Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Family Tradition

Today, Sisters and Brothers in Chocolate, we are going to talk with Christina M. Abel, the woman behind Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate, the company who first trusted us to reveal their chocolates to all of you.

Welcome, Christina, to The Chocolate Cult.

Christina, you are a second generation chocolatier. Would you tell us a bit about your family history in the chocolate industry?

In college, my dad worked for a candy company in Ohio.  He started working on the dock and eventually moved up in the company to learn candy making and running their retail stores.  After college he moved back to St. Louis (his hometown) and he and my mom opened their first candy store in 1981.  His concept was simple: make candy on premise and have a retail store in the front.  Customers loved seeing candy being made in front of their eyes!  My two brothers and I have grown up in the chocolate business and have always helped out at the stores since we were young.  As we each graduated college we came on board full time and each have our own individual niche within the company.  It is a truly family run operation. 

The Abel Family of Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate fame

How did you train to become a chocolatier? Was it all from your father or a combination of schooling and hands on experience?’

My dad trained all of us how to make candy, run the stores and most importantly to provide the best customer service to each person who comes into our stores.

Does Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate have franchises? If so, do they sell the products that you make or do them follow a recipe for their products?

We do have franchise stores.  We started franchising in 2001 and there are currently 8 retail Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Company stores.  The stores make some of their own products on premise in the back of the store and we manufacture some of the products at our factory for them to purchase.  For the candy that they make on premise, they follow our recipes. 

Solar panels on factory roof of Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate
You have a huge chocolate factory that your company opened in 2012. It is partly powered by solar panels. Why did you decide to use solar panels for the factory?

When we opened our factory, we wanted to find ways to reduce our carbon footprint.  At 30,000 square feet, the factory is much larger than any of our previous locations.  The solar panels on our roof help power about 20% of our factory.  We also have a monitor with a slideshow in our retail store.  At the beginning of each factory tour (yes we offer FREE chocolate factory tours!!!), the tour guides focus on the slideshow and explain the solar panels and how much energy we have saved.  Customers love seeing it and it creates more awareness for solar panels and other energy conservation efforts.  In addition to the solar panels on our roof, we have a recycling program through which we recycle about 50 tons of cardboard annually. 

I note that some of your ingredients are Fair Trade Certified. We know that buying such ingredients is costly so why did you make that switch?

Purchasing Fair Trade ingredients has become very important to us.  The cocoa beans for our chocolate come from the Ivory Coast where the farmers sometimes make $800 annually.  The Fair Trade premium ensures that the farmers receive a better wage for their crop which allows them to send their kids to school, implement better farming practices to increase their yield and have a better life for their families.  When we first introduced Fair Trade, many of our customers were unaware of what that means and the impact that it has so educating our customers about Fair Trade over the years has been very rewarding.  They see the Fair Trade logo on our package and realize that their local purchase is making a global impact and also when they go into the market place for other items they can make the choice to continue to purchase other Fair Trade items by recognizing the logo and understanding what it means.  Knowing that the purchase of our product is providing a better wage for the farmers and helping to spread the message about Fair Trade has been a very rewarding experience and we look forward to continuing to work with Fair Trade and sourcing other Fair Trade ingredients. 

On your website, it mentions that "100% of the Fair Trade premiums that Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Company pays goes directly to the Cocoa farmers in the Ivory Coast and Sugar farmers in Belize." Have you been to those farms yourself or who exactly do you work with them?

We have not been to the farms ourselves but our suppliers work with the farmers to source the best ingredients for our products.

Since we first covered Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate's "Milk Chocolate Graham Crackers" back in March 2009, I'm sure you've had a lot of new products come out. What has been your favorite innovation or change in terms of products?

As we have grown our packaging has gone through a dramatic change.  We’ve been able to purchase software to calculate the nutrition information for all of our products, our new factory is FDA certified so all of our packaged products have ingredient labels with allergy and nutrition information along with lot traceability.  We’ve moved towards using clean ingredients in our products which means they are free from artificial colors, flavors, preservatives and hydrogenated oils and of course the addition of the Fair Trade certification has been exciting.  We have recently purchased some machines from Switzerland which have the technology to make filled candy bars.  Last year we launched a line of craft chocolate bars and the response has been overwhelming, customers are loving the new bars!!  The craft chocolate bars have definitely been a favorite innovation due to the new type of product we are able to make, the flavor profiles that we have created and the beautiful packaging for the craft chocolate bars.  http://www.chocolatechocolate.com/category/Craft-Chocolate-Bars

You offer products made with white chocolate, milk chocolate, and various darker chocolates. Personally, what is your favorite type of chocolate and why?

This is the most difficult question of all and I get asked this almost daily.  My favorite chocolate changes by the day.  We have such an amazing variety of products and we are always crafting new flavors to try.  I’m a caramel girl, I love anything with our caramel and I love the mixture of milk chocolate and pecans!  The product that I think every house should have is our 2 LB Special of solid milk or dark chocolate.

Not only is this product the very best deal in the store but it’s also so versatile.  My mom’s famous chocolate chip cookie recipe is on the back of the box and I highly recommend trying it because she makes THE BEST cookies!  I shave some of our dark chocolate and put it in my chili to add a little bit of sweetness and I shave either milk or dark chocolate to use as topping for desserts and it’s great on hot chocolate too.  I don’t want to give away his secret recipe by my brother melts some of the dark chocolate and uses it on his barbeque ribs and they are amazing! The chocolate is scored into small triangles so you can snap a piece off to eat, which is my favorite part J

2 lb break up bars from Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate
Of course, we should love what we do but we also have to make money and please customers. What are the customer favorites that Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate sells?

In our retail stores our fresh chocolate covered strawberries are a best seller, we make them fresh every day and are getting ready for our big production of chocolate covered strawberries for Valentine’s Day.  Our 2 LB special solid break up and our molasses puff are customer favorites too.  Over the last year, the craft chocolate bars have been getting into the top of everyone’s list.  We have boxes that will hold either 4 or 10 bars and they have been extremely popular for gifts. 

Finally, is there anything else you'd like to let our readers know about Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate?

We’ve been in business since 1981 and are so appreciative to our customers who have not only kept us in business for 37 years but have also allowed us to grow and continue to do what we love.  We have a lot of custom orders for weddings, showers (baby and bridal), out of town gift bags, and corporate orders and it’s very humbling that our customers choose us to be a part of their special milestones in life.  At the heart, we are a family run company and want to thank our customers for allowing us to continue this sweet journey.

Sisters and Brothers in Chocolate, do you have any follow up questions for Christina about Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate? How about a comment to let her and us know you read this interview? Please do either or both in a comment below.

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