Indigenous Chocolate

Cocoa is the hot drink of choice with a tradition of luxury hot chocolate drinking that goes back for centuries.

Not only that, cocoa is good for you! It energizes, is packed with anti-aging anti-oxidants, makes you happy and best of all, it’s not, but it seems a bit self-indulgent!

The cocoa tree, Theobroma cacao, is first found growing naturally in the Amazon to a height of about 15 meters. Under cultivation the tree is not allowed to grow so tall to make harvesting easier. Cocoa is a shade tree and requires constant warmth, rainfall and shelter from the wind.

The particular habitat of the cocoa tree is a factor in making chocolate expensive. Cocoa trees grow only in tropical Africa, Asia, South and Central America. Cultivated trees can produce fruit for up to 100 years.

3500 years ago the Olmec began cultivating the tree, passing cocoa down to the Toltecs and the Maya.

The Aztecs were responsible for introducing cocoa to Europe, via Cortez' conquest of Mexico. Europe loved the new food and added sugar and other ingredients until it came to be the chocolate we enjoy today.

Chocolate is made from the seeds, commonly called beans, of the cocoa tree. The average bean weighs .5 grams. The cocoa pod grows up to 30 cm long and weighs up to 500 grams, but size and colour vary widely. Each pod contains 20 to 40 seeds. Each tree produces about 2 kilos of seeds annually.

Three main varieties of cocoa are available, criollo, forastero and trinitario. Criollo is a higher quality, better tasting bean but smaller. Criollo gives the best cacao. It is often mixed with Forastero, the dominant bean, makes up to 80% of the world market, is less flavourful than the Criollo. Trinitario is a hybrid of Criollo and Forastero and provides good quality cocoa and accounts for about 15% of the cocoa bean market.

Since Europe discovered Montezuma living a life of Aztec luxury in Tenochtitlan, (Mexico City), chocolate has been an European bailiwick, mainly Belgian and Swiss; the chocolate from slave states, like the Belgian Congo, in colonial Africa provide the main source of cocoa for the international chocolate market. The cocoa trees transplanted from Central and South America.

The drinking of hot chocolate became ritualized, like tea ceremony in Japan, an ostentatious display of wealth by those who could afford to serve their friends hot chocolate from elaborate precious metal and china serving sets. That chocolate was expensive was the best part of it, as long as the expense was not at the cost of profit.

The profit in chocolate was ensured by using slaves for the harvest, a practice that still, unimaginably, goes on today: google for chocolate and slavery. Collusion and price fixing in the chocolate market are rife and in 2010, the object of a class-action lawsuit in Canada.

Caffeine is an alkaloid and in the same family of pharmaceuticals as cocaine, codeine, ephedrine, ibogaine, mescaline, morphine, narcotine, nicotine, psilocybin, quinine and theobromine.

Theobromine is the alkaloid in chocolate.

To remain viable when cocoa prices drop cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire use slave labour to cut costs.

This makes The Cocoa Pod a hot drink retail concept whose time has come.

The idea is to sell hot chocolate drinks as a morning drink alternative to coffee.

That hot chocolate gives you a jolt of energy with a healtth benefit of being made with dark chocolate. And tastes delicious.

Made from cocoa beans that come from Indigenous, artisinal growers in Central and South America.

And do it by telling the truth, that 228,000,000 lbs. of coffee a year is a lot, that only the best of the best is good enough, and the best comes from the Source, Central America, the birthplace of chocolate and idea of The Cocoa Pod.

The Cocoa Pod is a bigger idea than a retail store, it reaches out into the community by participating at special events and bringing the store out to their friends and family.

The Xoxolatl Kiosk, allows sales to be made anywhere there is electricity for refrigeration and sales order processing.

Chocolate and Wine Pairing Parties with samples and wine selections further integrates the brand across multiple contexts.

The Cocoa Pod Parties are designed to make product demonstration a profitable enterprise on the Tupperware Home Party model.

What is more, web domains are ready for sales and the participation of the community on next-generation “bulletin boards” and by allowing competitors to take advantage of our web infrastructure and host their e-commerce offerings for free, along side The Cocoa Pod’s advertiser-pay business model that exploits Google Ads.

