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Post by feedme on Oct 16, 2014 19:25:46 GMT -5
I wanted to share something with you that hopeful you'll find as inspirational, exciting and tasty as I do. We're about to launch a Kickstarter campaign to support a cocoa legend/farmer in Bougainville to improve the quality of his beans and then buy them at a premium price. We're going to sail them from Bougainville, Papua New Guinea to Wellington, New Zealand and then make the first Bougainville chocolate bar out of them to given back to project backers and our Bougainville partners. Bougainville once had fine quality cocoa but the industry suffered, as did the rest of the region, from war and neglect. They are rebuilding and we want to help put their cocoa back on the map! This is an adventure built on passion for great food, ethical business, sustainability and amazing people and places. Please share our blog site and follow the journey: thewellingtonchocolatevoyage.wordpress.com/ We are launching on the 6th of November 2014 and we hope that you can spread this around all your friends and networks, and be part of creating a better tasting world.
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Post by kevin on Oct 17, 2014 11:02:42 GMT -5
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Post by feedme on Oct 20, 2014 5:48:08 GMT -5
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Post by Brad on Oct 25, 2014 1:00:03 GMT -5
I'm sorry to kind of hijack this thread, but from a business standpoint, Kevin's reply above is a great topic of discussion in itself.
Who's to say anybody should believe the nimrod at the C-spot? Who died and appointed him "God" of the chocolate rating world? Who says his palate is what everyone (or anyone for that matter) should base their decisions on?
Yes, I publicly called the guy a name. I don't like him and the self appointed pedestal he climbs up on to "judge" other people's hard work.
Why don't I like him you say?
Because he managed to get his hands on some of my chocolate and "judged" it based on HIS palate and not the palate of my customer, then posted his "results" publicly.
I'm in business to sell chocolate and make money. Period. In order to do that, I spent 3 years researching what people like and don't like about chocolate, and then formulated my company's recipes based on those likes and dislikes. Since opening my doors Choklat has hand made over 75,000 chocolate bars and sold over $2.7 million worth of chocolate confections to customers here in Calgary out of one tiny little shop.
I guess Kevin, one could say that Mr. C-Spot knows what "he" likes and doesn't like, but he sure as heck doesn't know what my customers like and don't like and my customers are the ones that pay my bills and keep my lights on.
If any of you out there in cyber space are reading this right now, while thinking of getting into the chocolate business, I hope you heed this advice: Focus on what YOUR customers like and dislike, and forget about competitions, c-spot nimrods, and ratings and all the hoity toity "Awards" crap, because that's all it is - crap.
Cheers Brad.
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Post by kevin on Oct 25, 2014 16:00:18 GMT -5
I respect your posts Brad because you are a business man and you have provided me and others good advice. I feel the same about C-spot. I do not have a lot of money for $10 bars of chocolate so I have to be careful what I spend it on. I have used C-spot as a sort of shopping guide. I can not say I agree totally with C-spot reviews and ratings but I think it gets it right much of the time in my opinion. Even when I disagree with it, to me it is informative and sometimes entertaining. I have learned a fair amount reading it.
Brad, why don't you direct your comments directly to the guy at C-spot. He sounds strong minded like you. It might provide for a good exchange.
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Post by feedme on Oct 25, 2014 16:58:24 GMT -5
I'm sorry but judging a bar of chocolate on one whole country isn't right. You should really read our story .... Bougainville has more than one cocoa farm. All of Bougainville cocoa beans get placed together and sent to PNG and re-bagged. www.thewellingtonchocolatevoyage.wordpress.com
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Post by Brad on Oct 26, 2014 10:28:50 GMT -5
....Brad, why don't you direct your comments directly to the guy at C-spot. He sounds strong minded like you. It might provide for a good exchange. Nah. That's like telling a fat guy who thinks he's skinny that he's actually fat. Nothing productive will come of it. Everybody has their own delusion. Having said that, if he wishes publicly slam my hard work, well.... quid pro quo. The difference is that my post is useful in that it provides budding entrepreneurs with pragmatic and useful advice on how to guide the development of their products, whereas his is just... well... biased, nasty, and arrogant. Maybe MY delusion is that people think my posts are useful! Ha Ha Ha! Cheers and happy chocolate making. By the way, I visited your link Feedme, and found it quite confusing and disjointed (mostly because I think it's the wrong media for you to use) . While I understand the analogy you are trying to make, you might want to get rid of the coffee related stuff. I went there interested in chocolate and your journey, and it started talking about coffee. Not many people truly "read" anymore. They scan, and if they don't "get it" in the first 10-15 seconds you've lost them. Just saying.... (I was an internet architect before putting on a chocolate hat). You have some good content, and a good message. It might be better served to break up the blog and organize your posts into a full blown website with a menu. A blog is more like a journal rather than a marketing tool. ...just my opinion for what it's worth. Cool photos.
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Post by kevin on Oct 26, 2014 17:07:22 GMT -5
Hi Feedme,
Thanks for bringing this thread back around to Bougainville. From what I can tell you are right that Bougainville does not show up very often as its own chocolate but gets lumped together with Papua New Guinea. I would like to try just some Bougainville on its own. Please tell us when you have Bougainville chocolate bars ready to sell.
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Post by feedme on Oct 29, 2014 5:39:31 GMT -5
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Post by feedme on Nov 6, 2014 1:08:27 GMT -5
Good news!!! we launched our kickstarter today... come be a part of a better tasting world
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