The Chocospherian
Incredible Chocolate News	December 14th, 2018

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

Preface
Incr‘Edible’ Chocolate Deals…	Customer Service
What’s New?	Newsletter
Recipe Corner	Topics

Preface

Tips on "Last Minute" Shipping in Time for Christmas

Are you one of those last-minute (from an online and shipping perspective) shoppers who needs chocolate to arrive in time for Christmas? Please keep some things in mind when you pick your shipping method. Be sure to pay attention to the cutoffs posted for the various shipping methods shown on the Chocosphere web site. Allowing a little extra time may be a good idea as well because all the shipping companies that usually do a very good job are swamped at this time of year, so there is a higher likelyhood of misrouting that could make delivery take longer.

As we get closer to Christmas, please be aware that if you pick Value Shipping, Postal Priority Mail or “If it fits, it ships” your order might not make it by the holiday. If you are shipping for pre-Christmas delivery, and you want a money-back guarantee, consider FedEx 2-day or Overnight as the method, keeping in mind that during the holiday season FedEx Express (2-day and Overnight service) allows delivery much later on the commitment day than usual before the money-back guarantee goes into effect. For more information on the holiday FedEx money-back guarantee, see https://www.fedex.com/content/dam/fedex/us-united-states/services/holiday-money-back-guarantee_2018.pdf.

Incr‘Edible’ Chocolate Deals

New Ruby Cacao Bar – Promo!

Be one of the first to try this new 4^th type of cacao bar. It isn’t milk, white or dark chocolate (though it does contain milk as an ingredient). A special proprietary process creates this beautiful pink colored Cacao Bar to confuse and amaze your senses. It is tart and fruity with a fresh and delightful finish, yet has no added colorants or fruit flavorings.

Here is the promotion: Place an order between now and Sunday night December 16^th including at least one of the new Chocolove Ruby Bars and enter the Coupon Code Ruby on the Shopping Cart page, and you will get 10% off all the merchandise on your order! (This offer is valid until the date specified above and while our current stock of Ruby bars lasts. No promotion “rain checks” for late orders or if we run out of Ruby bars before the ending date. Gift Certificate and Chocolate of the Month Club purchases are excluded from this promotion.)

In case you have not used Coupon Codes on the Chocosphere web site before, you make the entry on the Shopping Cart page, just below the last product displayed in the cart, in the bloc labeled “Gift Certificates/Coupon Codes”.

If you claim this promotion we might need until Tuesday December 18th to ship your order. We will do our best to ship as fast as possible. Please keep shipping information noted in the "Preface" above in mind if the shipment is needed in time for Christmas.

What's New?

Aside from the new Ruby Cacao Bar noted above...

Ritual Chocolate Enliven Cacao Nicaragua La Colonia Limited Edition Bar 60g: This new Limited Edition bar from Ritual Chocolate of Park City Utah just arrived a few days ago. Ritual Chocolate Company worked with the non-profit organization Enliven Cacao, that sources high quality cacao from La Colonia, Nicaragua, to produce an excellent, two-ingredient, single origin chocolate. Only one batch of this 70% cacao single origin chocolate was made. This chocolate is very well balanced with notes of dried fruit, nuts, coffee, and a fair amount of earthiness.

Maraná Craft Chocolate from Peru: We found this wonderful chocolate at a festival only a month ago and liked it so much that we brought all Guiseppe had left when it was over! Our supply at the moment is limited but we'll be bringing more from Peru very soon. Marana choses fine cacaos from various regions of Peru and makes single-region bars ranging from 50% cacao strong milk chocolate all the way to 100% cacao. The people of Maraná value the work of their cacao farmers and seek to make a real impact on their lives and those of their families. They work with them hand-in-hand, as partners, implementing fair price policies that ensure sustainable development and sound living conditions.

Nina Fine Chocolate from Peru: We discovered Nina Fine Chocolate at the same festival. Oliver and Luz decided they did not want to raise their family in the big city of Lima, so they moved out of the city and now run a Tree-to-Bar chocolate company! Crafting premium chocolate is a wondrous and rewarding experience that demands a dedicated lifestyle of patience and persistence. It's a journey. The people of Nina have learned how to nurture their crop to perfection and the delicate methods of producing international-standard fine chocolate. Again, our stock is limited because we brought what was available at the end of the festival. We'll have more Nina Chocolate soon.

Pascati Artisan Chocolate from India: Pascati Chocolate was one of our biggest surprises at the festival. Since we don't think of India as a fine chocolate producing country, we had no idea that really good chocolate comes from India! It does, and it is Organic and Fair Trade certified too! Our selection is quite limited at the moment, to two pure dark chocolate bars at 72% and 81% made of single-origin cacao from India's Idukki region. We plan to offer bars including Mango Dark (a festival favorite that sold out fast) and many others very soon .

Recipe Corner

Hot chocolate to wish for…

This month's Hot Chocolate Recipe is provided by our Facebook Friend, Fawn Spencer:

Heat whole milk. Skim off skin.

Add unsweetened chocolate, at least one ounce per cup of milk, maybe more (I usually use at least 2, but some people think that's too rich).

Melt slowly - don't allow to boil - while stirring.

Stir and heat for 3-5 minutes, until chocolate is completely integrated with the milk.

Sweeten to taste (I like only a little sweet, my husband likes a lot.)
Add a few drops of additional flavoring (vanilla, cinnamon, mint, chili, etc).
Or use maple syrup as the sweetener - that's really good.

Consistency should be about the same as tomato soup.
You can use half and half, or add in some heavy cream, for even richer chocolate.

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