July 4th and the ensuing holiday weekend are almost upon us!

Bringing our create-your-own-chocolate concept to the USA has been so much fun. We've shipped bars to every state (including Alaska and Hawaii!) since we brought our customized chocolate to the US back in January, and we've found so many new friends and fans on Facebook and Twitter.

So for our first Independence Day stateside, we've created two limited edition chocri bars at a sweet price for all our American chocri fans. First we have the Sea to Shining Sea bar- Milk and White chocolate with raspberries, candied lilac and rice crispies. Our second July 4th option is the July 4th Nighttime Fireworks, which has a Dark Chocolate base with blueberries, goji berries and tasty noghl almonds.

Both bars are priced at $10, so stock up on these sweet, colorful chocri creations before they leave the shop!

If you're a regular reader of the chocri blog, you know we keep a close eye on the myriad health benefits of chocolate. It seems that studies keep popping up, linking (most often dark chocolate) to a multitude of healthy attributes like a decreased risk of stroke and heart disease, sun-protected skin, enhanced benefits for patients with liver problems, reduced cholesterol levels and even improved task orientation/work safety. (Have we officially named chocolate a superfood yet?)

Another study with results perhaps somewhat linked to the liver-related report has emerged, and it seems we can add another bullet point to chocolate's long list of health benefits. The short of it is that flavanols in chocolate appear to, in theory, mitigate issues caused by high blood pressure. Syfy has a scientist's take on the findings that appeared in BMC Medicine:

""Flavanols have been shown to increase the formation of endothelial nitric oxide, which promotes vasodilation and consequently may lower blood pressure. There have, however, been conflicting results as to the real-life effects of eating chocolate," she said.

"We've found that consumption can significantly, albeit modestly, reduce blood pressure for people with high blood pressure but not for people with normal blood pressure," she added.

Want to create your own heart healthy bar? Try a chocri bar with walnuts, almonds, cashews or macadamia nuts and add your favorite berry.

Last week, we unveiled two new additions to our chocri creations. The "Instant Wealth" and "Friendship Forever" bars were added to our chocri creations page as our first designed bars with multi-tasking in mind. While all our bars offer the experience of tasty, high-quality chocolate with custom toppings, our new bars were created to offer additional benefits, too.

First up is the "Pure Happiness" bar, which features our rich, dark chocolate and cocoa nibs, a double dose of chocolate that's known to increase serotonin levels, a natural defense against depression:

""It's Mother Nature's solution via food cravings to try to elevate those chemicals, help us feel better and to function more efficiently," said Deborah Waterhouse, author of "Why Women Need Chocolate.""

We top off the "Pure Happiness" bar with Hazelnut Brittle and sweet, soothing toffee to create a truly bliss-inducing bar. The second bar we added this week is "Pure Relaxation," another comforting creation with a focus on reducing stress levels and creating calm. Kicking off with our creamy milk chocolate base, the "Pure Relaxation" bar has two calming ingredients to enhance your chocolate chill out. Chamomile is well known as a relaxing ingredient, often consumed in teas for its soothing properties.

The "Pure Relaxation" bar has an added ingredient in its arsenal of calm, though. Bright and tasty goji berries are also in the mix, supplying an amino acid called tryptophan that's known to be soothing. Tryptophan is heavily associated with sleepiness after Thanksgiving dinner, because it is present in turkey and consumed in large quantities on that day. Our "Pure Relaxation" bar also has mini-cookies, for added crunch and comfort food cult status.

A chocri creation is one way to bliss out or chill out? What do you do when you need a happiness boost or a little moment of peace?

Wow- thanks to our mentions on CrunchGear, CNET and Coco Perez (among others), there were a lot of chocri creations to sort through this week.

As usual, our creative customers came up with names for their bars that were inspired, funny and sweet. And as we do every Friday, we rounded up the top five bar names of the week. This week's bars were:

• White Chocolate Romance (White Chocolate with Candied Rose Petals and Flower Mix) In soft focus...

