Category Archives: Retail News

News about our store, The Cocoa Room.

2009 Open house and chocolate tasting finals + giving back

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Tuesday Dec 22nd will be our annual Christmas Open House at Kerstin’s Chocolates. Come down to the shop between 3pm and 7pm and enjoy a warming cup of hot drinking chocolate with or without extra “cheer”. There might also be some samples of some of our upcoming products to taste. Then at 7pm, stay on to see the final showdown in our “Name That Origin” competition. The winners of the first phase of the contest along with the randomly chosen wildcard entrants will battle to see who can outlast everyone else in a chocolate taste-off. As noted, the winner will receive a $400 gift certificate to use at the shop. No pressure at all! We will have two celebrity officials observing the competition: Edmonton Journal columnist Scott McKeen and the Edible Prairie’s Jennifer Cockrall King. Come one come all and celebrate with us!

One more thing: We want to give back to the developing world a little this year (since that is where cocoa comes from) so we will be sending 20% of sales of Chocophilia Products on Dec 22nd to one of our favorite local charities, Change for Children. Find out more about them on their website.

Holiday hours for Dec 2009

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Here are our special hours for the end of 2009:

-Regular hours until Saturday, Dec 19th.

-Monday, Dec 21st: Specially open from 11am to 5pm

-Tues, Dec 22nd: Open 11am to 7pm (plus, Chocolate Tasting Finals at 7pm)

-Wed, Dec 23rd: Regular hours, 11am to 5pm.

-Thurs, Dec 24th: Short hours: 11am to 3pm.

-Friday, Dec 25th: Closed

-Saturday, Dec 26th: Regular Hours: 11am to 5pm.CLOSED!

-Sun, Mon: Closed.

-Tuesday, Dec 29th: Extended Hours: 11am to 7pm.

-Wed, Dec 30th- Jan 14th, 2010: Closed

A contest: Name That Origin!

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Name that Origin, the contest!

Update (Dec 22nd, 2009): The finals are tonight at 7pm! If you are competing, you will have been notified by e-mail. Everyone is welcome to attend!

Update (Dec 17th, 2009): We have 12 winners of the first round so far, so make sure to enter before the 22nd!

After the big response to our city-wide Easter Egg Hunt this spring, we decided to create another fun event that you can participate in. This one will be a challenging task that will push your knowledge of chocolate to the limit. Do you know your cacao? Are you ready to prove it? Like with fine wine, each cacao growing region in the world produces beans with a distinctive flavor. With practice, almost anybody can learn to tell the difference between chocolates made from beans from different countries. We want to find the people with the greatest palates in the city. We call this contest the “Name That Origin” game. It will run from Dec 3rd to Dec 22nd. The rules are simple, and there is no fee to play! Here is how you do it:

a) Come in to Kerstin’s Chocolates (10139 112th St.), and fill out an entry form. You will then be given 4 small pieces of chocolate to taste.
b) You will have to figure out the country of origin of the cacao used in each of the chocolates (all chocolates will have a single country of origin for the cacao.) and write you answers on the entry form.
c)If you don’t name the correct countries of origin you will receive a 20% discount card and will be entered in the wildcard draw to compete in the Chocolate Tasting Challenge.
d) If you do get them all correct, you will instantly win one container of our Chocophilia drinking chocolate (Spicy or Dark, an $18.95 value). You will also be invited to a special a Chocolate Tasting Challenge event on Dec 22nd. At this event, there will an extreme chocolate identification challenge for all the winners of the first tasting and the wildcard entries. The person who prevails at this event will win a $400 gift certificate from Kerstin’s Chocolates and the title of “The Top Taster”.

Some finer points to note:

1) We will choose the 4 chocolates that you will taste from a larger pool of chocolates.

2) Each entrant will get different chocolates in a different order.

3) Each entrant will be told which of the answers were right and which was wrong.

4) Each entrant can participant once and only once in the contest!

Christmas Line-up 2009

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Santa gets revealed!
A lot of people have been asking what our seasonal line-up will be this month. Here is what we will be offering in our store starting on Dec 1st. If you would like to put in a request for a large order, please
call us or e-mail us before Dec 5th, as we cannot guarantee availability after that date.

We will be bringing backour selection of molded chocolate Santas using the finest Valrhona milk or dark
chocolate. 

