Ten relevant pieces of information:
1) I am a chocolatier!
2) Or, I suppose, technically speaking, I am a chocolatière. There is just no way to say that in English that doesn’t sound ridiculous. A Lady Chocolate Maker? Oh my.
3) Though, since I do not know if I am the person actually physically making the chocolates, perhaps it is best that we say that I am in possession of a chocolate shop. I have a chocolaterie. Yes, yes I do.
4) This is a metaphor! And a proxy.
The chocolate shop is not actually a chocolate shop.
For our purposes, however, we will imagine that it is.
5) I would happily give you a piece of chocolate right now, if I could. Actually, since it is metaphorical chocolate, I can.
Please partake of these lovely chocolates, if you wish to. I hope you enjoy them.
6) I am an Accidental Chocolatier.
That is: being a chocolatier is not my dream, it is not something I ever planned on doing with my life, and each day I wake up completely astonished to discover that it is in fact what I am doing.
I have found myself with this chocolate shop, and I am trying like crazy to make a go of it, to the best of my abilities.
7) In this scenario, I do not have the option of turning the chocolate shop into something else that would be more in line with things I do want to do with my life (tried that!), nor do I have the option of having someone else run a chocolate shop for me (tried that too).
We are operating under the assumption here that the chocolaterie isn’t going anywhere.
8) This means: I think I need to make peace with being a chocolatier, and/or to become so good at having a chocolate shop that it doesn’t need me around. Either way, it is up to me to figure out how to make the best of this situation.
9) And I need your help with that. I need you to tell me and remind me why it is that I would make a good chocolatier, or why a chocolate shop that was mine would be amazing and special. Because I cannot remember.
10) Fun fact about me! I have not eaten chocolate in nearly fourteen years. Not because I don’t like it. I love it in a way that is kind of dangerous and scary, and it also makes me wackopants-hyper. Actual chocolate. Not metaphorical proxy-chocolate.
Help me out here! What I would like from you, if you’re up for it…
I would love it if you could say some things about why you think I’d make a good chocolatier. Even if you don’t know anything about me other than having read this post.
Yes, it is true that I do not consume chocolate and have zero interest in being a chocolatier. But let’s say these things are true and I’m also still a chocolatier… why am I good at it?
What skills do I bring to it? What is marvelous about my chocolate shop? How is it made better or more special by the fact that it has me at the helm?
Notes and caveats! As follows.
- Even if you think something is such a super obvious observation that it doesn’t need to be observed, tell me anyway! I am way too close to this.
- You can also list any qualities of chocolate or chocolate shops that you think I share.
- I am not looking for suggestions (“have you tried hiring a manager?”). I just want to know why I would make a good chocolate shop owner.
- Even if you happen to know what the [chocolate shop] is, play along and imagine an actual chocolate shop. 🙂
- I don’t want to hear that someone who doesn’t eat chocolate can’t be good at having a chocolate shop. Though if you have thoughts about why this might make me even better at being a chocolatier, I am very open to that!
A big loving heart of thank you.
Thank you, life, for giving me a chocolate shop and for this opportunity to do something I didn’t plan on.
Thank you, life, for giving me something that is going to help me find the good in everything.
Thank you, me-from-two-years-ago, who set this all in motion, for trusting me-now to be able to handle it.
Thank you, incoming-me, who knows why this is good.
Thank you, chocolates, for being beautiful. Thank you, people who love my chocolate shop and want to support it.
Thank you, everyone who can help me figure out why I would be good at having a chocolate shop.
Thank you, commenter mice and Beloved Lurkers. Thank you, everyone who reads.
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You would make an excellent chocolatier because everything you do exudes the qualities of fun and play and warmth and comfort and sparkle and authenticity. People would love coming to a chocolate shop with those qualities! I certainly would, and I live way on the other coast. Chocolate should be an enjoyable experience, and you would help others find it within themselves to access the joy and wonder of that experience.
Reasons why [fill in the blank] chocolaterie:
Skilled at infusing chocolate with the right ingredients (qualities) for Your Right People. You could be your own mystery shopper, which requires a costume. Roxy Chocolate has a nice ring to it. Some monsters like chocolate. Everything is temporary. Sovereignty. That accidental genius thing.
Because you have taste and style, sweetness and spice, and sometimes you’re a little bit gooey and nutty!
Because you know how to find the golden ticket.
Because you have the guts and gumption to do it.
