Writing about Chocolate since 2009
We have featured products from 431 brands, companies, and individuals. We have tested and published articles about chocolates from around the world. While most of the creators who send us their chocolate came from North America, our roster also includes European, Asian, Central Americana chocolatiers and candy makers. We would love to add Africa and Australia (are there chocolatiers in Antarctica?) to our chocolate family. We are headquartered in Indiana so we are happy to promote Indiana chocolate whenever possible, but we never discriminate against a company because of location.
Using a standardized procedure, we test each food or beverage we are sent; then describe this in a full-sensory fashion that was unique to us when this blog was created. We have a volunteer group of experts in various common additives to chocolate (coconut, alcohol, coffee, tea) that help us be as objective as possible. Each volunteer adheres to the standard procedure. Products that are not stand-alone beverages or food are tested and described based on ease of use, fulfilling their claims, educational value, use of evidence, or entertainment value, depending on the item.
Our founder is a respected book reviewer and part of the Vine program on Amazon. We happily accept books, movies, music, or television shows that deal with chocolate so authors, directors, musicians, producers, and singers and our founder always adds her review for these types of products to Goodreads and Amazon, so please do reach out to us.
If you would like your chocolate creations or chocolate related products covered on this blog, please contact us using our founder's address "thetammyjo" via gmail.
We are a group of volunteers who help test products related to Chocolate so that you, our dear readers, can spend your money wisely and choose good foods and drinks for your body as well as nourish your souls with our Sacred Substance: Chocolate.
We use the religious language to reflect the importance of Chocolate in many American and European cultures, the growth of the worldwide Chocolate market, and the history of chocolate as both religious and medical tool. Frankly it is also a bit amusing and reflects our founder, The Chocolate Priestess, lifetime goal of "starting a cult."
Using her published writing and academic training as our starting point, we experience Chocolate using as many of our senses as possible. We conduct testing that allows us to focus on the chocolate above everything else and we try out items related to Chocolate according to their directions. Then we report back to you in as objective a fashion as possible using our own photographs so you don't get the glossy imagines that can mislead.
We look at studies about medical claims and historical/cultural investigations into chocolate to help you be aware of the facts behind the hype. We even get political from time to time but always the focus stays on Chocolate.
We include any product created from the cacao tree in our features as well as books about, movies using, art related to, clothing featuring, bake/cookware used with chocolate, etc. Basically the product must be directly related to chocolate in some way beyond mere color.
If you'd like to be featured please know that we do not charge money for our feature articles; if you approach us through a blog community they will have their own rules in this regard but directly approaching us incurs no fees or payments.
If you would like your chocolate creations or chocolate related products covered on this blog, please contact us using our founder's address "thetammyjo" via gmail.
What is The Chocolate Cult?
We use the religious language to reflect the importance of Chocolate in many American and European cultures, the growth of the worldwide Chocolate market, and the history of chocolate as both religious and medical tool. Frankly it is also a bit amusing and reflects our founder, The Chocolate Priestess, lifetime goal of "starting a cult."
Using her published writing and academic training as our starting point, we experience Chocolate using as many of our senses as possible. We conduct testing that allows us to focus on the chocolate above everything else and we try out items related to Chocolate according to their directions. Then we report back to you in as objective a fashion as possible using our own photographs so you don't get the glossy imagines that can mislead.
We look at studies about medical claims and historical/cultural investigations into chocolate to help you be aware of the facts behind the hype. We even get political from time to time but always the focus stays on Chocolate.
We include any product created from the cacao tree in our features as well as books about, movies using, art related to, clothing featuring, bake/cookware used with chocolate, etc. Basically the product must be directly related to chocolate in some way beyond mere color.
If you'd like to be featured please know that we do not charge money for our feature articles; if you approach us through a blog community they will have their own rules in this regard but directly approaching us incurs no fees or payments.
Why Use The Chocolate Cult At All?
