December 22, 2015
The Chocology team wants to express many thanks to all of the wonderful people we have crossed paths with this past year.
Through our Chocology Give’s Back Road Trip, farmers markets, multiple events and customers we have learned one thing. We never meet a stranger! Everyone we have met has been remarkable ~ from sea to shining sea.
We’d also like to express our gratitude to those who have made Chocology even better by teaming up with us. Lavender Fields gave us a cozy “home” for our chocolates. Shark tank invited us to the Sprout National Sales Conference, where we had the opportunity to share our business practices with budding sales men and women. A special thanks to Security-Net. Their purchase pushed us over the top allowing us to make a $3,000 donation to Caterina's Club. What a joy it is to work with such wonderful organizations!
YOU have made our year extraordinary! We are grateful for the opportunity to share our products and educate the public about all things chocolate. We hope you’ve learned more about chocolate than you knew last year. We plan to continue bringing you interesting chocolate facts for years to come.
As an ending to a momentous year and happy holiday season, Shark Tank will be running a Christmas night special featuring the episode on Fat Ass Fudge. We invite you to watch and share the joy that Chocology feels in carrying out the legacy of the brilliant Donna McCue, founder of Fat Ass Fudge. We are thankful for the opportunity to provide this product under the Chocology name and want to extend a special offer in celebration of the Fat Ass journey. Order Christmas day through December 26th to receive 10% off of your Fat Ass order. Please use the coupon code SHARKTANK at checkout.
Here’s wishing you and yours a happy holiday season filled with family, fun and chocolate!
Warmest wishes,
~ The Chocology Team
July 28, 2015
Lots of discussion and conversation swirls around our booth at the Farmer’s Market each weekend. The most popular topics however seem to veer towards three main themes. White Chocolate, Chocolate Pairings and The Art of Tasting Chocolate. Since a lot of our readers live too far to make it out to our Farmer’s Market weekends, we thought we’d bring the conversation to you! For the next couple of weeks we’ll be writing Farmer’s Market Chitchat. So what do we talk about around the Chocology stand each week? Well, read on to join our Farmer’s Market chitchat!
Every weekend Chocology offers a tasting of our mouthwatering Fat Ass Fudge to the public at our Farmer’s Markets. Inevitably each week, when we offer our White Chocolate we get at least one, “Eww. . .I don’t like white chocolate!”
With some coaxing and cajoling however, many times we can convince them that Chocology Couverture pure white chocolate isn’t your ordinary white chocolate. Often times, after our customers taste our white chocolate they’re in line the next week with white chocolate at the top of their shopping list.
All white chocolate contains at least twenty percent cocoa butter—our contains 28% cocoa butter. Other ingredients might include sugar, milk and vanilla. Since white chocolate does not contain chocolate paste or cocoa liquor, it isn’t considered a chocolate product. White chocolate can vary greatly depending on the chocolate (Compound vs. Couverture) and ingredients used and the methods with which they are prepared.
Our white chocolate contains all natural ingredients. Since we use more cocoa butter and less sugar, our white chocolate isn’t as sweet as your typical run of the mill white chocolate, making it smooth and creamy with just the right amount of sweetness. Our mixing and tempering practices enhance the flavor and texture of our white chocolate making even the most finicky chocolate connoisseur fall in love at first bite.
“Wow! This tastes super amazing, it’s so creamy and not too sweet.”
“I’ve never been a fan of white chocolate, but I”m starting to think differently, thank you for the tasting!”
“This is VERY good and it tastes incredible. Hands down the best white chocolate I’ve ever had.”
Our Farmer’s Markets are great fun and so informal. Conversations abound as people gather around to taste, pair and join in the chocolate extravaganza! Do you like white chocolate? Have you tried Chocology White Fudge? We invite you to join the conversation via the comments section, Facebook or Twitter. You don’t have to be at our Farmer’s Markets to be in on the fun Farmer’s Market chitchat!
Next week we’ll be writing about: Chocolate Pairings. What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever paired with chocolate? Join us next week and find out what we pair with at our Farmer’s Market.
July 21, 2015
Our little company was a rocking chocolate machine this past weekend. With all hands on deck we managed to be in several places – all at the same time.
With three farmers markets plus a four-day weekend music festival, Chocology wielded chocolate like the pros! What fun we had making connections with people and introducing the art of tasting chocolate.
Our weekend actually started the week before in our commercial kitchen, producing three hundred pounds of our Fat Ass Fudge. Madeline and Grandma worked tirelessly around the clock assembling boxes for the fudge, while Linda performed her magic with sweets. By Wednesday, twelve hundred boxes of fudge were ready to go along with boxes of our decadent truffles.
With six workers in tow, our weekend started Thursday at the Whole Foods Lake Grove Farmers Market where we reunited with old customers and met some new ones. David took off from his corporate job to assist his family in the business of chocolate for the long weekend.
Immediately following the Farmer’s Market, we headed out to our tent for the opening of the Great South Bay Music Festival. We were surrounded by three stages while people young and old flocked out to hear emerging artists and their favorite bands. This was Madeline’s first outdoor concert and while setting up she got to hear Colbie Caillat and Rachael Platten soundcheck before their concerts—tough job but someone’s got to do it!
Our Fat Ass Fudge signs made people smile (and even laugh out loud) and our “Don’t Chew, Don’t Swallow” banners peeked their interest. Lines of people crowded around for our Art of Tasting presentations. Pairing our chocolates with wine, many of the Blue Point Brewery’s award winning creations and even CIGARS made our offerings interesting and unique, and helped us to sell out of all of our wares throughout the weekend!
