We want you to know who is making your personalized chocolate bars to perfection, hence this blog series where I introduce someone from the chocri team by asking them weird questions. To read about all the people behind chocri, click on the "people" category in the navigation, or just here.
Today, I'm presenting you: Nora, our rockstar intern

Nora Steenken

Yes, I got this picture from facebook. Welcome, male readers

• Dark, milk or white chocolate?
  "Before working at chocri, I always thought I'd prefer dark chocolate. But now I'm very much into milk chocolate with spicy toppings - that combination has totally won me over!"

• How did you first hear about chocri?
  "I heard the first time about chocri when I searched the web for interesting mass customization projects for my University. I am planning to write my bachelor thesis on this topic. When I stumbled upon chocri I was so excited about it, that I applied for an internship instantly."

• What was your last chocri creation?
  "I love sweet and spicy combinations. My last one was milk chocolate with multicolored pepper, ginger, ground chilli and almond slivers.....hmmmm, it was just delicious!"

• Do you actually still eat chocolate?
  *"Well yes, unfortunately! I'm surrounded with chocolate everyday, and you should think that you wouldn't be able to even look at chocolate after a while. But because there are so many different possible combinations, you never get fed up with chocri! Of course, we are always testing new toppings, so there is something new to try almost everyday! That means for me: Working out after work is a must! ;)

• What's the favorite part of your job?
  "I love the Social Media Part...getting in touch with the chocri fans, both German and American ist really fun and you get to know so much about them and what they really want when it comes to chocolate. Chocri is such an emotional product, because it is something that you design according to your desires and that you want to enjoy or share with friends....it is great fun!"

• What did you get last year for Christmas?
  "Last year I spent half a year in Málaga in Spain, and for christmas my famliy gave me tickets to go back there for two weeks to meet all my friends...that was awesome!"

• What would you like to customize but you can't yet?
  "Hm, I don't know... Nowadays you can almost customize everything, it just depends on how much money you want to spend!"

• The coolest thing about chocri?
  "That chocri is so sympathic and that the people working there are so much fun and really care about the customers!"

• What kind of animal would be if you were one?
  "Tough question... I think I'd be a lynx. I don't even know why, but I have always been fascinated by that wildcat."

Thanks for the interview Nora!

Lots of gourmets have discovered that chocolate and wine go well together, if you find the right combination. That, of course, isn’t very easy, but nobody said being a gourmet was easy ;)

Many of our chocri fans have been asking us to add wine flavors to our bar, which is actually difficult, because it’s liquid. While we're still investigating ways to accomplish wine on customized chocolate bars, for now we recommend a wine tasting, accompanied by chocolate. Or maybe even better: A chocolate tasting, accompanied by wine.

Here some "golden rules" to bear in mind, to make it sure it tastes like heaven and not like hell:

If you plan on experimenting with different chocolates, start with a light one and work your way up to the darkest one, just as you should start with a light wine and then proceed to the heavier, fuller wines.

That also means: The stronger the chocolate the more full-bodied the wine. You wouldn’t want one to get lost in the strong flavors of the other but rather experience the full sensation of the combination.

Also, the wine you chose to drink with your chocolate should be slightly sweeter than the chocolate. That is also the cause why dark chocolate goes better with wine – it is less sweet than many wines.

Chocri allows you to design a chocolate bar which contains typical wine flavors like fruity berry and flower flavors, or different spices and herbs, and thus makes a great addition to a wine tasting.

To get started just think of the most demonstrative flavor of your favorite wine and add those as toppings on your chocri. If you keep the three golden rules above in mind, it will surely be a whole new taste experience!

As we say in Germany: Prost! [Cheers!]

We are a German startup, expanding to the US this January, to bring Americans the joy of creating their own chocolate bars. We are very excited about that, and many people have helped us, so that we're in good shape for our launch.

I'd like to use the opportunity (it's Thanksgiving!) to thank all our supporters, fans, followers, partners, reviewers and most importantly, the team at chocri for the joint-efforts in making chocri in the US a success!

If you want to be invited to our invitation-only launch on January 5, please share your email with us (box on the left), and we'll send you the code to be among the first to try chocri.

We have great news! From December on, when you take a Chicago Chocolate Tour, you have a good chance of being given a free chocri chocolate bar! That means, you'll get our personalized chocolate bars even before we launch!