Will you be needing any truffles? Here are some of our seasonal specials that will be
available through Xmas:
   
-Tiramasu You.
    -It’s a bit Nibby out there!
    -To Rum With Love
    -A Nod To Eggnog
and more!

Gift Box!
We also have gift baskets of many sizes and arrangements and  custom baskets are also available. You can build your own in the store.

We will also bring back our Christmas Chocolate Trio in either milk or
dark chocolate bark.  Three delicious, Christmas inspired barks packaged beautifully in a box that won a design award!  Also returning are our Christmas Towers, a 4 tiered box filled with
truffles, melt-aways, spiced nuts and dipped fruit. Perfect for holiday parties and gift-giving. 

Coming back soon to the Store:
Domori

caramelsIt’s been a long wait, but we have finally found a new supplier of Domori chocolate!  Famous for their prized “Porcelana” bar (thought to be the best bar in the world) and other gorgeous chocolate.  We also have their amazing chocolate and hazelnut spread and a white chocolate bar with licorice!
A new shipment of Zotter bars are also arriving shortly.  These truffle based bars from Austria combine great fair trade chocolate with imaginative ingredients such as “Black Beer”, “Sour Cherry and Sesame” and “Walnut and Cheese”!

Finally, we have some incredible salted caramels from France, seen here!

Halloween!

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It’s Haloween and we have a few yummy things in the shop for the occassion: a cinnamon milk chocolate bark with candy corn(!) and some very special little truffles: coca cola gianduja with pop rocks! (yup, the ones that pop in your mouth…) Fun.

September Newsletter is here.

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Dear Fans of Chocolate,

 September is upon us and Kerstin’s Chocolates is open again
for
business!  Thank you for your patience by holding out for the
month of August while we were closed. We hope that we can share with
you many new and exciting chocolate experiences this fall. 

Name Change

Yes,  we have really changed the name of our shop from “The
Cocoa
Room by Kerstin’s Chocolates”,   to “Kerstin’s
Chocolates”. Although “The Cocoa Room” was catchy and fun, we
realized that having different names for different aspects of the
business was confusing. We are in the process of changing the signs
inside and outside of the shop to reflect the new name and make our
location easier to find. We thank you for your patience during the
transition! 
     

New Products coming soon…

Due to the hot weather at the end of August and beginning of September,
the shop is not fully stocked Madecasse yet, but we are excited
about the new products coming at the end of the month.  Here’s
a preview:

    Medecasse
    Single
origin bars from Madagascar.  We are really excited to have
this
chocolate available at the shop because it is one of only 2 bars in the
shop(the other is Claudio Corallo) that is made in the country of from
where the beans are grown.  The cool thing about this is that Theo Jane Goodalmore
profits stay in Madagascar where the people need
it.   The
chocolate is organic, directly traded and absolutely delicious! To find
out more, see: www.madecasse.com

  Theo
Chocolates
A
relatively new company out of Seattle that makes fair trade and organic
chocolate.  Theo create uniquely flavored chocolates like Curry and Coconut or Bread and Chocolate.  We will also have available their single origin bars and a very nice milk chocolate
bar.  Check out www.theochocolate.com

   
Finally: a new shimpment of Pralus will be arriving shortly, including
the extremely popular 100% bars and the outrageously good chocolate
covered cocoa beans.

To keep abreast in realtime of all of these arrivals, current truffle
flavors and more, follow us on Twitter or
connect on Facebook.

New chocolate tasting workshops and chocolate making classes 

      We will have
Chocolate Tasting workshops on Sept 24th (3 tix left), and Oct 6th. We will also have chocolate making classes classes
and tastings on Oct 1st and Oct 22nd. To get tickets for these and other events, click here.

 New Shop Hours

      We’ve decided to open
the shop at 11am rather than 10 am on weekdays because there were few
customers.  We are also going to be closing at 5pm on Fridays instead
of 7pm. These new hours will go into effect on Thursday, September 10th. Please check back in November for our extended Christmas hours.

Have a great September,

Kerstin and the Team

Father’s Day at Kerstin’s Chocolates: Bacon, Truffles and more.

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What do Dad’s love more than great chocolate? Great bacon! So we decided to make the ultimate treat for
Dad: chocolate covered bacon!

