New Website is up and running

We still have a few bugs to work out, but www.smithorganicchocolates.com has a new look. Our web provider sort of merged with another and I'm still getting used to it.

Orders are being accepted and we have a glitzy look for Valentine's Day. Our everyday website, which we'll go back to after Valentine's Day is plainer, browner, but still classy.

We hope had a great time over the holidays. Soon it will be time for Valentine's Day. If you need to contact us, we're Facebook as Smith Organic Chocolates, on Twitter as SmithOrganicChoc, and our email is smithorganicchocolates@dejazzd.com.

If you have any questions about products or nutritional information, please let us know. We hope to begin posting updated nutritional information about chocolate soon.

In the meantime, check us out. Let us know what you think.

Changes - Yet Still the Same!

This is what our current website looks like. What you don't see, is the bottom where it says it's powered by Homestead.com. We've been with Homestead since August 2007. And we've really built our website to where we like it.

But in business, change is inevitable and change is desirable. If a business doesn't change some things from time to time, they become static. As with life, no movement soon becomes backwards movement.

Homestead has made the decision to merge with BigCommerce.com for their own forward movement. So we at Smith Organic Chocolates, are riding the wave with them.

Virtually nothing will change on your end. We'll always be www.smithorganicchocolates.com. Our store may look different once we get the new one up and running. It's being worked on by Homestead as we speak.

The only product that will be affected is the Chocolate of the Month. We'll put it on the new website, and you'll be charged for one month, the first month, from the website. After that, you'll get our personal touch. We'll email or snail you from QuickBooks. We feel that is the easiest way for you.

We'll let you know when our new website is up and running. In the meantime, the 'old' continues to take orders. We have our holiday website up and we hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for your patience and understanding as we all move forward.

Time Gets Away from Me

It's mid-October 2013. I just noticed my last post. Oh boy. I am remiss. Please forgive me.

I have re-embraced my writing and will try at least to post more than once a year. We just uploaded our newly re-designed Holiday Website.

www.smithorganicchocolates.com Read the welcome message for information about our holiday specials.

One I want to discuss here is our Reindeer Tower Set. We've got it on deep discount for this season. It's well worth it. I put a lot of time and effort into this package to make it special for the chocolate lover on your list.

Shown here is a Nuts About You Assortment in the tower set. You get three boxes that you can keep and use for knick-knacks after the holiday is over!

Special price is $54.99. That's a savings of nearly 40%! Check out the website, link above, for more details.

Merry Christmas from Smith Organic Chocolates

Just a short holiday message to say thank you to all who read this blog and support Smith Organic Chocolates.

Check out our website for holiday specials. We have two running currently. If you place an order and use one of the two codes, you'll get a discount. One code is listed on the website Home Page. The other is listed on our Facebook and Twitter posts.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a blessed and Happy New Year!

We're making plans for a great Valentine's Day season, which will be upon us shortly after the New Year.

Revised Post - Why Organic?

With degenerative illnesses reaching more people everyday here in America, many are seeing the value of purchasing at least some organic foods for their daily intake.

Of course, most people will buy organic produce, but have you thought about organic chocolates? As someone who has been consuming organic foods for about 20 years, I feel I can speak to the benefits of buying organic.

Here's how it was put to me: Where would you rather spend your money? On doctors, hospitals, and medications - or -

- at the grocery store

- online stores with organic products

Most candy producers try to position themselves by saying they use only the finest quality of ingredients...but I believe that many get the cheapest ingredients they can. In business, we have to try.

With Smith Organic Chocolates, you know that we have purchased organically-certified ingredients. Typically, these are of the highest quality because they have not been sprayed with harsh or dangerous chemicals.

If you have any questions, please refer to our contact information on our website or email us at smithorganicchocolates@dejazzd.com. We always strive to bring you important product and educational information. A past post from probably 2008 on Why Organic? will be most helpful to you, but if you'd like a copy of it, please contact us.

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.

Chocolate of the Month Club - additional info

Last time we talked about our new subscription to Chocolate of the Month Club. We also told you the basics on how to sign up and purchase the product.

Here's some additional information:

Once you sign in as a customer on our website: www.smithorganicchocolates.com and purchase the Chocolate of the Month in whatever way you'd like from our 12 choices, you'll be entered into a 'customer group' called 'Chocolate of the Month' and you'll receive a 10% discount on your order. Pretty cool huh?