<3
I think a non-chocolate eating person would be an excellent chocolatiere because having distance (emotional, physical, cultural?) from chocolate would allow you a marvelous anthropological viewpoint on the habits and needs of chocolate eaters; this giving you a superior ability to recommend chocolates based on what you know of chocolate eaters. You could hold the essence of chocolate eating, if you will. Maybe?
As someone who works at a non-metaphorical shop, I think you would make a fabulous chocolatier! Because when people come to a chocolate shop, the chocolate is only part of what they want. The chocolate (actual and metaphorical) is, in fact, a cover story for people who really want to feel decadent and delightful and welcomed for a little while. And you are so good at that! In fact, I think the fact that you don’t like chocolate does make you a better chocolate shop owner, because it lets you see past the chocolate to the heart of what people want. Anyone can source delicious chocolate, but only a few people can make a space where the consumption of chocolate becomes a divine experience.
When I imagine your chocolate shop, I see the sort with the most beautiful cups for sipping chocolate in, and tiny little plates with the chocolates arranged just so, so that the people would feel special. And you would be so friendly and accepting, so that everyone who came in would feel calmer and happier immediately. I see sunlight and music, and lots of regulars who come all the time because there is no other place quite like it.
What she said! I agree!
When I think of chocolatiers, I think of stylishness (how beautiful those candies are in the case, in boxes, on trays) and comfort and versatility and variety (no one chocolate fits all situations or tastes). I think of all the experience (cooking burns, misbehaving ingredients, etc.) necessary to lead to the wonderfulness of smooth candy shells nestled in the sparkly ribbons and glossy boxes. I think of how you have created and cultivated this space that people like me enjoy visiting regularly, where I know no one will badger me about trying the coconut bonbons when what will make me feel better is my Friday night plum truffle and my Sunday night handful of chocolate-dipped orange peels, or if I just want to lurk in the corner with a mug of cocoa and my sketchbook full of fountains.
Warmest wishes to you.
I also don’t eat a lot of chocolate, but I love chocolate shops. It is excellent that you are not a crazed chocolate consumer, because then you run the risk of eating all of your stock. So you will have a useful perspective on things, and not get blown away by the oh-my-go-I-want-to-eat-all-the-chocolate cravings. Helpful.
Chocolate shop stuff:
– Secret treasure – you don’t know what is inside that chocolately exterior unless you have A Map. And you do maps. This is good.
– Surprise – that one that looks exactly like a brazil nut turns out to be the best praline you ever had. Accidental wonderfulness.
– Beauty – you get some truly stunning chocolates, handmade or delicate or with gold leaf or somesuch. There is a great deal of beauty to be found in a chocolate shop, and you like beauty. All good. Also: because you didn’t make the chocolates, you can appreciate their loveliness. The maker might be all “oh but that bit of paisley-patterned dark-on-white is slightly smudged, so I’m not content”. You can see that it is still very lovely.
– The Sovereignty of luxuries – at least one of your alter egos would TOTALLY sweep into the chocolate shop and if she wanted some, she’d have The Best Chocolate there. This is part of your thing too, I think (apologies to the monsters if that rattled them a bit).
Why you would be an excellent chocolatier:
– Sparklepoints and chocolates are absolutely complimentary, to my mind.
– Your chocolate immunity would give you valuable perspective and clarity to assess the chocolate with way more than just craving.
– You might be able to make contact with those who do not feel the call of chocolate, and through your understanding they might feel able to play and experiment and find just that one little specialty they only get in your shop that is The Only Chocolate In The World that they like.
– You may be able to help those who also have “ahahahaha chocolate makes me crazy” syndrome and assist them in flourishing – their condition may take them to the chocolate shop whereas otherwise they’d never have encountered you and the things you do.
I’m sure there’s a lot more but I hope that helps!
And if you want it, *internet hug* for the “WTF?!” of being an accidental chocolatier.
Ooooh! I am so getting bings and sparks from this one!
A much longer analysis will follow, by mail if necessary, but this Could Not Wait:
Chocolate Covered Fractal Flowers.
No one else could or would make them.
CHOCOLATE COVERED FRACTAL FLOWERS! Ohmygod! Ohmygod! Yes. That is brilliant. You are brilliant. This is the best.
You know what people like about their chocolate (its qualities) and what it means them. You honro that part a lot. You know how to make chocolate they will like.
You also know there is a lot of love-energy in chocolate. EVen if you can’t eat, the energy is there. So you’re already working with LOve, Desire, Yummyness and Luxury. You get to serve those qualities to more folks than ever.
You have a talent for making everything extra desirable and special, and for giving people exactly what they need. You can infuse things, like writing or chocolate, with these qualities.
