Chocolate Company Seeking Beta Tasters

Published on Wednesday, April 28, 2010, by Lessley Anderson / Edit Post

Tcho, a bean-to-bar chocolate company in San Francisco, has a unique program where you can help "beta taste" their new products. (The company was started by Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe, the founders of Wired magazine—hence the techie lingo.) What it means is you can buy a sample online of the latest chocolates the company is testing (right now it's two milk versions), receive them in the mail, then give your feedback on the company's website. You rate the candy based on traits like "caramel notes," "overall sweetness," "creaminess," and "overall chocolateyness." Ostensibly, the company makes tweaks to the product based on consumer feedback, but I suspect they mainly use the comments to name the final versions. (Tcho chocolates are named based on their predominant taste, e.g., "Citrus" and "Nutty.")

When I was there, I tried one of the beta chocolates, and they told me what they thought it tasted like but made me vow not to print it. "We don’t want to influence what our beta testers think it tastes like," said Brad Kintzer, the company’s chief chocolate maker.

Tcho is releasing a new beta chocolate each week between now and late June, when the NY Fancy Foods Show takes place. I think it would be cool to show up to somebody's dinner party with a bunch of these little things (they cost $5 for a two-pack), taste them, and talk about them as a group. Oh, and by the way, the chocolate is really, really good.

Image by Lessley Anderson

ALLFood Media
POST A COMMENT |5 Comments

COMMENT

  • Thanks for the story, Lessley. I work for TCHO and I want to let your readers know that we understand why some people don't agree with charging for the Beta chocolate. The reason we do so is that it's quite costly to hand mold these small batches, and we are still an new and growing company that must be careful with our resources. We need to charge something to cover the costs to make the bars....+READ

    Thanks for the story, Lessley. I work for TCHO and I want to let your readers know that we understand why some people don't agree with charging for the Beta chocolate. The reason we do so is that it's quite costly to hand mold these small batches, and we are still an new and growing company that must be careful with our resources. We need to charge something to cover the costs to make the bars. It's not merely for marketing, we actually do value and utilize your responses to our Beta Bars. The people who choose to pay for the Beta Bars get to taste the evolving flavors of the bars. For those who don't wish to pay to taste the trials, we hope you will still be willing to try the final formulation once our milk bars are on store shelves.-COLLAPSE

  • I am a chocoholic on every level. And I do pay good money for good chocolate. But I won't pay for someone to test out...that's silly. Hand it over for free people.

  • yes I will agree. However, I suppose if you are like those tech guys who are always willing to pay top dollar for the newest gadget. Maybe there are chocolate lovers willing to pay to try something new. I would do it if they sent to me free of charge for sure.

  • My problem with it is that not only is it $5 for each 2 bar tasting package, but there is a shipping fee of $5 each time. That's 6 different tastes (beta iterations) for 60 bucks. That's a lot of money to pay to help them beta test.

  • The idea of paying to do a company's market research and testing is pretty appalling to me. I'd love to try their chocolates and give feedback, but I'd never pay for the privilige. In fact, this turns me off from the brand completely.