Announcement
New Batch of Frankenstein in Progress!
🥳 We have some wonderful news here at Open Book Chocolates!
As I mentioned in our previous blog post (from October 10th), as we were preparing 2024 Kickstarter rewards, we discovered that we had already sold out of our Frankenstein chocolate bars (Frankenstein Sold Out! Online Store Now Open!). We were very surprised by this, since we made approximately 600 Frankenstein bars, thinking that would be more than enough to get us through the end of the year. But we’re absolutely thrilled that Frankenstein is such a hit with our customers!
We are excited to announce that we are able to make approximately 300 more Frankenstein bars this year!
The new batch of Frankenstein bars should be ready late October or early November. We will be sure to announce when the bars are ready here on our blog! 📖🍫😊
In the meantime, our online store is OPEN!
Currently, we are sold out of The Great Gatsby, but expect it will be back in stock by the end of October. Also, we are very low on Sherlock Holmes and Jolabokaflod (Yule Book Flood), so order them before we sell out!
Introducing Hand-Poured Candles and "Read Books, Eat Chocolate" Pouch
Today, we’re excited to introduce our hand-poured candles and recycled cotton pouches to our online store!
Made in collaboration with the wonderful co-owners of South Ann Street Candle Co., we’re thrilled to introduce our beautiful, fragrant, handmade candles! We’ve designed our three candle “flavors” — The Library, The Chocolate Factory, and The Garden Party — to complement any and all of our literary-inspired chocolate bar flavors.
We discovered South Ann Street Candle Co.’s incredible candles one day while perusing Su Casa Furniture in Fells Point, Baltimore. As we tested each candle, we couldn’t believe our noses! We just knew we had found the right candle company to work with. And we were that much more delighted to learn South Ann Street Candle Co. is a fellow small, Maryland-based, women-owned business. What a perfect fit!
Each candle is 8.5 ounces, hand poured in Maryland, and slow made with soy wax and essential oils.
The Library
Parchment | Leather | Smoke
Our Library candle is inspired by a cozy home study. Imagine a plush and inviting room, walls lined with bookshelves, a welcoming armchair, a glass of wine or cup of tea, all in front of an inviting fireplace. Spend an evening reading a spellbinding novel as our Library candle warms your senses.
The Chocolate Factory
Cocoa Bean | Vanilla | Roasted Chestnut
Our Chocolate Factory candle is inspired by the enchanting fragrances created during the production of our chocolate bars. Step inside our factory and breathe in the mesmerizing aroma of freshly roasted craft chocolate!
The Garden Party
Gardenia | Tuberose | Jasmine
Our Garden Party candle is inspired by scenes from our favorite classics; decadent, alfresco tea parties as attended by Alice; lazy afternoons, sipping iced drinks amongst fragrant blossoms as accustomed to Dorian Gray. Imagine your own literary-inspired gathering, taking inspiration from our well-loved, floral candle.
Our "Read Books, Eat Chocolate" pouch has a silkscreened design of an illustrated open book with "Read Books" on the left page, "Eat Chocolate" on the right page, and "Open Book Chocolates" below the illustrated open book.
You can fit up to 4 Open Book Chocolates bars in the pouch, as well as your literary-inspired accessories (bookmarks, enamel pins, pens, pencils, etc.).
Eco-Friendly, 100% Recycled Cotton Canvas Pouch
(6.5"H x 8.5"W x 2.25" at the Bottom)
All three candle “flavors” and our "Read Books, Eat Chocolate" Pouch (along with our literary-inspired chocolate bars) are now available in our online store!
Frankenstein Sold Out! Online Store Now Open!
Here at Open Book Chocolates this week, we’ve been busy preparing and organizing backer rewards for our 2024 Kickstarter campaign: Frankenstein & Jolabokaflod (Yule Book Flood) Chocolate Bars. And, while going through everyone’s requested flavors, we have discovered that we are already sold out of our Frankenstein chocolate bars!
This is very surprising to us, since we made approximately 600 Frankenstein bars, thinking that would be more than enough to get us through the end of the year. We have already sent out many Frankenstein bars to our wonderful wholesale customers, so there’s a possiblity you can still get your hands on a Frankenstein bar at an independent bookstore near you.
We are unable to make more Frankenstein bars before the end of the year. But we will try to restock them as soon as we possibly can. As you may know, we are a very small business, but we grow a little bit every year. It’s very difficult to predict how many chocolate bars of a single flavor we’re going to sell in a year. And we’re really only able to make new chocolate bars from January through October. Therefore, at the beginning of every year, we have no alternative but to make an educated guess as to how many chocolate bars to make for the entire year. For the past few years, 600 bars of our newest flavor is usually more than enough to get us from September through December. But clearly Frankenstein has proved to be extremely popular. Yay!
We’re absolutely thrilled that Frankenstein is a hit with our customers! And we can’t wait for our Kickstarter backers to enjoy their Frankenstein chocolate bars (along with all our other delicious flavors) once we begin sending out rewards starting mid-October. 📖🍫😊
In the meantime, we have now reopened our online store!
Currently, we are sold out of The Great Gatsby, but expect it will be back in stock by the end of October. Also, we are very low on Sherlock Holmes and Jolabokaflod (Yule Book Flood), so order them before we sell out!
Cacao Shortage and Price Increases!
Hello there! This is Geri, the owner of Open Book Chocolates. I wanted to take a moment to talk about recent global cacao shortages and price increases. There’s a lot of important information in this blog post, so I hope you’ll take the time to read this.
According to a Reuters article, “Exclusive: African cocoa plants run out of beans as global chocolate crisis deepens,” published this past March:
“Major African cocoa plants in Ivory Coast and Ghana have stopped or cut processing because they cannot afford to buy beans, four trading sources said, meaning chocolate prices around the world are likely to soar.
Chocolate-makers have already increased prices to consumers, after three years of poor cocoa harvests, with a fourth expected, in the two countries that produce nearly 60% of the world's cocoa.
Cocoa prices have more than doubled over the last year, scaling numerous all-time highs.”
According to an Inc. article, “A Cocoa Price Crunch Forces a Scramble to Keep Chocolate Affordable,” published this past June:
“Other food companies are looking at different ways to offset the commodity price spike, including reducing the chocolate content of some products and replacing the cocoa-based confection with other sweet ingredients. Experts in a CNBC report cited the launch of Hershey's new Jumbo Reese's Cup as an example, giving buyers a bigger burst of peanut butter flavor to compensate for comparatively lower chocolate content.”