• Dr. Gorgeous' Lilac Dreams (Dark Chocolate with Marzipan Rose, Candied Lilac (pink) and Candied Lilac) Evocative of a sci-fi film?

• 143 like OMG! (Milk Chocolate with Strawberry, Marzipan Rose and Smiley Male) Wonderfully geeky! <3 this!

• You + Me = Eggceptionally Amazeballz (Milk and White Chocolate with Caraway, Real Gold Flakes, Golden Pearls and Noghl Almonds) So much pun.

• CashCo Sel O'pep (Milk Chocolate with Strawberry, Marzipan Rose and Smiley Male) ...and portmanteau-riffic.

Another trend this week (besides awesome geekery) is that a lot of people availed themselves of our 5+1 promotion. Haven't heard? If you order five chocri creations (recommended or custom), we always include a surprise sixth bar on us.

I bet a lot of you have had good luck charms. Something you carry around with you (or leave at home if it's super lucky and you don't want to lose it) or maybe even a ritual you perform in hopes of enhancing luck or relationships.

Lots of people burn candles to influence Lady Luck as well. Candles are wonderful for their pretty fragrances and ambiance enhancing attributes, but they don't taste very good. That's not the case for two of our newest chocri Creations, the "Instant Wealth" and "Friendship Forever" bars.

Dark chocolate is inherently linked with luxury for most chocophiles, and what could be a better symbol for riches on chocolate than real gold flakes? With that in mind, we've created the "Instant Wealth" bar- Dark Chocolate with tart, tasty raspberries and real gold flakes. Red is a color often associated with power and luck, and this bar is as pretty as it is delicious, with its red and gold flecks. We didn't gild the lily, though, these two popular toppings take center stage!

Friendship is another area where gifts and trinkets play an important role for people. (Remember how moving it was the first time you got half of a BFF necklace?) But as tastes mature and jewelry becomes more career oriented, you can show your friends some love with our new 'Friendship Forever' bar. Kind of like a "friends forever' trinket, except instead of being made out of metal that turns your wrist green, it comes in Belgian Milk Chocolate with apple bits and roasted almonds. The heart shape is still there, though instead of wearing it, you or your BFF can eat it- it's made of marzipan. We recommend kicking it old school and splitting it down the middle with your besties.

Let us know in the comments- do you have a good luck charm?

The votes are tallied and the results are in- we have a winner for our Fathers' Day contest.

We asked you to tell us why your dad is the best dad in the world and created a special Fathers' Day gift box with two limited edition Fathers' Day chocri bars:

The entries were really sweet. Our finalists were Jenn, who told us about her husband- he still manages to have story time with his little girl even when he's deployed. And Jessica told us about her dad, who made time to play with his kids even after a painful back injury.

The entry that got the most votes, however, came from Beth, who told us all about her Papau:

"I am actually going a bit non-traditional here. My father wasn't present for a lot of my life, but there has always been one man that I could count on no matter what. My papau (grandfather on my mother's side) took me fishing, let me work out in his woodshop with him, and has always been with me. Because of him I have always known that whatever my dad might have done, there are wonderful men out in the world. His health has been declining lately, but he still manages to find the energy to smile and give me a hug whenever I visit."

Beth kindly followed up with us after we'd posted her entry- sadly, her Papau has passed away, and we sent our condolences- it sounds like he was an amazing man:

"Thank you guys for picking my story for the finals! Since I entered the contest, my papau has passed away (on June 13th), so it is especially poignant to see this here.'

We'd like to thank all our entrants for sharing their stories for Fathers' Day. It was really nice to read about all the wonderful dads out there.

Okay, we didn't exactly go viral like the grapestomping lady or that other thing (just click), but a few tech blogs reviewed chocri yesterday and we wanted to share some links.

