Welcome Assistant Chocophile, Elyse Whitney!

Please join me in welcoming Elyse Whitney as my Assistant Chocophile. Many of you may recognize Elyse, who has been with Chocolopolis for three years. She was one of our talented pastry chefs, running our production kitchen and producing our award-winning truffles. I'm very excited to have Elyse in her new role!Elyse comes to the role with an interesting background. She earned a Bachelor's of Science in Information Systems from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. She followed this up by attending the International Culinary Center in New York, where she received a Grand Diploma in Pastry Arts. She worked at a number of bakeries and candy shops in Brooklyn and Boston before returning to her home base of Seattle/Kirkland. We were lucky enough to connect with her just as she returned in 2015, and she has been with us ever since.

What is an Assistant Chocophile, you may be asking yourself?

She's the person who backs me up. Elyse's responsibilities include assisting me with the following:

1. Product curation. Elyse prepares the chocolates for our monthly blind tasting panels. After the tasting panel is completed, Elyse tabulates the results and provides feedback to the chocolate makers, as appropriate.
2. Guided tasting events. Elyse is training to lead guided chocolate tastings. Having been with us for three years, Elyse has a head start on developing her palate and understanding craft chocolate. I have no doubt she will be leading chocolate tastings soon.
3. Building customer relationships. The best part of our jobs is helping you discover chocolate that makes your palate sing. Our new store format enables us to spend more time with our customers, tasting chocolate and homing in on the right chocolate for each palate. Elyse wants to get to know you, and to help you discover chocolate you'll love.
4. Managing our loyalty program. If you've come into the store recently, you know we have new loyalty software. Elyse has become our subject matter expert, figuring out how to use the loyalty software and setting up compelling customer loyalty programs. Let her know if you have suggestions.

It's been wonderful to have Elyse backing me up. She provides much-needed assistance and a second opinion on the ideas and programs we have in the works. Her support has enabled me to spend more time working on the things I enjoy, including writing blog posts and spending more time with customers. It's particularly nice to have someone who has been with Chocolopolis for a while, and who understands our approach to chocolate and to curation.Here are some thoughts from Elyse:

"After working in the back for so long, I’m excited to start getting to know more of our customers!  I was drawn to working with chocolate because of how deceptively complex it is. It’s so simple, but so technically demanding to work with. It’s tricky enough to work with in its finished state, so I’m extra impressed with chocolate makers who can transform it straight from the bean."

Other fun things to know about Elyse:

"I love coffee, but I don't like chocolate with coffee in it. My favorite flavor note in chocolate is raisin. My least favorite flavor note in chocolate is mushroom. I love puns - if you have a bad joke, please tell me!"

We're celebrating Elyse's new role by having her choose some of her favorite bars as our happy hour theme this week. Happy hour on Saturday is from 11am - 3:30pm, and Elyse will be here between 12pm and 1pm to talk chocolate with you. Elyse has chosen a diverse group of chocolate bars for her happy hour, including a partially-refined chocolate and two milk chocolate bars, one of which is like eating a fantastic candy bar (Valrhona Caramelia).

• Areté Brasil 70%
• Ranger Puira 70%
• Soma Old School Dark (Madagascar) 70%
• Charm School Coconut Milk Chocolate (Vegan)
• Valrhona Caramelia 36% Milk Chocolate with Crunchy Pearls

Please join me in welcoming Elyse to her new role! If you are a chocolate maker who submitted chocolate for review, you'll be hearing from Elyse. If you're a customer coming in to find chocolate, you'll have a chance to get Elyse's opinion.