Holidays and Chocolate

Yesterday I attended another online Cacao Summit event. The theme of this summit was "Preparing for the Holidays" with chocolate makers and sellers. There were two guest speakers: Gail Ambrosius of Gail Ambrosius Chocolatier in Madison, Wisconsin, and Carol Gancia of Kokak Chocolates in San Francisco, California. The host was Jenny Samaniego from Conexion with moderator Jody Hayden from Grocer's Daughter Chocolate.

I went to this suspecting that the "holidays" in question would be the Christmas and related end of the year holidays. My assumption was proven to be quite correct as they started talking about ordering packaging and ingredients that they hope will arrive in November. There are some logistics issues because of the pandemic to getting packaging. Gancia ordered this summer, Ambrosius ordered in the early spring. Ingredients, too, have been a challenge in terms of delivery.

In shop, finding and keeping staffing has been been a challenge even with vaccines and more places opening up and getting back to work. Both guests talked about this at some length. Yes, they would need to increase wages and benefits and pass on those costs to customers. I really liked that the panelists also asked each other questions and interacted in a natural way.

The guests also discussed brick and mortar sales versus online sales. Both companies use local businesses to sell through as well as going to local shows and events and using social media. This led into a discussion about bigger trade shows either global, regional, state, or just beyond their local community.

Hayden shared something new that Grocer's Daughter Chocolate is doing for Christmas and asked if the other two are thinking of doing anything new this year. Gancia mentioned Halloween and Valentine's both with her answer to this question. 

Since we have the Halloween Treat Challenge every year (or when we have competitors), I hoped there would be time to ask questions. Halloween is the 3rd most popular holiday in the USA and it is celebrated in more and more nations as the decades pass. Being involved with the local community is a lifeline to small chocolate businesses.

I put this question in the Q&A box: The “holidays” of today’s theme appear to be Christmas. Do you also make chocolate for other holidays such as Halloween? A recent survey of Americans found that Halloween is the third most popular holiday in the country, yet a lot of fine chocolate makers seem to ignore it, so I'm curious as to why the focus is on holiday versus fine chocolates for a wider array of holidays.

I got a typed answer from Ambrosius who says that most folks just want trick or treating candy, not fine chocolates. But then, surprise, Hayden did ask my question out loud, so it was discussed. Thank you, Hayden for asking it! Ambrosius expanded on her written answer saying that it is a minority of her customers who ask for Halloween themed chocolates. They also discussed Thanksgiving with Ambrosius revealing that the chocolate molded turkey place card holders and a big centerpiece sell pretty well for them. Truffle boxes sell well for Thanksgiving as an item you can share at a family dinner or lunch for that feasting holiday.

How can they do all the planning and making goods to sell? Freezing was brought up as an option but it requires a lot of packaging. You can freeze the prepared ingredients and then turn them into the final products for example. But it will also be a lot of long hours.

The entire discussion took only an hour and I feel like it could have gone on for at least 20 minutes longer.