Our Story
We craft flavorful, quality Chocolates, Caramels, and Fudge to help your cravings and satisfy your chocoholic desires. We also have an espresso cafe where we make lates, frappes, smoothies, tea, hot chocolate, scoop ice cream, and more!
Brenda grew up in a family that shunned those that brought ANYTHING but CHOCOLATE to their family reunions. Her Mom, Bette, used to make fudge from scratch on her stove, as well as her grandma. However, Bette only made a plateful. And it seemed that every time the plate was poured, an uncle or two would show up at the door! Brenda was never left with more then a spoonful of that delicious fudge.
Flash forward MANY years, as Brenda was researching what type of business she wanted to get into, the family visited The Amana Colonies. She found The Chocolate Haus and drooled over all the bakers racks of chocolates. She didn't want to leave. Six months later she saw an ad in the newspaper that said The Chocolate Haus in Amana is for Sale! 3-months later, it became hers.
Do what you're passionate about and it will get you through the tough times, the hard days, the craziness of owning your own business! It takes a LOT of Grit and Grace! Brenda had the support of many friends and family in the beginning and worked 7-days a week and many, many late nights. (or mornings!) Her husband and Mom were there many weekends, her husband on a register and her mom watching a kid or two in the back room. They eventually bought one of the old Amana buildings down the street from where they started, renovated it, and added an espresso cafe. The 20-foot viewing glass is a highlight to the hundreds of thousands of tourist that stop in to watch and "smell" the goodies being made.
Their son was only 3 years old when Brenda bought the business and now (year 2020) he's 23 and they are also blessed with the miracle of 3 daughter's through birth and adoption. Their son helped out at the business off and on for many years. Now, both him and her husband appear once a year on the busiest day of the year, Oktoberfest, not counting the ongoing maintenance of a very old building with lots of equipment. Unfortunately, besides eating the candy, and a little box folding here and there, none of the girls want to work in the business.
In 2019 Brenda felt God telling her to expand and grow the business. That was NOT in the plan at that point in time with the girls in three different schools and all the activities. However, she got the fire after attending 5 entrepreneur business conferences throughout the year. The nudge was there, to start another revenue stream, besides growing their online mail order business, Chocoholics everywhere were asking for a subscription box.
UPDATE 4/17/20
GUYS! Little did we know Covid-19 would cause a world wide pandemic that would shut down businesses everywhere, including our business, besides pick-ups and mail orders! God was nudging us to grown online because HE knew what was coming! We are grateful we listened. And we are MORE than just grateful for the support of all of our chocoholics all across the country. We are shipping out now more than we ever have the past 20 years. Thank you! If there's any other way we can serve you PLEASE let us know.
The Chocoholic Tribe SUBSCRIPTION BOX was launched the fall of 2019. People from across the country love receiving this specially curated box of goodies each month. Each month we create an exclusive treat only found in this box. You can also send just one as a gift!