Chicago Chocolate Tours is an institution in Chicago. Valerie Beck, the founder, president and "Chief Executive Chocolate Lover" is a Harvard Law graduate but decided to do a career switch and build this delicious business of taking chocolate lovers around in Chicago to its most delicious chocolate stores. I've taken the tour myself, and vouch not only for its entertainment value but also for its quality of chocolate samples and stories.

Should you be in the area or want to gift a Chocolate Tour coupon to a friend, I encourage you to check out the website at chicagochocolatetours.com. Also, I highly recommend Valerie Beck's Chocolate Tour blog - it's full to the brim with great stories and advice on chocolate in general.

*In the picture above: Valerie Beck (purple coat in the middle), founder of Chicago Chocolate tours, and yours truly (white coat and blue scarf). Picture taken by Chicago Chocolate Tours

Food Mass Customization isn't new at all (like mass customization in general- see our blog post last week - for once, restaurants have been doing it all along, and fast food restaurants have began to do it in a more organized fashion (see Chipotle). However, it is new that you can now customize many products you would otherwise by in a store - ranging from cereal, to energy bars to, you guessed it, chocolate. It is notable that while General Mills has experimented with mass customization as a big company, these mass customizers are all startups. In fact, everyone I've met in the field is not only young as a business, but also young as a person.

So what are the arguments for customizing a food product?

Most importantly, it is the taste - you can create something that tastes exactly how you want it to. Take the startup mymelade in Germany - they mix a jelly according to your wishes, and that can include weird stuff like rum - and I tried it and it tasted great!

The second thing most people mention is freshness, something our friend Jonathan from elementbars confirmed - it matters whether you buy a product off the shelf where it had been sitting for months, or if it was just produced (hand-made) a few days ago.

Finally, if you're health conscious, you can design the nutrition that is perfect for you. That is not only the case with obviously healthy foods like cereal and energy bars, but also applies to chocolate, to which you can add toppings with powers that you need - be it the Vitamin C of cranberries or the brain power of walnuts. If you like to take charge of balancing your diet, you should start taking charge of what you eat!

Food Mass Customization will become more important in the future. To quote two experts on the matter:
Dave Gardner told me on twitter: "There will be growth in food mass customization.", and Frank Piller himself wrote: "Whenever I am asked what the next big trend in customization is, one of my answers always is food." Note- he wrote that in 2007. And now we're here! :)

Guess who discovered the greatness of chocolate and brought it to Europe? No, it was not Christopher Columbus! As great as he was on other accounts, with chocolate, he just missed the boat (pun intended). According to historic records, he encountered a Mayan trading ship loaded with cacao beans. Historians say that while Columbus understood that the Mayans placed high value on these beans, he failed to understand what they were for (consumption and at that time, currency).

There's a quote of a Spanish sailor who was with Columbus, and who wrote "... these almonds seemed to be of great value to them, for when they were brought on board with the other goods, I noticed that as soon as one fell onto the ground they all bent down to pick it up, as if they had dropped an eye."

So only when Hernán Cortés conquered what is today Mexico did the first (known) European try the chocolate drink. It is actually not documented when the first cacao bean saw European soil, but it was probably not too long after. However, it took a while until it spread in Europe, as Spain kept it carefully inside the country and monopolized it. During the 17th century, chocolate spread to France and Italy, and soon became a preferred luxury beverage of nobility.

It took another three centuries and many inventions like the cacao press and conche until (solid!) chocolate became available to consumers. Aren't you glad you were born to be one of them?

p.s. If you enjoy hearing about the history of chocolate, check out our post on Chocolate Houses

On this beautiful Saturday, I'm sharing a beautiful picture of customized chocolate bars with you :

If you want some more words today, check out awesome chocolate quotes.

Enjoy the weekend, everyone!

We want you to know who is making your chocolate to perfection, hence this blog post will commence a little series where I'll introduce someone from the chocri team by asking them weird questions. Today we're starting with Micha, our dear co-founder and owner of chocri. He was recently selected as one of the Top 30 student entrepreneurs by the Global Student Entrepreneurship Competition. We're so proud!

Michael Bruck

• Dark, milk or white chocolate?
  "I actually hardly eat chocolate anymore - picture it, I'm surrounded by it all the time. But if i have to I like milk chocolate the best. Or white. Hm.."

• What kind of animal would you be if you were one?
  *"I would probably be a dog, you know, sleeping all day long.."

• Where are you from?
  "Duh. You know that. Berlin."