First up was TechCrunch/ Crunch Gear, where Scott Merrill posted about our site, saying:

"Chocri has you covered with CreateMyChocolate.com. You want white chocolate with banana chips and blueberries? Sure! Or how about dark chocolate with peanut butter chips topped with marzipan carrots? You got it!"

As always, the comments were illuminating, too:

"Be damned, be damned for allowing me to be aware of this website. DAMN YOU."

"**. There goes my day.

We LOLed. CNET also featured us on their Crave Blog!

Jeff tried three of our bars, and had this to say:

"A thin layer of milk chocolate enrobed one side of the otherwise white chocolate bar, which I liked, and the vanilla didn't overpower it at all. I added the star decorations because once as a kid, I got in trouble for eating them out of the bottle.

I was pleased that the bars were as tasty as I'd hoped. Chocri also gave me three other sample bars with various toppings for comparison, and while I wouldn't have thought so, dried apple bits on chocolate is actually pretty good.

The site has clean, intuitive controls and keeps a tally of your selections. To remove an ingredient, click on it. Bam. No hassle. As with other customization sites I've checked out, the experience is pretty painless. Sure, I was impatient to get my chocolate, but remember, it's coming from Germany. Plus I have instant-gratification issues. Microwave popcorn takes too long to cook for me."

We also found a link from last week on NBC Connecticut, where Rachel Raczka checks out our site:

From NBC:

"Our pick is Goji berries, Noghi almonds and Bourbon vanilla, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Marzipan carrots and a dried flower mix for the green thumb in your life? They've got 'em. Bacon and black sesame? You betcha. Heck, they even have chives and mini sugar banana sprinkles if you're feeling brave enough (and while we don't recommend the two together, we promise, we won't judge.)"

Pretty cool, huh? Oh yeah, PS- rickrolled!

2009 was a rough year economically, but analysts think fiscal woes helped drive up sales of dark chocolate in the latter part of the year.

You might be familiar with what's known as "the lipstick factor"- sales of small luxuries go up when disposable income is scarce. Apparently, last year, consumers were sweet on dark chocolate as their go-to pampering choice:

"Economists call it the "lipstick factor," referring to the historical rise in lipstick sales during tough economic times as women look for an affordable way to cheer themselves up. In the candy industry's case, during the recession people sought chocolate as an affordable indulgence to feel better.

"There is no [vacation], but people stay at home and find small moments of joy."

While candy sales were up 3.6%, that figure increased to 9% for sales of dark chocolate- up from a 2.2% decline in the first two months of 2009. I suppose we've been influenced by the boost in dark chocolate love this past year, too- ten of our 24 chocri recommended creations are made with a dark chocolate base!

Did you eat more dark chocolate this past year than you on average? Do you reach more for dark chocolate when you need a bit of luxury than milk or white chocolate?

Happy YOUR DAY, Dads! I hope your day has been fantastic.

We here at chocri are very grateful for all our Dads as well (thanks, Dads! You rock!), and we want to share the love with our Father's Day contest - we asked you to nominate your Fathers via this blog, Facebook, Twitter and email. And without further ado, here are the Top 3 Nominations, in no particular order:

Jessica said:
My husband is the best dad in the world to our almost two year old daughter. He laughs with her, plays with her, reads to her and does anything to make her happy. Right now he is deployed with the US Army for the next year and even still, when he calls he still makes our daughter smile and laugh on the phone. Daddy is her world, and she is his. He recorded himself on a DVD reading a book to her just so she can see him and still share story time from half way around the world. He really is the greatest daddy ever.

Jenn said:
My husband is the best dad in the world because he put on a happy face, played and laughed with the kids during the most painful days after his back injury and subsequent surgery. He was unable to work for over a year because of the pain but the kids would have never known from seeing the way their dad played and laughed with them daily!