The franchise offer is tailored once test marketing and first store have been completed.

The pro-forma sales objectives determine the budgets. and target sales.

Important exit strategies are considered in every part of the store design with corporate entities conceived to deliver each component of the store identity, from fixtures to floors, all different and distinctly The Cocoa Pod.

The Cocoa Pod brand is based on the belief that hot chocolate and hot cocoa are ready for a comeback as daily consumer hot drinks in a critical backlash against the giant coffee companies, a backlash supported by The Cocoa Pod advertising.

Everything supports the trade dress. The endorsing brand strategy follows the packaged goods companies strategy with “The Cocoa Pod” logotype on everything.

Each component has their own trade names and logos. This allows The Cocoa Pod to import and retail specialty brand name products with The Cocoa Pod endorsement.

Test marketing is accomplished using versatile kiosks that serve double duty as the store fixtures once test markets have demonstrated demand.

The kiosks are designed to house everything that is needed to sell and serve hot and cold drinks and treats on location, including refrigerated display, water, waste, storage, electrical and innovative design and signage.

By designing the kiosk components carefully they are also ideal for permanent installation as store fixtures. This reduces cost and risk for the franchisor paying the bill.

Each 60° arc of the kiosk is fitted out to house one mission-critical component of the remote sales effort. Refrigeration is shared by the display case sitting adjacent to the fridge. Hot service is separate on the other side of the kiosk to avoid heat damage to sensitive chocolate products.

(Waste is contained in the same segment as brown water.)

Fresh water is contained in the same segment as refrigeration.

Hot drink preparation provides hot water for clean up.

The entire kiosk fits in a 1-ton van which doubles as warehouse for storage of products, cups, uniforms and personal items when on location.

The Cocoa Pod is an integrated physical and virtual retail brand franchise potential in a category of consumables that have demonstrated demand over centuries, a demand currently stifled by the dearth of coffee bars on every corner, a fact which might point to market saturation in the coffee category. The Cocoa Pod is different, but recognizable.

The first location would serve to prove the concept and be the prototype store for The Cocoa Pod franchise proposal.

Consistency in store design, equipment specifications and recipes are critical to budgets. On the other hand a storefront that says me “Me too!” is ignored.

Every new coffee shop has to compete for a share of the coffee drinker market, the customer’s entertainment budget and disposable income to survive.

The ubiquity of the coffee bar is it’s weakness. The market seeks change, not stasis. An aggressive promotion of the new hot drink for your drive in the morning or rendezvous would result in customers. Keep the customers and grow the business are the objects of The Cocoa Pod store concept.

The store in the illustration is 30'x40', or 1200 square feet, plus the patio area. The required fixtures include food preparation, display and storage, as well as washrooms and staff lunch area.

The food preparation equipment used in the kiosks do double duty in the store. The kiosks allow for drive by service where practicable.

This illustration shows a large floorplan. The opening gambit is for two stores to open in quick succession and few blocks from each other, on either side of a high traffic artery.

The storefront is where the store and the community relate to each other, and people, on the look out for novelty recognize small differences on familiar

streets.

The scents of chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon permeate the area. Large window graphics are attention-compelling and sure to be noticed, they can be studied closely by a pedestrians as well as be seen at a glance by drivers on the street. Large graphics also communicate a sense of special event by their size. It is also size that renders them cost prohibitive. Unless the graphics are cleverly designed to be re-useable year after year. The combination sign/window covering can carry a seasonal advertising message which is planned for reuse year in and year out. Between campaigns the sign artwork is stored flat in the original shipping container. Strong advertising creative does not grow stale. The professional graphics of The Cocoa Pod will stand the test of time. The power of Adobe Photoshop is used to create the patterns for ceramic tile floor mosaics, which contain The Cocoa Pod logo and other custom graphics.

The smooth colour gradations are calculated in Photoshop as well as dimensions and numbers of coloured tiles necessary to complete the graphic.

Thoughtful design allows the consistent delivery The Cocoa Pod fixtures, trade dress and graphics.

The Cocoa Pod position in the chocolate category is ensured by break out, unique packaging and chocolate mould design.

