It's time to showcase your creativity and delicious creations again! Here the top 5 bar names of the week:

• Mamalicious Lilac Bar (Dark Chocolate with Ginger, Macadamia Nuts, Candied Lilac and Bourbon Vanilla)
  Mother's Day is coming up! Be ready for May 9!

• Happily Ever After (Milk and White Chocolate with Flower Mix and Candied Lilac)
  Wedding Chocolate! And here's the first use of our new combination base chocolate. Sounds very pretty!

• Saturday Morning Cereal Bar (Dark Chocolate with Strawberry, Cornflakes and Rice Crispies)
  That's a good start into the day :) This bar is shown in the picture to the left.

• Like a Kid in a Candy Store (Dark Chocolate with Strawberry, Hazelnut Brittle, Colorful Chocolate Dragées, Nougat and Raspberry)
  Or like a grown up in a chocolate factory? hehe, awesomeyum

• Tropical Magic for Magic (White Chocolate with Banana Chips, Mango Cubes, Macadamia Nuts, Coconut Shavings and Rice Crispies)
  That's right. Magic this is.

What would you name your chocolate bar? Also, don't forget to help your daughter or son in the Mother's Day contest - win chocolate and the DVD "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Fun times ahead!

You may have read yesterday about our Mothers' Day contest, and how we're encouraging chocri fans with kids to create and submit a chocri creation to win four chocri bars and a DVD of the new version of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

We love fan photos. There's something really cool about seeing happy chocri customers finally getting to meet their new chocri creations. We got these adorable pics yesterday from @Resila and we were overcome by the cute. @Resila's little man looks pretty impressed with his chocri haul.

So don't be shy, send us your pics! Entries are already pouring in, and we can tell it's going to be pretty difficult to pick a winner. And don't forget to tune in May 5th when voting starts!

10 billion possible combinations is really not enough. First, we invented that you can combine base chocolates with the toppings of your choice, now we invented that you can combine the base chocolates of your choice! Introducing: Our Milk and White Chocolate Combination!!

I'm really, really excited about this.

As you can see in the picture above, you can now combine White and Milk Chocolate. It's basically layers of chocolate on top of each other, and you can choose it as another 'base chocolate', although we of course now that this is anything but basic.

Our two favorite base chocolates married to form a special temptation. Creamy and extravagant, this chocolate base is ideal for everyone who can't make a decision between White and Milk Chocolate - just have them both! But not only the ease of making a decision should convince you - it's the taste that will blow you away. The sweetness of the White Chocolate combined with the creaminess of the Milk Chocolate is an ideal base for many topping combinations. Try it out!

While grownups really dig their customized chocri creations, we've noticed that kids also love the chance to make their own chocri bars.

I noticed this phenomenon when I first tried to sit down and write up a post for the chocri blog while my kids were home- my seven-year-old daughter, Gloria, refused to let mommy work until she got a chance to invent her own chocri bar. (Which she named "Gloria's chocri spectacular.")

So this Mothers' Day, we've come up with a contest so all the social media loving moms can showcase their kids' creativity.

Here's how it works:

1.) Visit createmychocolate.com with your child or children to help them create a custom chocri bar.

2.) Follow us on Twitter and tweet your child's creation to @chocridotcom. (Make sure to follow us and use the hashtag #chocrikids.) Pics are always helpful, so tweet a screenshot using Twitpic!

If you don't use Twitter, follow us on Facebook and post your child's creation to our wall.

If you don't do Facebook or Twitter, you can email us at kim@chocri.com with your child's entry.

(You only need to enter once, so pick the method that's most convenient for you!)

3.) One week from today, we'll select five finalists.

4.) Voting! All the creations will be showcased with name and age of your child in a Facebook Album. Everyone can view and "like" the creation, and the creation with the most likes wins.

