General Operations Manual Frequently Asked Customer Questions & Answers

1. Do you take orders over the phone?

Yes we do, provided we are not too busy. We strongly suggest that customers use our friendly web based ordering system at www.SoChoklat.com if you don’t have time to wait for an order. Quite often our staff are very busy, and aren’t able to get to the phone in time.

2. Does Choklat deliver?

At this time Choklat ships all across Canada to both residences and businesses. The cost of delivery is a flat $20. We offer same day service during the week in Calgary, but do not ship or deliver on weekends.

3. I have a Groupon Voucher I would like to redeem…

Over the years we have run several Groupon and LivingSocial promotions. Some promotions were for a collection of truffles. Some promotions were for seats at events, and some were for bars. ALL GROUPON PROMOTIONS HAVE NOW ENDED. All outstanding vouchers are now to be treated as a gift certificate FOR THE VALUE THE CUSTOMER ACTUALLY PAID. For example, if the promotion was “get a $20 box of truffles for $10”, a customer can still use their voucher to purchase a $20 box of truffles. They would just need to pay the extra $10 plus any applicable taxes. Substitutions cannot be made. If the voucher was for an event, then the voucher must be used for an event and not to purchase chocolate products. This is indicated in the fine print on each voucher.

4. Are your cocoa beans fair trade?

The term “Fair Trade” as it relates to the chocolate industry is hardly “fair”. It takes approximately 3200 man hours to harvest and successfully process 1 metric ton of cocoa beans. For those 3200 manhours, the minimum price as mandated by various world fair trade organizations is $1750 per ton (only when the price of cocoa is above $2,000 USD per metric ton), or about 54 cents per hour, IF the farmer doesn’t take his cut before paying his employees. There is currently no incentive for chocolate producers to pay more for the beans than that price, hence it’s both a floor and ceiling price.

We offer a program called “Sustainable trade” whereby we completely disregard the “fair trade” hoopla and propaganda, and pay considerably more than market prices directly to the growers for our cocoa beans. Our mandate is to create a sustainable living environment for the grower, thereby ensuring a long, exclusive, and prosperous relationship with us.

5. Do you make ?

To be quite candid, almost all cocoa beans are by design, “organic”. This is because the farmer is paid so little for his crop that he can’t afford the sprayers, or chemicals, or even an education to be able to read the instructions if he did have the equipment. With regard to other ingredients – the sugar, , and vanilla, we haven’t found organic products of the quality and price we would be happy making chocolate out of. Most organic cocoa butter I have sampled has been horrible. It’s also VERY difficult and inconsistent to obtain.

General Operations Manual Frequently Asked Customer Questions & Answers

6. Is there any dairy in your ?

None at all. Our dark chocolate contains 4 simple ingredients: cocoa beans, fat from the cocoa beans (called cocoa butter), sugar, and Madagascan bourbon vanilla.

7. Does your chocolate contain lecithin?

Quite often you will find on the ingredient list of a "soy lecithin as an emulsifier". Chocolate isn't an emulsion, and Lecithin in chocolate is used as a form of lubricant – to allow the particles in the chocolate to move around more easily in the fat. It is commonly used in varieties of chocolate where there is low fat content, and high solid content.

Our dark chocolate recipes contain enough cocoa butter to allow the chocolate to be very fluid, and melt very nicely on the tongue without feeling thick or gummy, and as a result needs no lecithin.

Our milk and however have a very high solid milk and sugar content, and as a result do in fact need lecithin in order for us to pour it into molds. Having said that, the amount of lecithin in our milk and white chocolate is only one half of one percent by weight.

8. Does your chocolate contain gluten?

Our recipes call for no gluten to be added to the chocolate we make. However…. Our shop works with flour daily, and as a result, a small amount of flour dust may be present in the air, and settle on a piece of chocolate. Also, some of our truffle coatings contain gluten, and because they are side by side in our truffle assembly line, a small amount of cross contamination may occur. Some of our customers have celiac issues and regularly buy our bars and certain types of truffles with no problems. Due to flour being present in our shop we simply cannot legally state that our products are gluten free.

9. Do you sell ?

At this time, the only chocolate we make and sell is in the form of eating bars, or our own confections. We are currently attempting to source a supply of beans that will allow us to make a chocolate that could be used for baking.

10. If I buy some of your bars, can I bake with them?

Our 80% dark chocolate bars could feasibly be used for baking. However our milk bars, and our 70% dark barks are too high in fat, and don’t have enough flavour intensity to work effectively in a baked product. Further to that, all of the flavour nuances found in our chocolate would be lost in the baked product you are creating.

