Chocology Rocks the Weekend!
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!
"Great Gardens, Chocolate and Wine Pairings"
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.