interesting article on chocolate (premium)
- Thread starter narlus
- Start date
So let me get this straight... they make chocolate right?
School children could do better?
School children could do better?
Man this article is a major league hatchet job. Its awesome
I bet it doesn't cost $9.45 a piece either.
It's from a Texas paper, you're expecting too much.
If Dubya and his clan had been this exacting we'd be done in Afghanistan and Iraq wouldn't have happened.
I love this kinda destruction.
i think the writer was pissed when the woman hung up on them.
well after this article gets some airing, i think a pricing adjustment for Noka is in the works...
From the website it appears that some of those changes have already occurred. The 4 pc box is now 16 instead of 39.
wow.
it's amazing what a little packaging and bllsht can get you.
it's amazing what a little packaging and bllsht can get you.
**UPDATE**
More Discussion: http://www.dallasfood.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=149
Plano chocolatier feels blogger's bite
The Dallas Morning News | Thursday, January 25, 2007
PLANO – Last month, an anonymous Internet blogger launched a 10-part series concluding that Noka Chocolate, whose expensive confections have turned up at Hollywood parties and a posh Las Vegas hotel, is not worth its high-end price.
The report, released just ahead of the critical holiday sales season, put the Plano company on the defensive about its manufacturing processes. At least 10 consumer-focused Web sites and blogs have linked to the report on DallasFood.org.
But some blogging and journalism experts say the controversy demonstrates the impact an online report can have on a company's reputation – and eventually on its bottom line.
And they see implications beyond the sparsely populated strip mall on Spring Creek Parkway that Noka calls home.
"It's a cautionary tale to a certain extent," said Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, based in New Rochelle, N.Y.
"Any company who's reading about this could find themselves in Noka's position. ... Getting negative blog buzz, it could be a disaster."
Consumers venting in cyberspace about perceived company misdeeds are nothing new. Behemoths from General Motors Corp. to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. to AOL LLC have been the focus of "sucks" sites for years.
Experts found the Noka case unusual because of the size of the company (five employees), the anonymity of the writer and the level of detail on a topic that's, well, not world hunger.
That Noka's truffles are not a trifle isn't in question.
The chocolates – which were given to VIP guests at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in December and served at NBC Universal's pre-Emmy party in August – are clearly some of the most expensive in the world.
They are sold online, in the company's spartan showroom in Plano and through Neiman Marcus stores, Noka's largest wholesale customer.
Two pieces of Noka's handcrafted dark chocolate truffles – called Grand Cru – in a laser-cut, polished stainless steel box cost $45.
That's $22.50 each or, according to DallasFood.org, about $1,730 per pound, based on the author's estimation of the weight per piece.
That price, according to the author, is more dear than the cost of domestic sturgeon caviar ($275 per pound) and even marijuana in El Paso ($350 per pound).
The author, who uses the name Scott, has theories about how, and with what, Noka chocolates are made.
Based on blind taste tests, the series suggests Noka chocolates are actually a derivative of products from a luxury French chocolate maker.
Noka says its chocolate is made to its own specifications and is not available elsewhere.
The report concludes in Part 10 that Noka's prices cannot be justified.
"If you or your gift recipient are rich, stupid and vain, Noka is probably the way to go," the blog says, offering up competing chocolate alternatives deemed a better value.
All this took Noka's owners, erstwhile Canadian accountants Noah Houghton and Katrina Merrem, quite by surprise. The couple, married for nearly four years, launched the business in 2004 from a one-bedroom Frisco apartment.
"There are always concerns when there is something [like this] on the Internet," said Ms. Merrem, 34, the chocolatier who helps create the company's confections. "You can foresee it potentially having some negative effect."
Mr. Houghton, 30, Noka's president, initially labeled the report a "smear campaign."
But he said it did not hurt sales during the Christmas holidays and does not appear to be dampening sales leading up to Valentine's Day, either.
Noka has had one defector that the owners know of. A customer who had placed an order later canceled it because of "something she read on the Internet," said Ms. Merrem.
A spokesman for Neiman Marcus could not be reached for comment. But Mr. Houghton said the luxury retailer had not contacted Noka in response to the blog report.
Overall, "we saw a substantial increase over prior-year sales, 2006 over 2005," said Mr. Houghton, who declined to release sales figures for the privately held company.
Although the couple say some points in the report were not accurate, Ms. Merrem chose not to "go back and forth with an anonymous person."
"I feel good about what Noah and I do," she said. "When something like this happens, it's a shock. We're a very small company. It showed us how powerful the Internet is, whether it's used for good purposes or not."