Beth said:
I am actually going a bit non-traditional here. My father wasn't present for a lot of my life, but there has always been one man that I could count on no matter what. My papau (grandfather on my mother's side) took me fishing, let me work out in his woodshop with him, and has always been with me. Because of him I have always known that whatever my dad might have done, there are wonderful men out in the world. His health has been declining lately, but he still manages to find the energy to smile and give me a hug whenever I visit.

Let us know below who you think should win - and we'll send the chocri Father's Day gift back their way! Voting begins today and lasts until Wednesday June 22nd at midnight. We are excited to see who will win, but in our eyes, all these Dads are winners already for having wonderful daughters and sons, wives and grandchildren that nominated them!!

It's Friday again, everyone- the weekend's almost here, and with it comes (as always) our top 5 bar names this week.

• Dark Chocolate Wonder (Dark Chocolate with Toffee and Peanut Butter Drops)

• Comfortable Morning (Milk Chocolate with Cinnamon, Silver Pearls and Bourbon Vanilla) Breakfast at this person's house is probably served with awesomesauce.

• HoneyPea Bar (Milk Chocolate with Peanuts and Honey Chocolate Drops) Aw, sweet... and crunchy!

• Popeye's chocolate (Dark Chocolate with Wasabi Peanuts, Fleur de Sel, Toffee and Soy Bacon) Adventurous, but thankfully spinach-free.

• Gummy Bear Birthday (White Chocolate with Gummy Bears, Cappuccino Chocolate Drops and Roasted Peanuts) I often feel Gummi Bears and coffee don't connect enough in a culinary space. I for one am thrilled someone is finally taking steps to correct this.

If it slipped by you, don't forget to call your dad on Sunday for Fathers' Day! Also, if you haven't entered your dad to win some chocri, you can do that here. And if you've yet to find the perfect gift for your Dad or Grandpa, you can print or e-mail our gift certificates and give the gift of totally custom chocolate.

This month only, we present you: Roasted Cashews for your custom chocolate bars

This tasty nut is well known from the nut stands in big cities, and snuggles up the Roasted Almonds and Roasted Peanuts we already have in our assortment. Nevertheless, we tested and tried these Honey Roasted Cashnuts of course, and within just a day or so in the office, all of our samples had evaporated. Thus, we think they deserve their place as "Topping of the Month", and don't worry - this time we ordered enough for all of us - and you too!

But they'll be here only for a month - so try them out, and if you like them like we do, they might make it into our permanent assortment!

Summer's here! And while beaches and barbecues and sunshine are all great things, we've probably all experienced the decidedly less fun summery situation of a melted chocolate bar. Melted chocolate is much less fun than the unmelted kind! (Unless you're making chocolate fondue, but this is not a post about fondue.)

Everyone wants to know what measures we take to ensure your custom chocri creations get to you as a solid and not a liquid. We take the integrity of our chocri bars very seriously, so the first thing you should know is that your order will ship with cold packs. What's a cold pack, you ask?

They're these nifty shipping helpers we have that ensure you receive chocolate bars in the mail, and not chocolate sauce. Since we get the same questions about cold packs pretty often, we thought we'd round them up in a post so you know how they work and what they do:

• Cold packs are made out of flexible gel in thick plastic. They're made for shipping so they won't break or leak in your package!

• Although our cold packs are efficient, try to bring your chocolate in to a nice, cool place as soon as possible. It doesn't like the sun like we do!

• Bonus: Cold packs are reusable- stick them in the freezer and hang on to them for your next camping trip!

When you've received your chocolate and unwrapped your package and sent us cell phone pics for Flickr, you might not feel like eating it right away. But as temperatures climb and the really hot days start, we have some tips to keep your chocolate in good condition at home, too:

• Chocolate can kind of be a diva. It will melt in the sun, but it doesn't do too well in the fridge either. Humidity causes cocoa butter and cocoa to separate.

• If your house is hot, you can freeze your chocri to ensure it doesn't melt.

