product copy: CocoaVino Bonbons & confections

Product copy for Brooklyn-based CocoaVino (co-founded by me). A trailblazing eco-luxury chocolate company from 2004 to 2009, CocoaVino produced handcrafted bonbons and confections made with organic, fair-trade and locally farm-sourced ingredients and flavored with wines and liqueurs. We also used biodegradable packaging materials and 100% renewable energy to power our facility. Critical praise and loyal fans around the country ensued. Food & Wine Magazine named us “Tastemakers.” The Washington Post called our bonbons “shiny, edible jewels.” The Wall Street Journal called them “sinfully delicious.” And New York Magazine said they “taste as pure as their makers’ intentions.”

original assorted bonbons

BACCHANAL

It's a wild night of lusty indulgence. "Orgiastic festivity," says Webster's. What better way to honor the god of wine and revelry than with our signature bonbon. Fruity, lush organic Malbec is folded into a creamy dark chocolate center, then encased in dark chocolate. Decadent? Absolutely. But in the immortal words of Mae West, "too much of a good thing can be wonderful.” Recommended pairing: Malbec

ROMAN HOLIDAY

Strolling along the Tiber at night, the dome of St. Peter's glows in the distance. You stop at a bar for an espresso corretto, exchange smiles with a gorgeous stranger. Try this dark chocolate bonbon with the kick of organic, fair-trade espresso and a splash of Sambuca. It's the next best thing to flying across the Eternal City on the back of a Vespa. No helmet required. Recommended pairing: Sambuca

TANGO NOSTALGICO

Dulce de leche — the taste takes you back to your grandmother's kitchen and illicit spoonfuls eaten straight from the jar. We've matured the sweet concoction with dark chocolate — its perfect partner. A touch of nutty, amber colored wine from the Montilla Moriles area of southern Spain makes it even more sultry. Bite into the dark chocolate shell and let the combination glide across your tongue. Some things are worth growing up for. Recommended pairing: Oloroso Montilla Moriles

RASPBERRY BERET

In the Alsace region of northeast France farmers distill the fruits of high summer into clear spirits called eaux de vie, the water of life — an elixir as French as sidewalk cafes and a jaunty beret. Here the first pucker of organic raspberries is softened by a mixture of dark and milk chocolate, accented with a hint of framboise and all dressed up in a dark chocolate shell. It's smooth, chic and a bit of a tart. Recommended pairing: Banyuls vin deux natural

BACI AL LIMONE

On the Mediterranean coast of Italy, rosemary grows wild on the hillsides and groves hang heavy with enormous lemons. Locals make a sweet, heady liquor called limoncello from the bright skins. In this dark chocolate covered bonbon, limoncello kisses a sweetly seductive white chocolate center where a hint of earthy rosemary flirts back — a recipe for love if ever we heard it. Recommended pairing: Limoncello

QUEEN OF THE HARVEST

Every September the people of Jerez, Spain, celebrate the wine harvest with a festival. They choose a harvest queen and drive her through the streets, throwing sweets to children as she goes. This multi-layered bonbon pays homage to the region — sherry, dark chocolate, slivered almond, and a pinch of sea salt in buttery caramel. The queen is crowned, the grapes are blessed, the autumn sun glows softly. May her reign be sweet. Recommended pairing: Dry Oloroso sherry

Cocoavino seasonal collections

The Magic Season Fall Bonbon Collection

The magic hour—a film term describing the perfect time before day becomes night, when the light softens and thoughts turn sentimental.

Each year has its magic hour when the heat has fallen away from us, but we’re not yet cold.

The world might be turning back to darkness, but not without a last fling of color—short-lived and beautiful, in the fiery oranges, reds and yellows that carry us into bare branches and spare winter light.

In love and weather, it’s what we know can’t last that makes us most wistful.

Indulge in the fleeting season with our Black Magic and White Magic bonbons—a mix of light and dark, sweet and fresh. Catch them now. Nothing this magical is meant to last.

THE FLAVORS

BLACK MAGIC

From Central Italy comes a love potion, a saffron-tinted spicy liqueur made from over 70 different barks and herbs and named after the witches, or strega, who first concocted it. Here buttery caramel lures fresh pumpkin with a splash of Liquore Strega and dark chocolate. In a spin and loving the spin it’s in — our dear pumpkin might never be the same again.