Meanwhile on Friday, David tended to our customers at the East Setauket Farmers Market before closing up and joining Linda and team at the festival. Saturday, Linda, David and team worked the festival together. On Sunday, David served the customers at our Port Jefferson Farmers Market and then joined Linda for the close of the festival.
To sweeten the pot even further, we were honored to raise money for charities in our Chocology Cares campaign. We look forward to continuing to give back to these organizations with each fudge sale we complete.
We learned so much about running an event of this magnitude and plan to implement what we’ve learned at future events. For instance, instead of giving all of the fudge choices at once, we learned to have people choose dark, white or cappuccino. Then we would offer the varieties in those categories, making it easier for our lines to move fluidly and providing an overall easier experience for our customers. It’s all about education and while we are educating the public we are also educating ourselves
It was an exhilarating weekend for us all. Starting our days at 5 a.m. throughout the weekend was a challenge and manning our various events felt like a whirlwind, but in the end we felt that we had fulfilled our mission ~ to educate and share our love of chocolate with the world. What fun it was to be in an atmosphere of celebration for four straight days. By Sunday evening we were all tired but so proud to have been a part of sharing a weekend with so many beautiful people, wonderful music and of course chocolate.
If you were at any of our events this weekend, we would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter. Here’s to people, fun, chocolate and long weekends!
July 15, 2015
We had so much fun this past Saturday, July 11th 2015 at the Gardens & Landscapes of Port Jefferson event. This community experience was put on by the Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce and the Suwasset Garden Club, sponsored by the Times Beacon Record Newspaper in celebration of summer and their 40th Anniversary.
There were 9 gardens featured and Chocology was stationed loud and proud at the outstanding Gateway to Garden Splendors, home of Maria Palmer of Jolie Powell Realty. Visitors climbed the meandering stairs and were greeted with wine, chocolates, and spectacular views. Maria had a number of beautiful gardens on display at the event. The perennial borders were charming and the feeling so peaceful, it is hard to capture it accurately in words or pictures.
In addition to the beautiful gardens, we were lucky enough to pair our decadent Chocology artisan chocolates with two lovely wines ( New Harbor Sauvignon blanc and Arboreto Montepulciano) provided by Waverly Liqours of Setauket. Will Joseph, the store manager, was impressively knowledgeable about wine and everybody learned something new! The ability to allow the different notes of the wine to affect your tastebuds with a subtle flowery but sometimes slightly bitter taste and then follow up with some sweet Chocology chocolate was absolute heaven. Our 88% dark chocolate ganache was the favorite.
This was such a lovely and unique experience for us to participate in. It allowed our chocolates to be exposed to a marvelous tasting sort of crowd. We look forward to doing this again next year.
If that is something that sounds of interest, you are in luck. We do in fact do pairings, so call us up and let us know what you’re looking for and we’re more than happy to advise on which of our artisan chocolates or Fat Ass Fudge’s would taste delicious with your favorite wines, beers or foods.
As always, be sure to check us out locally at the different Farmer’s Markets in the area. We’ve added two new events to our list this week. This Thursday July 16th we’ll be at the Lake Grove Whole Food’s Farmer’s Market from 11am-2pm; this Friday July 17th we’ll be at the Setauket Farmer’s Market from 4pm-7pm; and this Sunday July 19th we’ll be at the Port Jefferson Farmer’s Market from 9am-2pm. Or come visit us Thursday - Sunday evenings at the Great South Bay Music Festival! We look forward to seeing you somewhere this weekend.
May 19, 2015
After a month of cross-country travel, Madeline and I arrived home Friday May 15, having driven a total of 8,001 miles since our departure on April 17th. We had so much fun driving through so many states and witnessing the beauty of this amazing country of ours. Reconnecting with friends and family and making new friends along the way was such a joy! Although we discovered that we feel at “home” wherever we are, it was nice to pull into Port Jefferson and relinquish the car keys for a while. It's really is nice to be home.
Just because we’re home doesn’t mean our busy schedule ends though. We’re moving onward and forward on our chocolate mission and of course we want you to come along with us!
With treats in hand, Chocology made it’s debut at the Port Jefferson Farmer’s Market on Sunday offering our Fat-Ass fudge to market goers. We shared time and space with lots of local Long Island vendors and met so many wonderful people, families and even pets!
In addition, today we’re into our test kitchen and off to our Commercial Kitchen on Thursday trying out a variety of new fudge flavors. We got so many suggestions on the road and couldn’t wait to get back and test them out. We’ve discovered that taste varies, depending on what part of the country you live in. Here’s a smattering of possibilities:
Maple Bacon
Garlic
Raspberry Chocolate
Cabernet
Spicy Mexican
And finally, we will be adding another fundraiser to our Chocology Gives Back lineup.
How is this organization changing the world?
Families exploring the fun and interactive hands-on exhibits at the Maritime Explorium at Port Jeff Harbor will enjoy the excitement of scientific discovery, develop a broadened cultural awareness and experience a sense of artistry while learning about Long Island’s rich and varied maritime heritage.
From now until December 20th every Fat Ass Fudge order that you place using the code EXPLORIUM, Chocology will donate $1.00 ($2 for every order of $50 or more) to help this organization empower and enrich the lives of our youth.
We’re excited to be home safely and ready to jump right in to more chocolate adventures! Won’t you help us spread the chocolate love? Share this post on Facebook and Twitter with friends and family so that they too can be a part of the Chocology family!
Cheer's to being Home Sweet Home. . .
~The Chocology Team