Kakayo Chocolate Startup Blog

14 Apr, 2010

It is sad for me to announce that I had decided to close my retail shop at

1584 Queen Street East

as of April 4^th at 3pm.  Being 9.5 months pregnant I had decided that the best thing for me to do is to take maternity leave for a year so that I can focus my attention on my baby (expectant due date: April 23, 2010).  Initially, I had considered taking three months off and bringing a play pen to the shop.  But I knew that deep down I would be doing a dis-service to both my customers and my new baby. 

 

With that being said, I still plan on working part time with my wholesale accounts (BMS Resources and Nature’s Emporium), farmers markets (Brick Works and Riverdale Farms), catering/wedding orders, events and online orders.  Being self employed you never really stop working but this option does allow me to have a flexible schedule. 

 

The future plan is to open another retail location however opening dates and location has not been considered as of yet. 

 

I would like to thank you all for your support over the past years.  I will truly miss interacting and chatting with you.  Please feel free to contact me directly at anytime if you have a chocolate craving.

 

Sincerely,

 

Colleen Wong-Sala

Kakayo Chocolate Company

colleen@kakayo.com

(t) 416 828 0402

14 Aug, 2009

I want to thank all the producers of the Newly Wed Near Dead, Trendy Zone and Vertical Review for their interviews.  Each taping was very unique and a lot of fun! 

 

Newly Wed was focused on a young couple going threw their trials of being married with a young child.  In this episode, they got an opportunity to do a “couples” chocolate making class.  I must say it wasn’t your traditional class; chocolate was being smeared over their body parts, lots of licking and playing.   

 

Trendy Zone is broadcasted on Omni and its focused is on Chinese business owners in Toronto.  Needless to say, my Cantonese is mediocre at best so the entire show was spoken in Chinglish.  Even the western audience could understand what I was saying ;)

 

 

Vertical Review is a new online magazine focusing on everything organic in the San Fran and Toronto area.  The magazine will be launched later this year.  Thanks for having me be part of your big debut.      

 (More)

17 Apr, 2009

Why are we participating in Greentuity?

Greentuity has asked several retailers and food establishments to raise money towards "Toronto Green Community".  The shops that are participating will be asking their customers to add an additional $1 to their bill during cash out.  However, being a consumer, I personally find it to be extremely annoying.  So instead we have made the "Greentuity Cinnamon Truffle" just for this fund and all the money goes to helping greening our local environment. 

What is different about the Greentuity Cinnamon Truffle?

It's all about reducing and reusing!  The cinnamon truffle is made from left over tempered chocolate from our previous batches.  We usually save all the chocolate run off and donate it to a charity and it is then used for baking.  However in this case we have decided to reuse our extra material for the Greentuity truffle. 

The process is similar to wine making.  You have a first press wine like an Amorone (our regular truffles).  With the left over grapes, a second press is done to create Valpolicella, in this case our Greentuity Cinnamon Truffle.

 

14 Apr, 2009

Due to popular demand, we will be hosting chocolate truffle making classes at our shop once a month.  We limit the attendance to six students so that you get an opportunity to learn to make ganaches and temper chocolate.  Moreover, you get to take home what you make, about 20 - 30 truffles depending on the size of your truffles. 

You will be able to preview one of our classes on Newly Wed Almost Dead which will be aired on the Slice network this summer.  Keep in mind that the couple was doing a lot more than just making truffles in this session  ;) 

14 Apr, 2009

Kakayo will be participating in the California Wine Makers Tour this year which takes place at the AGO.  It will be a night to explore 70 different wines from various wine makers from several regions in California. 

We have personally paired the Beringer Cab. Sauv with our Hot Tamale truffle and a mild blue cheese.  Yum Yum Yum! 

So if you would like to come to the event please check out, http://www.winemakersontour.com

 

19 Jan, 2009

So everyone has been wondering what happened to the updates on the blog?

Well, a ton of stuff had happened on both a personal and professional level in 2008. 

(a)     I got married – so the year was mainly focused on coordinating family events, venues, and all wedding details associated around the affair

(b)    Also attended eight weddings both locally and abroad – so needless to say it was a year of on going celebrations

(c)    Launched our diabetic chocolate in the Fall and now it is part of our chocolate offering

•  It took two years of experimenting with different sugar substitutes and combinations until finally creating a great tasting product.  Customers have been so excited that they can have chocolate again and not worry about the side effects of all the synthetic substitutes in the market place.

(d)     For white chocolate it was a year of hit and miss.  Surprisingly when we were sourcing for organic, fair trade white chocolate, we quickly discovered that suppliers did not readily carry it.  Unless you order an entire pallet.  Yikes!  Well, the alternative was to purchase organic white chocolate from Africa but it would not of been fair trade.  So we opted not to sell any white chocolate for most of 2008.

• We decided to work on formulating our own white chocolate.  After several batches and multiple months of frustration we finally were able to produce a small batch of "real" white chocolate.  Just cocoa butter, milk and cane sugar.    

(e)      Event planners and weddings.  In 2008 we were extremely lucky to have been discovered by Spectacular Spectacular.  Sara and Melissa had requested for our 160 piece truffle towers/croquembush for their clients who did not want tradtional wedding cakes.  One of our towers were featured in Wedluxe Magazine in their Jet Set Issue.  http://www.wedluxe.com/index.cfm?id=9885

(f)    Chocolate and Cheese Pairing Events and Chocolate Making Classes.  In 2008, we also had a lot of opportunities to work with our clients to customize their events.  Several were done off site for corporate team building and for wellness programs.  While others did their events in house at our shop.

