to send us a message.

Again thanks for everyone who wrote in this week suggesting ingredients for the ingredient of the week. If you have a favorite ingredient that you want in your custom chocolate bar, be sure to write us. We’ll definitely add it to the list of options, and you might be lucky enough to see your ingredient listed on our blog!

It's finally Friday and the weekend is upon us. Luckily for you chocolate lovers, we here at Chocomize work all weekend so even if you order tonight or over the weekend, your order will still get shipped out! For those of you looking for a bar to go with some of your weekend activities, we came up with a few ideas:

Date Bar: Nothing is more romantic then a dark chocolate bar with rose petals, chocolate butterflies, edible gold, and violet petals. Not only does it look great, but did we mention that chocolate is an aphrodisiac? Just another reason to order some custom chocolate bars for your next date!

Movie Bar: If you're anything like us, then you love eating snacks at the movies. We can never decide, however, between getting a healthy snack, like some sort of nut, or just going straight for the candy. Luckily at Chocomize, you can design a custom chocolate bar that gives you the best of both worlds! Try a milk chocolate bar with gummi bears, sour patch kids, roasted soybeans, and butter toasted peanuts. We can't guarantee that you'll enjoy the movie, but we know you'll love this custom chocolate bar.

Daredevil Bar: We know that a lot of our fans and readers love to be a little adventurous on the weekend. Whether it's rock climbing, mountain biking, or some other adrenaline filled activity, we have the perfect bar that will fit your wild side. Try something new with dark chocolate, cayenne pepper, bacon, and wasabi peas. Although some of these ingredients might sound a little strange in chocolate, they have proved to be really popular with those who've been brave enough to try them. So if you're feeling a little adventurous this weekend, checkout our daredevil bar!

Workout Bar: Sometimes if it has been a long and tough week, you might not have been able to get as many workouts in as you would have liked. The weekend is the perfect time to catch up and we've got the perfect bar for after that long workout. Try dark chocolate, flax seeds, peanuts and blueberries. We're sure that it will give you a little boost to get you going!

We here at Chocomize wish everyone a great weekend and hope that you'll pick up one of our weekend favorites for your next weekend activity!

The holidays are approaching; it's that time of year again. As great as the holiday season can be, it can also be incredibly stressful. Trying to figure out and plan all your presents can take the fun out of anyone’s holiday. Whether it's waiting in long lines at stores on the weekends or just trying to find the perfect gift, this time of year can quickly turn into a nuisance, or worse. Well at Chocomize, we can solve all your holiday gift giving dilemmas. Our custom chocolate bars make a unique and delicious gift that’s guaranteed to please anyone and everyone. On top of that we are affordable on any budget, offer quick turnaround, and have great customer service (call us at 856-375-2041 if you don't believe us.) If you're looking for that perfect gift this holiday, read below to get some great ideas, or visit our creation station to make the perfect custom chocolate bar.

Christmas Gift: Looking for that perfect Christmas gift? We have some great ingredients and toppings to get anyone into the Christmas spirit. Check out our Christmas tree toppings. They have a great fruity taste, and their white and green colors give any custom chocolate bar that special holiday feel.

Fancy Gift: Trying to impress that special someone this holiday season? Check out our edible gold, rose petals, and chocolate butterflies. The ingredients combined make for a beautiful display that is sure to look great.

Corporate Gift: We are very popular for businesses that are looking to give something to their clients to thank them. Get in touch with us about custom designing their own chocolate bar for their business.

Fun Gift: Looking to give something really unique and fun? Try one of our more adventurous ingredients in your next custom chocolate bar. A popular favorite is bacon (check out our previous blog about bacon) but we also have a lot of other fun and interesting ingredients such as peppers, pop rocks, or cheerios.

Favorites: If you are absolutely stuck and can't figure out what to give as a gift, check out our favorites section for some of our most popular custom chocolate bars!

Take the stress out of this holiday season with a custom chocolate bar gift! Perfect for anyone.

Regards,

Chocomize Team

Here at Chocomize we love hearing your comments, suggestions, opinions, and reviews. Here are some of the responses we've had so far about our custom chocolate bars:

Jeremy from Florida wrote to us after receiving his order saying:

"The chocolate is great...Every parent should get this for their kids! Where was Chocomize when I was
on an all-candy diet?"

