snake and butterfly

some things you may not know about S&B

1) How did you get the idea to start making artisan products? Celeste and Ben are the two original creators of Snake & Butterfly. When they met 4+ years ago, Ben was researching raw chocolate with all of it healthy loveliness. The timing was perfect for a chocolate company to be born, frankly if they had met a month or so earlier, we would be a sprouted nut and seed company!! One of the things that makes this business special to us and to our customers is that none of us have worked with chocolate before this. We have an unbiased outlook on chocolate and we move forward without any preconceived notions about how things are “supposed” to be done.

2) How did you get started with your business? Ben and Celeste started things slowly, researching other chocolate makers, tasting lots of different types and flavors comparing with different wines. Then they began crafting in different methods until the taste, texture and process was right. When they had something tasty, they sent samples to friends and family to get feedback and suggestions. They had late night talks about packaging and the future of the company. Celeste started handling the business side while Ben was working in product development. When Vince came on board, he kicked their butts into high gear! He helped get the business plan finished and started working out the kinks in making delicious caramels and truffles. He also started expanding the customer base and adding wholesale accounts. Jim and Mara started out as regulars at the Campbell Farmers Market and were so impressed with the product and the passion everyone had that they practically begged to be a part of the company.

3) What’s your favorite way to use your product? Besides just eating it? The single origin bars are great chopped up and mixed into baked goods, like gluten-free chocolate zucchini muffins. The jarred caramels are good with fresh fruit, over ice cream, on carrots (as our kids can attest to) or just on a spoon! We love doing wine, coffee and cigar pairings too!

4) Which product is your best seller? Our peanut butter cups are by far the most popular item we make. They are the right combination of simple organic ingredients: chocolate, peanut butter, agave and salt. That’s it!

5) What’s your friends’ and family’s favorite product you sell? The kids seem to be enjoying the peanut butter cups and the caramels, the Bacon Caramels specifically. With the adults, we find that the flavored bars like the Sea Salt & Smoked Almond and the jarred caramels, like Salted Bourbon, are increasingly favored.

6) What is your favorite part about being an artisan producer? Getting to introduce new customers to our products and seeing the enjoyment on their faces is a big highlight of our jobs. Working with quality ingredients and having a place to be creative help smooth out any of the bumps we may have along the way. Plus having a team that works easily together and seems to mainly all be on the same page about where we’re going and how we’d like to get there, really makes going to work each day a joy instead of a chore.

7) How do you get ideas for innovating with products and creating new flavors or varieties? A lot of the time, one of us will latch on to an idea and try it. Then as a group we’ll taste,test and tweak the recipe until we have found something that is unique and delicious. Our Dulce de Leche Jalapenos started out as a whole roasted and candied jalapeno, filled with the spiced dulche de leche then dipped in chocolate. In that form, it was a little messy and hard to share, so Vince (the mastermind behind that product) decided that bite size would be better. He figured out how to make them smaller. They may be little but they pack a big flavor punch!

8) What inspires your art direction and packaging? How did you come up with your style? We are all really proud of our new packaging but the credit has to go to Celeste for spearheading it’s creation and working hand in hand with the photographer - her mother, Debra - and the printer to get it just right. We wanted packaging that invoked a feeling when you looked at it, not just to tell you what you were eating but to tell you how we feel about it. For example, the peanut butter cups have bicycle tires on the package; it’s feels fun, whimsical and hearkens back to a simpler time, while the Ginger & Nib bar has a macro picture of a dahlia that feels exotic and mysterious like the taste of ginger can be at times. We went for the direction of natural and handmade with our design just like our chocolate.

9) Who inspires you in the kitchen? Who taught you to cook/produce? The raw ingredients are inspiring to work with. It’s kind of like a treasure hunt to find the best, most sustainable products we can. Then to work with them, coaxing out their richness, their subtle flavors often leaves us in awe. Some of us have traditional training in the kitchen, while the rest of us are self-taught, there’s not one chocolate “expert” in the group. We continue to learn through research, trial and error and remembering to have fun playing with our food. We inspire each other!

i am seriously failing in the blogging department

because i am EXCELLING in the life department.

snake & butterfly is doing things i never dreamed it would do. we got into williams effing sonoma ya'll. new packaging is in full effect (thanks to me, mom, and that printer guy up the hill). we've just put in an application to an adorable little place in downtown campbell to open a mother-loving STORE. pictures and an updated website to follow.

oh oh oh, i can share this here because dan dan doesn't read this blog! i'm taking him to germany (bremen) and the netherlands (amsterdam) for his 30th birthday and it's a surprise. he's never been to europe. shhhhh. ideas? i've been to amsterdam but not germany. we have family in both places so won't be needing anywhere to stay. eeeee! going after christmas (28th?) for a week to ten days.

