100 Chocolatiers and Counting

Created by our White Chocolate Acolyte, Fox

This past February, right at the end of the month, we passed our two years as a blog and as a cult center for all matters chocolate.  A week or two after I created this blog and saw that folks were reading, I decided to reach out to a couple of chocolate companies I found online.  I've never been a woman who goes only half way, that's how I got a PhD, how I published and continue to get published, why I'm a force at conventions, etc.  It takes courage to reach out but I figured the worst they could say was "No" right?

Except some of them said "Yes" and thus our Saturday Sacraments and our Special Sacramental Reviews were born and took on their unique full sensory flavor with photos that we spend between a half an hour and up to 4+ hours on each week.  Two weeks ago we passed our 100 companies mark.  So in just 26 months 105 actually, have sent us products or freebie coupons, entered our challenges for Halloween or just given samples of their chocolates to us when we found them out tiny towns or at big events.  In exchange for their products we promise to try and describe our experience in all full senses where allowed or give our honest best effort to follow their instructions or enjoy whatever type of product they have that connects to our Sacred Substance.

Here are some of the icons from those first few chocolatiers who trusted in us:

The First One to Trust The Chocolate Cult

The 3rd to Send Us Samples

The 4th to Send Us Samples

First Big Company to Trust Us

Not all the companies that sent us chocolate are still around but we tried our best to be honest in our reviews and always linked to them multiple times in that process.

In case it wasn't clear, we don't worship chocolate here, we use it in a way to expand ourselves in body and mind, perhaps even in soul, we try to have a healthier relationship with chocolate by being honest with ourselves and with you.  We also try to do it with a sense of humor.  It is a "we," too, right from day one when the two members of my family gave their full hearted support to those who have tried out for and won Acolyte positions or simply volunteered when needed.  This is my big THANK YOU to all of you who eat and drink with me, give me rides, and go on cocoa adventures that do not always run smoothly.

I originally began The Chocolate Cult for two reasons.  In part to help me control my own chocolate addiction. You see, I grew up using chocolate to try and cope with a very stressful childhood that I don't want to depress you all with repeating the details about.  If you've read my fiction or some of my non-fiction, if you follow me on other social networks, especially Livejournal, you've learned more about this.  If you want to, you can always follow and ask me question.  I don't lie, I gave that up as part of my recovery process.

The second reason I started The Chocolate Cult was professional but as a sort of counter to the fact that colleges and universities almost stopped hiring new facility just as I got my PhD.  Volunteering at a University Museum helps with some of my teaching desires but doing this, researching chocolate, trying products, attempting to write in a way that helps you, my Sisters and Brothers in Chocolate, also helped me push myself to write more and differently than on a scholarly article, for my students or for my next published story.  You are free to visit my primary website unless you think it might scare you.

I hope you all get a lot out of this venture.  If you feel up to it, and can financially do it, please check out the ads or follow this link to our little new shop, Chocolate & Erotica, Oh My!, to buy not chocolate but things you can use to say "I'm a Member of the Chocolate Cult".