Mark E.
Yelp
I am disappointed. Moreover, my wife is disappointed and I hate to let her down.
I was in the area meeting with one of the local restaurants that I was hosting an event at and happened across Cacao. I stopped because chocolate is one of my wife's favorite things. I also thought I could pickup some special chocolates for my meetings. The lady behind the counter was nice enough. I applauded the art on the wall and asked about this special box of chocolates in a display case. She indicated it was a special box created in partnership with an artist. I thought that could be a wonderful way to impress my colleagues and my wife.
So, I paid over $300 for 3 boxes of chocolate. I reserved one of the special artist boxes for my wife and gave the rest to my colleagues.
After leaving the location, I received an email announcement about a Valentines event where we could have a tasting and even make chocolate. That was perfect for my wife. So I bought those tickets and made reservations at Aria for dinner beforehand. My wife could not have been more ecstatic for our Valentines outing.
Dinner was amazing and we only had to drive just down the street to Cacao in Buckhead. Walking into the shop something was immediately amiss when there weren't mobs of other couples standing around. We obviously didn't read the fine print, so we had no idea that Cacao had other locations and that the event was in a completely different part of town. So we left, dejected. Went over to the Southern Gentleman where the GM took great care of us, as always.
Even so, I could not shake the disappointed look on my wife's face, despite her positive acceptance of the circumstances. So when we arrived home, I thanked her for her graciousness and apologized because I knew she was really looking forward to the chocolate event. So, I gave her the special artist box of chocolates from Cacao. I explained the story behind it and that it was from the shop we had disappointedly left a couple hours earlier. She perked up and was immediately excited. Then she opened the box.
There was no cars describing the artist or the chocolates as the salesperson has promised me would be in the box. Next, the chocolates were in disarray. Apparently you can only transport them with the box upright because the packaging does not keep them in place. I helped her rearrange them. That's when we looked at the design. Perhaps it was artistically dramatic before all the pieces moved all over. However, at first glance, it was overwhelmingly drab and uninspiring. Again, I loved the artist's painting in the shop.
Finally, the icing on the cake came when I decided to try one. The texture was like a brittle chocolate nougat, which was fine. The chocolate flavor was subtle and not particularly memorable. It had a thin layer topping with what might have been something like a crumb of a candied orange. Not the decadence my wife enjoys. She likes smooth, creamy milk chocolate.
Maybe our palettes are just not sophisticated enough. We do chocolate tours in the cities we travel to. Mea culpa for not catching the location of the event. Granted, the quality and product delivery I associate with what I paid to this company seem disproportionate. I will try to make it up to my wife with a trip to Cacao's factory in the hopes of a better experience. The concept is something she would still love to try.