5.) And the winner is... Voting will be open until midnight PST on Mothers' Day (Sunday, May 9th) The next day, Monday, May 10th, we'll announce the winner of the Mothers' Day chocri kids contest. The winner will receive a special Mothers' Day chocri gift basket with the bar their child created, three additional chocri creations of their choice, as well as the DVD "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005)!

Sound like fun? Start tweeting @chocridotcom with your entries! Have questions? Ask us in the comments, on Twitter or on our Facebook page!

Lindsay recommends chocri bars as a Mother's Day Gift in Gift Giving With Love

It's not too late to order bars for Mother's Day!

chocri starts at -1:30:

- Only One More Week to Boost Your Coupon!

"Final Phase in the Coupon Race"...I like the idea of a rhyme, but it's not really so much as a race, although maybe against time:

By May 3, that's NEXT MONDAY, we'll count all of our Followers and Fans, and depending on how many we have, the higher the coupon ALL of our Fans/ Followers get.

Did you know we have more than 4000 Facebook Fans already? So, that assures that the coupon we'll give out on May 3 will have at least a value of more than $8. If we reach 5000 Fans by the end of the week, the coupon will go up to $10! So click "suggest to your friends" and ask them to check us out and see if they like us, too. Not only you get the coupon, they get it too! So do your friends a favor and tell them about this.

On Twitter, we help out a little bit with a $5 coupon code value base. Then, again, the more of you follow us, the higher the coupon. Currently, our Follower count is at about 700, which means the coupon is at $6.40. And yes, of course you can be our Fan and Follower. Please follow us, and recommend us to your followers.

Why do we care? Since we've launched our Facebook Page and Twitter Account, interaction with you guys (and ladies) has become a lot richer. You gave us great suggestions and provided instant feedback on some of our ideas. We appreciate you letting us know how you feel about stuff we do, and we are really grateful that you recommend us and help us spread the word. Everyone should have the right to design their own chocolate bar! :)
Thank you for your support.

This month, we learned that dark chocolate can help boost skin's natural sun defenses and reduce the incidence of heart disease and strokes.

Dark chocolate is in the news again this week, because a separate study has shown that dark chocolate may be beneficial to patients with liver disease. It's those multi-tasking flavonoids at work again, according to Business Week:

"A Spanish study found chocolate can help lower blood pressure in the liver and reduce damage to blood vessels in people with cirrhosis, a potentially fatal scarring of the liver that can lead to organ failure and cancer. Only antioxidant-rich dark chocolate is helpful, researchers said in a study presented today at the International Liver Conference in Vienna.

Doctors compared white with dark chocolate as part of liquid meals given to a group of 21 patients with end-stage liver disease. They recorded a much smaller increase in blood pressure after meals for the group that ate dark chocolate. Cocoa is packed with flavonoids, plant pigments that act as potent antioxidants (read more in our post on {Chocolate and Antioxidants](http://www.createmychocolate.com/blog/2009/12/30/chocolate-and-antioxidants/)), which are credited in other studies with improving circulation in obese people and warding off heart disease in smokers."

Of course, the same cautions about moderation and an overall healthy diet are part of the study. And as is most often the case, the findings apply to dark chocolate, not milk or white. But if you're interested in the health benefits of dark chocolate, head on over to the "create your own" chocri page and take a look at some of the antioxidant rich berries and heart healthy nuts.

If you'd like to see a drill down on the chocolate/liver ailments story, there's a more in-depth version here.

Did Friday sneak up on you too this week? I feel like I just found out. Although I should have known, because there is a long list of cool chocolate bar names again, of which I picked my favorite 5:

• Strawberry pop (Dark Chocolate with Strawberry, Bourbon Vanilla and Sizzle Rocks)
  Extra points for effective use of an onomatopoeia in a chocolate bar name!

• Potato Sauce (Milk Chocolate with Strawberry, Peanuts, Smiley Male, Star Decoration and Peanut Butter Drops)
  I would give a lot to know why this one's called Potato Sauce!

