We have perfected customized chocolate bars. We're getting really good at having tastings. Now we just have to figure this picture-taking thing out... Nevertheless, I of course want to share how our tasting this past weekend went!

The W Hotel at Times Square was so kind to host us on a (busy) Saturday night. The Living Room Lounge was beautiful. We had our own corner and set up a table not only with delicious chocolate but also with our fresh-off-the-printing-press banner that Build-A-Sign made for us (a separate post on that tomorrow).

While we were setting up, regular guests of the lounge started coming by and checking the chocolate out, and soon a nicely sized crowd both of chocri connoisseurs and newbies was tasting our new recommended creations and meeting Michael. I'm glad everyone got to meet the inventor of design-your-own chocolate bars - as you can see in the picture on the right, he really loves his chocri bars (I know how he feels).

We were able to share some of the new Recommended Creation concepts with you- "Pure Relaxation" was one of the favorites, "Pure Sex" will get a little more of a spicy kick to it, and the "Beautiful Skin" Chocolate Bar (loaded with toppings that are good for your skin) was a huge success as well. More on that later!

For now, thank you all for coming. We love meeting you in person, and we had a great time hanging out with you and eating chocolate. Thank you also for all your advice on creating the perfect recommended creations! More images can be found in our flickr album. Until next time!

UPDATE: The winner of the three chocolate bars from the random drawing was Andy Shaffer. Congrats!

chocri People in New York - I have wonderful news:

a) chocri founder Micha is coming to New York this Saturday (May 22nd)

b) We are revamping the Recommended Chocolate Bars and need help tasting them

Which means: PARTY! We hereby invite you to our tasting in New York, this Saturday at 7pm in the Lounge of the W Hotel at Times Square.

We expect the event to fill up fast, and people who rsvp'ed on Facebook will be given preference once that happens. RSVP on Facebook

Come start the night with free chocolate and classy drinks in a beautiful lounge. I'm looking forward to meeting you there, and I know Micha is, too!

Chocolate for your graduation!

So many of you are graduating! Congratulations! The world lies in front of you, you can be so proud! I'm sure there's many others that are proud of you, so you might want to nudge them to these two bars:

How about a "sweet treat" for Graduation? You deserved it. These two chocolate bars will reward you for all the sweat and prepare you for what's to come. Of course, the chocolate bars and their names can be changed if you want to buy a graduation bar for someone who's not @lavrusik ;)

By the way - you know someone on Twitter who is graduating and you want to treat them with a bar, but don't know their address? Hit us up - we're happy to play the intermediary. Just find me as @chocridotcom or email me at carmen@chocri.com It can be an anonymous gift, too :)

Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever. ~Author Unknown
- so here's to my Mom:

I was born when my Mother was just 21. Yes, that was a surprise ;) When she learned that she was pregnant, as shocking as it was, she told my father the "great news" - and they both kept going! They both were students at that time, in an early semester (school is a little longer in Germany), and they engineered their life around, well - me. My Mom took an exam right after I was born, and my parents would rush back home after school so the other one could go back to university. Despite coming from a farm and both my parents not having a lot of money, my Mother never followed the typical advice - ditch the studies and stay by the crib of your kid. The opposite happened- having a child made her more determined to provide for it, and she graduated as one of the best in her year. By the time I went to school, we moved because she had found a job in a tech company. A manager who is now the COO of that now huge tech company soon saw that she was intelligent and hard-working, and decided to put her on a cool project because her graduation paper had been about this new invention "the CD-ROM". She is now a representative of all the Executives of that company, but what is much more important to her is that she found many friends at work throughout the years.

I am very proud of my Mom, and she sets an excellent example for a German proverb that suggest you take the stones that life puts in your path to build steps from it. She had a child at a time of her life when most people said it will mean the end of the career, and instead rejoiced about it and used it as a motivation for her career. I'm sure that without her example, I would be in a very different place today. Danke, Mama.

Come to think of it, I also want to give a little shout out to two other Moms in the chocri universe: The Mother of Franz supports chocri immensely with accounting help, and although I never had the pleasure to meet Micha's Mom, I know she's a huge chocri supporter thanks to Facebook - you've probably seen her comments on our wall before. Thanks Founders' Moms!

What do you thank your Mom for today?

p.s. Vote here for your favorite Mother's Day chocri - made by kids for their Moms! Voting ends at Midnight tonight!

p.s. II It's not too late to buy your Mom a gift certificate so she can design her own chocolate bars. ;)