Scott, a Dallas-based consumer of gourmet chocolates, said Dallas Food.org was launched two years ago "as a hobby."
"Because the site is a hobby, I try to guard my anonymity," said Scott, who declined to speak by phone or reveal his age but did respond to e-mailed questions.
Experts said anonymity in a blog is not the preferred route. (Generally, the Media Bloggers Association does not accept anonymous bloggers as members.)
But it's not unheard of.
"I've been very surprised by the reaction to the series," said Scott, who said he is not associated with a competitor or someone with a grudge against Noka.
"Traffic to the blog has exploded since I published the piece. Apparently, something has caught the imagination of a whole group of people who had not previously visited the site."
Faced with an anonymous assault from cyberspace, what's a company with a handful of employees and a 1,400-square-foot operation to do?
"Initially, I didn't know what to do," Ms. Merrem said, as a hair-netted worker crafted thimble-size portions of dark chocolate into truffles in an adjacent room.
"It takes you off guard to see these types of things written about you."
The company's response has been muted, confined largely to posting a reply on DallasFood.org and reviewing Noka's marketing materials to "further clarify what our role is in the whole Noka experience," Mr. Houghton said.
And the two hired a media relations person – after he anonymously sprang to the couple's defense online.
The thought of launching their own blog "did cross our minds," Mr. Houghton said with a laugh.
They quickly ruled it out.
"I was not familiar with the blogging world until now," Mr. Houghton said.
"We've got so many exciting things with the growth of our company. This just isn't a major focus," he said of a possible Noka blog. "But it is an interesting idea."
It's also a way, Mr. Cox said, to fight for its reputation.
"You fight fire with fire," said Mr. Cox, who's been studying blogs for about seven years. "You flood the Internet with stuff you want to say. If they're right, they ought to say so and start their own blog."
Even if they don't start their own blogs, media consultants advise savvy entrepreneurs to keep up with what's being said on existing blogs and monitor how the company looks to online surfers.
"They've got to consider that in their media strategy," said Amanda Watlington, the author of Business Blogs: A Practical Guide.
"You've got to be much more in tune than if ... [the report] was in the recycling bin in two weeks. With a blog, it lives on forever. As long as it's available online, it can be found."
More Discussion: http://www.dallasfood.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=149
Plano chocolatier feels blogger's bite
The Dallas Morning News | Thursday, January 25, 2007
PLANO – Last month, an anonymous Internet blogger launched a 10-part series concluding that Noka Chocolate, whose expensive confections have turned up at Hollywood parties and a posh Las Vegas hotel, is not worth its high-end price.
The report, released just ahead of the critical holiday sales season, put the Plano company on the defensive about its manufacturing processes. At least 10 consumer-focused Web sites and blogs have linked to the report on DallasFood.org.
But some blogging and journalism experts say the controversy demonstrates the impact an online report can have on a company's reputation – and eventually on its bottom line.
And they see implications beyond the sparsely populated strip mall on Spring Creek Parkway that Noka calls home.
"It's a cautionary tale to a certain extent," said Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, based in New Rochelle, N.Y.
"Any company who's reading about this could find themselves in Noka's position. ... Getting negative blog buzz, it could be a disaster."
Consumers venting in cyberspace about perceived company misdeeds are nothing new. Behemoths from General Motors Corp. to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. to AOL LLC have been the focus of "sucks" sites for years.
Experts found the Noka case unusual because of the size of the company (five employees), the anonymity of the writer and the level of detail on a topic that's, well, not world hunger.
That Noka's truffles are not a trifle isn't in question.
The chocolates – which were given to VIP guests at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in December and served at NBC Universal's pre-Emmy party in August – are clearly some of the most expensive in the world.
They are sold online, in the company's spartan showroom in Plano and through Neiman Marcus stores, Noka's largest wholesale customer.
Two pieces of Noka's handcrafted dark chocolate truffles – called Grand Cru – in a laser-cut, polished stainless steel box cost $45.
That's $22.50 each or, according to DallasFood.org, about $1,730 per pound, based on the author's estimation of the weight per piece.
That price, according to the author, is more dear than the cost of domestic sturgeon caviar ($275 per pound) and even marijuana in El Paso ($350 per pound).
The author, who uses the name Scott, has theories about how, and with what, Noka chocolates are made.
Based on blind taste tests, the series suggests Noka chocolates are actually a derivative of products from a luxury French chocolate maker.
Noka says its chocolate is made to its own specifications and is not available elsewhere.
The report concludes in Part 10 that Noka's prices cannot be justified.