• Freezing isn't necessary, though. Chocolate melts at body temperature, so any room without direct sun and AC or some ventilation should be fine for chocri storage. Usually a cupboard or cabinet will be cool enough!

Although that covers most questions about chocri storage, let us know in the comments if you have any questions!

A week ago, we announced our contest for Fathers' Day, and asked you to tell us why your Dad is the best Dad in the world.

Chocri fans have been telling us all about their dads in the comments, on Facebook, on Twitter and via email. Reading all the comments and hearing your Dad stories has been pretty cool- so we're extending the contest for another week! If you haven't had a chance to enter your Dad to win two chocri bars in a special chocri gift box, let us know in the comments or via one of the methods above.

If you're still looking for a unique, tasty gift for Fathers' Day, be sure to check out our special Fathers' Day gift pack at a sweet price. (Click on "view cart" to see the items.) Each gift box contains the Happy Fathers' Day bar- Milk Chocolate with Banana Chips, Hazelnut Brittle, Bourbon Vanilla and a marzipan "Thank You," and the Super Dad bar- Dark Chocolate with Organic Salt Pretzels, Ground Chili and Sunflower Seeds. Not sure which chocri creation best fits your Dad? We also have gift certificates, which you can print or email to your Dad right away!

We're pretty used to feedback on chocri creations being overwhelmingly pretty awesome.

Epicurious called their bars "pretty dynamite. Full Circle said chocri is "insanely delicious". And Bored Panda thinks chocri rates "10/10" and described it as "probably the best chocolate I’ve ever eaten."

Those are just three of the many positive reviews we've gotten from happy chocri customers who dig on our chocolate hard. But even if you're an old hand at cyber-shopping, there's always a bit of apprehension going in. We know that when you pluck a product off the shelf at your local candy shop, you can always keep your receipt and go back.

So while the response to chocri has been overwhelmingly positive, we'd like to remind you that we offer a 100% money back guarantee. As our FAQ states, if you were dissatisfied with your custom chocri creation, we've got your back:

"We offer a 100% money back guarantee. If you don't like the way the chocolate bar you made with chocri tastes, send it back to chocri [271 W 47th Street 21J, New York NY 10036] and we'll refund you full for that bar and the cost for shipping them back. We can do this because it never happens. Your chocri bar will be great!"

If you're unhappy with your chocri experience for any reason, we'd like to hear about it. Drop us a line at hello -at- chocri.com and let us know if you had any problems with your order. We're happy to go the extra mile to ensure you have the best custom chocolate ordering experience ever.

Of course, we're also keen on hearing about your awesome chocri experiences. And we're always on the lookout for untapped chocri creations. So don't keep it to yourself- if you've created a chocri bar that was unbelievably awesome, tell us about it in the comments. And if you'd like to read more chocri reviews, click here for some links to chocri media mentions!

Today, Hershey’s opened a new attraction in their fun park, Chocolate World: the Create Your Own Candy Bar Attraction.

Sounds familiar?

Obviously, we’ve been allowing people to create their own chocolate bars since 2008 in Germany and since earlier this year in the US. Another German chocolate maker, Ritter Sport, has a store in Berlin where you can create your own chocolate bar right there and then (read a German review here). I wouldn’t be surprised if Hershey’s got some inspiration from us and them.

So what’s my reaction to this?

I love it! I think this is one of the best things that could have happened to the customized candy world - a big player is endorsing it!

In the attraction, visitors will get to make their own bar for $14.95, which allows them to choose the different ingredients and pull different levers, and in the end to take their own bar home with them. I think it’s a really cute idea, and I’m expecting it to create a lot of buzz. And what’s better for us than people searching for “create your own chocolate bars” on Google? Hello! We’re here, and we’re happy to put our nearly 2 years of expertise at work to make a bar for you and deliver it to your doorstep - no pulling of levers required. :)

Thanks Hershey’s for getting the word out. I’d love to chat sometime about custom chocolate if you’re open to that - just let me know at carmen @ chocri.com :)

p.s. I used this source for image and news

Check out Hershey's Virtual Tour of the Create Your Own Candy Bar Attraction!

