The Chocospherian – October 2020

The Chocospherian
Incredible Chocolate News	October 25^h, 2020

Written By: Joanne Kryszek, Chocosphere Co-Founder and Chocolate Goddess, and the Chocosphere Team

Chocosphere is Here for You!	Bargain Basement & On Sale
Incr‘Edible’ Chocolate Deals…	Customer Service
Recipe Corner	Newsletter
What's New?	Topics
Upcoming Holidays

Notes from Joanne…

COVID time has presented challenges in bringing chocolate from some of our smaller producers in exotic places. As a result we've experienced some stock outages lasting longer than usual. Where we had a good system for bringing chocolate from Viet Nam, Australia, the Philippines, Costa Rica or Brazil in the past, now, with fewer planes flying, it has become a logistics challenge. But we've been working on it and we're starting to see some success with a newly arrived shipment from Belvie of Viet Nam and hopefully a shipment from Marana of Peru arriving within days. Please be patient with us if we can’t get your chocolate drug of choice immediately. And take this as an opportunity to try something new! No one should be in a chocolate rut. There’s way too much delectable chocolate in the world to suffer.

Incr‘Edible’ Chocolate Deals

Now is the time to get some yummy chocolate on the way to you as we've started to see the autumn colors all around. It should help relieve stress and make your life more enjoyable.

For a limited time we're giving a promotional discount of 10% off orders over $50.00 in merchandise. This applies to most products sold by Chocosphere including chocolate clubs and gift baskets, but excludes gift certificates as well as shipping and warm weather packaging. You must apply the code DOWNHILL2020 in the "Gift Certificates / Coupon Codes" field right below the shopping cart display to get the promotional discount.

DOWNHILL2020 Coupon code

Fall/Winter Coupon Code

This offer begins at 12:01 AM Pacific Time on October 26th, 2020. To qualify, you must place your order online with an Order ID issued by our web site no later than 11:59 PM Pacific Time on November 1st, 2020. This offer is not valid for orders placed outside the date range noted above.

To make this "chocolate therapy" even better, we will be including a special treat of something incredible in every order.

Upcoming Holidays & Special Times

End of the year Holiday Rush (And we are so ready for this year to end!)

We are fast approaching the holidays and people are more than ready for chocolate. It’s the perfect gift, whether you are a home chef or you just like to shower your friends and relatives in happiness by giving them chocolate presents. Chocolate is GOOD for you because it makes you feel better even when the stress of our current world situation seems dire. This year I find myself back in the EAT CHOCOLATE, OFTEN!!! mode and it works for me. The running that I do compensates for the extra calories and running makes me feel better too, so it’s a win, win, win.

Remember all our special gifty items, which can be found on our Gifts and Collections / Fall and Winter Seasons Collection page and our Chocolate Clubs that come for 3 months, 6 months or 1 year and you can select chocolate bars or variety chocolate assortment. We do corporate gifts and we need to know soon if you have something special that you want in larger quantities. We can put your logo on the greeting card and we can use your colors with ribbon and tissue paper.

What's New

We have new products from Amedei, Domori, Bonnat, Café Tasse, Pralus, Republica del Cacao, Venchi, and some others too. Check them out!

There are new gifts from Amedei, bars from Domori, an organic 24 piece gift box from Pralus, two Café Tasse bars that say “Thank You” in 10 languages (one milk and one dark), and two new Venchi products. Also 4 Bonnat praline bars: one milk and one dark with almond praline and the same with hazelnut. The difference kind of surprised us. Usually praline is a filled product with solid chocolate on the outside and a softer praline on the inside. This is the praline combined with the chocolate and it is delicious, a bit softer, but not as soft as Gianduja.

TEA??? at Chocosphere??? Yes there is room in our pantry for tea.

Teekanne, of Düsseldorf, Germany is a very experienced long-time tea provider, making fine teas since 1882. Their range includes a wide variety of herbal, black, white, and green teas. An interesting fact is that Teekanne engineers developed the double chamber tea bag which is used by millions of tea drinkers the world over.

We won’t put tea in a gift bag, assortment, or gift basket unless you ask. If you want some please mention it in the “Comments” section of your order and we’ll do it. There are a few teas without caffeine that help you unwind, relax, sleep and dream and some with caffeine that will rev you up and help get the job done.

Bargain Basement & On Sale

Almost all of the Jouvay, Taza and Nina that we have is on the Bargain Basement. Get it while you can. There are 9 items on the “On Sale” page as of this writing. Check that out too.

Recipe Corner

EVERYTHING PASSION COOKIE

Recipe by Chef Derek Poirier, Valrhona Pastry Chef
Category: Cookies & Bars
Difficulty: Easy

INGREDIENTS

COOKIE DOUGH
1 cup butter
½ tsp salt
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 egg
2¼ cup pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ cup coconut flakes
½ cup peanuts, chopped
½ cup rolled oats
½ cup PASSION FRUIT INSPIRATION, chopped
½ cup ORELYS 35% Blond Chocolate, chopped

INSPIRATION FILLING
¼ cup almond paste
¼ cup PASSION FRUIT INSPIRATION, chopped
2 tsp cream

INSTRUCTIONS

Cookie Dough

Cream the butter and sugar. Then add in the egg.
Add the flour and baking soda.
Mix in the coconut, peanuts, and oats. Then add in your chopped PASSION FRUIT INSPIRATION and ORELYS 35% Blond Chocolate.
Roll into a 2 inch diameter log wrapped in plastic wrap and rest in the refrigerator.

INSPIRATION Filling

Melt the PASSION FRUIT INSPIRATION. Add the heated cream gradually, whisking to create an emulsion.
Once the mixture is completely combined and shiny, gradually add the Passion Fruit Ganache to the warmed almond paste. Mix well or use an immersion blender to completely combine.

ASSEMBLY & FINISHING

Cut the cookie dough into slices.
Take a small scoop of the INSPIRATION Filling, and place it on the middle of a slice of cookie dough. Place another slice of cookie dough on top to completely sandwich the INSPIRATION Filling. Pinch the edges together.
Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Customer Service

Of course we are happy to help over the phone, but we do appreciate it when you place your order on line. It helps us give the most prompt and accurate service. And when you need help, we are here for you. There is generally someone answering the phones between 8:30am and 4:30pm Pacific Time, Monday through Friday, with the exception of commonly observed holidays.

There are five of us answering phones at Chocosphere, where we speak fluent Chocospherian. We try hard to answer all calls personally during normal business hours, but occasionally one slips over to voice mail. If you call and end up in voice mail, please leave a message. We will do our very best to call back promptly. If by chance you don't hear back from us in a reasonable time, please call again during our normal business hours.

We each have varying levels of experience. It is our goal to happily serve you the very best chocolate!!

Finally, and very importantly, our web site lists our service commitments as to when we ship an order based on when the order is placed. However, we certainly understand there are circumstances where you may want us to process an order faster, when you need your chocolate “now”! If you need your order shipped faster than our listed service commitment, please place your order online letting us know of your need in the “Comments” section, and then call us 503-692-3323 x 0 for Customer Service) to let us know. We can't guarantee early shipping, but we always try hard to provide chocolate happiness to our valued customers.

If you want us to send a copy as an email every time there is a new issue or to tell you about special offers, please create an account at chocosphere.com and check the newsletter box.

Topics:

If you have a topic you would like us to cover in the newsletter, please drop us a line: customer-service@chocosphere.com and we will be happy to include it in a future edition.

Fax 503-692-1494