Yay, chocri is getting some great recognition by THE food website in the U.S. and possibly worldwide: Epicurious!

Chosen as one of the few from a vast "flood" (so they say) of Valentine's Day chocolate contenders, here's what Epicurious had to say:

Chocri Customized Chocolate Bars

"If you're having trouble finding just the right chocolate for your special someone, it's time to go custom. Chocri, a German company that recently started filling orders in the U.S., makes customizable bars using organic fair trade chocolate from Belgium (bars start at $3.90). Customers choose dark, milk, or white chocolate, then pick from a selection of 80 plus toppings (there are 10 billion possible combinations). We created three pretty dynamite bars: milk chocolate with roasted almonds, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper; dark chocolate with sour cherries, cornflakes, sea salt, and toasted hazelnuts; and dark chocolate with hazelnut brittle and sea salt. To further personalize your gift, give your bar a name, which will appear on the package."

Here's the link to the actual article.

Speaking of names, here are the Top 5 chocri bar names of the week:

• Corn Dog (Milk Chocolate with Colorful Chocolate Dragées and Marshmallow)
  

• Tuscany (Milk Chocolate with Rosemary and Pine Nuts)

• The Bling Bar (Dark Chocolate with Real Gold Flakes, Golden Pearls, Silver Pearls and Star Decoration)

• Chocolate Thunder (Dark Chocolate with Caramel Chocolate Drops, Marzipan Rose, Golden Pearls, Marshmallow and Mini Cookies)

• Dark Chocolate Lovin' | Lights The Fire of Desire (Dark Chocolate with Sour Cherries, Hazelnut Brittle, Strawberry Chocolate Drops, Cayenne Pepper and Black Sesame)

Obviously, a lot of the bar names this week were Valentine's Day themed.
Don't forget, the last day to order for Valentine's Day is February 1!

So, you've checked out our recommended creations And... you liked all of them! Well, maybe not the super spicy one, that's for the guys, but among all the others, you can hardly decide. Does this describe the dilemma you often find yourself in? Then we've got a fix for you!

Check out chocri on hunch! Hunch is a website created, among others, by the founder of flickr and aims to solve your everyday and life-changing questions by asking you ten or less questions back - and then giving you a recommendation based on your answers. Not only your answers, but also the answers of people like you (which requires "teaching" hunch about you - which is actually a bunch of fun!).

We've created a topic "What type of chocolate bar should I customize" which helps you decide among our recommendations. Feel free to submit your own result if you want to recommend a bar! There's not much more to say - just go and try it out and see how you like the recommended recommendation. ;-)

What is your chocri hunch?

Last Week, I was very fortunate to meet Jana Eggers (@jeggers), the global CEO of Spreadshirt.

Like chocri, Spreadshirt started out in Germany with custom t-shirts, and then expanded to the US three years later. For many of us mass customizers, spreadshirt is a great example to look up to - the idea of mass customization was about where it is today in the US (hardly known) and yet the Spreadshirt founder Lukasz Gadowski pushed his great idea of customized apparel - and had great success. Spreadshirt isn't only selling a couple t-shirts- they are selling millions of t-shirts. What is interesting and different about Spreadshirt is that while the base of customers that create their own t-shirt is very strong in Germany, abroad Spreadshirt experience more growth with so-called "partner shops" - a typical example of crowdsourcing: Partners design t-shirts and sell them on their own website/ in their own shop.

Like chocri, Spreadshirt is also huge on open innovation by the way. They crowdsourced their logo (see left) and are in constant dialogue with their customers and shop partners. Similarly, we here at chocri learn from you what toppings you want, usability suggestions on Facebook, and even our name "chocri" was a decision by our early fans (both in Germany and the US)!

Spreadshirt's CEO Jana Eggers, the American with the German-sounding name, jets between Leipzig, the German headquarter of Spreadshirt, and the US base in Boston. I had the pleasure to meet her in New York just before her interview with a major newspaper (I am flattered) to talk to her about differences between the German and the US market and the future of mass customization.

