Excellent series about Noka chocolate at Dallas Food

While catching up on my reading, I scanned the list of nominees for best post in the Food Blog Awards at Well Fed and came across one that I found both very well written and fascinating. As an added bonus, it was at Dallas Food, a blog I hadn't come across before.

First a bit of back story.

Noka Chocolate is a two year old Texas chocolatier with lots of stylish trappings and unbelievably expensive chocolate. Seriously. Second most expensive in the world. Ranging from a smidge over $300us to a bit under $2100us. Yep, you read that right: almost $2100 a pound! That is a pretty impressive price for any company to command for chocolate, let alone an two year old upstart in a strip mall in Plano, Texas.

But they do have pictures of the chocolate attending the Emmys and being named the  #1 luxury chocolate in the world by a British TV show (or would that be telly?) and a corporate philosophy.

NOKA Chocolatier, Katrina Merrem, has as her life-passion, the goal of returning chocolate to its pure, luxurious state by creating the finest single-origin dark chocolate truffles and chocolates, made from the rarest cacao sourced from exclusive plantations around the world.

It is with this vision that NOKA Chocolate was founded. And it is this very vision that guides NOKA Chocolate in handcrafting the most exquisite chocolates to ever grace the palate.

I am totally there with most exquisite chocolates to ever grace the palate part of this. If the best chocolate in the world costs 2000 a pound, and it is actually the best, then I'd have to buy a little bit...once. (Of course, I would then have to donate a LOT of money to the local food bank to assuage my guilt.) So it's nice that Dallas Food published this series, in which they asked a simple question: Is Noka chocolate worth the price? You know, just in case I ever win the lottery.

The answer comes in the form of a ten part series. It does an excellent job of analyzing the factors that might make the chocolate worth the exorbitant prices and coming to a conclusion that, while not necessarily surprising, is rather hard to dispute. (and comments are disabled, so no disputing is taking place) There's research and interviews and taste testing and everything! (ok, so the muckraking geek part of me was very amused)

It's well worth the read and points to one of the things that is best about independent publishing here on the tubes of the Internets: I doubt that any mainstream outlet would have cared enough to do this piece until the company got big enough to matter and, by then, the company might have mattered enough that the question never got asked.

Comments

[Dan]

Would it be fair to compare the cost of a Harry & David fruit basket to the cost of fruit you can buy in the grocery store? Let's see, you can buy pears for a dollar a pound or you can get a pound of pears in a gift basket from H&D for $30. Does that suggest that H&D is unfairly marking up their product 2,900%? No. It's a different product that sends a different message to the recipient. NOKA Chocolate is only sold in gift boxes, which are an inherent part of the gift and the presentation. It's not the same product as a bar of chocolate.

[kitchenmage]

Dan,

Since you suggested it, let's look at Harry and David's pears. The plain cardboard box (which we'll call comparable to Noka's cardboard box) of pears is $35 for 5 pounds of organically grown heirloom pears. Last time I saw something that resembled an organic heirloom pear at the store, it was probably 1.50-2.00 a pound; but let's go with your dollar a pound because it makes the math easier. That's a 700% markup on the pears.

Sort of steep, but that's what you get for ordering from Harry & David. Who knows, they may be really good pears and worth 7 bucks a pound. They aren't worth 30 a pound or else H&D would be selling them for that. (and remember, we're comparing retail to retail so we're missing a lot of the markup) So, yeah, I'd call 2900% a high markup for pears. :-)

If you get your pears in a reusable gift basket then you also have (and paid for) a basket, which we can tell because the price goes up while the quantity of pears goes down. Likewise, if you buy the Noka chocolate in the miniature metal box, you have (and paid extra for) the presentation.

I have received my fair share of chocolate in my life and I have never seen presentation that warranted raising the price of the chocolate to over 300 a pound, let alone thousands! And I have had some very good (and expensive) chocolate.

I am willing to be convinced however. If you'd like to send me some Noka chocolate in the most impressive presentation you can come up with, I'll be happy to photograph it in my late afternoon in the valley magic light, let the morsels dissolve on my tongue to get the full effect of the chocolate and share my honest opinion. You game?

~km

btw, are you Noka's PR firm? Given your article on Walmart's blog and transparency I assume that you would tell us if you were, but still...

[Sharon]

This "Dan" person is all over the blogs and articles regarding this whole Noka debacle. Something tells me he has some personal stake in the company...

[Robert Synnott]

Ah, I'm glad I'm not the only one to notice something odd here :) I was beginning to wonder was my brain's conspiracy theory centre working overtime....

[Tanna]

Well, chocolates, chocolate but then there's that really good stuff and it makes you swoon! I'd love to try Noka chocolate but I'll have to wait for a gift.

[Kelly]

After posting a quick blurb on my page, directing people to check out Scott's analysis, I received this comment:

NOKA Chocolate has never intended to suggest that we make chocolate from "bean to bar" (roasting, grinding and otherwise processing cacao into couverture). In fact, we've sought to make this clear in numerous public statements. In an effort to further clarify this wherever possible we are reviewing all of our communications to ensure there is no room for misinterpretation.

NOKA Chocolate is proud of the fact that owner Katrina Merrem is a "chocolatier" (person or company who crafts couverture and other ingredients into chocolates, truffles and other confections). We have never intentionally suggested that she is a "chocolate maker" (engaged in roasting, grinding and otherwise processing cacao into couverture).

Our couverture is made to our strict specifications. We specify the source ingredients, the region from which the ingredients are sourced and the process by which the couverture is made.

All of this is why NOKA Chocolate was the top ranked luxury chocolate in the world by the food editors of TASTE.
NOKA Chocolate | Homepage | 12.30.06 - 6:38 pm | #

Again, they really refuse to address any of the issues that Scott brings up, except to say (in lawyerspeak) that they never INTENDED to mislead the public.

[Dan]

KM: This is complicated, but the bottom line is as I write this comment I am engaged as a PR person representing NOKA. The original comments were written prior to that and reflected my personal opinion. However, facts are facts and that makes it worthy of an update. So as Kirk Brewer suggested in a post on my site (www.dpkpr.com), I am posting this update. Thanks to Kirk and others for their constructive feedback. As others have noted, NOKA has issued a statement regarding the issues raised by Dallas Food and we are in the process of getting that out. Since my personal opinions are no longer relevant, I won't be reposting.

[clairey]

What's incredible is that Dan the Noka PR guy shows how low Noka's owners must estime most chocolate buyers' intelligence. The Dallas Food piece showed that most of what he just said in the last statement is not true, and they don't even bother really responding. Just maintaining that that dog Katrina Merrem is a "chocolatier" is ridiculous and deceitful. She's an accountant and a business owner, but a chocolatier? Please.

[MizD]

Wow,P.T. Barnum's got nothing on these guys. I don't know a thing about Taste magazine, but I'll take the word of Cook's Illustrated and their vote for good ol' fashioned (and affordable) Ghirardelli's, any day!

[Sten95549]

I haven't been up to much these days. Today was a loss. Nothing seems important. I've just been letting everything happen without me these days.