Open Book Chocolates

Handmade, Bean-to-Bar, Fair Trade Chocolate Bars | Literary-Inspired Flavors

Literary Holidays | August 2024

G. E. Gallas

Celebrate this month’s literary holidays with Open Book Chocolates!

Romance Awareness Month

Open Book Chocolates is celebrating Romance Awareness Month with some of our favorite romantic novels, like Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

Women in Translation Month

“WITMonth - aka Women in Translation Month - is an annual celebration of women writers from around the world, writing in languages other than English.”

Open Book Chocolates is celebrating Women in Translation Month with some of our favorite Japanese women writers translated into English.

Herman Melville’s Birthday | August 1st, 1819

“‘Look you, Doubloon, your zodiac here is the life of man in one round chapter; and now I'll read it off, straight out of the book.’” —Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

Purchase Moby-Dick by Herman Melville while supporting independent bookstores.

James Baldwin’s Birthday | August 2nd, 1924

“His mind was like the sea itself: troubled, and too deep for the bravest man's descent, throwing up now and again, for the naked eye to wonder at, treasure and debris long forgotten on the bottom—bones and jewels, fantastic shells, jelly that had once been flesh, pearls that had once been eyes. And he was at the mercy of this sea, hanging there with darkness all around him.“ —Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

Purchase Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin while supporting independent bookstores.

National Book Lovers Day | August 9th

“Crack open your favorite book, visit a bookshop or library to find your next great read, and enjoy the relaxation and joy of being a reader and book lover.”

Every month, I select my current reads and favorite books, and put together a book list on Bookshop.org. Check out my list for August!

H. P. Lovecraft’s Birthday | August 20th, 1890

“It seemed to be a sort of monster, or symbol representing a monster, of a form which only a diseased fancy could conceive. If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole which made it most shockingly frightful.” —The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft

Open Book Chocolates is celebrating H. P. Lovecraft’s birthday with The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories and our The Call of Cthulhu chocolate bar.

Ray Bradbury’s Birthday | August 22nd, 1920

“After all, when we had all the books we needed, we still insisted on finding the highest cliff to jump off. But we do need knowledge. And perhaps in a thousand years we might pick smaller cliffs to jump off.” —Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Purchase Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury while supporting independent bookstores.

Leo Tolstoy’s Birthday | August 28th, 1928

“In historical events great men — so-called — are but labels serving to give a name to the event, and like labels they have the least possible connection with the event itself. Every action of theirs, that seems to them an act of their own free will, is in an historical sense not free at all, but in bondage to the whole course of previous history, and predestined from all eternity.“ —War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Purchase War and Peace and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy while supporting independent bookstores.

Mary Shelley’s Birthday | August 30th, 1797

Frankenstein Day | August 30th

“The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.“ —Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Purchase Frankenstein by Mary Shelley while supporting independent bookstores.

Check out Open Book Chocolates’s profile on Bookshop.org!

Cacao Shortage and Price Increases!

G. E. Gallas

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.”

Here at Open Book Chocolates, we are not changing our recipes or replacing our cocoa with other ingredients. Our craft chocolate uses premium ingredients and, therefore, our prices are higher than Hershey’s and other household-name brands. With the global cacao shortage, we have no choice but to increase our prices so we can stay in business and continue to create special and unique, premium, handmade, bean-to-bar craft chocolate for our customers.

According to Krissee D'Aguiar, co-owner of River-Sea Chocolates (who we collaborate with to make all our chocolate bars), cacao butter has tripled in price and is very hard to come by. This is a huge challenge, because cacao butter is an important ingredient in dark, milk, and white chocolate. Of these three varieties, white chocolate uses the most cacao butter, so we are currently unable to make more Sherlock Holmes (Earl Grey Tea & Honey in White Chocolate) bars. Furthermore, we have a limited number of Sherlock Holmes bars currently in stock. For the above reasons, we have increased our Sherlock Holmes bars to $15.00 each.

Other than Sherlock Holmes, we are keeping all our chocolate bars at $11.00 each until October 2024. This September, we will be launching a Kickstarter campaign for our two newest flavors (to be announced soon). During this time, our online store (openbookchocolates.com/shop) will be closed, though you can obtain our chocolate bars via Kickstarter. If you pledge to our KS campaign, your backer rewards (i. e. chocolate bars) will remain at $11.00 each (except for Sherlock Holmes). Once the campaign concludes, we will reopen our online store. When the online store reopens, all our chocolate bars will have increased to $12.00 each (with Sherlock Holmes remaining at $15.00 each).

Open Book Chocolates is a very small business. We are dedicated to offering our customers the very best chocolate we can. Every year, we continue to grow, and that’s all thanks to our loyal and enthusiastic customers.

Please let us know if you have any questions. Feel free to email us any time at openbookchocolates@email.com or use our contact form (openbookchocolates.com/contact).

Thank you for your understanding! We truly appreciate your continued support!

All the best,

Geri

Open Book Chocolates

Upcoming Events: Fall 2024 | Update #1

G. E. Gallas

Here at Open Book Chocolates, we’ve had an incredibly busy and successful spring, selling our literary-inspired chocolate bars at eight Maryland events! We tend to take a break from events during the summer to focus on fulfilling orders for both our online store and wholesale customers, as well as to prepare for an inevitably busy fall season (including our annual Kickstarter campaign in September). But, for fall, we always return to our local Maryland (and Virginia) events! We’re already scheduled for a number of events this September though December and will be adding more to this list as we approach September.

We’re scheduled to be at the following eight events this fall:

If you’re a Maryland (or Virginia) local, we hope to see you there!

Please visit our events page for more details: openbookchocolates.com/events.