*You can also see this video on our YouTube Channel

The biggest takeaway from my meeting with Jana is in the video above. I asked her what she thinks the future of mass customization is, and she warned not to be too much in love with the idea of mass customization itself, but rather to think about what the customer wants. She gives the example of their line of CNN headline shirts - the idea of CNN headlines on t-shirts wouldn't be possible without mass customization, yet its taking it a step further and not just plain mass customization anymore.

I've been thinking about this idea for a few days now, and I have mixed feelings about it. I absolutely believe in not getting stuck on one thing, but rather to think about how you can develop it further. At the same time, I am very much in love with mass customization, exactly what Jana warns about. To me, it's such a desirable thing to make something that is exactly what you want, that to me has so much more value than to consume something made entirely by someone else. To me, it's a means of self-expression, something for me to be creative without big barriers but with instant benefits (especially in the case of chocolate). I realize now that there's different motives for customizing your own t-shirt and your own chocolate bar, and that those motives differ per customer. I will be thinking about it more...

What fascinates you about customizing your chocolate bar or your t-shirt?

This is just a quick update that we've recommended some new creations in the chocri recommended section.

From the light and fun "Sweetheart" that will fill anyone with joy, even if it's not to confess everlasting love, to "Sweet Seduction" and even "Whispered Love" - we've got you covered. Choose one of our recommended customized chocolate bars or create your own, thoughtful gift that takes into account what your Valentine really loves.

Do you have someone that you want to show that s/he is loved? That someone thinks about him/her?

With chocri, you can send customized chocolate bars anonymously, and surprise your Valentine. Maybe you'd want to give a little hint in the name or the greeting card, but that's up to you. If you don't want us to, the lucky recipient of your chocolate concoctions will have to guess who the generous, secret admirer is.

Which reminds me of a little story: I often browse over some of the orders that come in, and today I noticed that this lady (no names!) received two orders from two different people, clearly Valentine's Day themed. There's some competition going on! Who knows, maybe one of the orders after Valentine's Day will be her ordering for the winner ;)

Which sweets does your sweetheart like?

Chocri customers are SO creative! Ladies and gentlemen, you impress us not only with the concoctions you come up with, but moreover, - the chocolate bar names! Wow!

I would like to show you my favorites from this week, and who knows, maybe we'll make this something regular...

• Valentine's Day Vice

• Betterfinger

• Hot for Chocolate

• Ginger-Pear Persuasion with dark chocolate

• Sunset at the Shore

Full of humor, full of wit, and full of deliciousness. You people rock!

p.s. I wonder who gets that last bar... ;)

News! Fresh and hot off the press - our Valentine's Day Theme Packaging. Add a floral note to the sweetness of your gift.

Those of you who ordered since Sunday might have noticed a little box per chocolate bar in the checkout section - checking that box gives you our fabulous Valentine's Day Packaging instead of our (similarly amazing) standard packaging. It's free, of course, and you can add it to any bar you like - you don't have to use it on all the bars in your checkout. With both packaging options, you can of course still give your creative concoction an equally creative name.

p.s. There's also a different change in the shopping cart since today, and only for a few days - can you find out what it is?

Who's your Valentine?

Today I googled mass customization (well, mass customisation) in the UK - and found nothing. Now, I might not be the most versed googler and also didn't spend too much time on it, but how can there be no examples of mass customization in the UK? I even shouted it out on twitter (I tweet about mass customization with my @papillonc account), - no examples! I could not find one mass customization company from the UK. We know that mymuesli.de has a UK website, but that's it. Please let me know if you know of any!

Funny enough, I found the abstract to a research paper, comparing mass customization (-customisation) in the UK vs. Turkey (why Turkey?), and the finding was this: "A large proportion of customers from both countries would be willing to pay extra to own a product which exactly meets their needs and preferences. However, more respondents in the Turkish sample were willing to do so than in the UK sample." So it's not that the UK consumers abhor mass customization (although the Turkish clearly are more trendy in this regard), but why do entrepreneurs ignore it?

