a craft chocolate Q + A
don't mind me over here getting all mushy on the beauty of small batch chocolate
Hey all,
I’m hosting a livestream drop-in meet-up this Wednesday, October 30!
Yes, like many of you, I’m in the midst of allll the holiday chocolate crafting things, but busy times always bring up good questions. If you have chocolate-focused questions (batchcrafting, getting started, roasting, inclusioncrafting, packaging, etc etc!) bring em on!
If you don’t have questions, hearing from other makers is always valuable.
This is a thank you to my merry lil band of paying subscribers: this support is how I’m able to share info and insights here (we now have 143 posts available in the archives), taking time away from Map Chocolate (and everything being a solopreneur chocolate maker entails) and my online workshop, The Next Batch.
After I send out this email, I’m tempering 160 bars (fingers crossed, it’s a rainy humid day, plus there’s salt as an inclusion involved), and packing up chocolate orders. And designing my holiday collection bar labels, which I should have ordered last week 😂
If you’ve ever wondered why does she juggle two full-time chocolate gigs plus write here? my answer is this: I believe in the power and beauty of small batch craft chocolate. I understand the odds stacked against us by bigger companies with bigger bean-buying power, teams of employees, social media budgets and managers. I know from my ten years at Map that people really want what small batch makers are creating, and that the small batch community is the true heartbeat of craft chocolate.
…as the big makers follow all the ideas from the innovations in the small sector (which really is the scale on which innovation happens) and as they — the big makers — leave us to all the work to convert the early adopters (the scale at which tastes and trends and culture change happens) and then they swoop in to grab the early majority folks (who will usually follow) without paying small innovators any dividend or creating shelf space in their shops or starting shared groups where benefits can spread. So in other words small purchases themselves may not necessarily create scale but scale never arrives without small purchases. A rational society/sector would support the small scale makers and ensure large scale makers pay their dues to keep innovation and agile change compensated.
~~Gillian Goddard
So, to answer how does she juggle two full-time chocolate gigs plus write here?
Every like, comment, paid subscription is the extra cacalove fuel that helps keep me going. I feel weird putting them in bold, but the truth is, I want you and your hard work in bold too, for your community and the world to see.
So: thank you! and I hope you can make it.