The Cocoa Pod package refers to chocolate’s origins in the New World and the connection between Indigenous People and the cocoa tree.

The sales proposition is graphic and 3-dimensional. It is designed to appeal to children and adults equally with dark, milk and white chocolate moulds planned to mark every occasion, Easter, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Christmas.

Brand awareness is ensured by the beautiful graphics and novelty of the keepsake package.

Marketing the history of chocolate and The Cocoa Pod delves into the Spanish Conquest of Mexico in the 1500s, when the cocoa tree was first encountered in Montezuma’s luxurious court. Since that time the entire category has been appropriated by Swiss and Belgian companies, many of which gained their fortune through slavery and other egregious business practices. The Cocoa Pod seeks to redress the balance of trade by clever communications and innovativeproductdesign inspired by Indigenous Cultures from across North America.

The Cocoa Pod also serves the diabetic and gourmet markets with boutique chocolates that have no need to compete for a share of the coffee market for success.

Attention compelling, cultural resonance will add to North American society’s favourable perception of Indigenous culture.

With simple, meaningful, rich visual images and words for a product with a clear taste and health benefit.

For example, The Cocoa Pod chocolate bar is designed as an eagle feather in white and dark chocolate. Smaller chocolates take animal and other distinct shapes from indigenous cultures all over North America. These treats are designed with children in mind and have small dimensions for children’s smaller mouths to eat.

There is no food product with The Cocoa Pod logo debossed in the chocolate, but only imaginative, appealing story-telling packages and products.

The Cocoa Pod package is modeled on a wooden frame rawhide hand drum found all over at Pow Wows, Round Dances and ceremonies. The drum is circular like everything in North American indigenous culture as the circle is the basis of life.

The circle is also the basis for the design of the individual treats themselves, every one carrying a strong circular motive if possible. Each treat is designed with children in mind and have parts that can be broken off for consumption. Everyone has experienced the frustration of a hunk of chocolate that is just too thick to be comfortably eaten. The choking hazards of traditional round-shaped bon-bons is also avoided by the irregular shapes of The Cocoa Pod chocolates.

Some treats are designed to use both dark and white chocolate for effect. All of the treats start with a small sculpture of their basic shape done by a noted Cree artist and designer and are authentic in concept and execution. There are currently twenty designs under development.

Each package holds an assortment of chocolates packed in vacuum-formed trays to keep the pieces in pristine condition for the consumer.

Most importantly, the cocoa comes from traditional sources in Central and South America.

Chocolate is ready to resume it’s rightful place as the daily hot or cold drink of choice and The Cocoa Pod is ready to serve the demand because chocolate is what The Cocoa Pod menu is all about.

First, everyone now knows that chocolate is good for you.

Chocolate provides you with energy and nutrition, further, chocolate is surprising scientists and nutritionist with new benefits from eating chocolate being discovered daily. Hot and cold chocolate drinks with a caraque melting or sitting on the whipped cream makes a distinctive, memorable hot drink or desert.

For example, Five Layer Chocolate Pate, five layers of chocolate ganache that make a smashing dessert of white chocolate, milk chocolate, and bitter-sweet chocolate with Raspberry Sauce drizzled on the plate before serving.

One of The Cocoa Pod distinct caraques embossed in chocolate on the serving side of the completes the presentation. Or a white or dark chocolate bear running across the icing on a chocolate layer cake.

The Cocoa Pod. First you feast your eyes, then you feast your nose, then you feast your mouth.

The Cocoa Pod brings chocolate into the home with our unique Chocolate and Wine Pairing Parties.

Guests are invited to sample The Cocoa Pod's chocolate with different wine vintages in a slightly self indulgent gourmet evening.

The Cocoa Pod Parties are booked online with sufficient time for delivery of samples and support materials. The samples are appetizer-sized morsels which allow a guest to know how the chocolate and wine flavours blend with each other enough to make a purchase decision.

The support materials include invoices, brochures that describe the history and provenance of The Cocoa Pod, chocolate and wine, a how-to guide for the party host and The Cocoa Pod’s uniform, which serves to support the brand while keeping the party host looking their best. The Cocoa Pod website handles the credit card transaction for a commission. Also, each party results in new website members that add revenue from advertising web page views.

