A quick note from us about shipping. It is sadly that time of year again when as a chocolatier, we wrestle with how best to ship our chocolates to you. It is hot in some places (like San Francisco today!) and not in others (we're looking at you Colorado). This creates a dilema. We want to bring you our chocolates with the lowest possible shipping/handling costs, but are committed to getting our chocolates to you in optimal condition - no one wants to receive melted Bacon Crack.
Today we are instituting our Warm Weather Shipping Policy to reflect the fact that there are some places where it is much too warm to ship via USPS Priority. You Coloradans may be thinking, "Wait, it just SNOWED here! How can you charge us an increased price because it's hot in Florida?" We agree. We don't want to foment any cross border animosity so we're going to try something new and see how this works.
There is no way (that I know of in Shopify) to charge different costs by zip code and have that keyed to current temperatures in those zip codes (our chocolates do really well below 65-68°F - they hate when it gets above 75° and they are downright ornery at 85° and above.) As such, we are going to be implementing Express shipping costs across the board except for within UPS's one day Ground radius from San Francisco which they claim is about 300 miles. If you think this is unfair and unwarranted based on where you live, you are welcome to choose the lower "Cold Weather Shipping" option at checkout. We will check the current weather maps prior to shipping and see what temperature it is in your area. We will contact you before shipping your chocolates if we determine that there is a high likelihood that your chocolates will arrive in a melted puddle of chocolate (mmm, puddle of chocolate).
When we contact you, if you confirm that you want us to ship the slower method, we cannot be held responsible for chocolates melting in transit. We will do everything in our power to package them to resist high temperatures (insulated bubble wrap, foam boxes, gel packs) but if you choose the slower option, you run the risk of drinking our chocolate instead of eating it.
As we are just trying this out, we may revise as we go forward, but this is the best policy we've come up with at the moment to get our chocolates to you in their best form and at the least cost. We're a lot better at making chocolate than in figuring out the intricacies of perishable product fulfillment. Please bear with us as we sort this out. Thanks.
Kai
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We're very excited to launch this new site today after having had our previous 'starter site' for years. Our old site was functional, and served the purposes for which it was made, but we've grown beyond that one and needed/wanted a new site that could highlight our products and services more accurately.
It really does take a village. In addition to our longstanding admiration and gratitude for our graphic designer Tatyana Balte , who makes our packaging look so fantastic, a giant "Thank you!" is due to three people in particular who made this new website happen, and to one who made our previous site happen.
My friend @sistermable built our previous site with sporadic (and mostly worthless) input from me. She was unflappable in her patience with my ignorant questions and late-night freak outs when something would get messed up - mostly due to my tinkering. She's now living the life of luxury in Malta which makes me eternally jealous.
Brian and Allison O'Neill (@sfbrian and @awamback) are my good friends and my new heros. They've created this site that you're looking at, and I seriously can't stop clicking links just to make sure it's not a dream. I feel that this is a site that I can grow into and that Shopify will be able to handle all of our needs as we expand. Kind of like getting a new pair of shoes as a child that are a size too big, but that you'll have for years and that will become better fitting as time goes on. Or something.
And to Pinckney Templeton, who took most of the beautiful, drool-inducing, chocolate-porn pictures on this site. Case in point:
The girl's got skills. She makes our chocolate look pretty sweet (sorry). Check out her other work at pinckneytempleton.com.
Thank you all. And thank you to our customers, who we wouldn't be here without. Here's to many more years of sweet, savory chocolates in your beautiful faces.
Ess gezunterhait!
Kai Kronfield
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