August at the Chocolate Fetish.

It’s been a busy summer here at The Chocolate Fetish.  Our kitchen has been hard at work developing some new products while our retail staff has been busy providing awesome customer service to all the different people that Asheville summer events bring our way.  We literally rolled out the red carpet to celebrate Bele Chere this year and a few of us even found a moment to check out The Southern Highland Craft Guild and Elvis Costello while they were at the Asheville Civic Center in July.

The Chocolate Fetish rolls out the red carpet.

This summer we have renewed our focus on giving exemplary customer service with new training and incentive programs for our staff.  Our goal is to not only give everyone a wonderful experience when they visit our store but also to go above and beyond for every customer.  Thankfully we’ve been hearing lots of positive feedback from satisfied customers all over the country!  We love hearing your feedback so if you have a positive experience with one of our employees please tell us about it!  There is nothing like going through the daily business mail and finding hand addressed letters with thoughtful notes and even pictures telling us what a good job we’re doing (we like hearing good news electronically too)!  We may not be changing the world through chocolate but if we can  brighten peoples days on a regular basis then I think we are doing our job.

As promised new flavors have been debuting from our kitchen.  We recently unveiled a new America’s Best Milk Coconut Truffle.  Our coconut loving customers have been asking for more so we introduced this classic milk chocolate truffle laced throughout with freshly toasted coconut.  Its a great classic flavor that is quickly becoming a favorite.   We have also been developing a peanut butter truffle.  Some of you may have been lucky enough to participate in our peanut butter truffle tasting.  We really appreciate hearing what you, our customers enjoy and desire and your feedback helps us achieve better results.  We are still working on perfecting the peanut butter truffle, its proving challenging to get the right balance of peanut butter to chocolate.  If you missed out on the first round of tasting I encourage you to stop by the shop often in the next couple weeks for another chance.  Peanut Butter and Coconut are not the only new flavors that we are working on!

Edible chocolate sculptures celebrate summer!

In our ongoing pursuit to create beautiful edible art all this month we are displaying an edible beach scene.  Featuring hand painted shells and fish created by our talented and creative team of chocolatiers the display has been getting rave reviews so far.  I enjoy listening to people as they check it out in the store and try to figure out if its all edible or not.  Many people wonder in particular about the sand on the bottom of the display, yes!  It is edible, it is a blend of sugar and cocoa powder.  Just to keep things interesting their is one shell in the display that is not made out of chocolate.  You’ll have to come down and see if you can find it for yourself.

August has brought with it once again The Best of WNC readers poll from the Mountain Xpress.  We have been voted the best chocolate shop in WNC or 12 years and we sure appreciate your help in making it to number 13.  The deadline for voting is August 24th so get your votes in and tell your friends!  This year we are also going for a win in the Uniquely Asheville category for Best Reason to Live in Asheville.  We might not beat the mountains (a long time favorite in this category), but its worth a shot right?  After all the mountains wouldn’t be as nice to enjoy if you didn’t get to savor a piece of chocolate along with the view.

Please vote for us as The Best Chocolate Shop in WNC. Vote at http://www.mountainx.com/bestof/vote/login