Which of course makes me think of US vs. Germany. I see a lot of mass customization in the US in the fields of fashion and food, and while fashion seems to be more of an American stronghold, a lot of the food mass customization startups have someone German, or at least German-speaking, on their founding team. Checking mass customization directories like egoo.de or milkorsugar further confirms that there are more food mass customization startups in Germany than in the US, including notable US companies like elementbars, [me] & goji or mixmygranola.com who I was fortunate to meet last week.

A few days ago, an Austrian business student interviewed me on the topic of mass customization for her bachelor thesis, and one question she asked was how I expect mass customization to evolve in the future. Now, I'm no Professor Pine or Professor Piller, but I'm obviously betting my personal future on it. I think that we will see lots of growth in mass customization - many products are not available yet in a customized format. Many existing examples of mass customization are not sold in every country yet. And sooner or later, there will be competition in each niche - see the two cereal companies mentioned above in the US market. Then, I expect larger companies to jump on the train - maybe not as efficiently as the startups in the beginning, but soon on a much bigger scale. Which reminds me - have I told you yet about Hershey's opening a "create-your-own" attraction in their amusement park "Chocolate World" in Hershey, PA? They've been on our site a lot (Google Analytics knows everything), so we're flattered! I can't wait to go when it opens in the summer.

We, chocri, have been received in the US with open arms, and are as thrilled as you about our expansion. That for us is a sign that mass customization is ready to spread to more countries. What do you think?

Already the Aztecs knew that chocolate possessed "powers" to make them feel great in various way. It is told that Montezuma, the last Aztec Emperor, drank chocolate 50 times a day to boost his virility before visiting his harem. Even Casanova consumed chocolate before visiting his ladies, and centuries ago, chocolate was banned from monasteries and convents, fearing it would otherwise increase the longing for physical contact amongst the monks and nuns.

It will surprise you that science has yet to give us a clear answer on whether chocolate is an aphrodisiac or not. A known fact is that chocolate contains phenylethylamine (PEA). Not only is PEA present in your brain naturally when you are experiencing pleasure, it also is chemically similar to amphetamine, which has been shown to create feelings of attraction and excitement - just like those butterflies when you are in love! In addition, chocolate contains serotonin, which is linked to feelings of elation and happiness.

In conclusion we can probably say that chocolate has aphrodisiac-like effects. Now, if chocolate itself can do all that, what do you think a chocri Valentine's Day chocolate gift can do - something made uniquely for her, with her favorite sweets and her name on it? After all, the most potent aphrodisiac available is the mind.

Create the ultimate love chocolate

Today, we celebrate Martin Luther King Day in the United States. Martin Luther King is an icon of human rights, played a major role in ending race inequality and discrimination, and of course he is famous for his dramatic "I Have a Dream" speech. He showed that progress and change can be brought about by the people, absent of violence .

I think that Martin Luther King is a wonderful example for all of us - everyone of us has the power to do change and make this world a little better. That's for example why chocri donates 1% of each purchase to charity, and many of you have already generously donated additionally. Making change happen can be as easy as making better choices - whether it is a greener behavior, whether it is stepping up for someone who deserves it, or just saying thanks to those people that have helped you achieve your dreams.

Today is the last day of free shipping with chocri - wasn't there someone who you wanted to send a chocri bar to?

What is your dream?

Although we're pretty proud that we passed the 700 fans mark recently, we really love interacting with you guys and ladies on Facebook and think it provides a unique platform to get your feedback and learn how you're feeling about us. Hence, we want more of you on Facebook.

This is the deal: If we reach 2000 Fans on Facebook, all of you get a $10 gift code (or 5 Euro if you want to use chocri.de That's not only the new fans, but also our current fans!

This is how can you can help us reach 2000 Fans and get your $10 worth of chocri sooner:

• Suggest to friends: There's a button underneath our profile picture that helps you suggest us, without any words, to your friends that you think would benefit from knowing about customized chocolate bars as well.
  

