The New Factory

It is probably fair to say that most people underestimate the effort and precision required to make real chocolate without using chemical additives. The chocolate has to be melted to about 45 degrees C and then cooled down while the melted chocolate is constantly subjected to movement, until it reaches a specific temperature in the low 30s C, depending on the kind of chocolate. At that temperature, the chocolate is tempered and will stay in temper as long as the specifc temperature and movement is maintained. And while the chocolate is tempered, it can be moulded or poured to produce the shiny look and the distinctive snap when you break it. In actual fact, it is much more complicated than this, because after a while the chocolate can go out of temper anyway, even if the temperature and movement is maintained. And factors such as the room temperature and humidity also contributes to the success or lack thereof in chocolate making.

So if you were to make you own chocolate, you can melt it in a bowl and then use a granite slab to cool it down while moving it around constantly with two scrapers. This technique is often used by chocolatiers to show off, but in practice very few chocolatiers make chocolate like that on an industrial scale today – you would need very strong arms to maintain that technique. We do have a granite slab at Ilze’s Chocolat, but it tends to be used for very small batches. For the larger batches, we have been using a batch tempering machine manufactured in Holland by Henk Koenen, whose first machine is today on display in the chocolate machine in Brugge. In the picture above, it is the machine in the background.

However, this machine has always had its weaknesses, the most important of which is that chocolate goes out of temper after about an hour and a half. And when you have a large batch of chocolates to prepare, you need much more than an hour and a half’s worth of supply, so it becomes very time consuming to have to stop the process, re-heat everything up to 45 degrees C and again restart the cooling. On top of that, because we only had the one machine, you had to have it dedicated to one kind of chocolate, or had to empty the machine, clean it and refill, everytime you wanted to switch from dark to milk chocolate, for example – all of which would take an hour or more to do.

So this summer, we took the plunge to invest in a new continuous tempering machine, one in which the chocolate does not go out of temper, unless you want it to do so. But of course, this is a much more advanced and much more expensive machine, which we bought in Antwerp, Belgium (in the foreground in the picture above). We also needed a bigger work-in-progress fridge and a warm cupboard and because we needed all this equipment, we needed a new modular building.

The modular building was professionally prepared for us by Gembuild, who constructs modular buildings for a range of different purposes.

This means that at Ilze’s Chocolat we now have a room dedicated to macaroons and a new room dedicated to chocolate-making.  The picture below shows the new chocolate factory, complete with all the new equipment installed.

We took our “new look” to the market

As many of you have noticed, we closed our webshop in August. This year we did not go on a summer break, but instead, we had to implement many changes to Ilze’s Chocolat: We moved into our new factory two weeks ago (we will write about that later) and we also tried to implement some other changes. We started to rebrand the business many months ago and during the warmer months, we wanted to give this a big push. The process is not yet completed, because as you may guess, any branding, even for a small enterprise like ours, is quite a costly undertaking. So last week-end we launched our new look on the Beaconsfield farmer’s market.  At some stage before the week-end approached, we honestly thought that things were not going to come together. The last part of the puzzle was the three banners and our friends Lee and Ariana from DesignbyGoodPeople, who were responsible for the lovely new look of our company, made sure that the banners were hemmed and drove all the way from the other side of London to deliver the banners for our stall personally!

We went to the market the next day almost like a bride and groom that are getting their venue ready before the guests arrive.  (To many of you the comparison might seem silly, but we do have a passion for our business!) We didn’t sleep much because we had to pack, label the products, make some more chocolates and in the small hours of the morning we even had to cut our tablecloths for the tables on the market! With our freshly made chocolates packed in their lovely new “dresses”, the banners, the plates, price tags, our shiny new white gazebo, the tablecloths and the camera, we left for the market at 6am on Saturday morning. We dressed up our little “shop” and then our clients started to arrive.

The reactions overall were quite positive, although some people almost didn’t notice! Now we take that as a compliment, because for farmer’s market clients (who are in general lovers of good food) it is more important what the chocolates taste like and the “look” is secondary. We do know however that the changes were necessary, because a client remarked yesterday that he can’t even remember what the previous logo looked like! We live in a busy world full of choice and we know that it is the “inside” that matters, but like with a courtship between two people, the man needs to notice the attractive girl  and be attracted to her. The “inner beauty” gets recognised later…

Rain & the Farmers Market

Today I realised how I miss my “lay-ins” on a weekend, when I had to get up at 6am to go to the farmers market. When I looked out, it was a grey, wintry morning!

