While customizing your own chocolate is always fun, sometimes you draw a bit of a blank when adding toppings. What goes with pear? Which spice best suits my dark chocolate base? Does strawberry chocolate suit my complexion? It's kind of like going out to dinner with your friends- sometimes you can't figure out what you want until you know what everyone else is getting!

With that in mind, we've launched a recommendation engine to guide you. Of course, we still encourage you to be as creative as you want when creating a chocolate bar that's just for you. But if you need a bit of help with pairing chocolate and the perfect toppings, or have an idea of one or two aspects you'd like but want to complement them with a spice or nut, check out this awesome new feature.

You can start the process in our "Create Your Own Chocolate" tab, and below is a pic of how the feature works. How cool is that?

Today, egoo-journal.com launches, the first and only magazine in the US about customized and personalized products. Egoo is an established magazine about the same topic in Germany, since late 2008. That egoo is now coming to the US is exciting, because it marks the rise of mass customization in the US as we only knew it in Germany prior to this. One point of comparison is the egoo journal Shop Directory, listing all the websites that allow you to design your own products. In Germany, that list encompasses 174 selected online shops - in the US we're only at about 60 e-commerce sites that give you a chance to customize and personalize.

60 websites with customization however is still a proud number - especially if we look to other countries which have at most a handful of such websites (like the UK). This fact prompted the founder of egoo.de, the German and first version of the online magazine, to take his magazine to the United States. Starting today, egoo-journal.com will report on what is going on in the world of customization - whether it's new innovation, new websites, or just interesting news about the companies and offerings in the space - you will hear about it there.

Full disclaimer: I will be writing some of the articles for egoo-journal. I consider myself fairly involved in the mass customization world in the US, and am excited about sharing my findings with you in an online magazine format!

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!

Today I'd like to introduce a mass customization company to you that allows you to create your own product on their website just as we allow you to create your own chocolate bar. Build-A-Sign lets you make your own sign or, like in our case, vinyl banner, which they then quickly make and ship to you. We had the pleasure to try them out (disclosure: for free) and made a huuuge vinyl banner to use at markets and just this past weekend at our tasting. Look at it, isn't it pretty?

Many thanks to Build A Sign for allowing us to make a banner with them. You can choose from many pre-designs, but obviously the sexiest way to "build a banner" is to create your own - by uploading the complete design (like we did), or your own. Delivery was super fast and the quality makes me want to hang the banner over my bed.

I love seeing how mass customization is moving into B2B and how efficient this company can make signs with reduced complexity - and price! Just one more example of the co-creation revolution. All the best to Build A Sign!