Organic Certification-now a necessity

Someday, within the next six or so months, you'll be seeing this seal on our labels. The one big take-away, which kind of took us by surprise, is that because of our sales level, we have now put us in the category of 'now we have to' get certified. Before, it was merely an option, something to be put off until we felt we had the money to pursue it.


The nice thing we also learned this weekend, is that the USDA will re-imburse us for much of our certification fees. That's a godsend. Our business is small and certification fees, depending on who we choose to be our certifying agency, can be nearly 1/5th of our sales. But, the government has a program for all of us small businesses to help us get most of our money back - for the trouble of having to get certified in the first place.


So - watch for it - soon you'll be seeing it.

More information coming soon.

Smith Organic Chocolates is dedicated to bringing you updated product, business, industry, and nutritional information.

New Products - September 2011

We have several new products and updates to share with you! We think you'll be as excited about them as we are!

ORGANIC CASHEW BALLS

Made with organic cashew butter, these are a great alternative to those with peanut allergies. These dipped balls have crushed cashews on top. The way to tell the difference between a cashew ball and a peanut butter ball is that peanuts are a light brown, and cashews are like an ivory color.

NEW BALL ASSORTMENT

Now our popular Organic Ball Assortment includes four (4) balls. Pictured from left to right, top to bottom: Coconut Ball, Peanut Butter Ball, Cashew Ball, Almond Butter Ball.

ORGANIC CARAMEL CHOCOLATES

We've finally developed our caramel ganache truffle. One of our approved ingredients we didn't know about before, is heavy whipping cream! So, we make our own caramel ganache, rich in caramel flavor, and put it in a milk shell, drizzled with a yellow-gold dyed white chocolate. These will melt in your mouth!

ORGANIC MILK CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES

Made from high quality, Guittard Organic Milk Chocolate, these are milk chocolate through and through! A milk chocolate shell filled with milk chocolate ganache, drizzled in milk chocolate! Can't get much richer than that! Much better than Hershey's!

ORGANIC MILK CHOCOLATE ASSORTMENT

We now have four milk chocolate truffles to offer in an assortment! From left to right, top to bottom: Milk Chocolate Truffle, Vanilla Bean Creme, Caramel Chocolate, Strawberry Banana Truffle. We think the milk chocolate lovers out there will love this!

ORGANIC RICH DARK (DAIRY) TRUFFLES

We learned this summer that we are allowed to use heavy whipping cream in our ganaches. We've been making a dynamite Non-Dairy Dark Chocolate version for several years. We changed the look of that to a dark chocolate "D" on top. So...the traditional (dairy) version takes on the drizzled look. All dark chocolate ganache in a dark shell, drizzled in dark chocolate! Made with organic butter and organic heavy whipping cream! A great way to get in your "chocolate-a-day"! When we first made these, we thought we were in heaven! The richness of the heavy whipping cream makes a lot of difference in how a dark chocolate ganache tastes!

Here's the new look of our Non-Dairy Dark Chocolate Truffles. Note the "D" on top for "Dark."

For more information on these or any other products, please refer to our website or email us. Contact information on the website.

Smith Organic Chocolates is dedicated to bringing you the pertinent product & nutritional information!

New Customer Cost Offset Programs

This summer, we took a hard look at our chocolate business, and we had to make some hard choices. Our materials, packaging, and other incidental, but necessary, costs increased our costs dramatically, but we think the changes improved our products and presentation significantly.

DECISION TO UPGRADE INGREDIENTS

We made a decision last year to only use certified organic ingredients wherever possible. Since chocolate is our main ingredient, we made a change from our coverture source, to using Guittard Organic, dark & milk, which is certified organic. Previously, we had been using Vintage Plantations, but they are not certified organic. We are thankful to Vintage Plantations, as we were a small customer just getting started, and their chocolate is usually good quality and they worked with us even though we were just getting started.

DECISION TO UPGRADE PACKAGING/SHIPPING

But we felt we should make a change and we did so last year. We were also receiving complaints from one particular long distance about our packaging, and how their chocolates were almost always broken...so earlier this year, we upgraded our packaging to include set-up boxes, pads, and trays. We have not had any complaints about broken or smashed chocolates since.

This summer, we've had to go the extra mile and use insulated shippers. These are very expensive, and we will absorb some of the cost of these, but they will keep your chocolates from arriving melted. We experimented with different combinations of insulated materials, with limited success - depending on how hot it was. We learned a lot from our mistakes.

All these things have increased our production, packaging, and shipping costs. It was a difficult decision, but we decided to raise the prices of our chocolates, especially the more labor-intensive truffles.

For our local, meaning Lancaster County, PA, customers, we have some less expensive packaging alternatives we think you'll like. This will be addressed in the next post regarding new products.

For everyone, we have TWO NEW customer programs - 1) Chocolate of the Month; 2) Preferred Customer.

CHOCOLATE OF THE MONTH

Our Chocolate of the Month program comes in two subscriptions, 4-month & 12-month, Vegan & Regular. All you have to do is sign up as a customer & order Chocolate of the Month, on our website: www.smithorganicchocolates.com and we'll put you in the Chocolate of the Month Customer Group. Designate which subscription you'd like to participate in. You'll be billed on your credit card once a month for the duration of your subscription.

Participation in this Club gives you a 10% discount off the 12-piece chocolate packages you'll receive during your participation.

PREFERRED CUSTOMER

If you've ordered from us at least twice, you can become a Preferred Customer. E-mail us at smithorganicchocolates@dejazzd.com if you'd like to be part of this group.

This Customer Group has a lot more flexibility. You only have to order twice, and then you'll get a 10% discount on your orders. We'll put you in this group, and you can order as much as you want whenever you want.

We think these changes will be of benefit to you, as well as help our bottom line. We appreciate our customers, and we will continue to bring you high quality organic chocolates.

Smith Organic Chocolates is dedicated to bringing you updated product and nutritional information.