So not eating chocolate is helpful, because you can concentrate your super powers on what you do best: making things sparkly, special and, dare I say it, sexy.
Also, our super powers tend to not work all that well on ourselves. And that’s why you could make outstanding chocolate for other people, but not for yourself.
In short, “What is marvelous about my chocolate shop?”: that it’s the only chocolate shop in the world infused with the “essence of Havi”.
A well-crafted chocolate is a piece of edible art. I come here everyday to get my fill of delicious bonbons of wisdom. Sometimes, I gobble two to three a day, sometimes, I savor one over a long period. Every chocolatier has their own specialities and variations, and this chocolate shoppe customer greedily comes back time and again to see what shiny-packaged, sweetly-infused, choco-nutty, milky-rich bonbon is on offer today.
Only you can make your special blend of chocolate, and so many people love to eat it! You are good at it because you have so much experience at it that you’ve worked hard to acquire, and the proof is in the (chocolate) pudding. Your chocolate shop is especially friendly and welcoming. Your chocolate shop is sunny and fun and unpredictable and exciting. Coming to your chocolate shop is a fun event! Your chocolate shop is more special because you’re at the helm because no one else makes pirate glam zen chocolates for the world to enjoy.
And all the places you’ve been and experiences you’ve had go into your chocolates, like the woman in the movie Chocolat, and that makes them more delicious, too.
I’m mostly talking about why your chocolates are special and less about why you being a chocolatier is awesome, but I guess I’m going with the principle that awesome chocolate is a good thing to have in the world, and it is brought into being by awesome chocolatiers, so those of us who need/appreciate/desire chocolate are grateful to those of you who are good at making it for doing that work. Blowing kisses!
I read a piece in the newspaper today about how there’ll be a shortage of (actual) chocolate in the world by 2020.
I don’t know what this means. Possibly, that investing in a chocolaterie now means securing something that will be invaluable in a few short years.
Oh great. We will be reaching peak oil AND peak cocoa at the same time. So the world will be falling apart/reconfiguring and there will be no chocolate to make me feel better about it. Wheeee!!! *crazed laughter*.
Not to worry, dear. There was a rebuttal later in the day.
I remember going to Sahagun’s bricks-and-mortar shop many years ago, and what I liked about going to the chocolate shop was that my deepest desires were not only satisfied, but they were also honored. I got to ask for and receive exactly what I wanted, in the light of day, from someone who understood that such desires were not to be dismissed or shamed. Sipping deep, dark chocolate from an elegant china cup with my favorite magazine in front of me is a much different experience from eating a pan of brownies in my underwear in front of the TV (although both are awesome and fulfill different desires). I think you’d be a great chocolatier because you know about creating space to honor people’s desires, and encouraging them to ask for what they want, even if they think they can’t get it or don’t deserve it.
The first thing I thought of when I saw this post was Willy Wonka.
The second thing was how much he reminded me of you: Passionate, clever, aquainted with the harsher realities of life, but refusing to let them hold him back from showing people the wonderous, ever surprising, glory of living.
It’s not about the chocolate.
“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams”
Let’s my forget hats! Willy Wonka is known by his hat!
Errr…*not* forget hats. Let’s not forget hats, is what I meant to type 🙂
I’m thinking of this tiny chocolate shop in the town where I lived when I was very young. It was always warm inside, and it smelled absolutely divine, like chocolate and mint with a hint of caramel. My parents rarely took me, but when we did go in, I loved running to the glass display case and looking at all the beautiful chocolates set out. It is one of my favourite memories, and it was only because of that chocolate shop that I discovered one of my life-long loves (mint chocolate smoothie squares!)
You are excellent at running at chocolaterie because you provide all the same elements: a unique and welcoming community (the blog, Rally); inspirational, creative and fun “things” to encounter (toolkits, points-of-view, wordplay and playful metaphors); helping people discover their life-long, loveable “projects”; and most importantly, creating a culture that is a little to the left and up of the everyday. A culture that gives people the same flutter of happiness as stepping into a chocolate shop and smelling the caramel.
So, Havi.
I’d been thinking about how to say you that you’re the best chocolatier ever, so this post comes at the right time.
I could talk about how amazing it is for the world that you have a chocolate shop, but I’ll stick to tell you about how great it is for me.
Your chocolate shop is the best because of the way if makes me feel.
The surprises, the knowledge, the identification. I always feel grateful that you once got the idea to create a chocolaterie, because since I tasted the chocolate I just can’t get enough, and my life has been A LOT better.