• Island Pina Colada (White Chocolate with Real Gold Flakes, Macadamia Nuts, Coconut Shavings and Pineapples)
  Love that one. Instant tropical feeling!

• Carnival (Milk Chocolate with Gummy Bears, Colorful Chocolate Dragées, Mini Heart Decoration, Sprinkles and Sizzle Rocks)
  What a colorful fun bar! Just a creepy clown missing! :)

• Orgasm in a Bar (Milk Chocolate with Caramel Chocolate Drops and Raspberry)
  Someone has tried chocri bars before, hm? ;)

Trends this week were a lot of sizzle rocks, as well as lot's of "Mom" mentions. Like this bar: - Mom mom's chocri (Dark Chocolate with Cashews, Walnuts, Rice Crispies in Chocolate Coating and Toffee) Clearly, Mother's Day is coming up! Give your Mom a personalized chocolate bar!

Do you have any fun chocri bar names to share? Please comment, whether you've made your bar yet or not!

Happy 40th Earth Day, chocri fans!

Observing Earth Day to raise awareness of environmental issues began in the US in 1970, and the tradition was started by US Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. However, the biggest celebration that year by far was in chocri's US home city of New York (holla!), where then-mayor Lindsay shut down Fifth Avenue and made Central Park available for a gathering. An estimated one million people were in attendance in New York for the first Earth Day celebration.

To celebrate Earth Day 2010, we've created a specially priced bar that evokes aerial pictures of the Earth. Fluffy cloud-like Noghl Almonds, dark ocean blue Candied Lilac, grass-green pistachios, a mountain range of sweet nougat and tiny cinnamon dots for the population of planet Earth (that's you!) in a creamy milk chocolate base make up chocri's Earth Day 2010 bar.

Although it looks pretty, this year's Earth Day bar also combines some really fantastic flavors in a crunchy, sweet, Earthy way. Normally $13.30, we've priced the chocri Earth Day 2010 bar at $8.00. (A discount of $5.30 per bar!) Pick one up for your favorite environmentalist!

Are you a fan of the humble cashew?

Today, April 21st, is National Cashew Day. The scientific name of cashews is Anacardium curatellifolium, for their heart-like shape. (The suffix "cardium," as you may have deduced, means "heart.") Awww...

Cashews, first imported to the US in 1905, are a popular ingredient in sweet confections (such as a chocri bar) or savory ones (like Cashew Chicken!) But in addition to their many uses in the kitchen, according to Wikipedia, cashew nuts are also still used in parts of the world for medicinal purposes:

"The cashew nutshell liquid (CNSL), a by-product of processing cashew, is mostly composed of anacardic acids. These acids have been used effectively against tooth abscesses due to their lethality to gram-positive bacteria. They are also active against a wide range of other gram-positive bacteria. Many parts of the plant are used by the Patamona of Guyana medicinally. The bark is scraped and soaked overnight or boiled as an antidiarrheal. Seeds are ground up into powders used for antivenom for snake bites. The nut oil is used topically as an antifungal and for healing cracked heels.."

Whether you like cashews because you just got a snake bite or you think they taste good, we're celebrating National Cashew Day today with free cashews on any chocri bar. Feeling adventurous? Volcano Cashews (coated with chili and cayenne pepper) and Cheese Curry Coated Cashews are heavily discounted today too, at just $0.20 per bar.

Are you cashew crazy? Tell us about your chocri cashew creations in the comments!

As you know, 1% of every chocri purchase is donated to DIV Kinder, an organization that supports kids on the Ivory Coast. The Ivory Coast exports more than a third of all cocoa beans world wide. We do this because we believe in a company's role to give back to the community, and because we want to encourage fair practices in cocoa farming.

We are proud to announce that our donations to DIV Kinder have surpassed the $40,000 mark, taking German and US donations together. As a matter of fact, we decided to display the donations as one figure on our homepage, to more accurately reflect how much chocri customers have already helped out.

