Monthly Archive for October, 2008

Taking your orders for the Salon du Chocolat!

Published on October 28, 2008 in Marketing and Trips. 0 Comments Tags: Paris, sampler, shop.

So you’ve been reading about all this wonderful new types of dark chocolate that you’ve never heard of? Until exploring this blog you couldn’t image dark chocolate would taste like strawberries, citrus, leather and wood? My visit to the Salon du Chocolat may be an opportunity for you to get some for yourself!

I’m open to be your delivery boy and bar dealer, for those interested in trying some of the origin chocolate that I’ve been blogging about since last month. For two friends I’m already working out a kind of “Original Introduction Sampler”, a set of 4-6 bars that may cost you like somewhere between 20-30 €.
I presume that on the 12.000m² you sure have some shopping corners. I will select some ‘accessible’ bars and a few more ‘challenging’ ones, reflecting what I learned in other tastings I had in the past weeks. You will also get some tips on best tasting practices from me, In return I challenge you to definitely share with me what you did (not) appreciate in the various bars!

Please let me know if you are interested in getting your “Original Introduction Sampler” before tomorrow evening. Mail me through my Facebook profile, or use the contact form or email me on :> choqoa {at} gmail dot com.

I’m warmheartedly looking forward to get your orders!

One month of Choqoa.com

Published on October 24, 2008 in Marketing. 1 Comment Tags: Antwerp, Callebaut, Coppeneur, Dusseldorf, Facebook, Hussel, Maglio, Neuhaus, pairing, Paris, wine.

So it’s been one month at Choqoa.com and what happened? At first I’m really happy myself to finally have created a place to share my passion. I really should have started this earlier, but speaking with hindsight is always easy. Blogging takes time and energy, though passion fuels the fire, so let’s rock on to make the story pay off. It’s a great after all to synthesize my addiction in words that I can easily share with you.

At present the site is gaining visitors from all continents, which very nice to spot and also the main reason for me to blog in English. In the map below you see where visitors come from and I indicated for fun the growing zone of cacao, which is about 20° up and down the equator. See for yourself:

Next to direct traffic and already some interesting Google search results, I also get a good amount of visits through my Cacao Aficionado photos on Flickr. It’s encouraging to see that both hobbies strengthen each other. The Choqoa on Twitter account also helps a little to drive int’l traffic. It’s pleasant to spot some people here that are equally into (digital) marketing and share the curiosity and passion for chocolate (jacksonbr, jomarbr, timwillems, Emakina). Stats are picking up slowly, there definitely is still work to do for building more extensive traffic, so I also created a Choqoa Facebook FanPage to which I invite all of you to join too!

And also off line in real life, a lot of encouraging things happened. On my chocolate safari in Düsseldorf I discovered new brands like Hussel, Coppeneur and Maglio, and also the Neuhaus bars bought later on in Antwerp seem interesting. I went behind the scenes at chocolatier Goossens, and all of the people whom I had taste from ‘my’ chocolate reacted exactly as I hoped, though most of the time I was rather nervous awaiting their first impressions.
I went networking on the Max Havelaar FairTrade Colloquium and was very enthusiast meeting the people from Callebaut over there. They were charmed by my story and invited me to share more about our passion. In return I learned a lot from them too, and above all they were really helpful in providing a lot of new information on the cacao market. Their Account Manager was even so friendly to provide me with the origin samples for that other great offline experience: my first wine & chocolate pairing.

As for actual business resulting from this blog, I’m excited by getting a freelance job for one of the world’s most famous chocolatier brands, and I’ll be helping to develop their online & digital strategy. Next to that, it’s still about exploring various opportunities for how we eventually really may get into cacao business: whether it is venturing in a self-owned project or by joining the industry at a marketing related position, that is still open. Next milestone will be the Salon du Chocolat, next week in Paris!

Chocolate Origins. Films from TCHO

Published on October 23, 2008 in Marketing and On Chocolate & Cacao. 0 Comments Tags: cacao, origin, process, TCHO, Wired.

TCHO is a new kind of cacao company that has Louis Rossetto, founder of the übertech magazine Wired.com, and a space shuttle technologist, Timothy Childs amongst its partners. This US brand is based in SF Bay Area, and plays on the geeky ‘beta’ concept in its serial launches of origin bars. The company philosophy is very close to my personal business ideas, and though the professional reviews might not be raving (yet) on their bars, still the concept is well working out. TCHO also plays a lot on so called ‘transparancy’, but puts more efforts in marketing this proposition than competitors. This avid tactic surely will have its roots in the geek and Web2.0 background they have.