• Share our announcement: In a few seconds, we will have a post about this up, and not only can you like it and comment on it, you can also share it with your friends
  

• Old school: Tell people about us and this: Obviously, only if you deem us worthy. ;)
  

The $10 (5 Euro) gift code can be used by yourself or passed on as a gift certificate to a friend. Either way, it can be transformed into deliciousness!

Fan us on Facebook today!

Feel free to comment if you have any questions.
Please help us reach 2000 Fans!

Cocoa is a commodity like gold or pork bellies (no kidding). The trading of cocoa beans is mostly done at the commodity futures exchange in New York for the North American market, and in London for the European market. Cocoa futures are traded on the basis of the last harvest and the expectations for the next two years. "Futures" means that contracts are made early, prices are agreed before the cocoa is grown or harvested. If, say, the harvest is worse than expected, the price of cocoa will rise on the market, which means the seller in the previous contract made a bad deal selling it for a lower price, while the buyer made a good deal. Climatic, but also economic and political factors have a role in determining the cocoa price.

Since 2007, demand for cocoa has risen (are you surprised?), which led to quite an increase in price since then. The demand increase is attributed to a growing interest of Asian countries in chocolate, India in particular.
Maybe we should expand there next? ;)

Typically, that's what we would say, too!

Valentine's Day is about showing that you care about the other person, and a gift shows caring not with its price tag but because it is something that you know this person would like. A thoughtful gift, that shows that you put yourself in the other's shoes, means so much more than something that just costs a lot and happens to be what everyone else buys.

It's not about checking off the box "VDay gift", it's about saying "I'm glad you are in my life, just the way you are."

A thoughtful gift can even be a few post-its inscribed with little "vouchers" - for massages, for emptying out the dishwasher, for walking the dog. Or, of course, a thoughtful gift would be a chocolate bar with all the favorite toppings of your sweetheart, with a name you have us print on the packaging that contains an 'insider message'.

Our chocolate bars are handmade with the finest, fair trade, and organic chocolate from Belgium, and delight is guaranteed. Most importantly though, seeing the thought that went into picking the toppings and coming up with a funny or beautiful and fitting name means so much more!

For inspiration, check out the bars bloggers made as part of our blograce in this post. These are pretty much chocolate bars for friends, and the creators designed bars based on what the recipient likes (to cook with).

What would your Valentine want?

*(that title is quoted from @CinnamonSpice, but you knew that)

The Blog Relay Race is lots of fun. Current score at the time of this post:

Female Bloggers: 21 Bars | Male Bloggers: 15 Bars

Today was a little calmer than yesterday, but we're still well on our way to a 100 bars - and at the moment the ladies are in the lead.

For inspiration, a few of the bars below that were made for other bloggers, and then I'll recap the rules.

Bars Made In the Blog Relay Race

Apologies that I can't discuss all the bars here, I'm just randomly picking some because all sounded so great!

Nutmeg Nanny made this bar for Girlichef: "Mexican Hot Chocolate Love" Bar. It is made with a milk chocolate base, organic cane sugar, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, bourban vanilla and mini marshmallows.Delicious! Girlichef hasn't tagged anyone yet, but that'll change soon, right?

A personal favorite is this concoction: "Forager's Delight": [dark chocolate, fig bits, fennel and sea salt] by Sean from Hedonia, which was a reaction to the "Hedonia Special": [dark chocolate with fig bits, sea salt, toasted hazelnuts, caramel chocolate drops and golden pearls] by Single Guy Ben.

Finally, Natashya made, no, not a Hawaiian Bar, but a "Middle Eastern Bar" for DebinHawaii who tagged Kat with her "Spicy Cup of Joe Bar": dark chocolate, goji berries, ground chili, cinnamon and ground coffee beans (I have to try this!), and Kat turned that gift into two quite delicious bars herself... of which I trust we will hear more later.

Aren't those amazing?