Thank you all for supporting the good causes of helping out children in need!

Hope your week is off to a good start! Just a quick hello and a wonderful photo by Mirjam Eisele, one of our Facebook Fans:

Beautiful, huh? You can make your own piece of beauty with chocri :)

Do you know urtak? It's a platform for you to ask and answer questions. You can ask any question you want, and many others like you are sharing their opinion. Nearly 5 million answers have already been collected on urtak.

One of the categories (called "urtaks") is chocolate. Guess who made it :)

Well, I thought I'd bring it to you here in the blog, with this nifty widget:
(Enjoy!)

Chocolate

Of course, we'd be thrilled if you asked some questions, too! Just click on the tab Ask and go at it. Thanks!

It's Friday, yay!

If you're a new reader (welcome!), each Friday we round up five of the most interesting and creative chocri bar names of the week. It's always really hard to pick because each week we see so many cool combinations with funny, clever and even touching names. (Lots of lucky significant others seem to get chocri bars as gifts!)

This week, a we saw some bars seemingly inspired by girl's names- Salty Marzi (Milk Chocolate with Caramel Chocolate Drops, Fleur de Sel, Marzipan Rose and 2 Marzipan Carrots) and Nicola's blizzard (White Chocolate with Cranberries, Honey Chocolate Drops, Coconut Shavings, Bourbon Vanilla and Sizzle Rocks.)

A cool portmanteau bar was the munchies-inducing BourBana Walnut (Milk Chocolate with Banana Chips, Walnuts and Bourbon Vanilla.)

James Bond fans might want to check out goldenpear (Dark Chocolate with Real Gold Flakes, Bourbon Vanilla and Pear.)

And by far, the sauciest submission we saw with week was the fruity-sweet Orgasm in a Bar (Milk Chocolate with Caramel Chocolate Drops and Raspberry.)

Overall, we had a pretty eventful week here at chocri. We welcomed new intern Jessica, found out that chocolate helps protect your skin from UV rays, and heard you like chocolate so we put chocolate in your chocolate, so you can eat chocolate while you're eating chocolate.

How was your week?

Cocoa nibs are the soul of the cocoa bean, the kernel inside that is pure cocoa, and pure bliss. And now, you can customize your chocolate bar with this essence of the fruit of the gods - We introduce: Cocoa Nibs.

In fact, it's taken us far too long. Even before we launched, you told us at our New York tasting that you want to have Cocoa Nibs. We finally found Cocoa Nibs that make us happy - and now you can add them to your chocolate bar, too!

Here some more info on these little pieces of goodness:

"Cocoa nibs ... are bits of roasted cocoa beans. They're the whole foods version of chocolate! They have not been sweetened or otherwise processed, so they’re bitter and a little grainy, a little crunchy." [Source] Their flavor is powerful. You can practically darken your chocolate bar by adding them as a topping - your dark chocolate then has a cocoa content higher than the 64% of the base chocolate. Beware - Cocoa Nibs are not sweet, but cocoa in its essence. That also means that they are packed with all the antioxidants, heart-healthy and aphrodisiac ingredients - for everyone who wants to give their chocolate a chocolatey boost.

Try them out for a crunchy, healthy and tasty addition to the chocolate bar of your dreams! Find them waiting for you in the Grains section.

Image Source: Carol White from the blog Cocoa Nibs

Happy National Pecan Day, chocri fans!

Pecans are an important part of Southern American cuisine, and they're also the only tree nuts native to North America. The first pecans were cultivated on Long Island (holla!) by settlers back in 1772, but they were a Native American staple even before that.

The pie-friendly nuts are high in Oleic Acid, shown to lower LDL cholesterol in people with normal lipid levels. But they also contain high levels of zinc, which is associated with an >ahem< enhanced love life. The mighty pecan is probably best known for its prominence in Pecan Pies and Tassies, particularly down south, but it's also tasty in chicken dishes, salads and a ton of other recipes.

