Friday, April 25, 2008

Molding a new era in chocolate

I was doing deliveries yesterday. Deliveries as usual all over Portland. Sometimes I really wish that the places we sell were closer together, but at least the chocolate is available in every neighborhood.

I stopped into Proper Eats as usual and looked in their case at something that hasn't been there before. Two boxes of Wingnut Truffles (a really awesome local vegan chocolatier) with truffles sold individually, like we have been doing. I have never noticed Wingnut selling their truffles like that before. I also realized it's been a while since I have had any other truffles other than our own. Wingnut truffles are vegan and beautiful. They are not raw and this is what sets us apart, but they are beautiful nonetheless. It suddenly dawned on me that Wingnut Truffles look beautiful and perfect because they are molded. I went online and looked at molds and sure enough I saw the exact designs reflected in the molds. The Chocolate rabbit presently doesn not use molds. We have looked at molds in the past, but none have really suited our style and so we have passed, but I'm starting to think it may be time to try again.

To Mold or not to Mould

So here are the pros and cons to molding our Radical Raw Chocolate Rabbit Truffles
Pros:
takes less time
looks "perfect"
total consistency in size and shape (people seem to like this a lot)
competitive on a "professional" chocolate level

Cons:
Less work and time, means less intention and energy put into each chocolate. I believe part of the reason our chocolates heal and taste so good is because we hold healthy and loving intention which is put into each truffle by both Rhea and I. It's pretty intense actually.....
Every chocolate looks the same. (sometimes I like the individual variation)
Looking like every other truffle out there because all the molds look similar.

I think I may try to get some molds and give it a shot. We can see what we think and, maybe, you will see molded Chocolate Rabbit Truffles in the future. Or maybe we will continue to make each one meticulously by hand.
We will have to find away to give that same intention and energy, even if we liked the look of the molds.

Thanks for everyone's support!
- The Chocolate Rabbit

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