Graphic designer JoeHausch observed this vacancy within the world’s garnish caddies and came upwith a simple but brilliant concept: the Cholive, featuring whole cream ganachein a rich, dark chocolate truffle. The olive-shaped Cholive can even fit on atoothpick.
A lot of people havegreat ideas for new products, but lack the business acumen needed to produceand market them to the right customers. Hausch teamed up with Josh Gentine,who, in addition to having a background in business and finance, broughtinvaluable insight into the restaurant and bar industry.
“Gourmet, premiumchocolate is a $2.5 billion industry,” Gentine explains. “Yet, for the mostpart, it doesn’t exist in bars and restaurants.” Formed as the Cholive Co. inMay 2007, Hausch and Gentine decided to be the first to bring it to thatmarket.
Gentine had to find away to keep production costs of the Cholive to a minimum so that bar andrestaurant owners could justify the purchase of the drink ornament. Because theCholive is a truffle and not a solid piece of chocolate, a candy mold isnecessary, as is an automated machine to deposit the creamy ganache. The partnershad to find a company that fit somewhere between the massive Hershey companiesof the world and artisans who craft their chocolate by hand.
“We had to callliterally every chocolatier in the country to find somebody that had theability to mass-produce a quality piece of chocolate,” Gentine says.
After 18 months ofsearching, the Cholive Co. finally found a business in Vermontto make its truffles, and promptly shipped the chocolatier 100 molds from Switzerland tobegin production.
Building a business on agarnish is challenging, so Gentine and Hausch sought advice from the top 100restaurant groups in the country by sending samples of their Cholives andasking for feedback. Major cruise lines and dining dynasties like Morton’sagreed: They liked what the Milwaukee-based partners were doing. The firstrestaurant in town to take the Cholive plunge was the Bosch Tavern in HalesCorners, and now the chocolate garnish can be found in more than 100restaurants in 26 states.
The Cholive Co. alsomakes Chruffles, which are composed of the same 55% Swiss dark chocolateformula with whole cream ganache as the Cholive. Under the guidance ofsommelier Guy Poitras, Gentine and Hausch matched 16 of their flavoredChruffles with various wines to create some excellent pairings. The Chruffles’clever packaging can be unfolded and used as a wine and chocolate pairingscorecard.
The Cholive Co. alsooffers a number of creative gift sets, like the martini lover’s, which includesa metal cocktail shaker, two martini glasses and eight Cholive chocolates withskewers.
In addition torestaurants and bars, the Cholive Co.’s sweets can be found at area liquorstores and grocery stores.
Surfing the trend ofsmaller portion sizes, the Cholive Co.’s chocolates are a perfect minidessertenough to satisfy the craving without eating or spending too much. Andbecause of Gentine and Hausch, the chocolate martini will never have to beserved naked again.n
