Jennifer Simon estimates she’s brought “hundreds or thousands” of beautiful, eatable, and giftable products to market throughout her 25-year career in merchandising. And her latest launch, Chocolate Roses by Fleur de Chocolate, combines all three into one gorgeous, delicious, and ready-to-ship package.
The inspiration to create these hat boxes full of confectionary roses came to Simon in March 2023. During a meeting with a New Jersey-based partner, the Chocolate Covered Company, she had her interest piqued by a set of mock-ups for roses made from Belgian chocolate. She instantly recognized a product opportunity for the company. “It was like this perfect synergy,” says Simon, product development director at 1-800-Flowers.com. “Here, we have flowers, but they’re made out of Belgian chocolate, so it’s just like another type of flower.”
The designs took a page from a growing trend overseas of remarkably realistic-looking “floral arrangements” that were actually made of chocolate. In certain parts of Eastern Europe, Simon explains, “confectionary florists are very popular. There are little boutiques that have handmade, very elaborate flowers out of chocolate, which they wrap up like a bouquet of flowers.”
Simon was taken by these confectionery works of art, and she knew they would be a hit with customers here in the States, where the trend had yet to take off.
At this point, however, she and her team were working with just 3D-printed models of the sweet roses. So, they got to work on making their vision a reality.
Bringing the chocolate roses to life
Because Simon’s flowers would be delivered by mail, the first hurdle to clear was devising a packing plan that would keep the blooms intact and at a safe temperature while preserving the dramatic unboxing experience.
Simon loved the elegant look and feel of the hat boxes sometimes used to package chocolate and real floral bouquets in Belgium and other European countries, and she sought to preserve that nod to the product’s origin in the 1-800-Flowers.com version. “Packaging the Fleur De Chocolate roses this way makes them look like fresh roses in a hat box, which you sometimes find at a high-end floral boutique,” Simon says.
Packaging decided, it was on to the next challenge: transit. The folks at the Chocolate Covered Company developed a proprietary bloom holder shaped like a miniature plastic test tube that grasps the stem of each chocolate rose. These pieces keep the bouquet in place during delivery to ensure the floral display is in the same shape when it arrives at its destination as it is when it leaves the chocolatier’s.
The final step was molding the chocolate roses themselves. The social media-worthy confectionary flowers popping up in Eastern Europe were individually hand molded, but this wasn’t an option for Simon, given the scale of 1-800-Flowers.com’s business. Instead, the product team created chocolate rose-shaped silicone molds to make production on a mass level possible, Simon says.
The process of creating a full bouquet of chocolate roses, Simon notes, is still much slower than that of factory-dispensed chocolates. “The chocolate is poured into the silicone molds by hand,” she explains. “After they set, the artisans unwrap them [from the molds].” Each flower is then individually wrapped in cellophane and secured with a bloom holder. The result of this handmade process is that no two Fleur De Chocolate roses are identical.
A debut hit
Once the chocolatiers at the Chocolate Covered Company generated enough inventory of the roses — about nine months after Simon saw her first mock-up — the first five Fleur De Chocolate Rose products went live on 1-800-Flowers.com.
The roses come in milk, dark, and white chocolate, and in a range of colors. The lighter colors, such as pink and lavender, are made from white chocolate dyed with food coloring; the deeper red roses are made from a blend of pink white chocolate and dark chocolate.
Each box comes in three sizes: Ultimate (featuring 60 stems), Deluxe (40 stems), and Classic (21 stems). And don’t worry about finishing your bouquet right away — the chocolate roses will stay fresh for up to 45 days if kept in a cool, dry place.
The multicolored sets of chocolate roses make an eye-catching gift for any occasion. The latest launch, Springtime Blooms, includes pastel pinks and purples just in time for Mother’s Day or graduations. The classic Love & Romance collection is a thoughtful gift for a special someone, and the Birthday Wishes bouquet would be a welcome surprise on a friend’s big day. (It also happens to be the best seller, according to Simon.)
The products made such a splash after their launch at the end of 2023 that Simon and her team plan to expand the flower and flavor offerings. They’re working on blooming daisies and sunflowers, which will make great gifts for baby showers, anniversaries, and housewarming parties.
Next up in the flavor department? Arrangements made up entirely of white, milk, or dark chocolate roses to, as Simon puts it, “satisfy the purists.”
She says, “We will be adding versions that reach our true chocolate lovers.”
