Better start stocking your apocalypse bunker with cacao butter! We all knew this was coming... but still it's sobering. Thanks Mackenzie for the update, and for a level-headed assessment of the situation.
I took this questions to my Instagram customers and had some novel ideas. Stop selling certain bars to wholesale accounts - keep certain bars to my online or in person sales ( keeping the all the $$ to myself)
Make bars smaller 45g instead of 50g (shrinkflation)
Increase prices ( not my fave option)
Sell bars in sets of 2 (forcing the immediate sale to be bigger)
Focus on drops - withholding bestsellers or all bars to push an anticipated “drop” to build hype and guarantee sales. Needs a strong following and SM identity.
Oh man, my people had a lot of good ideas, but in the end, I just dropped $1229 Canadian dollars on 55lb of cbutt that was $700 last fall. Crying a bit inside.
But this industry is crafty. We live for a good challenge. And here you have it… Time to get creative!
I agree to selling certain bars to wholesale (it worked for me quite well). I love the idea of smaller bars, for many reasons. And lol, I need to do an entire post on drops.
I also think how cool you asked your customers! including them in the conversation is wonderful.
Almost ALL of the people who responded said “increase prices” which was nice to hear! I would love to hear more on drops. I see it works SO WELL for Ceramicists… maybe some other industries I’m not paying attention to!
I started doing drops just before the pandemic--I'm using the one I did for Map this week in an upcoming post (it sold out that day--ths has been my experience each time, and I don't think it's just a Map thing). Honestly, the spirit of doing a drop feels really good--it takes a "hamster wheel-a-go-go" mindset (makers toiling alone) and involves the buyers--it's exciting for folks to get peeks at what's coming, and energizes the work needed.
Agree with Mackenzie, smart of you to ask your customers directly. Makes them so much more engaged... and hopefully appreciate just how not-cheap chocolate is.
Thanks Brian! I use deodorized cb as a personal preference because all cb has aroma~~and aroma of course plays a big role in “what” we experience as flavor. For example, in a strawberry white batch (dairy or plant-based) I want the strawberry to really come through, not the cb aroma. The other thing w/deodorized is that it doesn’t have the yellow color of natural cb. I haven’t used raw cocoa butter, mainly because I don’t make raw chocolate~~I roast the cocoa beans.
Got it. Thanks. I am not a chocolatier and I've only every used raw, natural cacao butter. I didn't know deodorized existed, so thank you for the info!
Better start stocking your apocalypse bunker with cacao butter! We all knew this was coming... but still it's sobering. Thanks Mackenzie for the update, and for a level-headed assessment of the situation.
Thanks Birgitte~~I definitely think a bunker chocolate stash is a good plan!
I've got a mini fridge packed with chocolate... who needs any other food LOL
plz send me your address 😆
Ze location of ze secret mini-fridge ist verboten... :P
Or grow your own cacao… 😉
Yes, when/where you can!
Yep - in Feb got 26.5 pounds for 198 delivered - u prompted me to check now - same order would cost $474!
oh gosh~~it’s crazy how fast it’s changing!
I took this questions to my Instagram customers and had some novel ideas. Stop selling certain bars to wholesale accounts - keep certain bars to my online or in person sales ( keeping the all the $$ to myself)
Make bars smaller 45g instead of 50g (shrinkflation)
Increase prices ( not my fave option)
Sell bars in sets of 2 (forcing the immediate sale to be bigger)
Focus on drops - withholding bestsellers or all bars to push an anticipated “drop” to build hype and guarantee sales. Needs a strong following and SM identity.
Oh man, my people had a lot of good ideas, but in the end, I just dropped $1229 Canadian dollars on 55lb of cbutt that was $700 last fall. Crying a bit inside.
But this industry is crafty. We live for a good challenge. And here you have it… Time to get creative!
I agree to selling certain bars to wholesale (it worked for me quite well). I love the idea of smaller bars, for many reasons. And lol, I need to do an entire post on drops.
I also think how cool you asked your customers! including them in the conversation is wonderful.
Almost ALL of the people who responded said “increase prices” which was nice to hear! I would love to hear more on drops. I see it works SO WELL for Ceramicists… maybe some other industries I’m not paying attention to!
I started doing drops just before the pandemic--I'm using the one I did for Map this week in an upcoming post (it sold out that day--ths has been my experience each time, and I don't think it's just a Map thing). Honestly, the spirit of doing a drop feels really good--it takes a "hamster wheel-a-go-go" mindset (makers toiling alone) and involves the buyers--it's exciting for folks to get peeks at what's coming, and energizes the work needed.
Agree with Mackenzie, smart of you to ask your customers directly. Makes them so much more engaged... and hopefully appreciate just how not-cheap chocolate is.
Interesting piece. Thank you for sharing. I’m curious: why do you use deodorised cacao butter? (And in what cases would you use raw cacao butter?)
Thanks Brian! I use deodorized cb as a personal preference because all cb has aroma~~and aroma of course plays a big role in “what” we experience as flavor. For example, in a strawberry white batch (dairy or plant-based) I want the strawberry to really come through, not the cb aroma. The other thing w/deodorized is that it doesn’t have the yellow color of natural cb. I haven’t used raw cocoa butter, mainly because I don’t make raw chocolate~~I roast the cocoa beans.
Got it. Thanks. I am not a chocolatier and I've only every used raw, natural cacao butter. I didn't know deodorized existed, so thank you for the info!
thank you for asking the question!