• Ok, sorry, I did. Pretend I don't know what you study:
  "Philosopy. I know this has nothing to do with chocolate, but i love it.."

• What is the one thing that you are most proud of?
  "Creating jobs for 20 people"

• What's your favorite part of your job?
  "Working with people, i really enjoy working with our team!"

• What do you want to be when you grow up?
  "This!"

• What did you get last year for Christmas?
  "Bed sheets. For some reason, my whole family bought bed sheets. I have like 4 sets still in the packaging in my closet.."

Thanks for the interview Micha!

Forget love – I'd rather fall in chocolate!.

Isn't that a great image? The person who said this surely acknowledged the power of chocolate. Unfortunately I have no clue who actually came up with that the first time, but I love picturing it!

Since almost everybody in the world is very much in love with chocolate, there are tons of beautiful, funny or lovely quotes about it out there. Today, we want to share some of our favorites with you:

• There's nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with CHOCOLATE
  Linda Grayson, "The Pickwick Papers"

• Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces
  Judith Viorst

• Exercise is a dirty word... Every time I hear it, I wash my mouth out with chocolate
  unknown

• Chemically speaking, chocolate really is the world's perfect food
  Michael Levine, nutrition researcher

• I have this theory that chocolate slows down the aging process.... It may not be true, but do I dare take the chance?
  unknown

Those are only few, there's a lot more to say about chocolate. What is your favorite quote about chocolate? Do you maybe even have your own made up already?

The German chocri.de website has its own little "fan store" with original chocri-quotes printed on T-shirts. All of them have been made up by their fans. One of my favorites is: "A day without chocri is a like a night without my teddy bear." Another one would be:”chocri good – all good” or "Make chocri, not war!" Of course, "Pimp my chocolate" is a classic one J

By the way; the last chocri intern, Tobi, actually "fell" in chocolate his last day at work. Well, we covered him with liquid chocolate…a dream come true ;)

My first ever exposure to mass customization was probably when I was in elementary school. Like all kids that like the smell of roasted almonds and cotton candy, I loved going to the christmas market. One of the stands was especially popular with us kids especially for the fact that they didn't sell anything sweet. At this stand, they sold bracelets, and you could choose not only the stones but also little "letter" pendants to create words or just signify that this bracelet was your own, uniquely yours.

Now, admittedly it's debatable if the number of personalized and customized bracelets these christmas market vendors sold to us kids justifies the mass in mass customization, but the idea is the same: Take a product that everyone else offers as a ready-made, and let people configure their own. And then let lots of people do that. I'm sure all of you have seen examples in every day life, from being able to configure a car and its accessories to etchings of your name in our Ipod (which, by the way, is called personalization, and is a subset of customization).

So is this really new? Hm, not entirely. As with many things, mass customization has been here for a while. So what's all the fuss about?
My thoughts about that: I believe that changes to how we do things (buy things, produce things) come in stages. Take mobile: First people had to adopt mobile phones, then smart phones, then advertisers and app developers had to pick up, and now everyone is talking about it, and in the future mobile will probably change a lot about how we do things. Similarly with mass customization: First people had to be online for it to work efficiently, then some big firms like NikeID took some risks and offered mass customization and thereby educated consumers about this opportunity to take more control, and now is the era where more startups (like us) jump on the wagon and offer many different variations and products in a mass customization context.

I personally have observed that there are a lot more mass customizers in Germany, but I feel that with companies like Zazzle here, or with German startups like Spreadshirt and us expanding to the US, the trend will pick up here as well. And you know what they say about the US: Everything is bigger here! :)

To learn more about mass customization (examples), visit Milk or Sugar's mass customization portal, Anita Windisman's well written blog "flexistuff" on the subject or Prof. Piller's perspectives on the topic.

What's your opinion on mass customization and its future?

That's what it will be with your first chocri bar. Because it is exactly what you wanted, it's your creation, your piece of art, your original. Your personalized chocolate bar is like you! Like your mood, sometimes sweet and fruity, other times powerful and spicy, sometimes seductive, other times playful. No one knows what's best for you like you do!

Your chocri bar mirrors you, your attitude, your lifestyle. Are you the adventurous type, who likes to explore new places, new things, the extraordinary? Or are you someone who impresses others with your looks and beauty? You can't get enough of life, of tastes, of experiences, of emotions? Or are you simply a happy, jolly person, who doesn't worry about much but lives in the present?