Ashley from Maryland wrote us saying:

"Just wanted to let you know I got the chocolate and I think it's great! I will definitely be ordering some more"

Steve from New Jersey wrote:

"I can never find dark chocolate with hazelnuts ... now I can! That is an awesome idea!!!"

Alex from Connecticut wrote:

"I just ate your chocolate-so good!!!!"

Thanks to everyone who wrote in about their chocolates. Keep sending us your responses and comments. We at Chocomize believe that this company is about you and what you want, so make sure you let us know.

Our ingredient of the week is cayenne pepper. We recently added this ingredient when we got an e-mail from a customer who was looking to put something more spicy on her custom chocolate bars. Again, thanks for the suggestion. Although we thought this was a little unusual at first (not as unusual as bacon) once we taste tested it, we were actually really excited about how great it tastes.

For those of you who don't know, Cayenne is a red hot chilli pepper named after the city Cayenne in French Guiana. The Cayenne is dried and then ground into a fine powder which is added to dishes to provide flavor and spice. It is rated around 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville units.

What are Scoville units? The Scoville scale is a way to measure the spiciness of a certain food. It is named after the American chemist Wilbur Scoville who figured out that capsaicin, a chemical compound, stimulates the nerve endings in a certain manner that causes the eater to feel spiciness. Scoville units are a measure of the amount of capsaicin in a certain food and hence its spiciness. To give you an idea of what the units signify, police grade pepper spray ranks around 5 million on the Scoville scale and Jalapeño peppers rank around 2500 Scoville units.

We definitely recommend you try the cayenne pepper in your next Chocomize chocolate bar. If you have any other ingredients you don't see listed on our website, shoot us an e-mail at info@Chocomize.com and we'll be sure to add them to the list. Who knows, maybe if you're lucky your ingredient could be the next ingredient of the week!

If you've visited our creation station lately, you'll notice that you have three types of chocolate to choose from: white, milk, and dark. Now every true chocolate fan knows that there’s a big difference between the three. Dark chocolate, for instance, usually has a much more bitter taste than milk or white chocolate. What exactly separates the three from each other?

Chocolate is made from the cocoa bean which is native to Central and South America and has been cultivated since around 1100 BC. The Aztecs and the Mayans would harvest the cocoa been and make what they called 'bitter water', sort of like the modern day chocolate milk or hot chocolate.

Chocolate production varies, but basically the cocoa been is harvested and then ground up and liquefied to make something called chocolate liquor. Once the cocoa bean has been processed into chocolate liquor, it is further processed into cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Cocoa solids contain the bitter taste most familiar with chocolate.

Now what makes the three types of chocolates differ is the combination of the cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Dark chocolate, which is the most bitter, contains the highest amount of both cocoa solids and cocoa butter of all the chocolates. Milk chocolate contains both cocoa solids and cocoa butter, but has a much smaller percentage than dark chocolate. Milk chocolate also contains milk or milk powder, sugar, and vanilla. The lower percentage of cocoa, as well as the presence of milk and vanilla, gives milk chocolate that creamier taste. White chocolate actually contains no cocoa solids, only cocoa butter, milk, sugar, and vanilla. The lack of any cocoa solids is the reason white chocolate does not have a bitter taste.

There you have it! Now you know the difference between milk, dark, and white chocolate. We recommend you try all three types of chocolates, and see which different ingredients go better in each. Oreo’s and white chocolate have been extremely popular as have strawberries and dark chocolate and almonds and milk chocolate. But the best, and most fun part, of Chocomize is that we give you the ability to discover for yourself the best combinations of chocolate and ingredients, and with over 10 billion possible combinations, we think there’s always a surprise combination bar waiting for you to try!

Any American shopper who's waited in line at the crack of dawn on black friday to try and fight for a great shopping deal knows the stress involved with black friday. We're impatient here at Chocomize and we always hated having to waste time fighting the crowds just to get a good deal at the store. Chocomize is changing and improving the American shopping experience in countless ways. We've decided to narrow down the 10 biggest ways Chocomize makes shopping a better experience, and you guessed it,

Number 10: No More Lines: With Chocomize you don't have to wake up at five in the morning to wait in line, you always get a great deal at Chocomize no matter what the day is, no matter what the time.