The weather on our dear Island never ceases to amaze me because of its volatility. Yesterday was a bright sunny day and I thought wow, people are going to visit the market and buy the lovely plump red chocolate dipped strawberries by the dozen – to “celebrate summer” with “alfresco meals” on the patio. Oh how wrong I was! The brave souls that did venture out to the market (I salute them!) ignored the lovely plump dipped strawberries and opted for the wintry comfort food – which is the milk chocolate bars and the caramels… stuff that really sell well in winter. The British weather is not only a favourite topic of discussion to break an awkward silence, but it creates havoc for our “ops plans” (Jan’s term for our weekly business planning session). What I really mean is – you can never figure out trends: Which products will sell well in summer and which will sell well in winter, etc, because of the unpredictability of the weather. You just have to guess and hope all goes well.

To High Street or not to High Street

It is interesting how we sometimes still struggle to understand or identify with a retail business that does not have a physical shop location, even at a time when most of us have accepted the way in which the world of books, videos and music are now commonly traded outside of such shops. Many people are still somewhat surprised when we at Ilze’s Chocolat say that we trade only online and on farmers markets.

In fact, one can understand the surprise. There is something old worldly about farmers markets; almost the complete opposite of an online store. Yet, using online and farmers markets as our sales channels make absolute sense to us:

Firstly, because we do not want to be in a position where a significant percentage of the value of every product we sell goes towards costs levied by a landlord. Chocolates and macaroons are traditionally seen as impulse purchases. That implies that they need to be offered to potential clients in places where there will be lots of traffic (footfall). Lots of traffic normally translate into expensive real estate; which in turn drives up the price of the product being sold, in a vicious circle where the only winner is the owner of the real estate!

Father’s Day

Here is an interesting question for you: In your family, is it expected that a wife should get her husband a father’s day gift or card? Or is it strictly a “father” thing, that is, the children are expected to get their fathers a card or some token of appreciation – and the mother’s role is merely to ensure that the day does not pass by unnoticed?

More Macaroons!

When we create new chocolates or macaroons at Ilze’s Chocolat, we always try to produce a WOW factor. Not only should the flavour be sensational and memorable, but the look and colour should say something about the product. And of course when you try it, even the texture should surprise.

With macaroons, it is often as much the filling as the actual macaroon that creates the sensation. That is why we use only the best quality butter and combine it with equally good quality ingredients. Here are some examples of what goes into our fillings: Lemon – butter cream and lemon curd, together with real lemon zest; Raspberry – butter cream and ground raspberry; Strawberry – butter cream and ground strawberry;  Chocolate – butter cream and dark chocolate (what did you expect?)

Our New Chocolate Box

Our new box is launched and available on our web store at www.ilzeschocolat.com. We have decided to run a special offer on the new box, filled with a selection of 12 of our signature range chocolates at only £6 (normal price £9.80).

Then, why not post your comments regarding the new box (and its contents) on this blog? We are not asking for positive feedback, only honest ones.

So, how do you provide feedback? Just return to this page and post your remarks under “Leave a Reply”. Or, if you are more comfortable with Facebook, join as a member at our Facebook page and post on our wall.

Feedback from customers

I had the experience recently to observe a set of “customer experience” interviews with a selection of customers of a large consumer services company. I sat in a small dark room behind a mirror which faced into the interview room. The fact that I was supposed to sit there unnoticed felt somewhat strange, but I was soon pleased with my disposition, because I definitely did not want to be drawn into the conversation! It was obvious that this large consumer services company was not doing a good job satisfying some of the customers being interviewed. Promises were made and not kept and it was unclear for the customer who was responsible. To top all of this, because these were anonymous interviews, there was no way for the interviewer to pass the details of the customers’ complaints on to the service provider.

What’s in a name… or an image

This month, Ilze’s Chocolat will be taking a major new step – I was going to say exciting, but that assumes that our customers and friends will be excited and we simply do not know yet! Many women know that feeling when you step out of the hairdresser having just dyed your hair a completely different colour – and exciting is not necessarily the word that comes to mind. Maybe scary…

Yet every time we see the new brand look that has now been in the long process of birth for some six months or more, something inside us jump for joy!

The Farmers Market Community

Yesterday, we said good-bye to Fiona and Rachel. I still remember very clearly the first day we pitched our stall at the Beaconsfield market and noticed the two young ladies opposite, selling a fantastic assortment of cakes. And you can imagine what went through our minds, both in terms of how we felt about them as our potential competitors for the collective impulse spend of the farmers market customers, and – I know it is complicated, but – in terms of how we imagined they viewed us: The new kids: would they sustain? Chocolate on farmers markets? How can you have an entire stall just selling chocolates; how long before they encroach onto the market for cakes? And on and on.

Well, it did not turn out like that. At Windsor, we ended up having adjacent stalls and we became very good friends, tied our tents together against the wind, sharing a tea run, exchanging products (they have an ace date slice!) and just chatting whenever there was a chance. And it was quite sad to see them go yesterday, but it was all part of the ebb and flow of stallholders joining the markets and then going off to do something else again.