Chocolate is a highly competitive business, and it is becoming more competitive with time. The number of companies making chocolate has grown tremendously over the past decade.  There are over a dozen professional chocolatiers and independent chocolate stores just here in Berkeley. It’s always hard to break into a crowded business, and that is certainly true of the chocolate business. As a result, many new chocolate makers resort to extreme measures in order to get noticed.

Shock chocolate is a term I created to describe chocolate that is designed to get attention by shocking consumers. There are a number of ways of doing that. One way to get attention is by making chocolates with bizarre fillings and flavors. I have seen chocolates for sale here in Berkeley that were filled with some very strange things, including anchovies, garlic, Tabasco, curry paste, and horseradish. I once ate a truffle at the Edible Complex on Northside without knowing that it was filled with raspberry vinegar. It was awful. I turned to the wall and spit it out discreetly into a napkin.

Chocolate Rats. Other companies make chocolates in shapes that are designed to shock people. Morkes Chocolates makes chocolate rats that comes packaged in real rat traps. The chocolate rat’s head is under the trap’s spring, with it’s neck broken. (See photo below.) This item is undeniably shocking, and it has generated publicity. Morkes chocolate rat traps were recently featured in Martha Stewart Living magazine, a well respected and widely read publication.

I don’t think that shock chocolate has any lasting value. To the contrary, I think that shock chocolate leaves people with a bad feeling about the company that made it and a suspicion that their chocolate probably isn’t very good. After all, if their chocolate is good, why are they making products like these? My philosophy is that a chocolate company’s best chance of success lies in making a consistently great product. In a highly competitive market, even a great product may not make it, but a lousy product will certainly fail.