Number 9: Fast Turnaround, Quick Shipping: We were so sick of always having to wait countless days or weeks before our product was even shipped out from the store. Here at Chocomize, we pride ourselves on offering fast turnaround and quick shipping. Most likely when you order our custom chocolate bars, they will be made and shipped out the same day. We even have a nifty estimated delivery time setting on our creation station so you can know how long you have until you bite into that perfect chocolate bar.

Number 8: Great Customer Service: Shopping online can be a harrowing and difficult experience. Nothing makes it harder then trying to get help and being unable to get in touch with anyone. Not only can you easily e-mail us any time and get a timely response, but you can call us too! Even in today's world of automated technology, it's still comforting to know that you can talk to a real live person about any questions you might have. Feel free to reach us at 856-375-2041, or e-mail us at info@chocomize.com. We love hearing questions and comments so don't hesitate to get in touch.

Number 7: Customer Input: Part of the Chocomize philosophy is that this company is all about you, the consumer. You guys picked the name (thanks again for everyone who participated in our survey), you guys pick the charities, you guys pick the ingredients, in fact we sometimes feel that you guys have done all the work and decision making for us! But that's just one more way that Chocomize is improving the American shopping experience: creating a company around the needs of the consumer.

Number 6: Gifts: Having trouble deciding what to get that special someone for their birthday? Chocomize takes all the hassle away with our great gift ideas (check out our favorites page), and our ingredients designed specially for gifts. Check out our 23 karat gold flakes, our intricately designed chocolate butterflies, and our romance filled candied rose petals for great gift options. Custom chocolate bars are a unique and thoughtful gift that can fit anyone’s budget. So next time you need to find that affordable gift that's sure to put a smile on anyone's face, be sure to think of Chocomize!

Number 5: Bulk Orders and Great Occasions: Whether it be your wedding, long awaited retirement party, or your 50th birthday party, we here at Chocomize know how hard it is to find things that reflect your style and personality. Worry no more! Custom design your chocolate bar to fit your character. Chocomize chocolate bars make a unique and stylish party favor that's sure to surprise all of your guests. Get in touch with us to hear about our special discounts we have for larger orders and to find out how we can help make your special day even greater!

Number 4: Belgian Chocolate: If there's one thing at Chocomize we love the most it's chocolate. But chocolate is a very broad type of food that can range in flavors and tastes. We made sure that we used the finest quality chocolate possible. After numerous taste testings and consultations, we picked our particular Belgian chocolate that you can find on our website now. We pride ourselves on the well balanced taste between bitter and sweet of our dark chocolate. We love how our milk chocolate melts in your mouth, giving you that wonderful creamy taste. And we at Chocomize can't get over how great our white chocolate tastes (especially when you're looking for an alternative to bitter dark). To find out more information about our Belgian chocolate, check out our previous blog post about where our chocolate comes from.

Number 3: Socially Conscious: After living through one of the worst periods in American economic history and seeing how corporate greed has negatively effected people's everyday normal life, we decided that our company had to be a socially conscious company. In that spirit, part of our proceeds are donated to charity. Right now we have three charities available, the Michael J. Fox charity which looks for a cure to Parkinson’s disease, Doctors Without Borders which is a international medical humanitarian organization, and Action Against Hunger which helps to prevent famine around the world. One of the unique things about Chocomize is that you get to pick the charity rather then us pick it for you. We are also constantly looking for other ways we can help, like donating chocolate to our troops, and if you have an idea for us, don't hesitate to get in touch.

Number 2: Quality Ingredients: Nothing ruins chocolate like poor ingredients. Our ingredients are the highest quality we can find. We buy in small quantities to ensure freshness. We constantly are taste testing new ingredients to see if there are any improvements we can make. Whether it's a plain peanut, or something more exotic like bacon, we make sure that all the ingredients that go into your custom chocolate bar are the best possible so that you can fully enjoy your eating experience!

Number 1: Custom Bars: So what’s the number one way that Chocomize is improving and revolutionizing the American shopping experience? Giving you the ability to custom choose the ingredients in your chocolate bar. We are the first American company that allows you to make a chocolate bar with any ingredient you desire. Want an ingredient in your bar you don't see on our website? Not a problem, we'll go out and get it for you, no extra charge. Being able to custom design your product online is a new phenomenon that is taking over the web. We at Chocomize are at the forefront of the customization movement, and pride ourselves on our ability to offer fully customizable chocolate bars. So at the end of the day, although we offer tons of other great additions to the American shopping experience, the number one and most important is the ability for you to custom design a chocolate bar the way you want it. We hope you'll give us a try today!

