Robbinsdale Chocolate Shop Marks First Year with Ghoulishly Good Treats
When your business is based on chocolate, Halloween may not be the most lucrative season.
“I think Christmas is more like the Super Bowl for chocolatiers,” said Denny Rain, owner or Robbinsdale’s Cocoa Flake. “But Halloween is up there.”
Still, if you ask Rain, she’ll tell you that Halloween is definitely the most fun time of the year in the chocolate business.
“Halloween, I actually really like it,” she said. “It’s my favorite to produce. I love all the spooky things.”
Rain is the chocolatier behind Cocoa Flake, a small chocolate shop in Robbinsdale that specializes in bonbons.
She sells a wide variety of flavors, all of which she makes right on site.
Chocolatier Denny Rain makes chocolate creations at Robbinsdale’s Cocoa Flake.
“It’s important also for me to have more of a creativity outlet and then test out new flavors,” Rain said, when asked about her wide variety of chocolates. “Some that might go, others that nobody cares for except for me, and I’m really excited about it and I’m like, ‘but this tastes really good, please try it.'”
October marks the one-year anniversary of Cocoa Flake. For Rain, it has been a year of ups and downs.
“I can’t believe it’s been a year already. I don’t know, probably because I’m here every day, so it feels like it’s been 60 years that I’ve been working,” she reflected.
Finding a manageable work-life balance has been one challenge. Same goes for dealing with the lull that occurs in the summer.
“Chocolate, it’s a little more different, especially in the summer, because not a lot of people think to eat chocolate in the summer,” she said.
To help fill the void during that summer lull, Rain started offering chocolate-making classes to teach people how the magic happens.
“I am happy to offer some more over the summer, and I’m hoping that more people want to come and learn what chocolate work means,” Rain said.
View this post on Instagram
Part of the class involves explaining why it’s hard to sell bonbons at a discount.
“What I use, it is actual chocolate,” Rain said. “It’s a single origin, if we’re talking about the dark chocolate, which is the one that I use the most, it’s a single origin from Africa. The flavor is there and the people can taste the difference.”
The taste of her chocolate – and the people who enjoy it – are why she’s hopeful she’ll be celebrating many more anniversaries in Robbinsdale.
“The people of Robbinsdale have been fantastic. They’ve been very supportive,” she said.
Cocoa Flake plans to offer more chocolate-making classes early next year. Tickets are $100 apiece.
Related: Artisan Chocolate Shop Opens in Robbinsdale