We developed the test for you. Find out what type you are, and we'll tell you what type of chocolate is best for you. Or the other way around:

Show me your chocolate, and I'll tell you, who you are ;)

Take our "What type of chocolate are you" quiz on facebook to find out which type you are.
Have fun!

(This is a translation of the same blog post on our German blog, where Nora is the word smith. You've got to acknowledge genius where it is :))

We've been asked why we launch in January and not, like, now - in time for the holidays in the US. The simple reason is: chocri is swamped with order for customized chocolate bars in Germany!

They are already working 24/7 (for hand-making chocolate bars takes its time), so imagine adding orders from the US to that!

The good thing about our launch date: Should you want to give your sweetheart something that mirrors her/his sweetness for Valentine's Day - we'll be there :)

Below a picture I took during my visit in Germany. One of the founders, Franz, is transporting packaging material. It shows that a chocolate company is not only about delicacy, it includes moving a couple hundred folded boxes from one end to the other. Luckily, the chocolate artists are still all about delicacy - and deliciousness! :)

Dear faithful blog readers, We have a special bonbon (excuse me: chocolate piece!) for you today, which is the date of our

Invitation-Only Launch:

January 5, 2010

With a special code, you will be able to enter our website from the 5th of January on, and order before everyone else does.

Do you want to be among those few who will be invited? Sign up for our newsletter (see the box to the left) to be notified and sent the special code close to the launch date.

In fact, calling it a "newsletter" is a little misleading, since I don't plan to email you before our launch (maybe about our facebook application launch, but that's it).
If we've been talking in person and I told you I'd put you on the mail list - you're on it, no need to sign up again.

Comment if you have any questions please!

We've recently sent out some chocolate to some bloggers to see if we don't only appeal to the German taste but to the American/ English taste as well. (Want to try it yourself? Check out our last blog post on how to taste chocolate Turns out: Bloggers love our chocolate!

Here's what they found and said:

Terry from The Chocolate Review was the first one to review us. The final verdict after the review was "Overall this was everything I hoped for it to be... If you’ve ever fancied yourself as a budding chocolate maker or want to give someone a very personal chocolate gift, then I recommend playing around a little bit." We recommend it, too, and in fact, many of the bars bought in Germany are bought as gifts today!

Candy Addict wrote a very funny post, stating that when her bars arrived, she thought some crazy person had ordered them because of the untypical toppings. What I'm very happy about is that she liked the actual chocolate underneath it all. I may quote: "If you think you don’t like white chocolate, please make sure that you’ve had some that’s as good as this before you give up on it." She didn't like the milk chocolate as much, and would have preferred it a little darker. Thanks for the suggestion.

Finally, Sil from TodoCandy hasn't received her bars yet, but did something very unique: She posted a video of how she created her chocolate bars! I highly recommend you to check it out! She loved that you can name the bars, and came up with some creative names for them. What would you name your bar?

We are really grateful for these reviews and opinions. One reason is of course that it gets people to hear about us, but even more importantly: we learn! We want to improve what we do and we will make chocri something that not only Germans, but also Americans love: the chocolate of your dreams!

Have you had a stressful start into the week? Chocolate is a sweet remedy, and if you enjoy every bit of it, it will give you even more satisfaction. Chocolate is rich, diverse, and deserves to be savored like a true "food of the goods". Here are a few pointers on how to taste chocolate:

So say you've designed your perfect chocolate bar, we carefully hand-made it for you, and it is now in your hands:

1. Unpack. You're right if your reaction to this is "duh", but in fact, the act of unwrapping your chocolate is part of the whole experience. Enjoy the beauty of your creation through the "window" of the packaging, and live the suspension of opening the packaging as you get closer to its content.

2. Look closely: Take a look at the toppings you choose and how they are nicely surrounded by sumptuous chocolate at their base. Your chocolate should have a glossy shine to it, that speaks for a good tempering of the chocolate bar. And that speaks for its taste.

3. Break: The sound of breaking chocolate tells you a lot about its quality. High quality chocolate like chocri breaks with a crisp "snap".

4. Smell: Hold the piece of chocolate you broke off to your nose and take a deep breath. You will smell a mixture of the chocolate itself, but also of the toppings you chose. Close your eyes if you dare, and let the smell take you away to a place of exotic aromas.

5. Taste: By now, you probably can't wait any longer to take a big bite, but wait, and start small. If you keep it a few seconds in your mouth, the chocolate will melt and surround your toppings even more. Bite to experience the crunchyness of say a banana chip, and savor the soft sweetness of say a strawberry. Allow the sensation of the taste travel through your body, not only towards your stomach but more importantly to your head.