The Cocoa Pod. The first virtual vertically integrated retail franchise. There is no stopping an idea whose time has come.

The problem is how to compete in the crowded retail coffee market. The solution is to compete in a category that is under-serviced and under the radar of today’s retailers looking for attractive products. Retailer expects to open and

compete successfully against established retailers in their neighbourhood.

And even then, how to complete trade dress and branding at a reasonable cost, let alone web infrastructure that allows for e-commerce and attracts visitors based on it’s own merit. Where to find something old that’s new again? The Cocoa Pod has done a lot of the heavy lifting designing an infrastructure for success.

• A unique sales proposition combined with complete trade dress and branding.

• Advertising and marketing concepts ready for execution in your target market.

• Four beachheads of market penetration, web, bricks, in the neighbourhood and in the home.

• A marketing and advertising strategy that serves to fill seasonal sales plateaus.

• A product with a consistent, demonstrated demand that has been healthy for hundreds of years - chocolate.

Finally, The Cocoa Pod offers an opportunity to make a difference and bring prosperity to an area that finds fewer oportunities than some.

For more information please contact Norman Fournier at the address below:

The Cocoa Pod is a retail hot drink franchise idea whose time has come. Coffee supplanted cocoa as the hot drink of choice after a tradition of luxury hot chocolate drinking that goes back for centuries. This always struck Mom as strange because cocoa tastes and smells so much better than coffee. Not only that, cocoa is good for you! It energizes, is packed with anti-aging anti-oxidants, makes you happy and best of all, it’s not, but it seems a bit self-indulgent!The cocoa tree, Theobroma cacao, is first found growing naturally in the Amazon to a height of about 15 meters. Under cultivation the tree is not allowed to grow so tall to make harvesting easier. Cocoa is a shade tree and requires constant warmth, rainfall and shelter from the wind.

The particular habitat of the cocoa tree is a factor in making chocolate expensive. Cocoa trees grow only in tropical Africa, Asia, South and Central America. Cultivated trees can produce fruit for up to 100 years.3500 years ago the Olmec began cultivating the tree, passing cocoa down to the Toltecs and the Maya. The Aztecs were responsible for introducing cocoa to Europe through Cortez. Europe loved the new food and added sugar and other ingredients until the chocolate we enjoy today came to be.

Chocolate is made from the seeds, commonly called beans, of the cocoa tree. The cocoa pod grows up to 30 cm long and weighs up to 500 grams, but size and colour vary widely.Each pod contains 20 to 40 seeds. Each tree produces about 2 kilos of seeds annually.

Three main varieties of cocoa are available, criollo, forastero and trinitario. Criollo is a small, high quality bean and gives the best cacao. It is often mixed with less flavourful Forastero, the dominant bean, up to 80% of world markets. Trinitario is a hybrid of Criollo and Forastero and provides good quality cocoa and accounts for about 15% of the cocoa bean market.

Since Montezuma was “discovered” by Cortez living a life of Aztec luxury in Tenochtitlan, (Mexico City), chocolate has been an European bailiwick, mainly Belgian and Swiss; the chocolate from slave states in colonial Africa providing the main source of raw materials for the market.

The drinking of hot chocolate became ritualized, like tea ceremony in Japan, an ostentatious display of wealth by those who could afford to serve their friends hot chocolate from elaborate precious metal and china serving sets. That chocolate was expensive was the best part of it, as long as the expense was not at the cost of profit, profit ensured by using slaves for the harvest, a practice that still, unimaginably, goes on today: google for chocolate and slavery. Collusion and price fixing in the chocolate market are rife and in 2010, the object of a class-action lawsuit in Canada.

Caffeine is an alkaloid and in the same family of pharmaceuticals as cocaine, codeine, ephedrine, ibogaine, mescaline, morphine, narcotine, nicotine, psilocybin, quinine, theobromine, and strychnine.

To remain viable when cocoa prices drop cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire use slave labour to cut costs.