Blog Relay Race Rules

• Once you've been tagged - congrats! You're either on the male or female team! And you've scored a chocri bar, designed especially for you! Help them win, that is - reach 100 bars
  
• All you have to do is tag two more people - that is "design a bar* by describing the combination you would make, and let two other bloggers of the same gender know what you made for them
• We need to keep score here, so please let us know as well. The easiest way to do this is to comment on this post, or email me at carmen@chocri.com
  
• Win! Support your team! We're following the fun on Twitter with the hashtag #blograce
• Get your chocolate bar - I'll get in touch so we can send you the chocolate bar you scored after the race is over

There's a tradition (if we may call it that) here at chocri to have a little race when we launch. Yes, you heard correctly - a race. A race between women and men. 'Unfair', you say? Possibly. We'll see if the men have a chance this time!

As we did in Germany when chocri launched in the fall of 2008, we designed a chocolate bar for both a female blogger (Cinnamon Girl, or Reeni, who writes the delicious and fun blog Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice) and for a male blogger (Dave Cook who's behind the original and clever blog Eating In Translation. The bars we designed are the Cinnamon Girl Bar and the Dave Cook Bar, which can both be found front and center of our Recommended Creations Section.

Starting pretty much when this post goes live, both Reeni and Dave will design one chocolate bar each for two other bloggers - two female bloggers in the case of Reeni, and two male bloggers in the case of Dave. Reeni and Dave - feel free to comment on this blog post who you give what bar to!

Then those recipients will in turn design two bars for two blogger friends of the same gender as well, and the team that reaches 100 bars first - wins!

Here's the rules again in short:

• Please let us know if you received a bar/ designed a bar for two other bloggers - we need to keep track :) You can let us know by commenting on this post and/or by sending me an email to carmen@chocri.com.
  
• When we say "design" a bar for two other bloggers of the same gender, that means you can play with the tool we have, but all you have to give us is a list, such as "Milk chocolate with strawberries, basil and toasted hazelnut for Blog xyz (link) - female blogger abc
  
• Of course you'll get the chocolate bar that was designed for you! We'll start making them when the race is completed, that is, when both teams completed their 100 bars
  
• If anything is not clear - post or email me.
  

Last year, the ladies won. I think the men have a chance this time - but then I'm female... we don't take sides. But you, dear reader, can :)

I recommend to follow our amazing starting blogs on Twitter:
- The Cinnamon Girl can be found as @CinnamonSpice on Twitter
- Dave Cook can be found representing @EIT

Enjoy the race! vrooom

Today is our official launch!

No longer do you need an access code to design the bar of your dreams, no longer do you encounter barriers to creations of heaven :)

We are excited and hope you enjoy picking your very own out of more than 10 billion possible combinations. If you would like some inspiration, check out our recommended chocolate bars or see what others are making in the recent creations section.

If you would like to learn more about chocri, find out more in the About Us and in Press Placements, or in this summarizing blog post.

We hope you enjoy chocri!
- Your chocri team

With more than 90 toppings, it is not surprising that you might be overwhelmed by choice sometimes. We have the perfect remedy!

Started a few months ago, we thought up a Facebook Quiz "What type of chocolate are you?" that tells you after a few questions exactly what type of combination you should get - the adventurous with exotic toppings? The challenging, spicy one? The solid nut/dried fruit combination?

It's fun, and surprisingly accurate. We even have the bars in our recommended creations section for each type!

Plus, you're always happy to check out the recommended, popular and recent creations of other customers for inspiration.

We decided to launch with a beta website to make sure that by the actual launch date (Monday, the 11th of January!), everything would be smooth and creamy. Turns out our developers did such a great job that everything is pretty good already! We've had a few mails from you about some German left here and there or buttons not working, but in total, the site is ready.

At the same time, we wanted to reward our loyal fans with this extra week of free shipping and "VIP access", and I believe you've used it well. Therefore, I now want to encourage you to pass on the invitation code to your friends and close ones if you like. Please don't post it on any big sites, but feel free to give it to someone who you think might enjoy creating their own chocolate bar... or creating one for you for Valentine's Day :)

New here?