I feel less lonely, less weird, less misunderstood. I totally craved your chocolate, but I didn’t even know! Actually, I’ve craved it since I was like 15. I honestly don’t know what would be in its place. There are no chocolateries like yours.
Also, your chocolates have taught me to think. You know how they say that chocolate makes you happy? Well, yours has made me smarter.
When I hear all the noise of other chocolatier(e)s I always go like: “OMG, thank god I know Havi’s chocolaterie, because all of the other ones stink”. They do.
I love the ingredients of your chocolate. You are a critical thinker but you never lose the magic (the hardest ever). You explain things wonderfully. You write beautifully. So your chocolates are the yummiest ever.
Also, the blend. The blend of what you are + those ingredients are what cause your chocolate to be addictive, but in a good way. In a way that the more you eat, the more nourished you are, the more prepared you are for life, the more everything scares you way less.
Your chocolaterie is like a door to wonderful places I couldn’t ever find other way.
Without you and your great chocolaterie my life would suck. It would really do. I would still be looking for chocolate in a library made of sucky books, or in [places without chocolate].
Your chocolaterie is very much needed in this world, and I’m really, really thankful for having the tools (English, an internet connection, whatever) to having gotten to know you and to taste your chocolate.
<3
You guys are so amazing, and so insightful, and also smarter than I am on this topic. This is hugely helpful. I am seeing all kinds of things I wasn’t seeing before, and I am going to print these out for reminders! <3
You run the universe’s best chocolate shop because you understand pleasure. Chocolate is all about pleasure. And your chocolate shop cultivates pleasure, not only in the chocolate itself, but in the shop as well. I imagine that it’s clean and well-kept, cozy but not stifling, bright and well-organized, with all of the information that people need (flavors, ingredients, prices, etc.) easily accessible but not obnoxiously aggressive.
Not being a chocolate-eater yourself allows you to take other people’s needs into account in a loving, neutral way. If you loved chocolate and hated peanut butter, and someone came into your shop looking for a peanut butter chocolate truffle, you might balk at the idea. But you don’t eat chocolate, so you can listen to other people’s ideas and thoughts and desires and keep enough distance to say “gosh, that doesn’t sound good to me, but this chocolate isn’t for me, so let me see if I can give you the chocolate that you want and need.” Sometimes loving a thing can prevent you from having the distance needed to let other people love it in other ways. Being a chocolatière who doesn’t eat chocolate means that when someone comes in asking if you carry bacon-spinach-vodka filled truffles, you can think about whether that’s a thing you’d like to sell, without immediately judging it.
Oooh. Bacon-spinach-vodka filled truffles would actually work in Portland, we could probably do that! INTERESTING. And I am going to put “I understand Pleasure” up on my wall, because that feels important. THANK YOU. <3
“And your chocolate shop cultivates pleasure, not only in the chocolate itself, but in the shop as well. I imagine that it’s clean and well-kept, cozy but not stifling, bright and well-organized, with all of the information that people need (flavors, ingredients, prices, etc.) easily accessible but not obnoxiously aggressive.”
Yes, this. You know, I think the reason some chocolate shops seem stifling or aggressive, and make me want to go back outside and get a breath of fresh air, is that they’re thinking GUILTY PLEASURE. They’re trying to, like, push through the guilt, or maybe conspire with you against the guilt.
Your chocolate shop is OMG the best ever because it has NOTHING to do with guilt. It is Natural Pleasure, Easy Pleasure, Pleasure Pleasure.
Maybe it even *speaks to* the guilt, and the crazy cravings, etc. Chocolate monster corner?
Why are you good at this? Because you see underneath, to the structure. You know what a chocolate shop is, is made of, wants to be, could be and is moving toward. You can see all the movements of Chocolate Shop. You can be there to offer chocolates in every one of them.
Chocolates do not speak, either, but they are full of goodness, express welcome, provide an opening to pleasure (see above!), and evoke joy, plus they can wear costumes! And the very best chocolate shops have a charming, restful, and well-designed interior, plus lovely and thoughtful descriptions of (and maybe metaphors for) each chocolate so the buyer finds exactly the right one(s) to suit their needs. So, I can’t think of many people more qualified to run a chocolate shop than Havi Bell! (Or whoever of her many interior actors is needed for each of the jobs of running a fabulous chocolate shop.)
You are a great choco lot tier because you are an artist. And as an artist you infuse love and care and beauty into all the beautiful chocolates you make for people to “nourish” their chocolate loving souls with. You are confident that whoever eats these decadent chocolates will get exactly what they need!