Chocomize Team

Every week at Chocomize we have something called "The Ingredient of the Week". Once a week we either add a new ingredient or write about an existing ingredient we think is really great. This weeks ingredient is bacon!

Most people would agree that bacon is delicious. Theres nothing quite like waking up in the morning and walking into the kitchen and smelling and hearing bacon being fried. Although we here at Chocomize are big fans of bacon, we never thought of actually adding it to our chocolate. Yet over the past few weeks we have got a lot of e-mails and phone calls from customers dying to have bacon put in their bar. Since this company is about what you, the consumer, wants, we decided to go ahead and add bacon to the list (even though some of us were too scared to even give it a try).

Like all the rest of our ingredients, our bacon is the best quality bacon we could find. A lot of other companies say they use bacon but instead use something called replica bacon which is just some other kind of mystery meat made to taste like bacon. Not us at Chocomize. You wanted real bacon, you got it. So if you're feeling adventurous, go ahead and give it a try!

We recently heard about a program to support our troops in Afghanistan. This program came about when Kimberlee, who is deployed to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, had a chocolate craving but could not find any chocolate at the airbase. With over 21,000 troops deployed to Bagram Airfrield in Afghanistan she realized that she could not have been the only one to have a chocolate craving but not be able to find any chocolate. She decided to start a program through a private organization called the top three. She is trying to organize people to donate chocolate to troops in Afghanistan. As soon as we at Chocomize heard about this idea, we immediatly decided to donate some of our chocolate. Here are some pictures of Eric packing one of our boxes to send to Afghanistan:

If you want to donate chocolate as well, contact us at info@chocomize.com to get more details. We are always looking for new ways and ideas to give back, check out our charities that we support and make a donation through Chocomize today!

A belated congratulations to Nick LaCava and the US Rowing Lightweight National Team on their stellar performance at the annual Head of the Charles Rowing Regatta in Boston Massachusetts. As many of you know Nick LaCava is one of the founding members of the Chocomize team. In addition to his job as a dedicated chocolatier Nick is a member of the United States National Rowing Team. Earlier this year Nick participated in the World Rowing Championships in Poland. Nick and the Lightweight Mens National team earned a well deserved victory in the Lightweight Eights category at the famed regatta. Each year thousands of rowers and party goers line the shores of the Charles river which divides Cambridge from Boston. Never one to miss an opportunity to expound upon the virtues of Chocomize chocolate Nick spent his free hours handing out Chocomize sample bars to regatta contestants and spectators alike. Nick says the chocolate was a huge success and word spread quickly at the regatta that there was delicious chocolate to be had! Congratulations again to Nick and the US Rowing National team from Chocomize staff and fans.

Check out the winning boat below:

Street Fair, Part II

After less than five hours of sleep, we woke up to get ready for the street fair. Our first order of business was to drive uptown to pick up a tent that a friend of ours was lending us. Once we got the tent, we drove down to 53^rd and Madison to drop off and set up our equipment.We had a ten by ten foot area right on the corner of the street. Our neighbor to our left sold hand knit gloves and hats, while the tent across the street sold Philippino barbeque, spelt barbikyu. They sold three dollar pork and beef kabob and spent the entire day yelling “free samples, free samples”.

Most of the setups were similar to ours. We had one large tent with a banner attached to the front displaying our logo and slogan. Inside the tent we had two tables, one in the front displaying all our chocolate, the other behind us which we used for storage.

Around ten o’clock a lot of people began to traffic the area. It being New York, we saw a lot of interesting characters. We saw a seventy year old woman with hair dyed bright purple, two middle aged men walking around with no shirts, and one typical New York road rage incident involving one woman driver screaming at the top of her lungs at another driver while almost running over two pedestrians innocently crossing the street.

We quickly began selling bars. We sold both our big bars as well as the small bars that we usually set aside for samples. The most popular bar was definitely the dark chocolate with strawberries. Other notable favorites included the milk chocolate bar with gummi bears and m & m’s, as well as the milk chocolate bar with almonds which we sold out of very quickly.