Happy Friday, chocri fans! Before I bring you this week's top five, I just wanted to share one of the more recent additions to our Flickr photostream. (And if you're on Flickr, holla! We'd love to be friends.)

I love how everyone's chocri creations have such unique, colorful patterns. So pretty.

So, onto this week's top five...

• Island Flava (Dark Chocolate with Banana Chips, Mango Cubes, Coconut Shavings and Pineapples) Mmm... kind of like the love child of a tasty chocolate bar and a frozen tropical drink. Want!

• A Fiery Rose (Dark Chocolate with Roasted Almonds, Lemon Chocolate Drops, Real Gold Flakes, Marzipan Rose and Cayenne Pepper) I hear they're playing this year's Lilith Fair...

• Lollapalucy (Milk Chocolate with Cashews, Macadamia Nuts and Toasted Hazelnuts) Because sometimes you feel like a nut, but sometimes you feel like three...

• Que Padre! (Milk Chocolate with Chives, Basil, Pine Nuts and Black Sesame) Early Fathers' Day shopping, or late Cinco de Mayo?

• Birthday Bouquet (White Chocolate with Rosemary, Flower Mix, Marzipan Rose and Almond Slivers) I want one of these, too... with a candle.

On the subject of su padre, have you entered your Dad in our Fathers' Day Contest yet? If you haven't seen the contest yet, you can read about it here!

We've highlighted a few toppings on their national "day" (like National Cashew Day in April) on the chocri blog, and we've also done a special bar commemorating Earth Day. Today, we're marking German Chocolate Cake Day (June 11th) with a specially priced German Chocolate Cake Bar.

Like chocri bars, German Chocolate Cake is decadently delicious. Unlike chocri, however, German Chocolate Cake isn't actually German. The name comes from a popular baking chocolate used when the recipe was first submitted to a Texas newspaper by a homemaker in the late fifties. The name stuck, and German Chocolate Cake is a common dessert menu fixture nowadays. And why not? It has lots of rich chocolate, caramel, and coconut.

Our version of German Chocolate Cake is a bit more portable than the classic kind. We've taken our Dark Chocolate base, and added caramel drops, coconut shavings and chocolate coated rice crispies. While German Chocolate Cake is always a tasty treat, it's not as easily consumed on the subway, in your car or at your desk at work, so we thought this would be a nice alternative to a big honking slice of cake.

You can find the chocri's German Chocolate Cake Bar on our chocri Creations page. And through tomorrow night, it's priced at a sweet $9.90. If you're a big German Chocolate Cake fan, you might want to stock up- if you purchase five bars, we always throw in a sixth surprise bar so you can sample our other chocri creations.

In 2006, Corinne DeBra was your average chocolate fan when her daughter challenged her: "I bet you can't eat a different chocolate each day for a year.” Now it's 2010 and she has yet to miss a day in her chocolate quest. Corinne has eaten more than 1300 chocolate bars in more than 1300 days. She maintains a spreadsheet of the varieties she finds to ensure that she never eats the same chocolate bar twice. She was kind enough to take time out her her chocolate project and discuss her experiences with us.

You travel a lot and you've tried chocolate from many places and countries. Any favorites, any patterns?
It seems that every chocolatier that makes finer, higher end chocolate went to Europe at some point or came from Europe. The Swiss and Germans have a rich history of craft and technique that lead to a very nice, smooth texture and taste. In Belgium as well. The French have their own sort of advantages. I always find it nice to see when people take these basic techniques and put creative spins on them.