Having the chocolate shop is only part of it. Really, it is the least part of your art. Your art is in the experiences that you create for people by taste, sounds, seeing and just being with and enjoying the delightful chocolates you have created just for them!
You are a great chocolatier because you know that chocolate is one way of enjoying life, and you like sharing it with people. And you can’t always give people EVERYTHING INFINITELY they may want because that is not actually possible because it is infinite, but you CAN give them chocolates. And you know that it is important that people see that they are wonderful and joyful and that they DESERVE chocolate, even when they don’t feel like they do. Chocolates are love. ? haha that sounds sooooo dorky that I have made myself feel self-conscious by typing it, but I think you will understand what I mean, because lots of things are love.
Perspective, and appreciation.
Not eating chocolate gives you perspective — so you can see the chocolate for how it really is, and you can see the chocolate shop for what it really is, and you can see the chocolate-shoppers for who they really are. This fuels appreciation, because you are taking the full experience — chocolate, chocolate shop, chocolate-shoppers — at its real value, in clear unblemished light. Maybe it’s all just one guy.
If you were a total raving chocolate-eating lunatic, well, who KNOWs what you’d see. Think of Ulysses and the lotus eaters. Not partaking made him clear enough to see a way out.
You are so much more imaginative than the other chocolatiers I know. The chocolates your shop produces delight your customers and give them exactly what they need. You make each shopper feel as if they’re getting a chocolate made specifically for them, even when making a unique chocolate for every customer is technically impossible. Your chocolates are new, different, and special!
*So* many brilliant things have been said here. I am in awe.
Chocolate is sometimes mass-produced and hastily consumed, but a chocolate *shop* is all about the details. Those who enter the shop are invited, even encouraged, to consider all the exquisite details of what they they want. And of course, they are encouraged — and empowered — to want what they want! You are a gifted chocolatier; you curate delights, and you play host to the space where your customers can immerse themselves in delight and pleasure and wonder.
A good chocolate shop is a magical place, and you have magic of your own. If I could, I would visit your chocolate shop every week. I suspect that it would quickly become a treasured ritual.
Tonight I will drink some non-metaphorical chocolate, and I will let it be a fractal flower for all that I desire, and I will think of you, and of everyone here, and I will feel closer to your chocolate shop, and happy that it is in the world.
Yes!
I’m imagining your chocolaterie as something like Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. But for chocolate. Which is just about as delight-filled as I can imagine without the help of mind-altering chemicals.
Because of the secret back room of the shop where in utter privacy and comfort you invite magic into the chocolates,without even knowing how,just by being yourself, napping and stretching and generally luxuriating in your youness,so that the chocolates have invisible fillings of great salve-like surprises exactly what each customer needs,and you are most matter-of-fact and unperturbed and above all, not-judgy, as they savor or gobble or sigh or weep, each according to their current weather, you would be a wondrous chocolatiere. Also, because you would be very good at naming the chocolates.
Jude and Paula! I would love naming the chocolates! Yes.
Oh yes, to all of this! Especially the names. Havi’s names for the chocolates would be hilarious and punny and make the whole experience more delightful. Even if I’m just looking at the website (or window-shopping if this is a low-tech chocolate shop), I can enjoy the essence of the chocolate with the names.
<3
I couldn’t help replying to some of the comments, they so resonate with what I want to say.
Loving something in a way that is “dangerous and scary” and being able to abstain from it is an amazing superpower, and maybe key to understanding the importance of what others love and crave, and how the things that are scary and dangerous can also be joyous and soothing and liberating.
And a historical note: the chocolate shops of England and Europe were the place where revolutionary and scientific thinking developed. In Havi’s chocolate shop, we can put our internal scientists to work and revolutionize our worlds — while indulging in one of our deepest pleasures.
I am a person of lists. So I will make you a list.
– Because you’ll put all of the colors of chocolate truffles out, even the ones that you didn’t really think were that special that day and you were much more excited by the yellow ones today because you know that they are there for someone else to be able to SQUEE over.
– Your chocolate shop is the only chocolate shop that is guilt-free. It dispenses with guilt. Guilt does not exist there. (Well, if it does, it’s only because something else is wearing it as a mask, like Halloween ghosts that are really bunnies.)
– It is not like anyone else’s chocolate shop, but it sings to the right people to be able to find it.
– Your chocolate has peculiar qualities to it. It grants wishes, but you don’t tell everyone that, it’s not posted in the shop anywhere and there are no yelp reviews about it. The chocolate reveals the wish-granting in its own time.
