Well, December has gotten off to a great – and hectic – start here at truffle truffle, and with the holidays quickly approaching, we couldn’t ask for better timing!  This week, truffle truffle participated in two exciting events.  On Tuesday, we were featured at the About.com holiday party at Blue Mercury in Lincoln Park.  It was an intimate gathering of about 40 guests, which gave us an opportunity to really share our love of all things truffle truffle!  The beer & pretzel truffles were wildly popular (”heaven in your mouth” according to one guest!), followed closely by the fleur de sel caramels, both of which, incidentally, are among my personal favorites.

Once the About.com event was cleaned up, it was immediately back to the kitchen for a long night of chocolate work to prepare treats – hundreds and hundreds of treats – for the World of Chocolate event, a benefit hosted by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago to raise money for AIDS research and prevention efforts.  It amazes me that in the period of just a few short weeks, I’ve had to make the adjustment from thinking in terms of dozens to thinking in terms of hundreds.  Needless to say, I’m not complaining!  The growth of the business has been a wonderful blessing, and one that I am hoping to perpetuate.  Still, it has been an exhausting transition (hence the whimper part of the bang/whimper dichotomy!).

After a week of intense preparation, we showed up at the Hilton Chicago to get set up for the 1,700 guests that would be arriving within the hour.  My anxiety peaked when we entered a beautiful ballroom bustling with the other 20 or so chocolate companies setting up for the festivities.  With a staff and a budget that is only a fraction of what many of the other chocolatiers had at their disposal, I was concerned about being the small fish in a very large and chocolatey pond – would our booth be too modest? would we run out of samples too early? would our little treats seem silly beside the more formal and elaborate offerings of some of the other contenders?  That anxiety was quickly alleviated by the absolutely beautiful table display that Dustin – my hero – put together, and was completely dissolved by the reactions of the guests who swarmed our table to indulge in the beer & pretzel brittle, elderflower and earl grey truffles and assorted s’mores and caramels.  We were quite popular!  In the end, truffle truffle was acknowledged with 2 Judge’s Awards and a 2nd place finish in the People’s Choice Award category!  I was so proud!  While it is always wonderful to receive the praise of friends and family, it is somehow more credible when the rave reviews come from total strangers.  truffle truffle seems like much less of a pipe dream all of a sudden!

Amidst all of the frenzied preparation and the excitement of the event, it could have been easy to lose sight of the bigger picture – were it not so important.  All of those vendors and all of those guest were there that night to raise money for the vital cause of AIDS research and HIV/AIDS prevention.  I spent a lot of time in college and just after volunteering for organizations dedicated to HIV/AIDS prevention and caring for patients with advanced stages of AIDS, and I have regretted not being able to carve out time more recently to continue my activism.  So, participating in this particular event was very rewarding for me personally.  Given that more than half of the people who contract HIV are under the age of 25 globally, awareness and education programs can pay huge dividends in stopping the rate and spread of infection.  As such, the outreach efforts of organizations like the AIDS Foundation and others are vitally important to combating the spread of this epidemic as well as increasing access to care and treatment for those who have already been infected.  The AIDS Foundation of Chicago raised over $200,000 with the World of Chocolate event and I am so grateful for whatever small portion of that truffle truffle was responsible for raising.  As truffle truffle continues to grow, I am committed to maintaining its social consciousness and carving out a niche that allows us to give back to the Chicago community and beyond in meaningful ways.