Also - your credit card won't be billed until the first of every month. That's how we've set it up. That way you'll know exactly what you're getting. Shipping charges will apply, but we'll do our best to see you get the best shipping rate!

Example: We usually ship USPS Priority Mail to make sure your chocolates arrive in good condition. We then have the option of doing Flat Rate or Regular Rate. We always give you the lowest option. If regular Priority Mail is the better price, you get that. If a Flat Rate Box is the best option, you'll get that. We especially use Flat Rate boxes for shipping cross country. Sometimes the difference is around $5 plus, depending on where you live.

Officially, the Chocolate of the Month Club won't start until December - just in time for Christmas and will run on a December through November cycle for a 12-month subscription.

But we also offer 3 & 6-month versions of our regular subscription and 3 & 6-month versions of our 9-month Vegan subscription. We make 9 Vegan products and we offer them all in this special 9-month Vegan Chocolate of the Month.

To review the product, go to this link: http://stores.smithorganicchocolates.com/Detail.bok?no=137. It will take you directly to the product. Or, you can go to our website: www.smithorganicchocolates.com - then scroll down and click on the product link on the home page. Happy browsing!

Here's the process again:

1) Sign up on our website as a customer

2) Purchase the product

Then, you'll be entered into the Chocolate of the Month Club customer group and receive your discount! Your credit card will be billed prorated on the first of the month for the length of your subscription.

Smith Organic Chocolates is dedicated to keeping you informed of our products and new information about chocolate, its health benefits and general chocolate industry information.

Chocolate of the Month Club

We're adding a couple new chocolate programs to our repertoire of chocolates! The first is Chocolate of the Month. We'll be initiating this to be sold as a gift package for the Holiday season, but we're telling you about it now so you can consider it, and sign up for it as soon as it's available. (kinda like Amazon does pre-sales). Many chocolate companies have these kinds of "clubs" and it's a fun gift for the chocolate lover on your list.

Here's how:

1) register as a new customer on our website: www.smithorganicchocolates.com

2) purchase the Chocolate of the Month product

You'll get a special customer discount. Your credit card will only be billed after a shipment.

The Chocolate of the Month Club will ship you 12 different chocolates - from barks & balls (sounds like dogplay doesn't it?) to our most elegant and newest truffles!

We pictured our newest product - our Organic Truffle Assortment. This is the half pound or 15-piece version. We ship it in an Everyday Elegance gold box, and it has a little bit of everything!

Vanilla Bean Creme - white drizzle on milk chocolate
Fresh Raspberry Truffles - red drizzle on dark chocolate
Coconut Balls - white coconut sprinkles on dark chocolate
Peanut Butter Balls - peanut sprinkles on dark chocolate
Almond Butter Balls - a white chocolate "S" on dark chocolate
Mocha Truffles - a mound of pulverized coffee grounds on top (looks like a dark chocolate mountain)
Strawberry Banana Truffles - pink & yellow drizzle on milk chocolate shell.

We've tried to make it sorta obvious what's inside by decorating the top. The box you may get may not look exactly as pictured, but we're sure you're going to love it!

Smith Organic Chocolates is dedicated to keeping you updated from time to time about our products, services, and chocolate industry & nutritional news.

All Natural Colors Used Here

FD&C colors - what are they? When surveyed, most people look at me funny, and they don't know what I'm talking about.

FD&C stands for (F)ood, (D)rug & (C)osmetic colors. They do use some natural vegetable colorings as basis for their processed colors, but many are also synthetically made. Some colors are made from certain insect shells. EE-yew!

From the beginning, Smith Organic Chocolates decided not to use any FD&C colors for our chocolates.

In giving a presentation recently to some B&B guests during a Wine & Chocolate Tour, I explained that certain FD&C colors have been linked to ADD, ADHD, and in extreme cases, some cancers.

That information alone made me not want to take a chance, even though the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) has approved certain FD&C colors for human consumption.

Notice our picture of our white chocolate two-piece rose box. There are what looks to be three colors there: red, yellow & green. Red & yellow are primary colors, but green is made from yellow & blue.

Our red is made from red beet. Our yellow from turmeric, and our blue from red cabbage. We also make purple from red beet & red cabbage, and our lavendars by adding additional white chocolate to the purple. We use those colors at Easter. Notice the cross below is drizzled with lavendar.

If you have additional questions, please email us at smithorganicchocolates@dejazzd.com, and we'll be happy to answer them for you.