The Cocoa Pod is everyone’s place to share their chocolate, their wealth of chocolate knowledge and chocolate information, a social network for chocolate, kind of a chocolate wiki. The Cocoa Pod admits to being partial to quality chocolate but wants chocolate and chocolate related news and views from everyone, everywhere.Articles and recipes about chocolate and chocolate-related items can be published on The Cocoa Pod and shared with friends and family.The Register link creates a password and folder so visitors can assemble chocolate recipes and other chocolate-related photos, files and webpages.Visitors upload a profile pic which, with a username of their choice becomes their site avatar.Once the webpages are ready, a moderator publishes the page - if it’s decent and in good taste about chocolate then it will go on the website.Visitors do not have to log in to The Cocoa Pod in order to enjoy the site. If someone chooses to buy something from The Cocoa Pod they will have to log in to a secure PayPal server in order to use their credit card to pay for the purchase, if that is the payment method chosen.The Cocoa Pod is free. Visitors are under no obligation to purchase anything in order to use and enjoy The Cocoa Pod.Anonymous traffic is attracted to the domain by News and Events listings submitted by The Cocoa Pod members. When web users search for information on events in their community, the event listings on The Cocoa Pod are shown in the results attracting visitors to the site from all over the world, including 122 from Canada, 21 from the United States, 3 from the United Kingdom, 2 from Russia, 2 from Malaysia, 1 from Trinidad and Tobago and the rest from small scattered locations in the last 30 days without any advertising whatsoever.Google ads are served which pay the domain on a per click basis, as well as display advertising which is sold on a cost per thousand basis.Artisan Chocolate retailers are invited to use The Cocoa Pod transaction server to sell their product alongside other complimentary products.The e-commerce stores pay a commission on sales made through the domain. The web application is scalable to the Amazon EC2 Cloud when demand exceeds current sufficient web server capacity.In this way The Cocoa Pod will grow to be a locus for promotion, information, sales, ingredients and recipes.

The only way The Cocoa Pod will be able to change people’s habits from going to Big Coffee to The Cocoa Pod is to take on Big Coffee, sort of a David and Goliath battle, which is good, because The Cocoa Pod advertising aims to shoot a bean, a cocoa bean, right in Big Coffee’s eye.And do it by telling the truth, that 228,000,000 lbs. of coffee a year is a lot, that only the best of the best is good enough, and the best comes from the Source, Central America, the birthplace of chocolate and idea of The Cocoa Pod.The Cocoa Pod is a bigger idea than a retail store, it reaches out into the community by participating at special events and bringing the store out to their friends and family.The Xoxolatl Kiosk, allows sales to be made anywhere there is electricity for refrigeration and sales order processing.Chocolate and Wine Pairing Parties with samples and wine selections further integrates the brand across multiple contexts.The Cocoa Pod Parties are designed to make product demonstration a profitable enterprise on the Tupperware Home Party model.What is more, web domains are ready for sales and the participation of the community on next-generation “bulletin boards” and by allowing competitors to take advantage of our web infrastructure and host their e-commerce offerings for free, along side The Cocoa Pod’s advertiser-pay business model that exploits Google Ads.The franchise offer is tailored once test marketing and first store have been completed.The pro-forma sales objectives determine the budgets. and target sales.Important exit strategies are considered in every part of the store design with corporate entities conceived to deliver each component of the store identity, from fixtures to floors, all different and distinctly The Cocoa Pod.The Cocoa Pod brand is based on the belief that hot chocolate and hot cocoa are ready for a comeback as daily consumer hot drinks in a critical backlash against the giant coffee companies, a backlash supported by The Cocoa Pod advertising.Everything supports the trade dress. The endorsing brand strategy follows the packaged goods companies strategy with “The Cocoa Pod” logotype on everything.Each component has their own trade names and logos. This allows The Cocoa Pod to import and retail specialty brand name products with The Cocoa Pod endorsement.

