Smile Chocolatiers
Tea Radio (TM) had the oppurtunity to speak with Joan of Smile Chocolatiers.
Joan gave Tea Radio (TM) listeners a great story about how she got involved with chocolate and tea. Plus, she talked with us about some of her products.
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Click on the link to listen to the audio interview. Link will play automatically. No downloading required. Left click on the link, link will play automatically with your computer's program.
Download smiley_chocolatiers2.mp3
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For more information on Smile Chocolatiers, please click on the link below.
http://www.smilechocolatiers.com/
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Below is the transcript of the interview.
Dawnya: I am sitting with Joan Freeman from Smiley Chocolatiers in Malibu California. She is here at the World Tea Expo. I just love, first of all I have to tell you that Joan has come in her wonderful school of culinary arts and it looks beautiful. She has got this jacket and she looks very striking in it and there is no chocolate stains on it I notice. You going to have to fix that. Get some chocolate in your system. Welcome to the program Joan.
Joan: Thank you. It’s wonderful to be here.
Dawnya: Well we want to connect you and your product with the many tea listeners that are out there. Is this the first year that you have actually had a booth at the expo.
Joan: Yes, it is the first year actually of my even being at the World Tea Expo and it is the first year exhibiting.
Dawnya: The company has been around for a few years. Tell us a little bit about your company and then we are going to ask you all kind of questions about this chocolate, because you know chocolate is really close to my heart. So glad you brought me these. Okay. So tell me a little bit about this company and how you guys got started.
Joan: I got started. I went to culinary school late. I was in my late 50s and after I left culinary school I worked for Wolfking, clerk in Malibu.
Dawnya: Wow.
Joan: Shortly after that my cousin bought a chocolate factory and he asked me if I wanted to come and play in chocolate. It was actually what he said. You want to come and play in chocolate. Well when you are a pastry chef chocolate is something that is looked upon rather seriously.
It is not an easy medium. Its you know things can be too hot or too cold. So, the idea of playing in chocolate was not you know I like butter and flour, but I thought sure he had a chocolate factory. I went and while I was on my way there I really do love tea. I have loved tea for a long time.
I was thinking about different tea and chocolate I wonder how, I was very curious about whether I could get the taste of a really good tea to come through the flavor of a really good chocolate because you know I wanted them to compliment on another.
I did not want them to drown each other out. And so as I was flying to Denver from California that was what was on my mind and when I got there that’s what I presented to him and he said okay lets go and see it. We tried several things it did not work.
Dawnya: So, neighbors are actually turning you away because they have too much chocolate. Wow that’s unusual. So, from the beginning you had in your mind I want to connect this with tea.
Joan: Yes, absolutely and in several different levels. I love the nutritional benefits to tea and chocolate and so I was thinking about the function of food aspect of tea and the function of food aspect of chocolate and trying to marry those things was really going out of incredible curiosity about all of it. I didn’t even know if it would work.
Dawnya: So, now this was a few years ago because this process started. What year was this that you started that process?
Joan: Well I took it to the fancy food show in 2005. The first I had 12 inches of my cousin’s booth and no nutritionals and no packaging and no nothing. Just flavors to see if the public would like it.
Dawnya: Here you are at the World Tea Expo first booth having a great response. Very excited about the response and you have got several different products. Why don’t you tell me what these products are and the flavors that you promote because they are unusual?
Joan: Thank you. They are unusual. Right now I have 12 different flavors. I have four types of chocolate very dark which is 72% cocoa, dark which is 64%, milk at 37% cocoa and a white chocolate. In the dark flavors I have pomegranate white tea, which is really delicious when you let the chocolate just melt on your mouth.
You just think you are having a wonderful chocolate and then the pomegranate comes right in there and just kind of ends the whole flavor. Its good and of course the white tea cannot really taste few through dark chocolate, but again it was the functional food aspect that I was looking for in that.
We also have a chai tea in both the very dark and the dark, very spicy, really wonderful. I think about all of the flavors what you can actually, what I really can say is that they are layered. It’s almost like tasting a really good wine or another good tea.
You know you sip it and you think you are getting something and then if you just rest with it you will find that you get other flavors. Its really a chocolate to be experienced not just gobbled kind of the way I have been known to do. It is an experience of chocolate and tea.
Dawnya: So, it really is something that is an indulgence. It is a moment, but its good for your health at the same time and now you have got wild raspberry tea and pistachio green. How did that come about? That’s unusual.