Smith Organic Chocolates is dedicated to bringing you the best information regarding our chocolates and your overall health.

Always a Silver Lining

Ever lock yourself out of your house? Rarely have I ever done so - and it's been many, many years since I did.

But today - my precious husband was trying to be protective of our garage, and locked the door leading to the garage without my knowledge.

When I went for peanuts, that I use to make our homemade organic peanut butter - I found myself stuck in the garage without a hope of getting back in the house.

I always work in short sleeves, as I learned early on that long sleeves get dirty & wet real quickly.

I tried picking the lock with a couple different sized screwdrivers, and a even a pair of scissors. None of those methods worked. At least I know we are safe from amateur burglars.

I saw an old yellow blanket that my parents used to put on their bed. I put that around me, opened the garage door, and walked up Main Street in Akron to the Akron Nutrition Center. What a sight I was! Oh well. A school crossing guard & a local pastor got to hear I'd been locked out.

I got the car keys from my hubby at work, and he confessed to locking the door as a protective measure. I was relieved to get home so I could get back to work.

What are some of your locked out stories? Leave a comment and let me know. The winning entry gets a free Half Pound Organic Truffle Assortment.

Watch for more blog entries soon about Easter and nutrition news as it relates to chocolate.

Addendum to Holiday 2010 Post

Since upgrading the website this summer, I'm still learning that there is more to learn about the wonders of our website - at http://www.smithorganicchocolates.com/.

Each product will have it's own Holiday 2010 code that will be product specific.

For example:

Say you want to order a pound of Organic Peanut Butter Balls through our Simply Chocolate package. Go to the Simply Chocolate product, choose One Pound, then Organic Peanut Butter Balls. Your code at checkout will be: H10-SC-1. The cart will automatically calculate your price.

Happy shopping!

Holiday 2010 Specials

It's almost Thanksgiving - so we're in a holiday mood at Smith Organic Chocolates.

If you are on our email list, you'll be getting a flyer which will have our holiday specials on it. But for the rest, I'll put them here as well.

For all these special prices, when ordering from the website, use the special code - HOL-10 at checkout.

Everyday Elegance - 1-Lb. - $28.99; 1/2-Lb. - $15.99
Shown here with a Romantic Truffle Assortment, you can order whatever you like. The 1-Lb. box is square, as shown here. The 1/2-Lb. box is rectangular.

Reindeer Tower Set - 3-Box Set - $34.99; Large Box Only - $29.99; Medium Box Only - $16.99; Small Box Only - $9.49.

Order as a set, or separately. Shown here with a Nuts About You in the Small Box, you can fill these boxes with whatever you'd like. The 3-Box Set will contain about 3-1/2-Lbs. of organic chocolates. The Large Box - 2-Lbs.; The Medium Box - 1-lb.; The Small Box - 1/2-Lb.

Moose Snowman Tin Set - 2-Tin Set - $34.99; Larger Tin - $26,99; Medium Tin - $17.99

Order as a set or separtely. Shown here with a Nuts About You in both tins as a set, you can order anything you'd like. The 2-Tin set holds 1-1/2-Lbs. of organic chocolates. The Larger Tin holds a pound, the Medium Tin holds 1/2-Lb.

Simply Chocolate - Our simplest form of packaging, in White or Holiday Holly - $15.99 per 1/2-Lb. $28.99 for 1-Lb of barks or clusters.

The White box can hold either a 1/2-Lb or 1-Lb. The Holiday Holly box can hold up to 1-Lb.
There are many other options available. Check out our website at: http://www.smithorganicchocolates.com/.

The Reindeer Tower Set & the Moose Snowman Tin Set include a handmade bow. The Simply Chocolate Box will come with either a gold or red elastic string bow.

If you have any questions or comments, please let us know. Our email is: smithorganicchocolates@dejazzd.com.

Your Age in Chocolate! - Try This - it Works!

A friend forwarded me this in an email - and it works - no matter what number you pick.

Try it! It's fun!

Try it several times, and forward it on to anyone you know who loves chocolate!

First, pick a number between one and 10 to decide how many times in a week you'd like to have chocolate.

Next, multiply the number by 2.

Then, add 5.

Multiply by 50.

If you've had your birthday already this year, add 1760. If you haven't had your birthday yet, add 1759.

Now - subtract the four-digit year you were born.