Overall, not only did we sell a lot of chocolate bars, but we had a great response from people who came by the tent. There were a lot of different types of chocolate lovers. Some were chocolate experts, who loved the taste of our dark chocolate. Some were candy fiends who couldn’t get enough of our milk chocolate with m & m and gummi bears. Others were simply blown away by how great the different ingredients looked on top of the different chocolate bars.

It was wonderful to see and hear the different responses people had to the ingredients we offered for their chocolate. A lot of people were amused when they saw chocolate with cherrios, were shocked when they bit into a chocolate bar with pop rocks and felt it explode in their mouths, and a few were a little grossed out by the idea of chocolate with bacon.

We spent the entire day selling chocolate and talking with people about our idea. The only break we had was when we grabbed some hot dogs from the local stand nearby, which Eric immediately regretted and proceeded to spend the rest of the day complaining about “how disgusting his water dog tasted”. It was also great running into our friends who lived in the city and were excited to see and taste our chocolate bars.

At the end of the day we packed up and said goodbye to our neighboring stands (we were never brave enough to try the barbikyu). It was really great not only being able to finally start selling actual chocolate bars, but also to hear the responses and advice people had to our chocolate. It was particularly nice whenever someone would return to our tent and say “I just had to come back to tell you how great your chocolate was”. If you did stop by our street fair, we appreciate you coming. We hope to see a lot of the same people not only at future street fairs, but also as customers to our online store where they can choose any ingredient they want for their chocolate!

Check out our pictures:

Preparations for NYC Street fair

There have been many stressful and hair raising situations regarding the start up of our business. As one can imagine things rarely go according to plan, but luckily they often times seem to work out. That was the story of our Saturday. Saturday before our big street fair in New York everything was set to go. Our machines had arrived, our equipment was in place, our production facility was spick and span, our ingredients were ready to be happily dunked into the chocolate bars they would call home. There was just one problem, electricity. Our electrician had a series of family emergencies and was not able to come out to our factory during the week. Our machines are fairly complicated electrically. They are European and need to be rewired for American standards. They also run on whats called 3 phase electricity. Three phase is a highly efficient way of powering larger equipment with motors etc. So everything was set up but we could not hook up our tempering machines which are obviously key to our ability to make chocolate. We were familiar with machines as we had used them before in Europe so we were confident once they were hooked up we would be well on our way to making lots and lots of excellent chocolate for New Yorkers to devour. We had 600 bars of chocolate to make before the street fair the next day, and as things stood our only machine we had hooked up was our small machine dedicated to production of white chocolate which could only produce four bars at a time. Sufficed to say if we didn't get our large tempering machines hooked up we were in for an all nighter equal to those of our college days (Eric was a big paper procrastinator).

Our electrician arrived and began to start hooking up our "phase converter" which converts the local single phase electricity into the three phase which would efficiently power our large tempering machines. Things were plugging along nicely and then a new scare came up. The electrician feared that our machines may require too much energy and that our factory would turn off the lights of the other offices and facilities around us. This was not going to be a good option. We were told we might be able to run one machine but in order to run two we would have to sink thousands of additional dollars into increasing our power supply from the town, a process which would take weeks. Not exactly what you wanted to hear the night before our first big chocolate sale. Time was ticking and Nick was getting worried. After many back of the envelope calculations our electrician thought it could be done and we decided to give it a whirl. One machine worked... time to try the second. The breakers were switched on, the phase converter hummed and the tempering machines were switched on whilst an emotionally fragile Nick trembled with nervous anticipation. Eric stood stoically observing the situation with the cool confidence of a veteran of the custom chocolate industry. The LCD displays on the machines both came to life, illuminating our state of the art factory with their blue glow! Things were looking good.

