Chocolate - ideas?

[Sarabi]

Hey, everyone! I am planning to celebrate Vegantine's Day on my campus by selling vegan, preferably organic and/or fair trade, chocolates. I'd rather not make them myself as I'm not much of a cook and not the greatest time manager, BUT that's a possibility, especially if I can get someone to help me make them. They shouldn't be too expensive. I'd like to be able to sell them for a dollar exactly, to make things simple.

Any ideas for places to buy such chocolates? Or should I make them?
Thanks!

[turtle_girl]

Hello,
I love your idea to sell vegan, preferably organic and/or fair trade, chocolates for valentines day. I have found some vegan dark chocolate at http://www.chocolatebar.com/ which sells Endangered Species Chocolate. 10% of all profits are donated to help support species, habitat, and humanity of the animals. Also, they say on their website that all of the chocolate is 100% ethically traded. I buy mine locally at Whole Foods, but you can also buy them through the above website. Hope this helps! :)
-Janine/Chocolate Lover

[squigaletta]

I would suggest making them:
500g chocolate
1 cup cashews
1 cup water
1 banana

soak cashews in water over night.
blend cashews with their water and the banana.
melt chocolate, stir in cashew cream, put in fridge for 2 hrs.
break off a bit, roll into a ball coat in cocoa/cinnamon/coconut etc.

V yummy organic-able truffles

[pat sommer]

Yup, stretching the chocolate a bit will definitely get it down to $1 a piece with profit.

If you can find good deals on broken/near-sell-by-date cookies and cakes
-especially old Xmas stuff-
Here is what a clever pastry chef recycled into a big hit at my old bakery.

Rum Balls

bite size leftover dry cake/cookie/pannetone etc
splash of rum or rum flavor (I also like brandy)
enough ganache (made with soymilk) to hold it together
flakes of chocolate to coat balls (or nuts or cocoa)

We made tennis ball size which was definitely enough for 2 people to share.

[pat sommer]

Oh ya, here is one good place to order chocolate, Baker's Cash and Carry:

http://bakerscandc.com/index.php?cPath=1_7&osCsid=d39e6bbcbd9bd88455d6252973a8d3ae

'bought $5 a pound, down to $3.60 if you order a 10lb brick of good quality not cheap fatty melts

[DiaShel]

I would suggest making them:
500g chocolate
1 cup cashews
1 cup water
1 banana

soak cashews in water over night.
blend cashews with their water and the banana.
melt chocolate, stir in cashew cream, put in fridge for 2 hrs.
break off a bit, roll into a ball coat in cocoa/cinnamon/coconut etc.

V yummy organic-able truffles

::Drools :tongue_ani:

[twinkle]

... I'd rather not make them myself as I'm not much of a cook and not the greatest time manager, BUT that's a possibility, especially if I can get someone to help me make them...

Do you think you would be able to get anyone to help? I've been looking in the shops and small packets of plain dark chocolate hearts are going for quite a bit of money!

If you can get a good deal on bulk fair trade/organic chocolate it'd be easy enough to get some heart shaped moulds and then just melt, pour and decant them, and I would think will make more profit than re-selling ready bought bars. You or whoever is helping (maybe one could cook and one could sell?) could try adding some flavourings in to some of them, like finely chopped hazelnuts and orange zest, or maybe finely chopped dried cherries? And then just get some nice little cellophane bags and maybe doll them up with ribbon if you have time.

[Quantum Mechanic]

Do you think you would be able to get anyone to help? I've been looking in the shops and small packets of plain dark chocolate hearts are going for quite a bit of money!

If you can get a good deal on bulk fair trade/organic chocolate it'd be easy enough to get some heart shaped moulds and then just melt, pour and decant them, and I would think will make more profit than re-selling ready bought bars. You or whoever is helping (maybe one could cook and one could sell?) could try adding some flavourings in to some of them, like finely chopped hazelnuts and orange zest, or maybe finely chopped dried cherries? And then just get some nice little cellophane bags and maybe doll them up with ribbon if you have time.

Great idea. Another winner is bits of dried cranberries, if you can get those.

[Sarabi]

Uh.... I asked this question in December. Two weeks before is a bit late. I decided not to do it because it seemed like everyone other campus group was selling something for V-Day - too much commercialization. Plus, I was planning to order online some fair trade, organic, vegan chocolates in bulk, but at something like $70 for 110 chocolates and with no one eager to help me, I decided it was too much risk of losing money.

[jackie]

I would suggest making them:
500g chocolate
1 cup cashews
1 cup water
1 banana

soak cashews in water over night.
blend cashews with their water and the banana.
melt chocolate, stir in cashew cream, put in fridge for 2 hrs.
break off a bit, roll into a ball coat in cocoa/cinnamon/coconut etc.

V yummy organic-able truffles

wow i have to try this! thanks.

[pat sommer]

Well, there is always Easter!

[Roxy]

We bought some little thank you gifts for the activists that are coming out to our demo on Wednesday. Valentine's Day chocolates are too expensive, so we bought a couple of boxes of vegan truffles and wrapped them individually in pretty pink tissue paper and tied them bonbon style with pink ribbon. Attached will be a cardboard heart, thanking the activists and letting them know where our next demo will be :)

[Ashlauren]

i love plamil chocolate,
it's 100% vegan and tastes lovely!
you can get them in many health/vegan stores.