And then, most importantly:

Repeat :-)

Enjoy!

Thomas was so kind to send pictures of the personalized chocolate bars he created after he won the giveway:

In Germany we say: Guten Appetit! :)

Now, for a change, we'll divert a little from food. I recently bought some shoes from miAdidas, which means I customized my sports shoes . It's like customized chocolate bars, just shoes ;)

The shoes can be "fitted", that means they have smaller increments of sizes so that you can choose the length and width that exactly fits your shoe. It turned out in my case that the perfect size was already the one I buy off the shelf. Oh well. The fun part was the customization of the look of the shoe anyways. As you can see in the picture below, I went for a royal blue (fits my outfit- hey, I'm female!), and put my favorite word in the world on it (papillon = butterfly in French). I think they look great - but of course that is my individual taste, which is why I did customize my own shoes. The final test was running with them, which in the end was like running with any other good shoe, with the added feeling of knowing that these were truly my shoes.

The first time I really got in touch with mass customization was NikeID. So it is somewhat surprising that I didn't customize a shoe there, but with adidas. The reason is not that I like adidas more, but that NikeID doesn't have the fitting for size, which going in, I thought would make all the difference. Plus, with adidas you go through a consultation process in the store, while with NikeID you customize everything from shoe to bag to clothing online. Yet, I give credit to NikeID for really putting the "mass" in mass customization. They even have an IPhone App now - but disappointingly, you can only find designs from other users, not make your own. Why, NikeID, why?

This blog was a tad quieter in the past few days (apologies) because I was traveling for an Entrepreneurship Panel, that I helped organize and moderate. One notion that was shared on the panel was the one about "tailwinds": that the the success of a young venture (like chocri) is partially dependent on some degree of "luck" - doing the right thing at the right time.

At chocri, we think we are a pretty lucky bunch. These are three tailwinds in the form of trends, which we launch right into:

• Premium chocolate for the health conscious consumers: Market research suggests that people indulge less often in sweets and candy, but that when they do, they aim for the premium brand. The idea is that: If I burden myself with calories, I want to do it right. We couldn't agree more, and that's why with chocri, you don't only get great-tasting and healthy chocolate that is organic and fair trade, but more importantly, you can create exactly the kind of chocolate indulgence that makes you happy the most.

• [Mass customization](http://www.createmychocolate.com]: More control to the consumer! Mass Customization in the US has been driven (slowly!) by big companies, but more and more startups are in the space now, and increasingly in food. People like you become more aware of it that it is feasible to get something customized for you at a reasonable price and without buying 200 items. Chocri is one of those startups that wants to give the scepter back where it belongs: into your hands!

• Open innovation and social media: Technology allows us to engage in more dialogue with you (see our facebook page and twitter account), and our business model enables us to listen closely what you want - and do it. Some examples: The name "chocri" was invented by a fan, the toppings were and are being voted on by you, and in general, if our customers ask for something, we do our best to make it possible (if it doesn't impact other customers negatively of course).

What wasn't discussed at the entrepreneurship panel a few days back, but what is a thought that I'd like to throw into the round: How much can you "influence" luck? Sometimes (as mentioned in this article luck comes easier, can even be learned. We will keep our eyes open so we don't miss it.

Everyone can do just a few things to make sure this planet and all the people living on it have a chance. We take our responsibility here at chocri, in the following three ways, as we make and sell personalized chocolate bars:

• For the sake of nature but foremost to protect the rights and lives of the cocoa farmers, we use only fair trade chocolate. Fair trade means the prices paid to the farmers don't require them to work in bad conditions or to make their children work in order to afford a living.
• Not only for your health, but also for the sake of nature, we only sell organic chocolate. That doesn't only mean the cocoa used is organic, but also the sugar and all the other ingredients, like the milk in milk chocolate.
• One percentage of our revenues goes directly to the organization DIV Kinder, which supports and protects children on the Ivory Coast. The Ivory Coast is the biggest exporter of cocoa beans on this planet. Our customers also get a chance to donate a small amount at checkout. Together, we've already raised thousands of Euros to benefit the children.

We are committed to making this world a little better, and you can help us, by doing what we know you do well: Eating chocolate!

To learn more about our engagement with DIV Kinder, visit our DIV Kinder Info in the More Info tab.