We partnered with a local organic farm called Sunshine Organic Farm, located in Warburg, near Leduc, to create an Albertan treat that will be unforgettable. The Horvath family have been raising organic Berkshire pork for many years, and we are proud to use their delicious bacon in our Father’s Day special.

We cook the bacon to make it crispy, and then dip it in single origin dark chocolate or milk chocolate and finally sprinkle it with cocoa nibs. The result is a wonderful crunchy, salty contrast between bacon and chocolate.

This special feature will only be available in limited quantities at The Cocoa Room from Wednesday June 17th until Saturday June 20th. There will also be free samples available on Saturday, June 20th at the Sunshine Organic Farm booth at the Downtown farmer’s market (near the corner of 104th St. and 102nd Ave.)

What else do we have, you may ask?
If chocolate covered bacon is not for you, then why not try our “triple”, sure to score points with Dad. Three of Dad’s favorite beverages inspired us to create these unique confections:

1) The Mojito: White chocolate with a rum, lime and mint infused ganache.
2) The Irish Coffee: Milk chocolate and an Irish whiskey ganache
3) The Brandy Alexander: Dark Chocolate with brandy and creme de cacao ganache.

These confections come packaged in a beautiful 9-truffle box that dad will love ($25.00). We will also have non-alcoholic truffles available just in case!

New retail partner in Medicine Hat: Zuchini Blossom

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Do you live in Medicine Hat? Do you know anyone who lives there? Spread the word that our Chocophilia bars are now available at the Zuchini Blossom Cafe. Please support this retailer and our other retail partners as well.

As always, if you would like to send us a suggestion of a retail store in Canada that would be a good fit for our chocolates, please contact us.

Mother’s Day 2009 at Kerstin’s Chocolates

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Mother’s Day is this Sunday so don’t forget to stop by the Cocoa Room to get your Mom what she loves most:  Chocolate!   We have chocolate to please all Moms and their various
tastes:

1.  For Practical Moms

Chocolate Bouquet.
What could be better than a
bouquet of chocolate?

Our bouquet barks are the perfect gift for Moms who hate to see anything go to waste!  Our collection of large pieces of bark looks like a flower bouquet, but it’s extremely edible. How practical!  Here are the 3 delectable flavors included in each bouquet ($21.95):

  • Vanilla Tutti Frutti – white chocolate with diced mixed fruit flavored with pure vanilla beans.
  • Praline Crunch – pure Venezuelan milk chocolate with caramalized nut pieces.
  • Spicy Rose – dark Venezuelan chocolate perfumed with rose and sprinkled with strawberry pieces and pink peppercorns.

2.  For Indulgent Moms

For Moms who like to treat themselves, we are offering 5 creamy and decadent truffles in a very pretty box tied with a bow ($12.00).
 This set includes:

  • 1 Champagne Truffle – dark ganache with essence of champagne.
  • 1 Lavender Truffle – dark ganache infused with lavender flours and enrobed in our 65% dark Venezuelan chocolate.
  • 1 Kirsch Truffle – dark cherry ganache with kirsch and brandied cherries.
  • 1 Honey Crunch Truffle – milk chocolate
    ganache flavored with wild flower honey and topped with sponge toffee crunch
  • 1 Cassis Truffle – black currant ganache enrobed in creamy white chocolate from Switzerland.

3.  For Health-Conscious Moms
For Moms who like to moderate their indulgences, we’ve packaged our delicious dipped fruit in a beautiful looking box. Each box contains 5 plump dried pears and 5 apricots from California which we dip in pure Venezuelan Chocolate ($18.50).

Finally, you could opt for one of our Chocolate Lover’s Gift Boxes in either Milk, Dark or Dark and Milk, which includes some of our fine handmade chocolate as well as a selection of world-class chocolate from great chocolate makers from around the world ($50, $75 or $100).

Easter Egg Hunt Results

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Our thanks go out to everyone who took part in the Easter Egg Hunt. It was not an easy one! There were only so many eggs in the wild, and some people started too late and found that they could not get all the eggs they were looking for. We hope you didn’t get frustrated! To give you an idea of how it worked here is what we did:

We started with 96 eggs of 6 different colors. We mixed them up and distributed them to the 10 locations (All of these locations were our partner retailers who sell our Chocophilia products in their stores. All of them are independent and locally owned!)