Pecans are a popular nut topping in chocri bars, and we've seen some mouth-watering combos featuring them. Pecans pair well with all three varieties of chocri chocolate (milk, white and dark) and also work well with our dried fruit toppings (pineapple or apricot spring to mind) or our confectionary options (pecans and toffee, anyone?)

To mark National Pecan Day, we've got a one day special for all pecan and chocolate lovers. On National Pecan Day, pecans are on us for any chocri bar. Jonesing for some chocolate chess pie? Maybe a milk chocolate base with pecans, cinnamon, bourbon vanilla and toffee bits will help alleviate your craving.

If you take advantage of today's Pecan promotion, please let us know in the comments! We love to hear about your creative chocri combinations.

Remember how we recently posted about chocolate consumption being linked to lower rates of heart disease and stroke?

We recently came across another health-enhancing benefit of of your chocri addiction- studies indicate that chocolate can actually reduce damage done to skin by sun exposure. A study published in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology indicates that regular consumption of "antioxidant-rich dark chocolate" boosts your skin's natural defenses against UV damage. (To learn more about Chocolate and Antioxidants, click this link to a blog post on the matter)

A researcher on the study spoke to O Magazine about the findings:

"'The higher the percentage of cacao, the more antioxidants you're getting,' says Joe Vinson, PhD, a chemistry professor at the University of Scranton who has led previous chocolate studies. 'It also helps to eat little bits over the course of a day to extend its benefits.'"

Although we don't recommend replacing your daily sunscreen with chocri just yet, this is certainly a cool benefit for everyone who really loves their daily dark chocolate fix. If you're looking to boost your antioxidant intake, try a chocri creation with blueberries, cranberries, and/or dark cherries. (And as we recently reported, dark chocolate also has been shown to reduce stress- chocolate helps you chill out, too!)

Chocolate- is there anything it can't do? Well, I know something you can do: Make a personalized chocolate bar!

As a New York native I fell in love with the culture and demographic of the city from the moment I stepped onto 42nd St. As a singer, poet, reporter, and writer my hobbies thrive through my creative side and the arts. When I am not singing or writing I enjoy intern experience including data analysis, PR, marketing, and research.

Friends classify me as a chocoholic considering I indulge in this delicious confection at least once a day. As a lover of chocolate chocri is my dream internship where I can create my own customized chocolate bar!

Especially, as a health advocate chocri offers delicious dark chocolate filled with flavanols and antioxidants, even fruits containing fiber and vitamins! Nutritious and delicious (somebody pinch me, I must be dreaming) you will never want a different chocolate bar again. The possibilities are endless you can even give a nostalgic gift to the family with Persian Noghl Almonds or feeling luxurious? How about gold flakes (yes they are actual gold)!

My personal favorite is a mix of rich dark chocolate, cayenne pepper, vanilla bourbon, gold flakes, and a little organic pretzel for some extra crunch. The spicy exotic pepper, calming vanilla, classy gold flakes, and fun crunch let my personality shine through.

Happy Friday, chocri fans!

Did the Easter bunny take care of everyone? (Based on some of our pre-Easter orders, a lot of lucky giftees got some wonderful personalized chocolate bars in their baskets.)

As always, we love seeing the infinate number of tasty combinations you guys invent and the clever names you give them. Here are five of our favorites from this week!

For the best pun, we liked I Goji Banana With You! (Dark Chocolate with Banana Chips and Goji Berries)

We had some New Yorkers in the house this week, and two neighborhood bars that we liked were The Hell's Kitchen (Dark Chocolate with Jalapeños, Organic Sesame Seeds and Pistachios) and The Fifth Avenue (Dark Chocolate with Golden Pearls)

In the category of "this would make a great indie band name" is Chaos Is Sweet (Dark Chocolate with Cranberries and Hazelnut Brittle)

And lastly, for the best basic expression of warm-weather joy, It's Spring!, an uncluttered creation simply featuring White Chocolate and Flower Mix.