A good comparison in this regard would be the use of wine in cooking. Sure, you can use a $50 bottle of red wine in your stew, but you would see no more benefit from it than you would if you used a much more value priced bottle.

General Operations Manual Frequently Asked Customer Questions & Answers

11. Do you offer discounts for large orders?

Our prices are already between 30 and 50% lower than that of our competitors while at the same time we offer a far superior tasting, hand made product and excellent service. With the exception of the retailers who have made a long standing commitment to sell our products, we feel that our pricing is already better than even the best price our competitors will offer, so no, we don’t offer discounts.

12. Do you sell wholesale chocolate to businesses for their own baking?

In 2018 we opened our doors to individuals and business who wanted to purchase our products and resell them to friends and customers of their own. Our wholesale prices are 65% of our MSRP across the board. However there are minimum order amounts that retailers must purchase to get that kind of discount.

13. Do you offer private chocolate events? If so, when?

Yes we do. We only host them in the evenings after 7:00pm, as the shop is open during the day, and nobody is allowed back in the food preparation area. The best date availability is between October 1st and March 31st. We will also not host events on statutory holidays, or within 7 days prior to a seasonal event such as Valentines, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc.

14. How long are they, and what happens during your chocolate events?

The events, called “Choklat Therapy” are about two to two and a half hours in duration. During this period, the speaker gives a brief history of the shop, and chocolate in general. After that, the registrants are stepped through the entire process of making chocolate – right from selection of the beans, through to the making of chocolate bars.

Once that is complete, the participants are given a series of samples of each of the dark we make, along with a comparison of what many people think is good quality chocolate. The comparison is drastic and very surprising to many.

After that, there is a brief wine pairing with a selection of chocolate and wines chosen by a local sommelier.

15. What is the maximum capacity of your chocolate events?

The largest number we prefer to host is 20 at a time here at Choklat. This size is strictly based on the limitations of space in our shop.

16. Do you hold events at other locations, and if so what is the cost?

Yes. We can host a “Chocolate Therapy” event at the location of your choice. We have a fully prepared Powerpoint presentation, along with all of the multimedia equipment necessary to host the event. The price for it is a $200 flat fee for the presentation, and then $5 per person for the chocolate and $5 per person for the wine samples if you choose to do a wine and chocolate pairing. Depending on availability of staff we are

General Operations Manual Frequently Asked Customer Questions & Answers

able to host this event during the day as well at your location. The minimum number of participants we will host an event for is 20 people.

17. I purchased a ticket to one of your events, and need to reschedule. How do I do that?

You can’t. Reservations for our events are non-refundable, and non exchangeable. If you can’t make it to an event, you may give away, or sell your tickets to someone who can make it.

18. Can you donate chocolate to our event?

We get an average of 3 donation requests per week. Subsequently we have put a very extensive community contributions program in place. Decisions with respect to community partners are made early every year and then we work with those partners to host events and give away tickets for our events which can be used in Silent Auctions, and other incentives. We do not give away edible Choklat product.

19. If you’re the only chocolate maker around, what do other do?

EVERY other in Western Canada buys bulk chocolate from either a manufacturer or supplier, then melts it down and uses it to create their confections. This includes Bernard Callebaut, Purdy’s, Rogers, Secord, Ganong, and all smaller ones. In recent years there has been a groundswell of individuals who have started making chocolate in their home kitchens. They call themselves chocolate makers but the truth is that they don’t make a living at it. They are simply home hobbyists with full time day jobs. We pay our bills by making chocolate.

20. What difference does it make if you make the chocolate or a large manufacturer makes it?

The difference is drastic. First of all, because we make our chocolate in smaller batches, we have a level of control over the type and quality of the beans we use that most chocolate manufacturers don’t, and that chocolatiers never will. Second of all, we control the roasting, which is one of the most important steps in developing the flavour of the final chocolate. Third, because we are able to control every aspect of making the chocolate, we are able to create a product that matches perfectly with the end confection. There really is no comparison.

21. What does the percentage mean on the dark chocolate bars?

According to both food regulatory agencies here in Canada and the US, the percentage denoting you quite often see on the packaging of dark chocolate refers to the combination of cocoa beans AND cocoa butter (the fat from the ), and in some cases even cocoa powder. For example, a 70% bar could typically be a combination of 50% cocoa beans and 20% cocoa butter, or 55% cocoa beans, 5% cocoa powder, and 10% cocoa butter.