– Your chocolate shop itself has a peculiar quality to it. Other shops do not stay lit all of the time. Your has the morning sun streaming through the windows (or the afternoon sun or whatever kind of sun reminds you of ‘promise’) all the time, even at midnight on a Tuesday.
I was *immediately* reminded of my favourite ever chocolate shop / chocolate maker (Paul A Young in London) and realised that, if you were to make actual chocolates, this is how you would do it (if not better). Because:
– delight and playfulness! (Guinness truffle, anyone? Marmite brownie? SO MUCH FUN!)
– artistry! Chocolate is a complete experience, not a ‘product’
– you may be a very fine chocolatiere (one of the best) but everyone is welcome to join in the fun
– your name maybe over the door (several doors, in fact) but you are still behind the counter because you like seeing people being excited about chocolate
Also, I just watched an interview with him and it was so awesomely inspiring I’m going to share it here (scroll down to find it): http://www.paulayoung.co.uk/news/
Because you would make wonderfully shaped chocolates that are unlike anything anyone else makes, and you would arrange them in the window at night and the morning the passers by would look forward to seeing what you had come up with.
And your chocolate would appeal to exactly the right people. The people who want something just on the other side of ordinary for their special occasions (which might even be a plain old Tuesday).
And I think your shop has red velvet cushions on the banquet where people can sit and nibble on their chocolate and drink some chocolate and they like it very much.
Someone who is good at an *anything* shop must be warm, and welcoming, and *present*. These are the things that make me want to spend time in a shop and spend money. You are ALL of these things SO MUCH!! Funny is a huge plus in a shop, and you are the bestest at that (ex: “wackopants hyper” made me giggle).
A chocolate shop is about JOY, which you are wonderful at locating. And a *little* bit about addiction, which you understand. 🙂 And about BEAUTY, which you know so much about (hello! Have you seen your blue hair pic?). And it’s about NOURISHMENT, which you are a total expert at.
Hugs,
K
You will be an excellent chocolatiere because your practical imagination skills enable you to make chocolate in ways no one else would conceive of, both in terms of ingredients and process. [Plus, as you are discovering via these comments, you have the support of an unusually creative community.]
You are a fabulous chocolate shop owner because:
-you have interest, skill and experience in opening up avenues of child-like delight for your people! Chocolate is to taste buds what a buttmonster is to fingertips. You like to enjoy and provide seeming-indulgences — like naps — that are actually healthy when properly appreciated/valued (and what shows the value of the chocolate is that you’re putting your unique touch in it).
-you don’t eat chocolate! So, you’re free from getting fat at a chocolate shop. You can hear what your people want, rather than just pushing your favorites (showing off your profound understanding of “people vary.”) You can hear what the chocolate wants to be molded into. Your inner scientists are not shouted down by the must-eat-chocolate habit-monster. And scientists are the best cooks.
-you can focus on your customers, so you won’t get bored of the product (which probably doesn’t change that much.)
-you are a wordsmith, enjoying the mouth-feel of words. Chocolate has a good mouth-feel.
-Chocolate contains “cool” and “tale”. You are a cool tale-teller! Also the pirate queen is excited by the “loot” in chocolate. You can flail and make the brain a little “loco”, which chocolate also does. 🙂
-I can picture you as the sexy, wise chocolate shop owner in the movie Chocolat. (I might completely remember it wrong, but I’m comparing you to a movie star who makes out with Johnny Depp, so that’s gotta be good.)
-you and chocolate are exotic. You both wear costumes (ruffles and truffles?) and are versatile. You can be spicy and sweet, solid and melting, serious/dark and sparkly/celebratory. I think you both accept how ephemeral your situation is. “Now is not then” really holds also for the former cacao bean from the jungle.
-you have a passion for cafes, so you understand the chocolate shop milieu, a place for everything from “getting a fix” to “working/introspecting” to “bonding”.
-chocolate may have originated from a Bolivia trip but isn’t going back?
-you and a chocolate shop are both well-respected community-builders.
-both you and chocolates would prefer to duck out of the overwhelming holidays. 🙂
-there is something international and intentional and special, maybe even French, about visiting a chocolate specialty shop (as opposed to gorging on grocery-store chocolate). You are international and intentional and special!
Already, you have provided this fun opportunity for me. I can’t wait to get some of your chocolate. 🙂
Also, when I’m feeling down, I either come to this website or chocolate.com. Seriously.
