I’m the first to admit that more than once I’ve thrown my chocolate-making to-do list into gear at the last minute. If you were here at the NB last fall, you may recall that I didn’t start my holiday bar crafting until fairly late; not recommending this, just saying where there’s a will there’s a way.
Last minute crafting isn’t because I’m not a planner-in-advancer, or because I’m unorganized, but because the truth of being a busy solopreneur (no employees or partner) chocolate maker + business owner (two different hats even when one exists because of the other) means that I am always in the thick of my chocolate livelihood.
I take comfort in knowing I’m not alone in this! If we could all figure out a way to share winnower clean-up duties and melanger repairs it would be amazing.
Luckily, these super long, hot summers (everywhere, and yes, seasonally swing-shifting between global north and south) offer chocolate makers a break. Here in the U.S by mid-May it was already too hot to ship chocolate (how do I know? because I did 😩 And even with all the tricks I’ve succesfully relied on, cold packs etc etc, I still had to refund an order.)
Hot weather shipping is more costly for makers, more time-consuming, with a higher risk of issues. Even with a lot of experience with shipping and hot weather precautions, we can’t make the shipping carriers deliver when they say they will. Or be assured the package won’t be left on a front stoop in the sun, or ride around in an un-airconditioned truck all day. Putting shipping on hold is becoming more common.
For those of you who take vacations, my sun hat is off to you. For anyone who can’t take time off, summer months can be tremendously productive and, with planning (that word again!) our livelihood needn’t see the bank account dry up. If you missed out on these this summer season, bookmark them for next year.
Before we look at holiday 2024 trends:
A list of chocolate livelihood options when shipping bars isn’t an option
Offer classes. My advice: you have to love sharing what you know, and you have to enjoy the role of teacher. It goes without saying (or should) that to teach something we need to know it well enough that what we share is, in fact, helpful.
Classes can range from bean to bar introductions, be focused on a key aspect of chocolate you’re especially enamored with and good at, aimed at folks who want to become pro makers, or designed for people who are curious about how chocolate is made. Classes can be in your workspace or you can collab with locations in your town: I taught at a local artisan market, at a high school, and a summer camp.
Host chocolate tastings or collab with other businesses for tastings
Where I live in Oregon is wine country. We also have cheese and beer and distilled spirits producers who have tasting rooms/events. Artisan markets/groceries are another potential location.
Reach out to local wholesale accounts
Wholesale is a whole :) other topic, but local wholesale accounts require no shipping, and help establish a local fan base. Taking bars/samples to potential accounts and establishing pre-orders for the holidays also means having a clear idea of production needs.
About that website
Websites need weekly maintenance. Don’t know why, but there are nasty gremlins that like to break links, plus spellcheck and many of us seem to be on the outs. If you hired someone to design and then create your website you should confirm that what you paid them includes routine check-ups.
Besides just the general updating, summer is a great time for a re-do, including the view on mobile (where most people shop). It’s the time for adding teasers so that when someone stops by and we aren’t shipping they’ll want to come back later.
Roast, winnow, batchcraft, repeat. Plan ahead and produce ahead for the busiest sales time for chocolate, from September through February. That solid six months of go-time, filling orders, marketing, festivals, etc, is the main bread and butter of small batch chocolate. Sales in March, April, and, if we’re weather-lucky and can ship or do markets/pop-ups, May, taper off.
You may be thinking, heck, we’re only just celebrating summerwheen, and it’s time to think about our holiday products.
HOLIDAY 2024
All caps for the most wonderful time of the chocolate maker’s year.
Trend news is good news:
According to a 2024 Godrej Food Trends Report, 94.2% of experts believe that artisanal, handmade, or craft chocolates will be popular in 2024, saying “These small-batch chocolates are often made with organic ingredients and careful craftsmanship, which can enhance the perception of quality.”
A quick run-through of some research, which TBH, didn’t offer me any truly new insights, confirmed what I was thinking based on my own preferences.
We can only look so far to try to figure out “what people want.” We can, however, look very, very deeply into what WE wish we could find, but can’t, or what we want to eat. My personal chocolate-making mantra is less a one-liner I repeat to myself than it is a feeling I get when something sparks my desire. Maybe I’m flipping through a cookbook and I see some dish that makes me stop turning the pages, and when I look at that dish I see something—a combination of flavors, an ingredient, a color or texture—that ignites a teensy flame of creativity.
My mantra is simple: pay attention to that teensy flame.
Here’s a look at the happy holiday 2024 trend-info I found:
Bars and chocolate products
Consumers are looking for chocolate that offers health benefits, such as less sugar and/or alt-cane sugars like maple, coconut, date, also, added antioxidants. Bean to bar is prime for this.
How we do this: honestly re-assess our go-to recipes for our most beloved/requested products, experiment to see if we can offer a version with less sugar or with a different (especially lower-glycemic, like date) sugar.
For those holiday favorites (candy cane universe included), imagine creating the flavor but healthier. Candy cap mushrooms taste like maple, for example, and can off-set less sugar. Side note: mushrooms and chocolate are increasingly a thing. They’ve been around awhile, but sometimes trends take time.
People are looking for unique experiences that are exclusive and celebratory, but no necessarily “big.”
How we do this: I still hold a fondness for the very simple, customizable advent calendars that launched Map Chocolate into being, back in 2014. I still get requests for them, which blows my mind. They weren’t in a fancy, custom-designed box. The emphasis for us wee makers is always “can’t find this just anywhere.”
Plant-based options are rising in demand. Well hello, many of us know this, and embrace it.
How we do this: If you aren’t crafting plant-based white chocolate that’s okay, but you may want to think about a plant-based dark milk product if it has interest for you (otherwise, stick with what does captivate you). PB white is an amazingly diverse canvas, especially for ingredient-driven bars.
Wrappers and Packaging
Visually striking packaging should go without saying, especially if we want folks to buy our bars for gifting. For repeat/loyal customers something new/holiday-ish (this is wide open to our unique interpretation) is a fun surprise. Almost a gift in itself.
Tiny details make a big difference.
We can “say holiday” without a packaging do-over. I theme my bar collections, and like tucking in a special postcard (I create/design and also print these in Canva).
Resealable and reusable packaging demand is driven by consumers who are becoming more environmentally conscious, which is why functional packaging (on-the-go, resealable, and shareable) are the fastest-growing packaging type for confectionery, increasing by a third since 2018.
However (whenever) we leap into action, a planning checklist helps.
If you’re not ready to holiday, here are links to posts that might help kickstart the holiday crafting spirit.
Easy ways to holiday-ify your small batch craft chocolate biz:
In last year’s holiday planning post, insights on adding subscription boxes
Happy chocolate crafting,
Mackenzie