It also looks like a lot of chocri fans are taking advantage of the 5+1 promo- for every 5 bars you create, we add a surprise chocolate bar to your order on us! Our chocri fans in Germany have really responded to the 5+1 rule (because who doesn't love free chocolate?) and it's a great way to try something new. Just place your order for five bars, and we'll (gently) throw the sixth in automatically!

Not sure what you want your chocri bar to look like? We have a whole set of pre-fab chocri flavors here if you need suggestions!

Since we know that chocriholics are curious and keen on everything that is new, unknown and maybe also a little bit extraordinary, the next few months we want to take you on a journey to the never ending fields of culinary extravaganzas, bizarre delicacies and tongue-tingling aromas with your personalized chocolate bars

Every month, we introduce you to a novel, unusual topping, which (while stocks last) you can use for your chocri creation.

This month, we'd like to introduce:

The Noghl Almond

A Persian delicacy, the Noghl Almond is made by coating roasted almonds in a mixture of sugar and rose water. Just like chocri bars, Noghl Almonds are a popular wedding favor. Well, at least in Persia. They are really hard to get in the US, so take advantage of our topping of the month and add Noghl Almonds to your customized chocolate bar!

Now in our Nuts section

As always, we're all ears for suggestions for extraordinary, weird and crazy toppings. Comment your ideas! :)

Image Source: Mark Busse from Foodists

Most people are unaware that April is National Stress Awareness Month, now in its 18th official year.

According to the American Psychological Association, 62% of Americans are stressed about work. In the U.S. alone, more than $22.8 BILLION is spent on anxiety-related health care each year.

[insert superhero music] chori to the rescue! Eating 1.4 ounces of dark chocolate every day for two weeks has been shown to reduce stress. According to stress relief expert Dr. Roberta Lee:

“Chocolate is rich in magnesium and potassium, two minerals that help promote the ‘relaxation response.’”

Any scientific statement that starts with the word “chocolate” and ends in “relaxation” is fine by me…

Besides, I’m sure everyone could use a little chocolate treat in the middle of an otherwise hectic, stressful and crazy day. That begs the very important question: what about the toppings? What’s your go-to emergency stress relief snack?

When I’m stressed, I cannot get enough of granola and pretzels! I used to buy them in bulk around final exam time or when going on long business trips. My anti-stress bar: dark chocolate with organic muesli, pretzels, and star decorations (for a little extra cheer, of course).

In honor of national stress awareness month, grab yourself a custom stress-buster bar!

Wishing you a sweet and stress-free day!

Chocri customers have been Tweeting and Facebooking their favorite personalized chocolate bar creations (which is so cool and always appreciated- please keep it coming!), but chocri isn't just awesome chocolate- it's fair trade, too.

The use of fair trade chocolate is catching on. The practice increased 22% in 2008 (the last year for which statistics are available) and some mass manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon, too. Here at chocri, we've always believed that it's important to ensure our products aren't just delicious, but produced ethically and without the use of child labor- a particularly significant problem in Cote d'Ivoire, where much of the world's chocolate originates:

"With over 13 million tons of cacao beans harvested, the Ivory Coast region produces almost three times the amount of cacao as the second-highest cacao-producing country, Indonesia. Every third cacao bean comes from the Ivory Coast... Many small farms... utilize child labor. The dependence upon the price of cacao increases poverty in these nations, directly impacting the future of the country’s children, who often have no chance to receive education."

A recent article out of Rochester, MN profiles a family's decision to purchase fair trade chocolate, and the possible impact on the regions in which chocolate is produced if the trend toward fair trade chocolate continues:

"Patty and John Brown and their two daughters, ages 20 and 14, practice responsible consumption throughout the year, choosing to buy fair-trade products for which farmers are paid a fair price and are prohibited from using slave labor...