What's your favorite city in the US for chocolate?
I didn't think of this when I started here, but San Francisco turned out to be an extremely convenient location for my undertaking. There are many small chocolate shops here, a lot of their founders came from the tech business, and they've formed a great community. Also, New York, and Chicago with Vosges. But really there hasn't been a city where I didn't find someone doing something interesting with chocolate.

Were you ever close to missing a day?
I've definitely been filled with panic a couple of times, where I ate the chocolate ten minutes before midnight. Since then, I always try to travel with a chocolate stash, which leads to funny situations like pulling out a chocolate bag at a business dinner in Japan because my partners wanted to know what the chocolate of the day was. But in the end it always turns out unnecessary - I always find something fun in chocolate wherever I travel.

How long do you think will you be doing this?
I used to say I'll do it until I run out of chocolate- but you just blew that goal with 27 billion different combinations at chocri! Maybe until I've eaten my weight in chocolate, we'll see.

Thank you for talking to us Corinne!

Fathers’ Day is coming up on June 20th! Nominate your dad to win a prize package of two chocri bars in a gift box.

How can you participate
- Nominate your Dad via our Facebook wall
- Email me at kim@chocri.com to nominate your dad to win the Fathers’ Day gift pack
- Or just enter in the comments below

This time, we'd like you to answer one simple question: "Why is your Dad the best Dad in the World?" We'd love to hear about what makes your Father so special and why he deserves his very own chocolate. A week from tomorrow, we're going to select three finalists so everyone can vote on their favorite dad! Good Luck!

p.s. The gift box contains the Happy Fathers' Day bar- Milk Chocolate with Banana Chips, Hazelnut Brittle, Bourbon Vanilla and a marzipan "Thank You," and the Super Dad bar- Dark Chocolate with Organic Salt Pretzels, Ground Chili and Sunflower Seeds. Yum!

In the past, we've posted about some studies in the news reporting health benefits related to regular chocolate consumption. Chocolate has been shown in studies to be beneficial for your liver. There are indications that it can help protect skin from UV damage and improve concentration on vital tasks. Oh- it's also been linked to lower rates of stroke and heart disease. Yay, chocolate!

The latest study centering around the myriad health benefits of regular chocolate consumption has to do with cardiovascular disease. Researchers concluded that "supplementation of cocoa products affects lipid profiles in subjects with cardiovascular-related diseases as well as healthy individuals." As serious chocolate fiends, we'd like to interpret the study's conclusion to be "eat more chocolate"- unfortunately, though that was kind of the gist, it's a bit more complex:

“The results suggested that short-term of cocoa consumption reduced blood cholesterol, and this effect was more evident in studies with low dose cocoa supplementation and in subjects with cardiovascular risks,” said the team.

They maintain though that eating moderate amounts of chocolate could be a worthwhile dietary approach for preventing high cholesterol in certain people, but that more research is needed to determine the efficiency of eating moderate amounts of cocoa on lipid profile in long-term intervention and in subjects with other cardio metabolic risk factors.

Interestingly, another article about the study cites Milk Chocolate as a health booster, and we wondered if the results would be more pronounced with notorious antioxidant powerhouse Dark Chocolate. Either way, researchers say that further studies need to be undertaken to fully understand the effects of chocolate on cardiovascular disease.

And to that, we only have one thing to say. Where do we sign up?

And... it's June! And Friday! So, we have our first top five of the summer- it looks like everyone's in a summery mood this week. :)

Onto the top five...

• Dona's Dainty Dark (Dark Chocolate with Candied Rose Petals, Candied Lilac and Cocoa Nibs) I have to hand it to Dona- that's one dainty bar...

• MAZEL TOV LAWYERS!! (Milk Chocolate with Banana Chips, Mini Flower Decoration and Peanut Butter Drops) Mmm... celebratory chocolate!

• Midnight at the Oasis (Dark Chocolate with Orange Pepper, Toffee, Bourbon Vanilla and Orange) The tasty, tasty 70s...

