The Chocospherian – April 2022

The Chocospherian
Incredible Chocolate News	April 21^st, 2022

Written By: Joanne and The Chocosphere Team

Notes from The Team…	Mother's Day
Incr‘Edible’ Chocolate Deals…	Customer Service
Recipe Corner	Newsletter
What's New?	Topics

Notes from The Team

Stock Issues & Logistics

Most of our suppliers are finding ways to ship regularly with some shortages and outages. We continue to order almost weekly from Valrhona and Guittard, and every few weeks from Callebaut. For those three companies the size of our orders can be diminished by 50% to 75% based on supply and logistic problems at the manufacturer. This is an ongoing issue and we will do what we can to stay well supplied with the chocolate you want.

There is also difficulty importing from some of the makers we value like Auro from The Philippines, where we can’t find suitable transportation to get the chocolate to us in a timely manner, in good condition, and at reasonable cost. We keep trying and are hopeful that there will be a solution soon. In the meantime please let us help you find something you will like. The world needs chocolate now and you are no exception.

Mother's Day

Mother’s Day is coming. Send an alternative to flowers, jewelry or tchotchkes. At the top of the Chocosphere Home Page, using the brown selector bar, go to Gifts and Collections, Holiday Collections, and click on Mother’s Day. Look through almost 30 different choices for your Mom.

Be sure to get some of our Fancy Boxed Chocolates on the way or one of the promotional Baskets that are offered now at a great value: A beautifully prepared basket for your special Mom with a medium-sized selection of treats, a $65.00 value for only 49.95, or choose a bigger basket of goodies, a $120.00 value for only $99.95. She won’t forget you did this… ever… and it will get you plenty of happy memories.

Incr‘Edible’ Chocolate Deals

This just might be the deal for you. Get $10.00 off your order of $100.00 or more in merchandise. It applies to all orders placed online at www.chocosphere.com and can be taken with the code $10.00OFF. Use the code in the Gift Certificate/Coupon Codes field of the Shopping Cart screen and get your $10.00 off.

*Important Conditions: This coupon is only active from Friday, April 22^nd, 2022 12:00 AM PDT until Saturday, April 30^th, 2022 11:59PM PDT. This offer will not be honored retroactively and applies only to merchandise in stock at the time the order is placed. All sales are final. Purchases of Gift Certificates and Warm Weather Packaging are excluded. Orders must be placed online using the coupon code. Phone and e-mail orders are not eligible for this promotion.

Notes from Joanne - What's New

Jerry and I have a small house in Tucson that we have visited twice since January. The week before going there in March we received an email from Monsoon Chocolate asking if we would consider carrying their brand. We immediately made plans to visit and on the appointed day we approached their facility with anticipation. The location is surprising and not where you would expect a chocolate shop/restaurant/manufacturing facility to be. The outside is tranquil and the inside is bustling.

We walked in and found a small line for their soft reopening after the COVID interruption. We looked, tasted, and bought! This chocolate, made in the heart of the Arizona desert, is blooming with flavor and lots of origins. Not only is the chocolate delicious but the bars are adorned with beautiful Southwestern artwork. The Blue Corn Atole and Desert Series Mesquite White Chocolate bars and the Bejofo Estate Madagascar 64% milk chocolate bar are surprisingly delicious and set Monsoon apart from other brands. They have the awards to prove just how amazing they are. Recently they were mentioned in Food and Wine Magazine.

I give my seal of approval for the Esmeraldas Ecuador 75% and Bachelor’s Hall Estate 85% Jamaica dark bars. These two bars are open on my counter right now and when I finish them, I’ll move on to the other darks while also nibbling on the white and milk offerings which I normally do not eat, but find I can’t resist.

Recipe Corner

My Breakfast Cereal. The cocoa nibs make it very special!

INGREDIENTS

⅓ cup whole grain Oat cereal in an “O” shape
2 Tbsp. Granola
½ Tbsp. chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts or any nut you like)
½ Tbsp. Cocoa Nibs
2 T Greek Yogurt
¼ cup fruit cut up (pineapple, strawberries, apples or any fresh fruit)
2% milk to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Add all the dry ingredients in layers. Top with Yogurt, fruit and milk and enjoy the special flavor of the nibs.

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 at 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