In a world where more and more people are buying online, for pickup from stores, or delivery to their home, using bloggers to spread the word about your chocolate and chocolate related creations makes good business sense. I can't forced brands or companies to work with us, I can only repeat that what we do here on The Chocolate Cult is not focused on making us money, but on spreading facts and information about chocolate so that our readers can make the best decisions about where they spend their money. We've been doing that since 2009.
What Types of Products will The Chocolate Cult Feature?
We do require that the food and beverage products to be tested and featured be made from chocolate liquor/mass or cocoa butter. We recommend that brands wanting to be written about on this blog focus on chocolate. Sending us non-chocolate items will result in them not being mentioned or merely mentioned in passing and that wastes your time and money as well as distracts us. We use the USA's legal definitions of chocolate for white, milk, semi-sweet, and dark chocolates. Each volunteer has a few specialities, areas they have more experience in, so we ask that any companies or brands wishing to be featured tell us all the ingredients involved so that your products can get appropriate testing.
Every Summer from July through August we try to focus on cold chocolate products -- ice creams, frozen yogurts, machines to make said things -- and for these we recommend freebie coupons for products we can buy in stores around us rather than sending us products directly.
We accept chocolate items for all other holidays, religious or secular, from any nation or community. We judge purely on the basis of the chocolate but will mention issues such as fair trade, eco-friendly packaging, sustainable agriculture, social justice connections, or cultural considerations if that matters to the brand. Send us your creations and we'll test them then write about them in our full-sensory manner.
We charge nothing to feature your book on our blog. Just send us a free copy of your book -- fiction or nonfiction -- that uses chocolate in some fashion as a plot element or subject. Physical books will get attention quicker than ebooks or digital copies.
If your creation is about chocolate or made from any part of the cocoa bean or cocoa tree, we will cover it. If it is a product that can be used to enjoy or make chocolate goodies with, we will cover it. If it is research about any aspect of chocolate in culture, we want to share it.
Further Information
We do not test and review the same product from the same company twice -- our readers want variety.
If your company would like to have world-wide exposure at no cost beyond the samples and shipping in an objective and honest fashion, contact our leader (thetammyjo via gmail) who administers this blog.
In 2020, we were named by Sparpedia as one of the 20 Most Famous Chocolate Blogs: https://sparpedia.ch/toplists/20-most-famous-chocolate-blogs-of-2020/
In 2019 we were named to the Top 75 Chocolate Blogs: "The Chocolate Cult has been selected by our panelists as one of the Top 75 Chocolate Blogs on the web" https://blog.feedspot.com/chocolate_blogs/
In January 2017 we were named one of the Top 50 Chocolate Blogs on the Internet! We're very proud but hope we can do even better in the future.
NOTICE: Any comments left on our main pages that contain external links will be deleted. We only provide links for companies and products who have entrusted us to test and reveal their creations to the world and to resources we have personally investigated and found useful.
If you are concerned about online PRIVACY please note that this site is part of the Blogger Network and thus we follow their policy. To see it please visit this link.
Note: If you follow some of the links on this website that go back to Amazon.com, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The Amazon ads you see on this site are from Blogger and not related to my Associate account.
If your company would like to have world-wide exposure at no cost beyond the samples and shipping in an objective and honest fashion, contact our leader (thetammyjo via gmail) who administers this blog.
In 2020, we were named by Sparpedia as one of the 20 Most Famous Chocolate Blogs: https://sparpedia.ch/toplists/20-most-famous-chocolate-blogs-of-2020/
In 2019 we were named to the Top 75 Chocolate Blogs: "The Chocolate Cult has been selected by our panelists as one of the Top 75 Chocolate Blogs on the web" https://blog.feedspot.com/chocolate_blogs/
In January 2017 we were named one of the Top 50 Chocolate Blogs on the Internet! We're very proud but hope we can do even better in the future.
If you are concerned about online PRIVACY please note that this site is part of the Blogger Network and thus we follow their policy. To see it please visit this link.
Note: If you follow some of the links on this website that go back to Amazon.com, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The Amazon ads you see on this site are from Blogger and not related to my Associate account.
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