Noka Chocolate Is A Scam ($2,000 per pound chocolates sold at Nieman Marcus)

[Ian David]

Noka chocolate is sold for $2000 a pound, but it's actually crappy chocolate bought from another company and repackaged in a half-abandoned strip mall in Plano, Texas.

Dallas Foods posted an in-depth investigative report, which included this conversation with company owner Katrina Merrem.

DF: So you guys make the chocolate?

KM: Uh-huh. We have a commercial kitchen here where we make the chocolates here.

DF: No, I mean, you actually make the chocolate, or are you using someone else's chocolate?

KM: Well, we don't do the whole "bean to bar." We actually get it in a semi-processed state based on our specifications, but we do actually make the chocolates here.

DF: Who do you get your chocolate from then?

KM: We don't disclose that.

<snip>

Noka chocolate is sold through Neiman Marcus and until recently, Dean & DeLuca. — BEN POPKEN

NOKA chocolate exposed!
(Thanks to acilletampe, John, Johnathan, and David!)

More:
http://www.consumerist.com/?refId=224146

[mikeytherat]

1. Spend $2000 for a pound of chocolate and you DESERVE to be scammed

And this is from a confirmed chocoholic.

mikey_the_rat

[Nickster]

6. I was thinking the very same thing. n/t

[jilln]

2. I thought everything at Needless Markup was a scam

One day I saw a protester in front of the store (on Fur Free Friday) yelling "Boycott overpriced crap!" I think that pretty much sums it up.

[kay1864]

3. Here's the original investigative article:

http://www.dallasfood.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=78

Fascinatin' stuff! This blogger has really done his homework.

Edit: It's really not "crappy chocolate" though...that comment was added by consumerist.com. The original article says that the other company that Noka buys their chocolate from is

definitely a top tier chocolate maker with an illustrious history and solid reputation. A chocolatier should feel no shame in using Bonnat's couverture. On the contrary, it's an ingredient of such quality that most chocolatiers would be telling customers about it at every opportunity.

But Noka is definitely WAYYY overpriced, for doing little more than melting down someone else's chocolate and pouring into teeny little molds.

[B3Nut]

4. That was really interesting

No wonder the Noka people are so cagey...they're making hellacious markup due to ignorance. The Noka product looks amateurishly made...doesn't hold a candle to the chocolates I used to get at The Greenbrier (especially Courvoisier balls! Oy, I'd give my eye teeth for a box of those about now, damn they were good!)

Todd in Beerbratistan

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. I don't see how this is a scam. They say they are selling chocolate,

and they are selling chocolate - they're not selling something disguised as chocolate, they're not filling it with crap, they are not doing anything other than taking chocolate, putting it intop bar form, putting their name on it and selling it for a super high price.

[kay1864]

7. The scam is that all their marketing

leads one to believe they actually *make* the chocolate. But they just buy it ready-made from a supplier, and melt it and put it in molds.

Neither is the chocolate "made to their specifications", as they claim. The reason there's no vanilla or emulsifier in "their" chocolate is because they selected a chocolate maker that doesn't add them. Some do, some don't--doesn't make "their" chocolate better though.