In most manufactured chocolate, the cocoa butter is quite often the most expensive ingredient, so chocolate manufacturers will do whatever they can to reduce the content of cocoa butter. Quite often this means using

General Operations Manual Frequently Asked Customer Questions & Answers

a high percentage of cocoa beans, a small amount of cocoa butter, and then augmenting the fat content with another type of fat, such as anhydrous milk fat (clarified butter), or palm oil, or palm kernel oil.

In the case of Choklat, we actually put the recipe right on the side of the bar, so you see exactly what our percentages are made up of. We don’t play games or take short cuts when it comes to our chocolate.

22. Where do the cocoa beans come from?

In general, cocoa beans come from an area of 20 degrees north and south of the equator, with approximately 95% of the world’s cocoa supply coming from the Ivory Coast of Africa. Our cocoa beans come from other regions of the world more renown for producing fine flavour cocoa – areas such as Venezuela, Brazil, and Mexico.

23. How do you actually “make” chocolate?

Chocolate is made by first harvesting and fermenting the seeds of a tropical fruit called Cocoa. Fermentation is the most important part of developing the flavour of cocoa beans, and takes place right at the plantation where the beans are harvested.

Once the beans are harvested and fermented, they are dried in the sun, then put in sacks and either taken to a local co-op for sale, or in our case, put on pallets and shipped to us directly from the growers.

Once in our shop, we roast the beans. Roasting does a number of things: It loosens the shells on the beans. It kills any pathogens that may have hitched a ride along the way. It drives off acids that were present during the fermentation period. It also helps further develop the chocolate flavour that we enjoy so much.

After the beans have been roasted, and are cool, the shells are then removed and the beans are ground with sugar, vanilla, and a small amount of cocoa butter until such time as all of the particles are so small that our pallets can’t detect them anymore, and the chocolate is silky smooth.

24. Are your cocoa beans single origin?

Single origin denotes a single geographical area of a country that the beans come from. In our case, ALL of our beans are single origin. In fact, with the exception of our Ocumare, and Cuyagua, all of our beans are single estate varieties.

25. Why don’t your staff use gloves when working with our truffles?

These days, when you see people working behind counters with food, you often see them wearing plastic gloves. This is because they are often assisting customers at the same time, and the gloves are designed for a single use. When we suggested to the regional health inspectors that we were also interested in using gloves, they advised against it for our business. Their reasoning was that the gloves are actually a breeding ground for bacteria, and that a good hand washing program in place is far more effective than a glove system. As a result, we put in place a very extensive hand washing system, including the use of single-use paper towels.

General Operations Manual Frequently Asked Customer Questions & Answers

Over time we also realized that because we were continually getting chocolate on our hands, and had to remove it to keep the shop tidy, the only way would be to wash with soap. Subsequently, we actually wash our hands more than what the health department recommends!

26. How long do your truffles last?

Because of the higher cream and butterfat content in our truffles, their shelf life at room temperature is only 10-14 days. You can extend the shelf life be refrigerating them, but we advise it due to the fact that chocolate is very hygroscopic. This means that it is very susceptible to absorbing odor and moisture from its immediate surroundings. Within a couple of days of being in your fridge, your chocolate will taste like the inside of your fridge. Yuck!

27. How many calories are in your chocolate?

We don’t count calories, and neither should you. We recommend that you balance your life with exercise and eat whatever you like. However, if you feel you must know, the exact quantities of each ingredient in our bars is on our packaging. Keeping in mind that cocoa beans contain approximately 50% fat, and cocoa butter is 100% fat, you can very easily calculate the fat/calorie content in our bars if you see fit.

28. How should my chocolate be stored?

Chocolate is best stored at room temperature, in an area that is void of strong odor. Chocolate bars will last indefinitely if stored properly. Truffles will only last about 10-14 days. Whatever you do though, DON’T store chocolate in the fridge or freezer. It is very hygroscopic. What this means is that chocolate is very susceptible to absorbing odor and moisture from its surrounding environment. Regardless of how well you store it, within just a few days of being in the fridge, the flavor will have changed. Nobody wants “Left Over Pizza” chocolate.

29. Do you sell cocoa nibs?

We get a lot of requests from people for nibs. At this time we don’t sell them, as the price would be far too high. Once our large factory is up and running, we certainly will be selling nibs, along with a number of other chocolate products.

