Meet the Woman Behind the Cococlectic Chocolate Club

 Sisters and Brothers who Love Chocolate, please help me welcome Doreen Leong, Founder of Cococlectic. Thank you for answering my questions, Doreen.

Let's begin with the basics. What is your background in the food industry?

I grew up exposed to many different types of food. My family and I were never afraid to try a new cuisine or flavor (and texture). We would take the time to explore new dishes. Over the years, I worked hard to train my palate to identify different flavors and high quality ingredients. 

Shortly after we started Cococlectic, my co-founder Brent and I attended culinary school to go through formal training. He focused on culinary arts while I focused on baking and patisserie. It was an eye-opener for us to see how people in the culinary and baking world work so hard at perfecting their craft.

When did you create Cococlectic?

We started Cococlectic in 2014. 

Cococlectic describes itself as a "craft bean-to-bar club." What does that mean exactly?

Cococlectic is a chocolate-of-the-month subscription club that features only craft bean-to-bar chocolate makers who make their chocolate bars using the bean-to-bar chocolate making process. Bean-to-bar chocolate-making process refers to the chocolate maker being involved in the entire chocolate-making process – importing the cacao beans, roasting the beans, conching and grinding the beans, tempering the chocolate, and molding and wrapping the chocolate bars. Essentially, making the chocolate bar straight from the cacao bean. Many times, the chocolate makers also have a relationship with the farmers which may involve helping to educate the farmers and fine-tuning their process to yield the ideal flavor in the cacao bean.

You only work with American chocolate makers who work from the processing of the cocoa beans to the creation of the chocolate bar. Surely there are far more brands that do that then you have partnered with, so what are some of the criteria you use to select a company to work with?

The craft bean-to-bar chocolate industry has exploded over the last 6 years, specifically in the US, with many new talented craft makers showcasing their art from Alaska to New Mexico and Oregon. We would love to feature everyone but don’t because we want to keep our selection very strategic. We feature bean-to-bar chocolate makers who make their chocolate bars using 3 ingredients or less; nothing more than cacao beans, sugar and cocoa butter. The fewer the ingredients are used in the chocolate bar, the easier it is for us to detect the tasting notes/flavors from the cacao bean. We’re looking for flavors that the chocolate makers can bring out of the cacao bean. 

We also don’t want the chocolate bars to contain ingredients like soy lecithin as it can mask the flavor of the bean. By featuring chocolate makers using this criteria, many people with dietary restrictions are able to enjoy the chocolates. All the chocolates we feature are vegan, non-GMO, fair-trade, ethically sourced, and are free from soy, gluten, dairy and nuts.

We consciously choose to feature smaller, small-batch and micro-batch American chocolate makers. There are many great chocolate makers who have larger distribution channels, more marketing dollars and wider reach. They have awesome products, but we prefer to feature the smaller makers, especially those who are new to the playing field, have great products and might need a boost with getting the word out to new customers. As a small start-up company, we feel very comfortable working with small-batch chocolate makers, sharing our knowledge and feedback from our customers with them. We want to be the first to showcase some of these makers to the larger chocolate community.

Doreen and Brent Teaching about Chocolate

Do you have taste testers that evaluate the companies that you partner with for each month's subscription?

Yes, we do! At any given time, we have about 5 to 8 chocolate testers, giving us feedback on whether we should feature the chocolate bars. It’s such a hard job!

How many craft chocolate makers would you guess that Cococlectic has worked with over the past six year? Do you ever team up again with the same brand?

To date, we have worked with about 65 different American chocolate makers. We’ve only teamed up with the same makers about 6 times. We are fortunate to have featured amazing chocolate makers who have grown since our feature as well as those who sadly, no longer make chocolate.

While Cococlectic is focused on supporting American makers, would you consider other craft chocolate makers from other regions in the future?

Yes, we have considered makers from other regions but we felt that while there’s still a lot of amazing chocolate makers in the US to feature, we’re going focus on American makers for now. If we do feature makers from other regions, I imagine we would start with Canada or Mexico.

Cococlectic has several levels of subscriptions for the monthly chocolate box. What is the most popular subscription level currently?

The most popular is the Sweet Devotee, where customers pay and receive a chocolate box every month. Even though there’s a discount purchasing the Coco’nnoisseur, where customers pay every 6 months and receive a box every month for 6 months, we still see folks going for the monthly option. 

How do you decide which brand to partner with for any given month? 

We sample all the chocolate bars before we consider featuring them. We secure the feature at least 6 months in advance and work with the chocolate maker to figure out when would be a good time for the feature. We want to give the makers enough time to ramp up production to fulfill our order. It’s a very large order, so for some of these smaller chocolate makers we want to be mindful of their production time.

Do you ever do thematic boxes such as holiday themed or seasonal flavors?

We are considering a few options for holiday themed boxes, but nothing has been decided yet. We have a special box, Office Box, that launched a few years ago where we feature a mix of 10 bars from different chocolate makers. This box was introduced because chocolate clubs at start-up companies who subscribed to Cococlectic wanted a larger subscription for their entire team. So we heard them and gave them a wider selection.

Let's talk about our favorite food on this blog: Chocolate. The Cococlectic Club only sends dark chocolate bars out, yet numerous surveys and claims from the chocolate industry state that milk chocolate is the favorite around the world, particularly in the USA. Why did you decide to stick with dark chocolate?

We stuck to dark chocolate because we want people to enjoy the flavors/tasting notes from the cacao bean. Milk and other inclusions take away from the true flavor of the cacao bean. Also, we want to give the option of chocolate giving (and enjoying) to those who have dietary restrictions. Cococlectic’s bars can be enjoyed by everyone with any kind of dietary restriction, except chocolate allergy, unfortunately.

I hope you don't mind, Doreen, if we get a touch personal. Do you like chocolate? If so, do you prefer white, milk, or one of the darker types of chocolate?

I’m a purist. I like my chocolate dark between 70% to 75%. This so happens to also be the best percentage to enjoy the flavors and tasting notes of the cacao bean. Too dark or too sweet, it hides the flavors.

Doreen Leong, Cococlectic Founder

Finally, where can consumers subscribe to the Cococlectic Club?

Folks can go to www.cococlectic.com to order their very own chocolate box. Every month, we have a virtual chocolate tasting session with the chocolate maker of the month whose chocolates are included in the chocolate box.

Thank you, Doreen, for joining us on The Chocolate Cult. 

This coming Saturday we'll be featuring a box from the Cococlectic Club.  

Readers, please leave comments or questions for Doreen if you have any. I'll let her know if you do, and maybe she'll answer.