Also, some visitors to a chocolate shop are just there as a companion to a chocolate eater. You would be perfect for discussing mole or other savory cocoa (or non-cocoa) things. You could provide a view or some fabulous quality instead — e.g. I enjoy going to wineries for the views and to keep company with a wine-drinker.
So many wonderful things have been said, and I agree with them all! But one more aspect that I have been thinking about: I have been learning over the past year about the ethics and economics of [non-metaphorical] mass-produced chocolate, and I have been striving to invest my clews in fair-trade/ethically-sourced/good-in-the-world chocolate. What I love about your chocolate shop is that I am certain that the economic policies are mutually beneficial, leading to abundance for the makers and delight for the buyers (I am certain of this because this is your space and abundance and delight already infuses your compasses and salves and superpowers!). In the midst of a world that often operates so differently, your work as chocolatier (to mediate, to direct, to frame the exchanges) affirms goodness and respect for everyone who participates in the process of crafting and enjoying the chocolate.
And I’m sending you a bunch of lovely blossoms for the shop’s counter!
Yes, you are so right to think of this ! That is absolutely something I would care about in my chocolate shop! Affirming goodness and respect — what a beautiful way of putting it. And flowers, of course the shop needs flowers. THANK YOU <3
I’ve not read all the comments, so forgive if I’m repeating what someone else has said, k? Reasons you’d make a good chocolate shop owner:
1) You would completely be able to create a unique brand for a chocolate shop because you have a knack for seeing/envisioning the unseen special qualities of a thing and enthusiastically sharing them with others.
2) You’d bring flair and uniqueness to the world of chocolates because you are an explorer who would think of wonderful, unexplored ways to pair chocolate with other things to create something even more amazing. And chocolate lovers enjoy when someone is able to add an extra dimension to chocolate that they would have never thought of.
3) Because you radiate peace and harmony, your chocolate shop would also radiate those qualities, making it a happy place for people who need shelter in a happy place. Writers and Artists would start to flock to your chocolate shop instead of the local starbucks or what-have-you in order to enjoy chocolate and chocolate related goodies (oh, like the best hot chocolate with organic whip cream – please and thank you!) and have a space to create/brainstorm their best ideas.
Gosh, I know this is a proxy, but now I’m wishing you really owned a chocolate shop that I could come to visit because I’m envisioning these incredible, sustainably created chocolates that make my mouth water, in this wonderful funky little shop where there’s art all around and a thriving community, with spaces for engaging with others and spaces for just sitting and savoring your chocolate and a cup of tea or coffee… and it all works so well because it reflects all the things we love about you.
Haha! Shauntelle! Now I also kind of wish I really owned a chocolate shop. 🙂
I think your shop would be the best in town, because you cherish sweetness. Every morsel would also be beautiful, a treat to the eye, because beauty is important in your chocolate shop. We love the whimsical shapes–tiny baskets of fruit, little mice, but also tiny cats and odd chocolate monsters, too cute to be scary. Dear Havi, as long as you run the chocolate shop, I’ll be in line several days a week, because the right bite of chocolate is strangely nourishing. Thanks for all the sweets, Dawn
I sort of have the idea that you were already running a chocolate shop, except without chocolate or shopping, and it is known as the Cheesening. Just like the Cheesening, your chocolate shop would be about pleasure and indulgence and Now It’s Time to Relax and Enjoy, AND it would not be at all fussy, intimidating or … well, I find many chocolate shops kind of *claustrophobically chocolate-focused*. Yours isn’t like that. It has the superpower of Easy Indulgence! Indulgence with Ease, Warmth and Casual Delight… Indulgence that is easy because pleasure and beauty and sexiness are natural things and there is Plenty more where that came from, with stars on the ceiling to follow. Also, you’d probably put surreptitious little signs around the door so that one would Just Know, upon entering, that This Place Is Different.
And shit, man. You’re the chocolatier-writer who doesn’t speak, but just smiles radiantly at the customers, and writes, and perhaps points to the beautiful and surreptitious signs. Can you imagine the buzz that generates? People are going to think they stepped into a storybook.
So here’s the funny part: this is my first time on your blog. So just like you haven’t tasted chocolate in years and it makes you hyper, I barely know you (other than a few posts) and they are making me hyper (in a good way).
And I can also sort of pretend this is really about a chocolate shop. I’m really good at playing along when that means playing dense.
Just from what I’ve seen, you would be an immaculate chocolatière because you *do* understand pleasure. Not in a skeevy Fifty Shades of Licorice Rope kind of way, but you know that all six senses need to be engaged before the real ones start kicking in. You also seem to have a way of seeing (hearing?) someone’s need and pressing a thumb into it like a massage therapist.