the kids? the kids are lovely and terrible all rolled into one. i am SO ready for school to start, not because they're bothering me particularly but because they are driving each other crazy. they play SO well together until suddenly: they don't. *i'm interrupting my own post to tell you that i hate baby's breath (the flower). there, i said it.* someone please inform me if there is a year round school near here. also, what the hell is with the GIANT list of supplies the kids need this year? 45 boxes of kleenex? 700 pencils? 68 boxes of crayons? i'm going to need to take out a loan. lorenzo turned five and yes, i'm a terrible mom for not making some special post. but anyway, he's having experiencing some "growing pains" but is still totally the love of my life. which reminds me. have i mentioned how much i love 7 year olds? while i find them exhausting, grade schoolers are SO much easier than their younger selves. they read! they use their words (mostly)! they HELP! they understand consequences! they play ridiculously complex soap-opera-ish games with their barbies (also, how lucky is miss p to have a little brother that LOVES barbies???). they take an interest in music! they turn their noses up at crappy chocolate! i'm so proud. :D


where the hell is time going?

mainly to children and chocolate and health-ifying men i suppose. i don't think i've even been this busy in my entire life. between two days in parker's classroom, four days in the kitchen, one day at the market and a meeting or two i am so flipping exhausted. oh yeah, i'm grading papers too. why? WHY?!

s&b has doubled its wholesale accounts in the last month or two and is suffering only minor growing pains. we're hopefully signing the lease on the store front sometime in the next week. we're redoing the website. and our packaging. and designing the store. omg. this is real. someone from sunset magazine just contacted me. we're winning awards and being recognized by name and brand and face. never in my wildest dreams.

meanwhile things are changing so quickly at home that i too am taking it "one day at a time." what a ride this is. indescribable. trying to find a good al-anon meeting and in the meantime, going to a saturday morning meeting with "the boys." so many "aha moments" i feel like i'm on oprah.

after months of grogginess i cut my anti-depressant (celexa) in half. seem to be feeling a bit better. wouldn't it be something if after 10 years i wasn't on it anymore? might try something a bit more activating. i'm still a but irritable, particularly with the kids. derp.

things with rory are...the same-ish? except the kids don't care. and i mostly don't care. and he continues to be a sort of douchey uncle figure. lorenzo has taken to calling danny "daddy" on occasion and danny, more than ever IS daddy. home life is mostly domestic and boring these days with the random flare ups of rory (for example:claiming the kids on his taxes (without my permission while we were out of the country) or paying his child support a week and a half late and not in full). i'm looking into having his wages garnished. the man owes me almost $15k for the love of god.

i am so many blog posts behind. i owe a huge one on my last cancer checkup. and the kids. and this damn cold.

but for now:

We took another FIVE medals at the Fall Luxury Chocolate Salon! That's GOLD for Best Organic/Fair Trade Product! That's SILVER for Best Flavored Chocolate Bar! That's BRONZE for Best Dark Chocolate Bar, Best in Salon & Best Comfort Chocolate!

i'm a big bloggy TEASE. but i have a good excuse this time.

seriously. our chocolate is being sent to oprah by the VP of marketing at cisco to celebrate the release of a product (made by cisco) that will be featured on the oprah show. i'm outta my mind. that, and we're doing a shit ton of other things (debuting 5 s&b desserts at a supa-cool wine bar, preparing gift boxes of a large anniversary party, working with a wine educator on cheese/chocolate pairings, press release for whole foods and that's just this week. so yeah, busy. did i mention that we're in a new kitchen too? it's SUCH an improvement, brand new, everything in working order. it's all happening! bring on the money!

see how we grow

bluuuuuur... this is friendship as an adult woman: assisted in the birth last week, bloody to elbows (and between toes?), caught placenta, tied cord, uhhhh-mazing experience, reminded me of why i wanted to have more babies, or catch them at least. proud mama of a first grader, no more coddling these little ones but the teacher is quite a bit younger than i. cute, perky, not terrifically responsive. thankfully i have a proactive learner. and speaking of her...she's hating her dad at the moment. ('which daddy?' lorenzo asks. with a sigh, 'oh. bk?') forcing food down on his behalf and he's pissy when i bring it up. 'daddy puts us to bed early so he can leave sooner.' what a fucking disappointment you turned out to be. she's working through it now instead of waiting until her 30s and i'm proud to be her mama. proud to be the mama as well of this insanely thriving business which is shortly doubling output. whole foods and food emporium and oprah and weddings and tastings and on and on and on. here we go... whee!