Test marketing is accomplished using versatile kiosks that serve double duty as the store fixtures once test markets have demonstrated demand.The kiosks are designed to house everything that is needed to sell and serve hot and cold drinks and treats on location, including refrigerated display, water, waste, storage, electrical and innovative design and signage.By designing the kiosk components carefully they are also ideal for permanent installation as store fixtures. This reduces cost and risk for the franchisor paying the bill.Each 60° arc of the kiosk is fitted out to house one mission-critical component of the remote sales effort. Refrigeration is shared by the display case sitting adjacent to the fridge. Hot service is separate on the other side of the kiosk to avoid heat damage to sensitive chocolate products.(Waste is contained in the same segment as brown water.)Fresh water is contained in the same segment as refrigeration.Hot drink preparation provides hot water for clean up.The entire kiosk fits in a 1-ton van which doubles as warehouse for storage of products, cups, uniforms and personal items when on location.The Cocoa Pod is an integrated physical and virtual retail brand franchise potential in a category of consumables that have demonstrated demand over centuries, a demand currently stifled by the dearth of coffee bars on every corner, a fact which might point to market saturation in the coffee category. The Cocoa Pod is different, but recognizable.

The first location would serve to prove the concept and be the prototype store for The Cocoa Pod franchise proposal.Consistency in store design, equipment specifications and recipes are critical to budgets. On the other hand a storefront that says me “Me too!” is ignored.Every new coffee shop has to compete for a share of the coffee drinker market, the customer’s entertainment budget and disposable income to survive.The ubiquity of the coffee bar is it’s weakness. The market seeks change, not stasis. An aggressive promotion of the new hot drink for your drive in the morning or rendezvous would result in customers. Keep the customers and grow the business are the objects of The Cocoa Pod store concept.The store in the illustration is 30'x40', or 1200 square feet, plus the patio area. The required fixtures include food preparation, display and storage, as well as washrooms and staff lunch area.The food preparation equipment used in the kiosks do double duty in the store. The kiosks allow for drive by service where practicable.This illustration shows a large floorplan. The opening gambit is for two stores to open in quick succession and few blocks from each other, on either side of a high traffic artery.The storefront is where the store and the community relate to each other, and people, on the look out for novelty recognize small differences on familiarstreets.The scents of chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon permeate the area. Large window graphics are attention-compelling and sure to be noticed, they can be studied closely by a pedestrians as well as be seen at a glance by drivers on the street. Large graphics also communicate a sense of special event by their size. It is also size that renders them cost prohibitive. Unless the graphics are cleverly designed to be re-useable year after year. The combination sign/window covering can carry a seasonal advertising message which is planned for reuse year in and year out. Between campaigns the sign artwork is stored flat in the original shipping container. Strong advertising creative does not grow stale. The professional graphics of The Cocoa Pod will stand the test of time. The power of Adobe Photoshop is used to create the patterns for ceramic tile floor mosaics, which contain The Cocoa Pod logo and other custom graphics.The smooth colour gradations are calculated in Photoshop as well as dimensions and numbers of coloured tiles necessary to complete the graphic.Thoughtful design allows the consistent delivery The Cocoa Pod fixtures, trade dress and graphics.