Over the course of four days 7 people were able to find 6 different eggs and bring them into the store. Only 3 people came in with 3 eggs.

Thanks to everyone who participated. I hope you all had fun! We will try to do more of this kind of fun activity in the future. If you have any feedback, just leave a comment by clicking on the comment button below.

New display case now houses truffles, bark and other treats.

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Our new display case.

Our new display case.

We recently added a new bit of furniture to our store: a glass display case. It was custom made to hold our fresh confections as we increase production. It will contain all of our fresh truffles, as well as other fresh confections such as our peanut butter cups, coconut cups, dulche de leche cups and others. It will also contain chocolate dipped dried fruit, chocolate dipped candied ginger, and many flavors of chocolate bark. All of these products are sold by the gram, so after you chose which ones you would like, we will weigh them and then calculate the price.

To find out what types of truffles, fruit and bark are available, please call the store at 780-990-0011. We also hope to have this info available on this blog soon. Also, let us know what kinds of fresh chocolates you would like to see in our shop, and we will add them to our to-do list!

Steaming machine speeds up production of drinking chocolate in shop!

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Astra Steamer

Astra Steamer

We recently got an Astra steamer. It creates steam (no coffee, just steam.) Not just any old steam, but an enormous amount of beautiful steam with a good pressure! We use it every day in the front of the shop to whip up our Chocophilia Drinking Chocolate. We have found that it much faster than our old way of making it, and the drinks taste better than ever!

We use two pitchers, one for the Spicy, and one for the Dark drinking chocolate. If you haven’t tried our Drinking chocolate before, come in to the shop and taste some. It will be ready in a flash!

Health By Chocolate by Victoria Laine

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I am getting into this book lately, as part of my resolve to eat wholesome, real foods without a lot of additives, preservatives and alien sounding ingredients. I mean, let’s face it: I love chocolate and I refuse to ever cut it out of my diet, so I might as well work with it, enjoy it and not feel guilty.

That said, I already eat a lot of chocolate, (that’s just what happens when your sister owns a chocolate shop) and I am always happy to try some new chocolate related recipes. This book lets me experiment with some guilt-free and nutritious recipes that feature chocolate. A nice combo, right?

Now, these recipes aren’t low fat, let’s just get that straight. They are full of nut butters and almond flour, chocolate and sesame seeds. But they are real, wholesome ingredients with healthy fats and lots of non animal protein and natural sweeteners, which makes them very satisfying. I recently made pudding from tofu, cocoa powder and dates. Sounds kind of gross, right? But it was sooo good. Very creamy and chocolatey, it tasted decadent, but was simple and healthy. I also recommend the ‘eatmore’ bars. Puts the candy bar version to shame!

New Cardamint recipe

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After more experimentation, I’ve decided to change the Cardamint recipe. I felt that it was unbalanced, with too much cardamom at the onset and only a subtle mintyness. Since I am a big fan of mint, I decided to make it more minty. Now it tastes like a really good mint chocolate with a hint of cardamom. I think it’s better. I hope others agree!

New products arrive at The Cocoa Room

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We have recently brought some new products into the store for you chocolate connoisseurs.

Coppeneur is a German chocolate maker, and we decided to carry their chocolate, because we find their quality to be excellent. Their organic single plantation bars are truly delicious. Also check out the Coppeneur filled bars in flavours such as Walnut & Cognac or Chili & Highland Whisky.

Because so many of you told us that you liked the Claudio Corallo line of chocolates, we stocked up once more. The popular crystallized ginger bars are back, and we have also added a delicious 70% dark chocolate with cocoa nibs. My personal favourite, the 80% with crystallized sugar, is back too.

We continue to carry the Pralus “Les tropiques du chocolat” line, which features single origin 75% chocolates from all over the world. This time we are testing out the mild and slightly “hazelnutish” Venezuela and the earthy Sao Tome & Principe, which has a slight hint of mushroom. And for the first time we have brought in the Pralus Fortssima with an 80% cocoa content.

Also new are Domori’s Carenero Superior, a very smooth 70% chocolate from the Barlovento region in Venezuela and a 70% super-fruity Madagascar (definitely on my top 3 list now). Finally, for those of you who have been eagerly waiting its arrival, the Domori Porcelana is back.

Nina