"Thanks a lot" we said to the electrician "now its time to make some chocolate"! It was 1pm. As mentioned earlier we had worked with a version of these machines before so we were familiar with them and we thought we were ready to get right into things. However once all the equipment was set up the display was unresponsive. For whatever reason the machines were ignoring our commands. Was it because they did not respect Nick? Did they need an alpha male to tell them what to do? No such luck Eric had the same result. Hours passed, buttons pressed and pressed some more... nothing. Even Eric was starting to get worried. It was now 6pm and we still had 550 perfect chocolate bars to churn out with love for Sunday's street fair. Getting the machine to work was complicated by the fact that the manual which came with it was  in Italian only. Not one member of the Chocomize staff speaks Italian. Some Spanish, German, Arabic, French maybe even a little English but no one speaks Italian. After trying every possible button combination etc Eric placed a small magnet that came with the machines by the side of the tempering basin. Open Sesame! The machine's LCD display told us our wish was their command. Apparently the magnet was a safety device installed recently to prevent machines starting without proper protection. A new addition we were not familiar with. Perhaps a response to the recent death in Pennsauken New Jersey where a man fell into a vat of chocolate. Whatever the reason for the device it was critical for our machinery. We poured in our chocolate, heated it up and began the tempering process. Our factory was transformed rather quickly from a place of anxiety to Willy Wonka's with the tempering machine's fountains gushing veritable waterfalls of chocolate. Now we could get down to business. Earnestly we created chocolate, added ingredients, moulded the chocolate, cooled it down and then packaged the chocolate for the fair. By 1.30am we had finished and now we were packing the chocolate into the truck and heading off on the 2 hour drive from Philadelphia to New York!

To be continued...

Although our business is based in New Jersey, we import all our chocolate from Barry Callebaut in Belgium. For those of you who have never heard of Barry Callebaut, they are the largest manufacturer of high quality cocoa and chocolate in the world. Most consider them to make the finest quality chocolate, and after trying chocolate from lots of different companies, we agreed that they were the best.

Barry Callebaut gets all their cocoa beans from small farmers in Côte d'Ivoire. Check out this link: http://www.barry-callebaut.com/1718 to learn more about how they are helping cocoa farmers.

Once the cocoa beans are harvested in Côte d'Ivoire, Barry Callebaut imports them into Belgium and then processes them further into actual chocolate.

The chocolate is then sent to our factory in the United States. Once the chocolate arrives, we temper and mold the chocolate, add the ingredients of your choosing, and then package and send the bar to you in the mail.

There are many steps that occur from when the cocoa bean is first grown to when you finally receive your Chocomize bar in the mail. We make sure that you get the best quality chocolate possible but not at the risk of ignoring important social issues. We chose Barry Callebaut not just for their great tasting chocolate, but because they are also a socially conscious company like ourselves. Check out this link to read more about how they help the environment: http://www.barry-callebaut.com/1722.

Hopefully this post has made it clearer where exactly our chocolate comes from, and we look forward to sending you your delicious Chocomize bar soon!

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

For a long time, chocolate was considered a guilty pleasure and despite the delicious taste people primarily thought of calories when thinking about chocolate. However, this is only one side of the coin. Research indicates that that there is also a variety of benefits that go along with chocolate. Amongst others, it helps to keeps your blood flowing, lower your blood pressure, and keeps your heart healthy.

The sweet taste of chocolate does not only remind you of childhood memories but also lets you stay young in a different regard: polyphenol, a compound found in chocolate, has been known to restrain free radicals. These are considered a major reason for cell aging and are also seen as a cause for cancer. Dark chocolate contains about eight times the polyphenols antioxidants found in strawberries!

Chocolate also contains theobromine and caffeine which increases your concentration and response capacity. According to scientists from the University of Bristol, 50 grams a day are enough to trigger these benefits. Their colleagues from Finland go one step further and claim that chocolate even has a positive influence on unborn children. Their research shows that daily consumption of chocolate during pregnancy may make for livelier and happier babies.

Moreover, chocolate raises your spirit. It triggers the production of serotonin in your brain which causes a general feeling of happiness. Other ingredients like magnesium and potassium are known for relieving and reducing stress and therefore help to add to your happiness.

Last, but not least, dark chocolate contains especially high quantities of flavanoids, a substance that may affect the relaxation capabilities of blood vessels and lowers high blood pressure as well as cholesterol levels. It therefore helps keep your cardiovascular system and heart run well.

Fortunately, these benefits are not only found in chocolate but also in a lot of fruits and nuts. Even better that you can now combine these benefits and enjoy your perfect chocolate bar without feeling bad about it!

Dear Fans,

Please use this space to follow our progress but also to write comments, suggestions, ideas, or anything else you want. We here at Chocomize are all about choice, and we feel that the direction of our company is largely dependent on what you the consumer want. Have a great idea for a new ingredient? Want to add a new charity? Have questions about chocolate? Write your thoughts and comments here. We can't wait to hear from you!

Eric, Fabian, and Nick