It might be a little late for 2011 but Fremont’s Theo Chocolate is hoping to make fair-trade Hanukkah gelt, the golden-foiled chocolate coins given to children, available for next season.
Seattle Weekly spoke with Theo, who is trying to find a way to find chocolate manufacturers who can keep up with demand for it.
There are currently two companies worldwide producing fair-trade gelt, but a leader of the local abolitionist movement says the companies can’t keep pace with demand.
Gelt has long been on Theo’s to-do list, but the coin-making process poses vexing production issues. “It requires a completely different capital investment,” Music says, referring to the various nozzles and molds a new chocolate shape requires. Theo would also have to fashion an automated foil-wrapping method in order to produce gelt in-house.
It’s going to come down to volume, as chocolate needs to be produced in massive quantities in order to make it financially-viable. Hopefully between now and the, the demand for fair-trade gelt grows to make their job easier.