Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Zimt puts the "i" in Integrity and the "m" and "t" in Christmas and the "z" in Kwanzaa.

Hi Everyone!


Hope you are all enjoying the season. I am. Being pretty lazy and not making chocolate since... nearly Friday.  Starts again tomorrow.

Look at what I got for Christmas from the lovely folks at Hurraw:


They didn't actually send them to me as a Christmas gift, but they did end up under my Christmas tree- thank you, Hurraw!!!  (Available at Nice Shoes. FYI =) ).



Here's what's happening in the world of Zimt:


  • Not much.

  • Kidding! Sort of. Maybe I will just make a to-do list as a preview:
    • organic certification application
    • EE handbook
    • Fair trade certification application
    • vegan symbol
    • order melter
    • order chocolate syringes
    • make chocolate. oh yeah. 
    • prep for new product line. packaging. 
    • renew business license w city. 
    • flip a coin- more UPCs? 
    • maybe do an analysis on ROI for the above. 
    • or just flip a coin.
    • fix up business plan 
    • production schedule. maybe can wait. 
    • get labels printed. now. last week. The only problem is, I have to fix them up, and am not quite sure how to do so properly, and don't want to bug Sabrina to do that, because her family is visiting for Christmas. I think I will learn.
    • test 2 recipes.
    • nutrition analysis for ... four recipes.  New nutrition tables.
    • cave. ask Sabrina to design a new label for new bars. New bars! 
    • wait for a myriad of people to get back to me about many things.  In the meantime...
  • feed addiction for http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-yLGIH7W9Y&feature=relmfu - is that bad? Or accurate. ?. 
  •  Many last minute Christmas present orders- thank God for inventory =D 
  • Zimt will soon be available at Whole Foods locations throughout the lower mainland. Hopefully at one near you. And also at other retail locations. 
  • If you would like to order chocolate directly from me, please order through www.zimt.ca/bars.html and if you have any special notes to add, please write these in the bit where you pay via PayPal. Thank you!!! 
What is with the "i" and Integrity bit?

Coconut. The coconut that is in the Chocolate Coconut Crisp and the Chocolate Coconut Fudge may not be raw. Here is what happened:
I order the coconut through a local distributor, who gets the coconut from their supplier. I asked the distributor to verify that this coconut is in fact raw. Really raw. The reply being, that a lot of raw foodies in Vancouver source from them. I knew that- this is one of the ways I was able to easily source from them- I was familiar with other companies using this brand.  I had initially gone through another supplier, based in the USA, which specializes in raw products. But they sent me the wrong type of coconut flake, so I decided to look at other options. And found the local guys, who, to be honest, are really great.  Anyway... long story short is, I wasn't satisfied with the answer of "everybody's doing it", so I kept bugging them about temperatures and processing and... the answer? Temperature for processing and storage could not be verified.

Personally, I am fine with eating toasted coconut. I think it's pretty good.

But it isn't raw, and my product is marketed as being raw. And I don't want to be deceiving people, just because I didn't put in enough effort to verify the integrity of my product.

So... as of last week, where I was processing these really large coconut flakes, sent to me by my original supplier of coconut flakes, to be smaller and more appropriate for their fudge-y purposes,  no more questionable coconut. I do have inventory with some of the perhaps (maybe? Maybe not? depends on how I'm feeling? Ugh!) non-raw coconut.  But any bars dated after March 17th will be made with the coconut I processed myself in a Vita Mix blender.  Enjoy the extra labour-love costs I am absorbing! I do this happily. I want you to have a good product that you can believe in. No short cuts.

I remember this time last year, going for a walk with my mom, and we ran into some family friends. And the dad asked me what I was planning on doing with myself after graduating from business school. And I said I would start a chocolate company. And I had been thinking about how chocolate might be made, and how truffles might be filled, while on this walk.

And now I am done this post.

Merry Christmas from Familie Zimt!
L to R, B to F: Oma, Opa, Justin, Me, Michelle.


Thank you for reading!

Emma

2 comments:

  1. just reading this now ^_^ hehe.
    but eek! i LOVE hurraw!!! only have tried the grapefruit one but i keep getting it cos i love it so much!!!

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    1. They are amazing!!!! I can't wait to try all the flavours I got- still on the cherry! Soooo amazing! Like those cherry blasters we ate when we were kids! (Or at least I did. Fuzzy peaches, anyone?)

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