To all my wonderful customers

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for keeping us running through the heat of the summer months and the worst two months for dark chocolate, June, and July!

You have been so amazing, and I cannot put into words how much it means to me and my employees.  

Organic dark, Vegan, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, and Non-GMO chocolate has been part of my vision since 2006. I saw way back then how important it would be for my immune system to consume Organic Dark chocolate and superfoods every day because I needed to rebuild my immune system after having gone through Breast Cancer treatment for a full year. Who knew that all these years later the entire world would be needing to build up and rebuild their immune systems.

Breast Cancer and the after-effects of treatment can leave one devastated physically, emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically. I wound up having a year of treatment and seventeen years of surgeries to put myself back together again. It was important for me as an entrepreneur with a vision to have a fully certified facility with integrity, transparency, and a solid mission to share with the world, one bite of chocolate at a time!

After my treatments, I was unable to eat many foods because my immune system created so many food intolerances. I could not consume dairy, so I envisioned dairy-free chocolate in my plan. I was so afraid of eating any more chemicals or pesticides after all the horrible medicines my body had to absorb so I had the vision to create only Organic and Non-GMO chocolate from then on. I saw that Veganism was on the rise and I also noticed that many manufacturers in 2006 were making food products meant to be Vegan in facilities that were not Vegan and there was a lot of cross-contamination of foods being prepared in dehydrators where meats were used but they were called Vegan.

In 2009 I asked our Kosher certifier to create an actual Vegan facility certification that would show our transparency and let all Vegans know we not only were a product line that was certified Vegan but we were the original creators of the idea to be Vegan Verified in our facility.

We also worked so hard to be able to afford to get the certification called HACCP/GMP (food safety, Good Manufacturing Practices)which is not an easy task. It took us many years to be able to afford it and we couldn’t do it until we moved into our third facility as we grew.

This year we are going for a huge certification called BRC which is an internationally known food safety certification. 

Building my dream for Organic Dark Chocolate has not been easy especially because I went through such a devastating loss of my beautiful daughter Jaymie Rose right after I launched. Being able to come to work every day and inspire my customers with my products and of course my favorite The Rose Bar, has been life-altering for me in every way. I made a choice not to live in grief and I get to tell my story every day and help others get through their own life issues. 

In April of this year, my son Justin and his wife Virginia welcomed Jaymie’s namesake Addie Rose Darrow into the world. She is named after Jaymie and is so beautiful and smiles all the time. It has been such a blessing to be able to come to a “job” that I love, and then eat Organic dark chocolate every day that is made in a facility that has happy employees!!!

Life is sweet for me right now and it is all because of you who are helping me share my message of LOVE. 

Blessings to all,

Audrey