WHITE MAGIC

It’s a May-September romance. The scene is set against the subtle backdrop of white chocolate. Enter the Seckel pear — petite, fresh from a New York orchard, blushing round the edges and as sweet as anything you can remember. Enter Poire William — distinguished, complex, European, usually savored after dinner by sophisticated palettes. What draws them together? Could it be nostalgia? The softening light?  Either way, the pairing is irresistible.

Persephone Spring Bonbon Collection

Spring.  By the ice on the sidewalk, you’d never know it’s coming. But you feel it. The days are getting a little bit longer. Sundresses are hanging in shop windows. Your boot-imprisoned toes are yearning to walk free.

The ancient Greeks thought hell, or Hades, was a cold, damp place. They told a story about winter, of how Persephone, the beautiful young daughter of Demeter, goddess of the harvest and fruitfulness, is captured by the god Hades and dragged to the underworld to be his queen. Demeter is ravaged by sadness without her daughter. The land goes fallow. The fruit trees and flowers wither where they stand. The people are desperate. They cry out for intervention, and Persephone wins the privilege of spending half the year above ground. Demeter is overjoyed and lets the trees green and the flowers bloom again. Each year repeats this cycle, as Persephone spends two seasons in cold, dark hell and two seasons of bliss in the fresh air and sunshine.

Look forward. In a few weeks we’ll emerge from our dark apartments like Persephone from the underworld. We’ll go to the park to count the pale green buds. We’ll eat lunch outside and turn our faces to the sun. To help, we’ve created two bright flavors and painted them soft yellow and lavender.

Call out the season with the Persephone box. Spring might still feel a few weeks away, but it’s not too soon to start celebrating its return.

THE FLAVORS

HELEN 

The taste that launched a thousand sighs. White chocolate and limoncello streaked with silky, salty caramel in a dark chocolate shell — as fair and tempting as the lovely queen of Sparta when Paris stole her away to Troy. One bite will start an obsession. Two bites, and you’ll cheat your brother to get a third. Since the gods have made it thus, you’re hardly to blame.

DAPHNE 

Daphne was a nature girl. She shunned the limelight, the flashy parties, the whole velvet rope scene of dating a god. A wallflower by choice, she dodged Apollo’s calls. When he wouldn’t stop calling, she turned herself into a tree. We can’t all make such a clean getaway, but this bouquet of Mirabelle (a dainty golden plum eau de vie), wildflower honey and lavender in a field of dark chocolate makes for a great escape into the meadow of your mind.

COCOAVINO SPECIAL EDITION DRUNKEN FIGS

Drunken Figs were, by far, the most popular item at CocoaVino, winning press attention from Food & Wine to the New York Times and inspiring two special edition spin-offs. 

WASSAILING FIGS

Inspired by the traditional holiday punch that sent early Britons singing in the streets, Wassailing Figs bring together organic figs and oranges, orange Muscat wine, brandy, warming spices and creamy organic, fair-trade dark chocolate—all in a chocolate-dipped fig. 

Label text:  

You’re on the cobbled streets of Old London. It’s a dark December evening, shop windows frosted over with the sudden cold and a wreath on every door.

“Was hail,” you shout into the night, a wish of good health to your companions. “Drink hail,” call back your mates.

You lift the cup of steaming punch and drink deeply, your mouth full of orange and spices, your head full of wine. Here you go a-Wassailing, singing in the streets, passing the cup round and round. Together, you bid another year farewell with cheer and friendship.

Love and joy come to you, and to you your wassail too.

Wassailing Figs bring together the flavors of the traditional holiday punch in a chocolate-dipped fig.

FIGS PARISIENNE

Label text:  

You’d never known the charm of spring. You’d never met it face to face — until that night in Paris.

Wandering for hours after the cafes closed, your head buzzing with Champagne, you stood hand in hand by the Seine with the brand new love of your life and looked at a moon that was meant for the movies.

And then came the sun. You said goodbye, addresses fervently written on bits of paper torn from your journal, and promised to write. Alone again, you saw an open patisserie and spent your last coins on a fig and raspberry galette drizzled with chocolate.

“April in Paris,” you sang to the slowly waking streets. “Whom can I run to?  What have you done to my heart?”

Figs Parisienne combine organic figs and raspberries, framboise eau de vie and creamy organic dark chocolate — all in a chocolate-dipped fig.

© 2008 Cocoa Vino LLC