You'll have a 3-digit number. The first number will be the number you picked in the beginning. The second two digits will be your correct age!

Now - wasn't that fun! :-)

Smith Organic Chocolates is dedicated to bringing you the latest in product and nutritional information about chocolate. But - we also wanna bring on the fun!

Where you can find us

Here's how we look at Akron Nutrition Center, Akron, PA. We package our chocolates in clear cello bags with ingredient labels and gold & brown ribbons.

We can also be found at Green Box Boutique, in Woodstock, IL. Connie Citarelli opened this store on Friday, February 12th.

We can also be found at our website: www.smithorganicchocolates.com, www.chocolate.com, and soon to be on Nation's Grocer.

Smith Organic Chocolates is a growing company. Who knows, in a couple of years, we may even have our own storefront?

A Little Dark Chocolate a Day...

A little dark chocolate a day, can help reduce heart risk - according to new studies being published in the European Heart Journal.

Here's a quote from AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng:

"German researchers followed nearly 20,000 people over eight years, sending them several questionnaires about their diet and exercise habits.

"They found people who had an average of six grams of chocolate per day - or about one square of a chocolate bar - had a 39 percent lower risk of either a heart attack or stroke."

It's the flavonoids, found in vegetables and red wine which help to open up blood vessels and helps lower blood pressure.

More and more studies are confirming what chocolate lovers already know - that chocolate in moderate and small amounts - dark chocolate of at least 65% - is like an apple a day - it will help keep the doctor away.

Smith Organic Chocolates is dedicated to bringing you the latest nutritional information about health benefits of chocolate, as well as our product information and where we can be found.

American Chocolate Week March 15-21

I'll bet you didn't konw that this week is American Chocolate Week! I wouldn't have either except a certain calendar I got in the mail at the end of last year told me that this week was American Chocolate Week.

I remember passing by a retail store a couple of years ago, after I'd started my chocolate business. They had posted a sign about American Chocolate Week. I thought "how did they know and why didn't I know?" I was a little embarrassed. After all, here I am, making chocolates, and I don't even know when American Chocolate Week is?

At any rate, I found out this year - and I'm announcing it! This week is American Chocolate Week. This week - March 15 -21.

How will you celebrate?

Smith Organic Chocolates is dedicated to bringing you the latest in chocolate product and nutritional information.

Spring Holidays Information

This is an Organic Coconut Egg. Kirby makes these from an adapted family recipe - and everytime he makes them, he is reminded of when he was a kid - and he helped his mom make them.

We also make Organic Peanut Butter and Organic Almond Butter Eggs, Organic Milk Chocolate Solid Laughing Bunnies, Organic Dark Chocolate Solid Crosses, and much more!

Check out our Spring website: http://www.smithorganicchocolates.com/ for all our Easter offerings.

We also have a Spring Holidays Catalog available in PDF format for your perusual. If you'd like one, email us at: smithorganicchocolates@dejazzd.com.

And if you don't see what you'd like, contact us, and we'll see if we can make it happen for you.

Smith Organic Chocolates is dedicated to bringing you the latest in organic chocolate nutritional and product information. If you have any quesitons, please contact us.

Two New Studies - Chocolate can lower stroke risk

I love it! The more they study dark chocolate, the more health benefits they find!

These studies are hot off the press and are about to be released to the American Academy of Neurology's (AAN) 62nd Annual Meeting, being held in Toronto, Ontario between April 10 and 17.

In a press release dated February 11, 2010, the AAN said that an analysis of three studies contributed to this conclusion. Two studies focused on chocolate, the other focused on strokes. To quote the release:

"The first study found that 44,589 people who ate one serving of chocolate per week were 22 % less likely to have a stroke than people who ate no chocolate. The second study found that 1,169 people who ate 50 grams of chocolate once a week were 46% less likely to die following a stroke than peple who did not eat chocolate."

It's the flavinoids found in chocolate that are so healing. The study said, "Chocolate is rich in antioxidants called flavinoids, which may have a protective effect against stroke, but more research is needed."

Smith Organic Chocolates had a customer with Lou Gehrig's disease who felt better if she ate chocolate every day. I think it was also the gentle stimulation that chocolate provides. For more information on the non-caffiene stiumulant that chocolate is - see a previous post.

Smith Organic Chocolates is dedicated to bringing you the latest in chocolate news, information, and nutritional help. What do you think? Post a comment and let us know.