In its 2009 human rights report on Cote d'Ivoire, the U.S. Department of State cited a Tulane University survey published last year that indicated 24 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 17 living in cocoa-growing regions had worked on cocoa farms in the previous 12 months. Half of the children working on cocoa farms claimed they had been injured while working in agriculture. The Cote d'Ivoire government started a program last year to tackle the problem of child labor in the cocoa industry."

Chocri's commitment to fair trade extends past cocoa- the sugar and dairy components used in our products are fair trade, too.

Interested in learning more about ethically produced chocolate? You can read about chocri's efforts to improve conditions in Ivory Coast orphanages here and here. Also, a portion of the proceeds from every chocri purchase is donated to DIV Kinder, and you can learn more about their amazing efforts on our website.

Whether you celebrate for religious reasons or because you're fond of (square) Easter Eggs, chocri wishes you a fantastic and chocolatey Easter. Hopefully it's sunny where you are, so you can hide your personalized chocolate bars in a garden or park! :)

Below an "Easter Impression", thanks to Sascha Hippe, who uploaded this picture to our Facebook Page (thanks!):

As my inaugural blog post here at chocri, I am excited to present you with the Top 5 Bar Names of the Week!

• Sissy's Sassy Strawberry (Milk Chocolate with Strawberry, Cinnamon, Almond Slivers and Easter Eggs)

• Serial Killer (Milk Chocolate with Strawberry, Gummy Bears, Rice Crispies and Sizzle Rocks)

• Honey Bunches of Awesome (Dark Chocolate with Banana Chips, Cashews, Honey Chocolate Drops, Cornflakes and Fleur de Sel)

• Coco-Naughty (Milk Chocolate with Hazelnut Brittle, Coconut Shavings and Nougat)

• guiltless pleasure (Dark Chocolate with Organic Flax Seeds, Almond Slivers and Goji Berries)

It looks like that last bar came from someone who may have already known that moderate daily consumption of chocolate can keep the heart healthy, as mentioned in one of our earlier posts. Dark chocolate with goji berries? Yes, please! A double dose of antioxidants to kick off the weekend. After all, a girl's gotta take care of her own heart ;)

As sweet as it is to work for a chocolate company, the (still kinda sweet) side-effect of success is: a lot of work. That's why I'm relieved and rejoiced to welcome two new members to the team: Mina and Kim. We were originally looking for one intern, but completely swamped with applications by amazing candidates, so we decided to ask both Kim and Mina to help us out - and they said yes!

It is my lucky task today to introduce you... (drumrolls)

Mina

"I was born with the unfortunate predicament of being allergic to chocolate. Every Halloween I would tearfully pick out the chocolate from my candy stash and hand them over to my brothers to forcibly "trade" them for the stale hard candies given out by the senior citizens on my block. I thankfully outgrew this allergy when I hit my teens and have never looked back!

Born and raised in New York, I am Korean at heart (and by heritage). Some goals I hold near and dear to me include becoming fluent in Korean, working at a startup, and launching/developing a new product for a company. When I'm not dreaming about what I want to be "when I grow up," I enjoy indie and punk rock music (recommendations always welcome), growing my shoe collection, and dancing when nobody is watching.

I look forward to joining the chocri team and spreading the word about the billions of delicious (and fair trade!) personalized chocolate bars."

Kim

"I'm a blogger and internet marketing fanatic with a passion for e-branding and e-tailing. Throughout my career, I've worked mostly for start-ups and had my first experiences with mass customization in spas and at beauty companies. After a long stint making creams, cleansers and spreadsheets for luxury skincare brands, I jumped at the opportunity to work with another lifelong passion- amazing chocolate.

When I'm not pondering new chocri combinations or poring over candy news, I'm often creating in digital art or playing air hockey. My favorite chocri combination is white chocolate with bourbon vanilla, chocolate coated rice crispies and toffee bits."

You can expect to see more of them on this blog and on Twitter and Facebook. See you there :)