The Cocoa Pod position in the chocolate category is ensured by break out, unique packaging and chocolate mould design.The Cocoa Pod package refers to chocolate’s origins in the New World and the connection between Indigenous People and the cocoa tree.The sales proposition is graphic and 3-dimensional. It is designed to appeal to children and adults equally with dark, milk and white chocolate moulds planned to mark every occasion, Easter, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Christmas.Brand awareness is ensured by the beautiful graphics and novelty of the keepsake package.Marketing the history of chocolate and The Cocoa Pod delves into the Spanish Conquest of Mexico in the 1500s, when the cocoa tree was first encountered in Montezuma’s luxurious court. Since that time the entire category has been appropriated by Swiss and Belgian companies, many of which gained their fortune through slavery and other egregious business practices. The Cocoa Pod seeks to redress the balance of trade by clever communications and innovativeproductdesign inspired by Indigenous Cultures from across North America.The Cocoa Pod also serves the diabetic and gourmet markets with boutique chocolates that have no need to compete for a share of the coffee market for success.Attention compelling, cultural resonance will add to North American society’s favourable perception of Indigenous culture.With simple, meaningful, rich visual images and words for a product with a clear taste and health benefit.For example, The Cocoa Pod chocolate bar is designed as an eagle feather in white and dark chocolate. Smaller chocolates take animal and other distinct shapes from indigenous cultures all over North America. These treats are designed with children in mind and have small dimensions for children’s smaller mouths to eat.There is no food product with The Cocoa Pod logo debossed in the chocolate, but only imaginative, appealing story-telling packages and products.The Cocoa Pod package is modeled on a wooden frame rawhide hand drum found all over at Pow Wows, Round Dances and ceremonies. The drum is circular like everything in North American indigenous culture as the circle is the basis of life.The circle is also the basis for the design of the individual treats themselves, every one carrying a strong circular motive if possible. Each treat is designed with children in mind and have parts that can be broken off for consumption. Everyone has experienced the frustration of a hunk of chocolate that is just too thick to be comfortably eaten. The choking hazards of traditional round-shaped bon-bons is also avoided by the irregular shapes of The Cocoa Pod chocolates.Some treats are designed to use both dark and white chocolate for effect. All of the treats start with a small sculpture of their basic shape done by a noted Cree artist and designer and are authentic in concept and execution. There are currently twenty designs under development.Each package holds an assortment of chocolates packed in vacuum-formed trays to keep the pieces in pristine condition for the consumer.Most importantly, the cocoa comes from traditional sources in Central and South America.

Chocolate is ready to resume it’s rightful place as the daily hot or cold drink of choice and The Cocoa Pod is ready to serve the demand because chocolate is what The Cocoa Pod menu is all about.First, everyone now knows that chocolate is good for you.Chocolate provides you with energy and nutrition, further, chocolate is surprising scientists and nutritionist with new benefits from eating chocolate being discovered daily. Hot and cold chocolate drinks with a caraque melting or sitting on the whipped cream makes a distinctive, memorable hot drink or desert.For example, Five Layer Chocolate Pate, five layers of chocolate ganache that make a smashing dessert of white chocolate, milk chocolate, and bitter-sweet chocolate with Raspberry Sauce drizzled on the plate before serving.One of The Cocoa Pod distinct caraques embossed in chocolate on the serving side of the completes the presentation. Or a white or dark chocolate bear running across the icing on a chocolate layer cake.The Cocoa Pod. First you feast your eyes, then you feast your nose, then you feast your mouth.

The Cocoa Pod brings chocolate into the home with our unique Chocolate and Wine Pairing Parties.Guests are invited to sample The Cocoa Pod's chocolate with different wine vintages in a slightly self indulgent gourmet evening.The Cocoa Pod Parties are booked online with sufficient time for delivery of samples and support materials. The samples are appetizer-sized morsels which allow a guest to know how the chocolate and wine flavours blend with each other enough to make a purchase decision.The support materials include invoices, brochures that describe the history and provenance of The Cocoa Pod, chocolate and wine, a how-to guide for the party host and The Cocoa Pod’s uniform, which serves to support the brand while keeping the party host looking their best. The Cocoa Pod website handles the credit card transaction for a commission. Also, each party results in new website members that add revenue from advertising web page views.The Cocoa Pod. The first virtual vertically integrated retail franchise. There is no stopping an idea whose time has come.

The problem is how to compete in the crowded retail coffee market. The solution is to compete in a category that is under-serviced and under the radar of today’s retailers looking for attractive products. Retailer expects to open andcompete successfully against established retailers in their neighbourhood.And even then, how to complete trade dress and branding at a reasonable cost, let alone web infrastructure that allows for e-commerce and attracts visitors based on it’s own merit. Where to find something old that’s new again? The Cocoa Pod has done a lot of the heavy lifting designing an infrastructure for success.• A unique sales proposition combined with complete trade dress and branding.• Advertising and marketing concepts ready for execution in your target market.• Four beachheads of market penetration, web, bricks, in the neighbourhood and in the home.• A marketing and advertising strategy that serves to fill seasonal sales plateaus.• A product with a consistent, demonstrated demand that has been healthy for hundreds of years - chocolate.Finally, The Cocoa Pod offers an opportunity to make a difference and bring prosperity to an area that finds fewer oportunities than some. For more information please contact Norman Fournier.