So there you have it.  The executive summary on what Kakayo did in 2008. 

17 May, 2008

Thanks to Pay Chen from Omni TV and Candice Batista from Rogers TV for featuring Kakayo on their episodes.  It was a lot of fun making truffles with these dynamic ladies and I appreciate all the great PR. 

Pay came in with her crew to film several 30 second and 60 second takes.  Several customers have already seen the segments aired on OMNI TV during prime time hours and just before David Lettermen.  On the episode, Pay featured the making of our vegan truffle line. 

As well, Candice Batista is the host of a new show called, A Greener Toronto, featuring small businesses and different services around the GTA.  Kakayo is featured for the week of May 12 to 18th, Episode 5.  http://www.rogerstv.com/option.asp?lid=16&rid=16&tid=24415.  Outside of the link, you can catch her show six times a week on Rogers TV.   

16 Apr, 2008

We have extended our store hours:

Tuesday to Saturdays from 11am to 7pm

Sundays from 12pm to 5pm

16 Apr, 2008

So we have been making our beta batches of our gelato, sorbets/ices and yogurts for the past month.  We have been lucky enough to get our customers to participate in the different tastings and to provide us with feedback on areas of improvements, what they disliked and liked, etc.

We are currently about 75% of the way there and we should have our prefected batches by end of May.

What has been tested so far:

- Pistachio

- Vanilla

- Green Tea Matcha

- Chocolate

- Pecan Rum

- Mango Sorbet

- Lemon Ice

- Mixed Berry Ice

- Mixed Berry Yogurt

24 Feb, 2008

I need to give thank to all the great media coverage that we have been receiving this month from The Toronto Star, Now Toronto, National Post, Metro Canada and Prosper Magazine. 

As a small business, I rely on customer referrals and word-of-mouth to get the word around about my truffles.  So being able to get all this media spot light just before Valentine’s Day has been a great bonus.  I truly appreciate the reviews and I hope that you all get a chance to check them out.

Truffles to be treasured, by Sue Ann Lewis   http://www.thestar.com/article/303057

Organic truffles a hot treat, by Zenya Zirant   http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=314207

Sweet hearts, by Andrew Sardone   http://www.nowtoronto.com/lifestyle/take5-story.cfm?content=161712

Valentine’s alert, by Nathalie-Rose Fischer   http://metronews.ca/column.aspx?id=106128

Life is like a box of Kakayo, by Cynthia Cheng   http://prospere-magazine.com/2008/02/12/life-is-like-a-box-of-kakayo/

20 Feb, 2008

Late on Valentine’s Eve this young man brings his girlfriend to my shop in a blind fold.  He positioned her right in front of the truffle counter and he slowly took off her blind fold.  She looks around, takes a deep breathe in and finally screams with joy, hugging and kissing him! 

I am the luckiest person on earth.  I get a chance to be a part of all your celebrations.  I get to hear all about your five star gourmet meals that even an Iron Chef would be jealous of.  So I get a chance to witness all the prep work and effort you all put into this special day, which really puts my fiancé (Christian) in a bind?!?!

We unfortunately didn’t get an opportunity to celebrate that evening because of the late hours at that shop.  But he did redeem himself over the weekend. 

He got us a bottle of Mums, a great Sashimi platter from Sushi Marche with my favourite, the spicy tuna hand rolls.  We stuffed our faces, turned on the TV and watched the Leaf and the Canuck/Oiler’s Game.  I think I was up for the first period of the Vancouver/Edmonton game before passing out cold on the couch.  It doesn’t get any more romantic then that! 

05 Jan, 2008

I would like to thank Mio Adilman and his camera man for coming to my shop late last year.  Mio had discovered Kakayo through a blog and had contacted me about doing a three minute piece on the show Living in Toronto.  Just so happens I was watching that show earlier in the week.  Talk about “Spidy Senses”!    

Show: Living in Toronto

Date: Tuesday January 8 and Friday January 11^th, 2008

Time: 1pm (EST)

Channel: CBC

Webcast: http://www.cbc.ca/livingintoronto

05 Jan, 2008

Who would of known that a little chocolate shop would grab so much attention? 

Over the holidays we were featured on:

• CFRB 1010am – The Tabby Johnson Show

• ETC News (local paper for South East Toronto)

• Taste TO (website)

• Neigbourhood Knowledge (website to be announced)

• Autoshare Members Newsletter

In the New Year we will be featured on:

• CBC – Living in Toronto (TV Program)

• Toronto Life – Valentine’s Issue

• Tonic Magazine – Taste Testing Chocolates

 

 

22 Dec, 2007

It has been a wonderful few months at my new location at 1584 Queen Street East. 

I feel extremely fortunate for all the support I have received from my customers and I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. 

We will be closed from December 23rd to January 3rd and will be re-opening our doors on January 4th. 

I look foward to seeing each one of you again in the New Year!

Colleen

647.346.2936

29 Oct, 2007

Sandra B. Hood from the National Post has been kind enough to write an article about Kakayo.  Friends of ours have been calling to tell us that they have read the article.  We are quite thrilled and are honoured to have been featured in the article "The Birth of East Queen East". 

http://communities.canada.com/nationalpost/blogs/toronto/archive/2007/10/26/the-birth-of-east-queen-east.aspx

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=68b4f153-0ffe-4363-ad2a-22753d9e25b6