Thinking in New York

It's been so long since I've posted anything here. In the beginning while creating Sweet Mona's I spent many months of dreaming and planning and thinking and writing and drawing. It was the time I spent called walking the conference table.

The "Sweet Team"--Rachelle, Tristan, Julia & Grace are the people that make sure your chocolate shop experience is created in the store. The dream continues. Many folks come in and see that I'm not in the shop. I'm not. I'm researching, learning, creating, and dreaming to get Sweet Mona's to the next level.

I dream about opening other Sweet Mona's, Chocolate Boutiques around the country, and building a manufacturing facility. My dreams so far have been fueled by passion and tenacity with not much in the way of finances. I say that the finances will come through planning, and through education.

That's what I'm doing now--planning and gathering more education. There is so much thinking that goes into planning--forecasting, and costing, building, equipment, employees, return on investment, marketing--There is just so much to know. And that's takes time--time away from the shop.

Today I'm in New York blogging. Yesterday I spent the day walking and researching chocolate. When I walk into the shops here I see more than a case full of exquisite chocolates. I see the persons hearts in the dreams they are creating during their chocolate journey--some whimsical, some classical, some simple, some extravagant. That's what I want for those who walk into Sweet Mona's.

I hope you will follow me on my dream and allow me the priviledge of sharing the sweet life with you.

In the next few blogs, I'll talk about the different chocolate shops I visited in New York. Please follow along.

Where Does Chocolate Come From?

Theobroma Cacao. That's the name of the chocolate tree. Theobroma is Greek and it means "Food of the Gods". In this instance, the pronunciation for Cacao is KA-COW. Once the fruit of the tree is processed into chocolate, the spelling and pronunciation changes to Cocoa, pronounced KO-KO.

The trees grow in the tropics within 20 degrees north and south of the Equator. Africa is where the most Cacao is grown. They produce about 70% of the world's Cacao. The trees grow best under the shade of larger trees, like banana trees, much like coffee. The trees produce approximately 2000 pods per year and each pod has 30 to 40 seeds in them. They range in color from orange to red, to yellow, to violet and are about the size of a small football. The picture to the left was taken in the Dominican Republic by Victoria Santos of The Sister Island Project.

The tree flowers prior to producing fruit pods. The pods or fruit of the chocolate tree extend directly from the trunk. This is different than most fruit trees. Most of us all know what an apple tree looks like. Can you imagine the apples growing directly out of the trunk?

The Cacao pods when left alone are eaten by monkeys and other forest animals. The sticky substance inside the pod is what the animals are after and they usually cast the bitter seeds aside. In this way, the animals help to re-populate the area with trees.

The pods are harvested by farmers and cut open by whacking the pod with a machete like object and then the seeds are removed and layed out in the sun to ferment and dry. Once this process is complete, they are shipped off to be sold to chocolate manufactures.