New Chocolate Company Uses Mostly Organic Ingredients
A new chocolate company formed in April 2007, in Lancaster County, which makes ‘truffle’-type chocolates using nearly all high quality ‘organic’ ingredients; from the chocolate used, to other ingredients such as organic powdered sugar, organic butter, and organic nuts (including peanuts, cashews and almonds).
Smith Organic Chocolates, an Akron, home-based occupation, makes truffles from organic Peanut Butter Balls to organic Non-Dairy Dark Chocolate Truffles to a new ‘Designer Artisan’ chocolate called an Organic Strawberry-Banana Truffle, made with a professional artisan mold.
Hershey’s got into the ‘organic’ market within the last couple of years by purchasing Dagoba Chocolate. Wilbur Chocolate recently got into the ‘organic’ market by aligning itself with a chocolate company in France that formulates an organic chocolate just for them.
The term “organic” refers to any product that has not been sprayed with pesticides.
Kirby & Donna Smith formed Smith Organic Chocolates in 2007 after giving away many, many chocolates for both Valentine’s Day and Easter last year. Donna purchased a “Chocolatiere” (a small gadget that melts chocolate) from a gift catalog for Christmas 2006 just for the “fun” of it. The melter came with several plastic molds For Valentine’s Day 2007, Donna made numerous heart-shaped candies, including a large truffle-type 12-ounce chocolate with organic almond butter and/or organic peanut butter inside as a filling.
Since then, they’ve developed a line of organic truffles, barks and clusters, as well as a few “show stopper” Designer Artisan Chocolates. “Kirby makes a dynamite Coconut Ball; it’s from a family recipe,” says Donna. They have been featured in The Ephrata Review and on Blue Ridge Cable-11 News, based in Ephrata.
“There are many organic chocolate bars out there,” says co-owner Donna Smith. “We didn’t want to create another bar; but in our research, we noticed that there weren’t many organic truffle-type chocolates out there, and none locally that we could find. There are many ‘fine’ or ‘high quality’ chocolates out there. We distinguish ourselves by using ‘organic’ materials and no FD&C colors are in our chocolates.”
In order to start the business, they needed to get their kitchen inspected by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
Donna recently graduated as Valedictorian in an online professional chocolatier training school, ecolechocolat out of British Columbia, Canada. The website is www.ecolechocolat.com. There were students in the class from literally all over the world; from the U.S., to Canada, to Great Britain, Columbia, South America, to India. “It’s an intensive training that takes a two-week pastry chef unit on chocolate and turns it into a three-month training, with many research and hands-on homework assignments,” Donna said. The teachers have over 50 years combined experience in the chocolate business.
There are several ways to purchase Smith Organic Chocolates. “In order to buy our organic chocolates, you can do one of several things: 1) you can get them at the Akron Nutrition Center, our first retail outlet; 2) you can call or email us; or 3) purchase directly from our fully-operational web store at www.smithorganicchocolates.com,” said Donna. The website is updated to reflect each coming holiday on the chocolate calendar, a season which extends from fall through the beginning of summer. “Actually, chocolates can be enjoyed year-round and for any occasion,” Donna said.
Other services available include parties, open houses, and catering. Smith Organic Chocolates has a goal of adding several more retail outlets this year, with the goal of opening their own retail store sometime in the future. Businesses that connect with Smith Organic Chocolates include a bed-and-breakfast and a local realtor. The one-year old chocolate company hopes to add many more to that list soon.
Smith Organic Chocolates was recently featured in an article entitled “Big Ideas, Small Ventures” on home-based businesses in the Lancaster Sunday News, April 27th.