Because there’re just some moments when you need dark chocolate with sumac. And other moments when milk chocolate with wasabi, ginger, and black sesame is called for. (I also imagine you wouldn’t balk at “strange” ingredients. Chocolate is like magic once you get over Godiva.)
Your (metaphorical) chocolate shop reminds me a lot of a very real Chocolate Temple here in Chicago: http://www.peaceloveandchocolate.com/. She also sells the chocolates described above, but she has turned “a chocolate shop” into so much more.
Anyhow–thanks. Such an awesome introduction to this place.
Being a chocolatier who doesn’t eat chocolate is like being one of those actors who doesn’t watch his or her own movies. It’s something about loving the engagement and the making process but not being too attached to the end product.
This isn’t me, since I’d be in there with the tasting spoon and the front row seats to the movie starring me. But it has a wonderful artisan quality that I love.
You know, the interesting thing about chocolate is how personal it can be. Some people *love* salted-caramel chocolate while others can’t stand it, and would much rather have some sort of fruity chocolate instead. Everyone has their own chocolate preferences, and feels *very strongly* about those preferences. So to me, it seems like it would be very difficult to be a chocolatier—to have to cater to so many different tastes.
But you are a *marvelous* chocolatier because you have totally embraced the fact that chocolate tastes vary. And somehow you have managed to create chocolates that appeal to those differences in taste we all have. You have created a chocolate shop that embraces and welcomes chocolate connossieurs of all stripes. And your insights in ingredients, process, labeling and quality help us all *develop* our individual tastes in chocolates. You’re a chocolate maker, a chocolate historian, a chocolate educator and a chocolate poet. And you create an entire chocolate *experience* for us—not just the chocolates themselves.
I am a little late to this party, but I wanted to make sure someone brought up the movie Chocolat, and how you are not-so-metaphorically the Vienne of blogging 🙂 Of course she opened a chocolate shop during Lent. And when people came in to look around, she’d have them spin the Mayan chocolate wheel, ask what they saw, and know for sure what they’re favorite chocolate was.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEzzbBc7Tw4
I second what everyone else said, and I want to add that I am Highly Suspicious of people who try to “serve” others for any reason other than Joy. Sometimes people say it’s altruism, selflessness, or sacrifice. But I know with you it’s about joyful living and delighting in the magic. So if I were going to eat any chocolate at all, I’d want it to be infused with those qualities.
So, a lurker bee flies into the chocolate shop.
Lurker bee doesn’t really understand chocolate shops but he (I know, I know) can smell sweet from a distance. The sweets here must have an effect on him even though he doesn’t eat them, because he comes back often when the world outside starts looking a bit dull. When he leaves he carries the memory of some new chocolate flower or heart and from time to time he wonders what the chocolate queen would make of something he is looking at.
As a bee, he can recognise a queen when he sees one. To him a queen is a being who has developed enough to serve others and in so doing gathers a certain influence and power. So, a good queen, not an “off with her head” type queen.
To him it seems some of his achievements have a faint smell of chocolate to them. Lurker bees don’t talk either so the chocolate queen doesn’t always learn of her influence. And that is a little bit heartbreaking and a little bit beautiful.
Best Monster Cookies EVER — and when you eat the cookies, the associated monster disappears (at least temporarily).
Hey Heyyy!
I think it’s pretty damn interesting/exciting to have someone who is indifferent to chocolate – own/run a chocolate shop.
In fact it’s that lack of in-obsessive-love-with-it that I kinda enjoy.
I think neutrality about the things we love (and hate) is pretty cool too come to think of it. Sometimes it’s fun and grounding and just plain yummy to hang out with people who are like yaaaaa so you can have this chocolate, or you can not have this chocolate, cool colour your wearing and did you hear about x,y,z?
Somehow all these things can give you greater freedom and a sort of sense of humour in your way that makes people want what you have even more.
XX
Because you’re not overly invested in the kind of chocolate YOU like. You’re open to see what people really want, what they will spend money on, what will make them happy, rather than what you THINK is what they want (as a proxy, kinda).
And your chocolate shop would be the safest-space chocolate shop in the entire world. There would be no fat shaming, no judging the amount of chocolate that someone bought. No judging the chocolate-with-nuts or the chocolate-with-raisins or the chili-chocolate. Or the white chocolate or the dark chocolate. All combos would be available, and none shall be judged.
Oh. And they are not just solid chocolate. They are like the salves. They are available as cocktails, as hot chocolate, as body lotion. Whatever each customer needs.