All those of you who are new here - I'm sharing the coupon code now if you email me at carmen@chocri.com.

Also, you can get a great overview of chocri in this blog post "About chocri", and if you're not ready yet to create real chocolate bars, I encourage you to create virtual chocolate bars with our Facebook App. As always, let me know if you have any questions.

Enjoy creating your own chocolate bar!

Only 3 more days until we have our open launch!

Lovely chocolate lovers,

As some of you well know, we have a Facebook Application that lets you create virtual chocri bars with over 100 toppings. You can send those virtual chocri bars to a friend (for free of course) with a message.

If you haven't checked it out yet, please do, because we've added an additional reason for you to do so:

For every 20 virtual bars that you receive, we give you a real chocolate bar for free
We'll give you a coupon for a free bar, so that you can design your own here.

Just tell your friends that you'll share the chocolate with them :)

Dearest chocri Fans,

Thank you for your amazing feedback, compliments and ideas. Thank you for your desire for customized chocolate bars! We are so happy to have you all here!

If you want to show your chocri love, please become our Facebook Fan and follow us on Twitter.

Our Facebook Page is a happy place with photos, regular updates both from us an fans like you, and occasionally of contests like our recent fan photo contest. We would love to hear from you what's on your mind, and you'll have the opportunity to interact with our European fans, as well.

Follow us on Twitter, and please say hi - we'd love to follow you back! Again, we love to listen to you and know what's happening with you and your chocolate love life, so let us know! We're all about open dialogue, and twitter is a great tool to engage in a real conversation with you without any barriers. We might have one or the other special there, too. So please come and say hi!

Less dialogue but nevertheless nice chocri impressions can be found on YouTube and Flickr. Enjoy!

Whoa! What a big day for us! After months and months of preparation, we present to you: chocri for the US!

Today is our invitation-only launch, which means all subscribers to our newsletter received a log-in password with which you can access our website.

Thus, we won't keep you on our blog much longer, but here's some pointers on what there is to explore: - Our recommended creations, as well as popular and recent creations
- Our "chocri in bulk" section which tells you more about buying large amounts of chocri for events or companies, or just because a lot of chocolate is a great thing ;)
- Most importantly: Design your own chocolate bar!

I would be delighted if you could shoot me an emailcarmen@chocri.com or comment to say what you think, what we should keep, and what we can improve upon.
We need to know your dreams to be able to make that bar of your dreams!

We're so excited!

It's not too late to get an invitation for our soft launch tomorrow. All you have to do is to subscribe to our newsletter in the box on the upper left corner of this page. We won't spam you, we won't even talk often (we prefer to talk to you on our blog), but tomorrow, we will send you the log-in password to our delicious, chocolatey website :)

We're busy getting the last details for the invitation-only launch on January 5 straight, but we won't miss sharing this with you: The winner photo of our Facebook Fan Photo Contest!

A few weeks ago, we announced a photo contest to our German fans (since they already have access to chocri bars). We received 19 great photos (all in a photo album on Facebook, featuring bars and in fact even packages and cats! For one week, all our Facebook fans from all over the world then voted via the "like" button on their favorites.

And this is the winner:

Bettina won the hearts of our fans with this modern interpretation a la Andy Warhol. As everyone knows, art is subjective, but what I read in this piece of art is the following: Chocri bars come in all colors and with lots of personality :)

Should you take a picture of your first ever chocri creation - feel free to share it with us! Everyone can upload fotos to our Facebook page, and alternatively, we're of course always happy about a picture in the (e)mail :)

Oh, and for more chocri impressions, check out our flickr account.

Happy New Year!

Thanks for visiting on this first day of the new year - hopefully you had a great night last night and the after-effects are wearing off ;)

We here at chocri want to wish you a fantastic and most importantly happy 2010. May it be filled with laughter and chocolate.

Only 5 more days until we launch (if you subscribe to our newsletter)!