• Sir Lloyd's Yum Bar (Dark Chocolate with Toffee and Mini Cookies)

• Chimpanzee Dessert (Dark Chocolate with Lemon Chocolate Drops, Fleur de Sel, Rice Crispies, Toffee and Bourbon Vanilla) Honestly, I was expecting bananas.

Feeling inspired? You can explore the many possible chocri combinations here if you want to try your hand with a chocri creation for next week's top 5.

While we’re pretty passionate about chocolate, sometimes we meet someone whose dedication to the topic seriously impresses even the chocolate fanatics at chocri.

Recently, I spoke with Corinne DeBra- Corinne made an interesting commitment to sample a new chocolate bar each day, and she spoke about some of her more intriguing chocolate experiences. Below is the first half, where Corinne talks about how the challenge came about, some of the more interesting chocolate finds she’s seen, and blogging her love for chocolate.

In 2006, Corinne DeBra was your average chocolate fan when her daughter challenged her: "I bet you can't eat a different chocolate each day for a year.” Now it's 2010 and she has yet to miss a day in her chocolate quest. Corinne has eaten more than 1300 chocolate bars in more than 1300 days. She maintains a spreadsheet of the varieties she finds to ensure that she never eats the same chocolate bar twice. She was kind enough to take time out her her chocolate project and discuss her experiences with us.

You set out to win the bet, which you’ve done successfully. What compelled you to actually attempt this challenge- and why have you kept going, even after you’ve won?

I wanted to see if I could commit to anything for that many days. There were days when I was frustrated with the administrative aspects and blogging about it, but after you get to a certain point, you just keep going and hunting new chocolates.

Then I realized that I wasn't going to run out of chocolate, so I wanted to prove to myself I could keep at it. In a sense it is a dedication to fun my in life, to something creative. If I can do this for 1000 days, what else am I capable of... you know?

You list your best and worst experiences per year on your blog, but throughout the project, which chocolates were your most (and least) favorites? (Ed: Corinne hasn't tried chocri yet!)

For my least favorite, I'll have to go with insects covered in chocolate. Although people tell me I should’ve tried ants- maybe I just didn't have the right kind of insect?

As for a favorite, that's so hard. Perhaps a recent experience when I traveled to Alaska. I did research ahead of time and found this Salmon and Anchovy Truffle. You couldn't get that anywhere else. I like going to remote areas and trying out what they make with their native ingredients, small businesses trying out something creative."

Did you ever pass on a chocolate?

[sigh] People find out what I'm doing and they start buying me things. Often it's a chocolate that I’ve already tried. I don't actually eat excessive amounts of chocolate- maybe an ounce a day, even if that's more than most people. I'm not interested in eating all the chocolate, especially if it looks like bad chocolate, or if it doesn't contain a lot of real chocolate.

Can you taste a difference between regular and fair trade, organic and/or single origin chocolate?

Single origin can be very distinctive in some cases, with a flavor arch like wine- with a beginning, middle and end. Fair trade and organic is more difficult. There is a correlation to a certain type of taste, sometimes related to texture, but it's unpredictable. Often fair trade and organic chocolate are more artisanal, and that affects the texture.

Tune in next week for part two, where Corinne gives us the scoop on chocolate from different regions, perseverance, and her future chocolate plans!

Today I share with you a little (big!) update from Germany: We completed our move to a bigger, better location. Chocri has always been very popular, but growth in the last year or so (fueled by our expansion to the US) put our production capacity (and office staff) under so much stress that a move was in order: a bigger chocri!

Not only is our chocolate factory (factory sounds like we have many machines there, which we don't, but you know what I mean) much bigger now (and with that faster), but also the office space which enabled chocri Germany to welcome three new members to the team: Claudi (our new assistant to the CEOs), Björn (our new developer) and Katja (our new representation to the press and media in Germany).

I personally haven't seen it in real life, but will do so this summer, and I'll report what it looks like once chocri has unpacked all the boxes :)