"If you or your gift recipient are rich, stupid and vain, Noka is probably the way to go," the blog says, offering up competing chocolate alternatives deemed a better value.
All this took Noka's owners, erstwhile Canadian accountants Noah Houghton and Katrina Merrem, quite by surprise. The couple, married for nearly four years, launched the business in 2004 from a one-bedroom Frisco apartment.
"There are always concerns when there is something [like this] on the Internet," said Ms. Merrem, 34, the chocolatier who helps create the company's confections. "You can foresee it potentially having some negative effect."
Mr. Houghton, 30, Noka's president, initially labeled the report a "smear campaign."
But he said it did not hurt sales during the Christmas holidays and does not appear to be dampening sales leading up to Valentine's Day, either.
Noka has had one defector that the owners know of. A customer who had placed an order later canceled it because of "something she read on the Internet," said Ms. Merrem.
A spokesman for Neiman Marcus could not be reached for comment. But Mr. Houghton said the luxury retailer had not contacted Noka in response to the blog report.
Overall, "we saw a substantial increase over prior-year sales, 2006 over 2005," said Mr. Houghton, who declined to release sales figures for the privately held company.
Although the couple say some points in the report were not accurate, Ms. Merrem chose not to "go back and forth with an anonymous person."
"I feel good about what Noah and I do," she said. "When something like this happens, it's a shock. We're a very small company. It showed us how powerful the Internet is, whether it's used for good purposes or not."
Scott, a Dallas-based consumer of gourmet chocolates, said Dallas Food.org was launched two years ago "as a hobby."
"Because the site is a hobby, I try to guard my anonymity," said Scott, who declined to speak by phone or reveal his age but did respond to e-mailed questions.
Experts said anonymity in a blog is not the preferred route. (Generally, the Media Bloggers Association does not accept anonymous bloggers as members.)
But it's not unheard of.
"I've been very surprised by the reaction to the series," said Scott, who said he is not associated with a competitor or someone with a grudge against Noka.
"Traffic to the blog has exploded since I published the piece. Apparently, something has caught the imagination of a whole group of people who had not previously visited the site."
Faced with an anonymous assault from cyberspace, what's a company with a handful of employees and a 1,400-square-foot operation to do?
"Initially, I didn't know what to do," Ms. Merrem said, as a hair-netted worker crafted thimble-size portions of dark chocolate into truffles in an adjacent room.
"It takes you off guard to see these types of things written about you."
The company's response has been muted, confined largely to posting a reply on DallasFood.org and reviewing Noka's marketing materials to "further clarify what our role is in the whole Noka experience," Mr. Houghton said.
And the two hired a media relations person – after he anonymously sprang to the couple's defense online.
The thought of launching their own blog "did cross our minds," Mr. Houghton said with a laugh.
They quickly ruled it out.
"I was not familiar with the blogging world until now," Mr. Houghton said.
"We've got so many exciting things with the growth of our company. This just isn't a major focus," he said of a possible Noka blog. "But it is an interesting idea."
It's also a way, Mr. Cox said, to fight for its reputation.
"You fight fire with fire," said Mr. Cox, who's been studying blogs for about seven years. "You flood the Internet with stuff you want to say. If they're right, they ought to say so and start their own blog."
Even if they don't start their own blogs, media consultants advise savvy entrepreneurs to keep up with what's being said on existing blogs and monitor how the company looks to online surfers.
"They've got to consider that in their media strategy," said Amanda Watlington, the author of Business Blogs: A Practical Guide.
"You've got to be much more in tune than if ... [the report] was in the recycling bin in two weeks. With a blog, it lives on forever. As long as it's available online, it can be found."
Either dope is as cheap as hell in El Paso or that is all stem and seeds.
That's what I as thinking. $22/ounce?!
i liked the fact that the screen was pulled away, to reveal that Noka was all marketing and no meat.
yeah, right.
Bit of a non-story really. If they can get some stupid saps to pay 10 times over the odds for chocolate good luck to them. Equally though, when the emperor is found to have no clothes, no point moaning. Time for the next scam...err...business.
Don't you worry BV, I've found more hank panky hereThat's what I as thinking. $22/ounce?!
1 pound equals 454 grams. THEY ARE MAKING SH*T UP. This whole article is a hatchet job. NOKA chocolate should sue, it's an obvious bargain.
lthumbsdown: 
I made truffles last week. 50 of them, and I still have 9 pounds of Callebaut chocolate left.
Five bucks says they are better than the Noka ones...it really goes to show you what marketing and stupidity can do.
Five bucks says they are better than the Noka ones...it really goes to show you what marketing and stupidity can do.