30. What does fermentation mean as it applies to cocoa beans?

Fermentation is the process of changing the chemical structure of the inside of the cocoa bean. Over a period of several days, the natural yeasts and bacteria in the air where the cocoa beans are harvested act upon the sweet pulp that encases the cocoa bean. It converts the pulp into various polyphenols and acids (predominantly acetic and citric) which chemically alters the inside of the bean, and aids in the development of the flavanoids and other compounds that make it become chocolate.

General Operations Manual Frequently Asked Customer Questions & Answers

31. What gives chocolate its bitterness?

Bitterness in chocolate is the sign of improperly processed cocoa beans. When the beans are first harvested, and before the fermentation period begins, the cocoa beans are very bitter and terrible tasting. However if they are fermented properly, that bitterness abates, and a very strong chocolate flavour develops. If you were to taste the roasted nibs in our shop you would find them very strong tasting, but not overly bitter.

32. What does “astringency” mean?

Astringency can be best described as the unpleasant feeling that you get when you put something in your mouth, and it’s as if it sucks all the moisture from you. Another analogy would be that the product has a “chalky” feel and taste. Quite often if you’re eating chocolate made from poorly processed cocoa beans both the bitterness and astringency come hand-in-hand.

33. Does your chocolate contain nuts?

It might. Our facility does process various types of nuts, and also offers a peanut butter truffle center. While we do what we can to ensure that nuts are contained in our truffle processing area, and that we don’t use nuts with our chocolate “making” equipment, we can’t guarantee that a fragment or shell, or something to that effect won’t fall in by accident.

34. What kind of chocolate do you use for your truffles and confections?

We use our Brazilian chocolate for all of our confections, with the exception of our , and some of our barks.

35. Do you make white chocolate?

We absolutely do, and it’s amazing! The white chocolate we make is specifically for our truffle centers that we offer in the summer, and is different from a typical white “eating” chocolate no vanilla at all. This allows us to truly celebrate the flavour of each ingredient we mix it with. The chocolate we make and sell in chocolate bar format is different in that it contains real vanilla from the Bourbon Islands of Madagascar (not vanilla extract… REAL beans). It is the finest and riches vanilla in the world today, and the resulting flavour of our while chocolate is out of this world!

36. Why is your white chocolate not white?

Industrial white chocolate is made by using skim milk powder, vanillin crystals, and Titanium Dioxide to make it whiter. Our white chocolate however uses natural ingredients such as real vanilla (brown), powdered cream (yellowish), cocoa butter (yellow), and lecithin (brown). In a good quality white chocolate, the only white ingredient is actually the sugar. So there you have it. Good white chocolate that isn’t really white!

General Operations Manual Frequently Asked Customer Questions & Answers

37. How do you flavor your truffle centers?

Our truffle centers are flavoured with all natural ingredients. For example, our orange truffle centers are flavoured using the zest of navel oranges infused into the cream before it’s mixed. The same applies to our key lime truffle center. For our raspberry truffle center, we simmer and reduce fresh raspberries, puree them, and then filter out the seeds before mixing the reduction in with the cream. Where other chocolatiers use “essential oils” we don’t. We use all natural ingredients. These flavours are sometimes a surprise to customers, as they are very different than the artificial flavours we are typically used to. Our peppermint for example, uses fresh mint grown by us year-round. We don’t recommend a truffle made with fresh mint to be rolled in anything but shaved chocolate. We also recommend that you prepare the customer for the unique and delicate flavour of the mint, as it isn’t from an essence oil such as what other chocolatiers offer.

38. I see that you have various gift items. Can I add to them?

Absolutely. If you want more truffles in your Truffle Martini, you would just have to purchase more. If you want more certificates in your “Therapy for Two” gift, again, you would just have to purchase more, and ask that they be included when the gift is sealed. In fact we have a very extensive gift basket program which allows you to customize your basket to your exact budget!

39. We would like to use your chocolate and have special confections made with our name on it for client appreciation gifts.

When it comes to novelty, or branded products, we simply don’t do it. Our philosophy is that we make arguably the best chocolate and chocolate confections in the country, and have worked very hard to create a brand (Choklat) which people recognize as the best. To offer our chocolate in any other form than what people have come to recognize and love, would be taking a step back, and making it as common as everyone else’s. Our suggestion would be to capitalize on the fabulous reputation we have built, and attach your own tags to our packaging with a phrase such as: “To show our appreciation, We want you to have nothing but the best….”.

