Hello and good day!
It's interesting how different people work better or worse with one another.
We made the decision to homeschool our children a few years back.
In theory, I oversee math.
However, it became clear early on that my teaching style didn't jive equally well with each of my children.
As such, we've brought in a Peruvian math tutor to help out with our oldest son via Zoom.
The way I wanted to teach just wasn't working for him and the new arrangement produces much better results. It took a large dose of humility for me to accept that my method of instruction wasn't effective in his case.
In the end, all I want is for my kid to have the necessary skills to thrive in this world.I must admit though, I had to lick my wounds for a while after my family relieved me of my duties.
The situation with my middle son is totally the opposite.
My way of teaching appears to be a perfect fit for him, which isn't surprising because from very early on I perceived that he and I have very similar personalities.
What I love most about the working relationship with my son is that I have a front row seat to watch him improve.
It is fascinating.I love the topic of skill improvement.
What is required to become expert at something?
Every day I see incremental improvements and then one day, after practicing over and over again, he achieves mastery of a concept.
Then he understands how concepts work synergistically together and I see him floating over problems, pulling in the various techniques and weaving them all together, with very little input from me.
It is astounding to see a little boy go from ignorant to skilled technician right in front of your very eyes.
To get to his current level has taken an hour to an hour and a half per day of serious practice over the course of several years.
I can see how once you master baseline skills, learning is likely to accelerate, because an extended skillset is built on top of strong fundamentals.
I mention all of this as a proud papa.
But I also mention it as a precursor to announcing a new product that we just put online.
You see, we've been buying and processing cacao and making chocolate for 15 years, but we've only been manufacturing chocolate products in our kitchen for the last 2 years.
We don't have a little kid working an hour and a half a day in the kitchen.
Rather, we have ten dedicated full-time employees working hard every day, attempting to put out the highest quality products we are capable of producing.
In just 2 years, we've come a long way, and I couldn't be prouder of our team.
Because of their hard work, we have around 50 products that we make consistently for our retail shops and a couple dozen available online.
We started with zero and have had to learn how to make every new product one step at a time. And we're still just getting started.
I consider us to be two years into a five-year learning curve.
The idea for our new product came from a wonderful customer named Rob Berger.
He wrote suggesting that we put together a gift box of some sort.
He pointed out, correctly, that a gift box from us could go in many directions.
It could be a collection of pure chocolates, not confections.
We could do a dark chocolate collection or a milk chocolate collection.
In the end, we took a Nat King Cole song for our inspiration: I Love You For Sentimental Reasons.
We’ve chosen products that have meant a lot to us over the last two years and are milestones in our continued skill improvement.
Also, we wanted to keep the price affordable, so we’ve limited ourselves to just five products in the collection.
First up is dark chocolate s’mores. This was the first product we ever made in our kitchen.
I came in from handing out flyers in the rain and Javier our chocolatier was alone in the kitchen.
He handed me a dark chocolate s’more and our future flashed before my eyes.
“Wow. Javier can make products. Let's go for it,” I thought.
This is an adult s’more.
Our 68% dark chocolate reels in the sweetness.
We use a vegan, tapioca-based marshmallow that is less sweet and has a nice chewy texture.The sandwich is comprised of thick, organic, honey graham crackers.
Next is our sea salt caramel turtles. These are our bestsellers in the shops. It blew my mind that we could up and make caramel.
Javier substitutes honey for corn syrup which gives the caramel a nice soft rather than sticky texture and a unique flavor. Our 47% dark milk chocolate ties it all together with fresh organic pecans.
We’ve included mint patties.We make the filling from scratch using just a few simple ingredients.
Again, it seemed extraordinary to me that we could make mint patties.
The 68% dark chocolate tones down the sweetness of the filling.
We make these nice and minty with peppermint oil.
Lately if I buy something from the shop to take home for myself, it is usually our mint patties.
Our coconut pineapple squares were the first product we put out that gained a true cult following.It is a very unique product featuring our 36% milk chocolate, drizzled over with our 68% dark chocolate.Inside are dried coconut and pineapple pieces. Great chewy texture from the dried fruit.
Rich coconut and our 36% milk chocolate are a beautiful combination in my opinion and acidity from the pineapple provides balance.So many people come to the shop just for these and it was the first time that Javier showcased his unusual ability for creating unexpected flavor combinations.
Lastly, we’ve included our strawberry and nibs 36% milk chocolate bar.
The acidity of dehydrated strawberries goes so well with the creaminess and sweetness of milk chocolate. Cacao nibs add crunch and a touch of bitterness to offset sweetness.
This is an excellent showcase of balance.
The ingredients are intentionally chosen for a delicious experience that doesn’t blow out your pallet with too much of any one flavor.
We are very proud of this collection and the progress that we’ve made as a company.
From the jungle of northern Peru to Switzerland, to our small kitchen in Issaquah Washington, to you.
The boxes cost $21.99 for 16 ounces of delicious chocolate.
If you are interested, compare our price per pound to other chocolates on the market.
You will be hard pressed to find products of this quality for a comparable price.
This is possible because of our business model.
No middlemen. No distributors. No retailers.
We buy cacao wet off trees in northern Peru.
We own our cacao through the entire supply chain.
We manufacture our own products, and we sell direct to our customers.
Fair prices for our customers and ten times fair trade premiums paid to our cacao farm partners for their crops.
If you’d be interested in considering these new gift boxes, simply click on the link below to check it out.
Thank you so much for time today.
I hope that you have a truly blessed day!
Adam
Click here for wonderful chocolate made with pure Nacional cacao.
Follow us on Instagram - @fortunatonochocolate
To learn more about our word-of-mouth program, click here.