The big SF bloggers from BoingBoing TV treated their friend and neighbour on a visit in its ‘open house’ and deliver a nice series of short documentaries taking us behind-the-scenes at the TCHO offices. The first video result in this series is rather a very nice and appealing introduction in the cacao processing from ‘bean to bar’, or much better: from ‘pod to palate’! Enjoy Xeni Jardin and David Pescovitz rocketed into the world of cacao.

(mind you, there is short intrusive ad halfway)

Preparing for “Le Salon du Chocolat” in Paris

Published on October 22, 2008 in Trips. 2 Comments Tags: Amedei, Bonnat, Cacao Barry, Coppeneur, Dagoba, De Bondt, De Vries, Domori, exhibition, fair, Guittard, La Maison du Chocolat, Lindt, Michel Cluizel, Nestlé, Newtree, Paris, Phillipe Pascoët, Pralus, salon, Salon du Chocolat, Scharffen Berger, TCHO, Valrhona, Zaabär.

The “Salon du Chocolat” goes around worldwide with famous fairs in New York, Tokyo, Beijing, even Moscow, and next week shows in Paris with a 4 day fair, from October 29th till November 2nd. A one-way cacao Valhalla, the ultimate theme park, or eventual deception… I’m haven’t really got a clear view about what to expect from the 2008 “Salon du Chocolat“.

It is hard to imagine entering the halls in Portes de Versailles, that has more than of 12.000m² to offer for chocoholics, cacaophiles, and aficionados. I only know I’m going one day out of four, for the first time, and the plan is to discover more about artisan & origin chocolate explorations. With a vast range of all known top chocolatiers and artisan brands present at the fair, there sure must be lots of fun to share with other people.

The Paris team for the Salon conducted an amusing survey together with Le Figaro/Madame, on the French and their chocolate habits. Some fun facts:

Men and women, everyone prefers dark chocolate (50%), followed by milk chocolate (35%) and white chocolate (15%).
Solitaire or social? 24% of men do not share their munches … against 22% of women. Shared with family, between lovers, then friends, chocolate however still remains primarily a pleasure that is offered to and experienced together.
41% of women believe that eating chocolate gives them more pleasure than making love …
In buying habits, respondents like to buy their chocolate in priority from small but high quality artisan chocolatiers (48%) and in a much lesser extent from big industrial brands (23%).

I’ve been spotting the 400+ participants list, which includes some 140 chocolatiers, and I’m glad to see a whole range of favourites in place: Domori, Lindt, La Maison du Chocolat, Maison Bonnat, Michel Cluizel, NewTree, Phillipe Pascoët, Pralus and the Belgian new Zaabär too.
Some others to discover are: Nestlé, De Bondt and Cacao Barry (from Meulan). I’ll also seek after bars from Dagoba, and USA brands like De Vries, Scharffen Berger, Guittard, and maybe TCHO, although none of these are listed with a stand. Big misses are Amedei, Valrhona and German brands like Coppeneur.

I’ll keep you posted with writings later on!
Any other brands you think of are worth checking out?

My first Wine & Chocolate pairing experience

Published on October 20, 2008 in On Chocolate & Cacao and Reviews. 2 Comments Tags: Argentina, Arriba, cacao, Carbernet Sauvignon, Fantelli, Ghana, Malbec, origin, pairing, Savanna, tasting, Venezuela, Vinas del Adagio, wine.

Last Sunday afternoon I went to a wine tasting home event at a friend. I thought this was a nice low-profile opportunity to smuggle in some origin chocolate and engage in my first ever wine & cacao pairing. I emailed him to ask what wine types he would be offering, and he said his first home tasting would be for wines from Argentinian domaines with a lot of body, mainly Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon vintages. He was very open to my pairing suggestion and I was lucky enough to get some sample packs from my new friends and chose 4 origin varieties that should match with Argentinian wines according to their experience: so I had selected a range of Venezuela, Ghana, Arriba and an African Blend.

Of course I was very curious to see how things would go and as usual would just let things come as they are. There were some twenty-some people over the place, and I found myself a spot behind the counter in the kitchen where I could stealthy place my sample bars. Attracted by noticing these different anonymous chocolate samples next to the wine flights, folks asked my about my story. I had really nice chats with various friends and visitors about this idea of pairing and they were pleasantly intrigued by discovering these various cacao flavours, and the wine experience of course perfectly topped it all of…

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