40. Do you bake cakes or other specialty items for parties?

No we do not.

41. What is the glitter on your bling pops made of?

The glitter is made of a combination of glazing sugars and food safe minerals for sparkle.

42. Do you make raw chocolate?

No we don't, because killing our customers is uncool. Cocoa beans are an agricultural product of a third world country. They are fermented on the ground, dried on the ground, and then gathered into sacks by workers who have little regard for sanitation. The FDA and the CFIA respectively consider them to be contaminated with Salmonella and eColi when they enter the country, and need to be handled with utmost care. The only

General Operations Manual Frequently Asked Customer Questions & Answers

true way to ensure people aren't made sick is to roast them which kills all the pathogens in all the tiny nooks and crannies in the bean and, which of course changes their chemistry.

43. What about the raw chocolate bars sold in stores today?

If you had occasion to eat a "raw" chocolate bar, and it tasted acidic, fruity, astringent, gritty, and absolutely nothing like chocolate, then you may very well have been eating a raw chocolate bar. HOWEVER.... if it was presented to you as raw and even remotely tasted like chocolate, you were swindled. Cocoa beans taste absolutely nothing like chocolate until they are roasted, just as coffee beans taste nothing like coffee until they are roasted. This is a chemical reaction created by heat, called a Maillard reaction. Marketing people lie. Chemistry does not.

44. I heard that dark chocolate is good for you, as it's full of antioxidants and health benefits.

This one irritates me even more than the "white chocolate isn't chocolate" crap I see on the internet all the time. Chocolate is CANDY. PERIOD. END OF STORY. Why can I say that when so many health professionals tout the antioxidant benefits of dark chocolate? Well, it's because people lie. Facts don't. Let me explain:

Take a 70% dark chocolate bar (the measuring stick for "healthy" eating):

• Half of the 70% is cocoa solids (brown stuff) which contains fibre, flavour and so forth. However, that 35% has been roasted, and roasting destroys antioxidants and flavanols. • Half of the 70% is cocoa butter (fat). Some people will work hard to justify their vice by rationalizing that it's a "good" fat, which contains oleic and stearic acids. Yeah.... I suppose so. But while it won't directly clog your arteries I guarantee you eating enough of it will clog your Levis! • The remaining 30% is almost always sugar.

So.... in a nutshell, that "healthy" dark chocolate bar you are munching away on is 65% FAT AND SUGAR!!

Chocolate is CANDY. PERIOD. END OF STORY. Can you think of another "health food" that is 65% fat and sugar? Not even a Big Mac has that much fat in it!

45. I have various food intolerances and would like to know more about your ingredients.

We take the ingredients we use and their sources very seriously. As such we have a dedicated web page which outlines every ingredient we use here at Choklat and where that ingredient is used. You can learn more about our commitment to ingredients and quality at http://Ingredients.Choklat.com

46. What is Choklat’s position on the upcoming recreational cannabis industry?

After several years of testing and recipe development, we have made a very significant financial commitment to this very new market. It’s important to note that cannabis infused chocolate will NOT be made in the same

General Operations Manual Frequently Asked Customer Questions & Answers

physical facility as our regular retail chocolate products. In fact when the legislation passes it will be illegal to make both in the same building.

It’s also important to point out that we will not be selling cannabis infused chocolate products in our store or through our website. All Choklat related cannabis items will be sold properly through licensed retailers, and done so with the utmost safety in mind.

Because of the direction the company is taking with respect to cannabis, ALL of our products will actually be safer and better quality! Our cannabis license will mean that Choklat is federally regulated, and that means more attention to detail and product quality. Very shortly we will be the first artisan chocolate maker in Canada with a global food certification called GFS1. We will also have a full time Quality Control person on staff to over see our infused production, AND our regular retail lines.

47. Do you ship to the US or outside of Canada?

Not at this time. The FDA in the US has made it very difficult to ship small parcels of food across the border, and it is very costly to ship chocolate elsewhere in the world. We have had so few requests that we simply didn’t design our software to allow it.

48. I can’t get your shopping cart to work on my Ipad/Iphone.

Unfortunately the various releases of the Apple operating system are inconsistent. On some Ipads our software works just fine (such as the Ipads we have here at Choklat), while on other versions it doesn’t. Seeing as this is a sporadic Apple problem we have no way of troubleshooting it. Our only recommendation would be to either try another Mac device, try a computer with Chrome, or Firefox, or Edge, or else call our shop at 403-457-1419 and place your order over the phone with one of our staff.