Learning Objective: Decide on the type of chocolate you will use for your chocolate products and what supplies and packaging you will need for your operation.

Assignment: Sourcing your Chocolate, Ingredients & Packaging

This assignment is all about the chocolate, ingredients and packaging that you will need to sustain your business.

Chocolate

Obviously the most important consideration for a chocolatier is what brand of chocolate to use in making their chocolate products.

For this assignment you will research chocolate producers from the program's lecture entitled Research: Bulk Chocolate Producers. Once you have decided on your preferred chocolate(s) you will then search for distributors to supply you with the chocolate on a consistent basis in your local area.

Ingredients

For the ingredients you will be looking at such things as bulk sugar, nuts, fruit purees, and flavorings. Local bakery and restaurant supply companies should be able to supply most of your needs.

Packaging

Packaging for retail is a big business and you should be able to find distributors in your local trading area the will sell you packaging wholesale. You find out the retail costs for the packaging by looking through the packaging sites in theResearch: Sourcing your Packaging lecture from Module 2 and reduce the retail price you see by about 25% to have an idea of what your costs per box or bag would be if you were buying in wholesale amounts.

You will report on your findings by answering the following questions:

If you are emulating packaging you saw on a chocolatiers website, include the website address.

• What brand(s) of chocolate do you prefer to use and why?
• Who distributes this chocolate in your local area? If there is no local supplier, how are you going to source the chocolate?
• What is the minimum order from that supplier and approximately how long will it take from order to delivery?
• What is the wholesale cost per kilo (or lb) of the chocolate(s)?
• What company(s) will you use to supply your ingredients?
• Describe your packaging, its color theme and how your packaging would be decorated i.e. ribbons, stickers, etc.
• Determine the cost for packaging a one lb gift box (or equivalent). What % is that packaging cost to the total cost of the product.

Note on your report content: what we are looking for is a concise report on your research or practice coupled with a thoughtful response to our questions. We are grading strictly on content - not how well or how much you write. There is a maximum of 1500 words allowed in the box but we are in no way expecting or want you to fill it.

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