Joan: Well I do love green tea and the Chinese green tea that I was using I love the flavor palette of that. I found that in the dark chocolate it did not come through as well as I wanted to, but I kept it in the dark chocolate for just a nutritional bump. I tried it with the white chocolate because
I thought may be the green tea would cut the sweetness of the white chocolate and it did. Then I added the pistachio just as a flavoring to flavor the whole thing and it was very, you can really taste the green tea in the pistachio green tea with white chocolate and its one of my best sellers.
Yeah it’s really. Even though people say I don’t like white chocolate you know I never do white chocolate. White chocolate isn’t real chocolate I mean all those things that people say I can kind of understand, but that’s one of my best sellers.
Dawnya: Now Joan something that I am interested in is the name. It’s a unique name. It is a fun name and you give these buttons that say smile. Tell me why you have chosen this for your company?
Joan: I have always loved to cook and bake and part of that is sharing with your friends and being hospitable. I think that what we have come up with here is a really good tasting product that has nutritional. That won’t hurt you.
I cannot say it is a health bar. Its not. It is a chocolate bar that has good stuff in it. My philosophy about food and particularly about my bars is that you should acknowledge things that are just wonderful. Smile, lighten up, it’s chocolate, It’s lovely. It’s not serious business. There are serious businesses. This is not.
I take my business seriously, but it is not a serious business. You know I am proud of everything that is in it. I know that I have the quality product in it. I know it is made in a perfectly wonderful way. Its great.
I have made every attempt to make everything just serious, but its chocolate and it should not be taken seriously. It is a gift to all of us to have wonderful tasting things and so I think you should smile. I think it should be part of our life. I think yeah it’s chocolate.
Dawnya: Yeah it’s chocolate. I am with you. “Yeah it is chocolate” and its tea which is fabulous and it goes I am sure pairs well with teas as well, would be wonderful at a tea party or a tea event.
Tell me Joan as we have a lot of different listeners in tea and I know a lot of women especially and may be men had a place in their life where they are like hmm you know I am really trying to reinvent my life. I need a new direction. You said that you went to the culinary school kind of later in life. Tell me do you have any secrets or keys to people that are looking for their next adventure.
Joan: I think I started my business at 60.
Dawnya: Wow that’s great.
Joan: I think you just have to keep curious about things and just know that if you really love something, I mean no one can tell you what you love as far as your next business goes. If you find something that you are passionate about you should go with it. Culinary school is the hardest thing that I have ever done in my life.
I was in my late 50s. I had to get up at 3:30 in the morning in order to get to school to be able to cook at 6’clock in the morning. It’s just because you are going to school and you are older does not mean anybody give you a break or cuts you a break at all.
It was a very difficult experience, but I think I wasn’t afraid of that and I think you just can’t be afraid. You just have to go with your eyes open and your heart open and be willing to do whatever needs to be done.
Dawnya: So, take the risk.
Joan: Yeah, I think so. If it’s worth the risk it’s worth the reward. It’s been a big business. Whatever you do is you should get into it your later life should be fun.
Dawnya: Yeah.
Joan: Enough of it has been a job. I had a job for million years. I had several jobs that I liked, but they were jobs. This is my passion. This is fun. I think I am doing something worthwhile and I am really proud of it.
Dawnya: Well I am sure that everyone is thrilled to have you well not only because you have given out chocolate samples. That is an advantage. You know I am sorry that your neighbors now close the windows, but we are glad for you here.
I am wonderful to have you here not only for your product but as your inspiration and I am proud of you being here. Thank you so much. Now people can follow this audio and underneath there is a link will take over to your website and they can get information on selling. You sell both retail and wholesale. Is that correct?
Joan: Yes we do. We have the website.
Dawnya: Okay, so anyone that’s interested whether they have a tea business or whether they just love good chocolate and love good tea that would be a great way to get started. Thank you so much for being with us Joan. We wish you fabulous continued success and thank you for bringing your smile.
Joan: Oh, thank you very much. I really appreciate this opportunity.
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To visit Smile Chocolatiers web site click on the link below.
http://www.smilechocolatiers.com
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Enjoy this cute tea poem!
A CUP OF FRIENDSHIP
A little cup of friendship
With a bag of tea
When you drink this
Think of love from me.
source unknown
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I wish we could sit down together
And have a cup of tea
But since we can’t
When you have this one
I hope you’ll think of me.
source unknown
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I cannot sit and chat with you,
the way I'd like to do.
So brew yourself a cup of tea,
I'll think of you, you think of me.
source unknown
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When you’re feeling sad & blue
And have no clue what to do
Sit down and have a cup of tea
And a hug or two or maybe three
Feel those troubles melt away
And start you on a better day.
by Paulette, 1998~~TLC Creations.
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