Life is like a box of chocolates
Mother, daughter alums create chocolate enterprise
Neal Gough
Issue date: 3/3/09 Section: News
SIUE alumni Jan Rock and her daughter Jamie Horstmann have taken a tasty hobby and turned it into a delicious business in little more than a year's time.
Operating out of Rock's Edwardsville home, these two SIUE graduates have taken their love for chocolate and created a legitimate business, J&J Chocolate Chalet, with their distinctive blend of dark and milk chocolate.
"I like milk (chocolate), and she likes dark (chocolate)," Horstmann said. "One day we were messing around and combined them."
The experiment quickly became the basis for most of the pair's chocolates.
"It's a melt-in-your-mouth experience," Rock said.
Rock said they use blocks of Dove chocolate ordered from the company to create the blends. The chocolate does not contain any wax or preservatives, different from anything sold in stores. They also use a French white chocolate, called Callebaut, for their creations.
Jan and Randy Rock, her husband and retired dean of students, lived in Rolla, Mo., for two years as Randy Rock helped a two year college in town. Jan Rock began making chocolates there as a way to entertain for friends.
Upon returning to Edwardsville in 2007, Rock, who also teaches piano lessons, began giving them to her piano students after lessons. Soon, her students' parents also wanted chocolates, and the business began to snowball.
Horstmann, who became involved in the business after her mother moved back to Edwardsville from Rolla, came up with the idea of selling the chocolates at the Goshen Market.
The Goshen Market is held from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday from mid-May to mid-October. The market consists of local farmers and bakers selling fresh produce, baked goods and crafts.
The two sold steadily there all year and through word-of-mouth, their business has grown to selling roughly 20 to 30 pounds of chocolate per week during the summer, according to Rock and Hortsmann. During the Christmas season, the duo sold 40 pounds of chocolate in a week and a half. They have also mailed their chocolates to destinations as far away as California, Arizona and Nova Scotia.
Operating out of Rock's Edwardsville home, these two SIUE graduates have taken their love for chocolate and created a legitimate business, J&J Chocolate Chalet, with their distinctive blend of dark and milk chocolate.
"I like milk (chocolate), and she likes dark (chocolate)," Horstmann said. "One day we were messing around and combined them."
The experiment quickly became the basis for most of the pair's chocolates.
"It's a melt-in-your-mouth experience," Rock said.
Rock said they use blocks of Dove chocolate ordered from the company to create the blends. The chocolate does not contain any wax or preservatives, different from anything sold in stores. They also use a French white chocolate, called Callebaut, for their creations.
Jan and Randy Rock, her husband and retired dean of students, lived in Rolla, Mo., for two years as Randy Rock helped a two year college in town. Jan Rock began making chocolates there as a way to entertain for friends.
Upon returning to Edwardsville in 2007, Rock, who also teaches piano lessons, began giving them to her piano students after lessons. Soon, her students' parents also wanted chocolates, and the business began to snowball.
Horstmann, who became involved in the business after her mother moved back to Edwardsville from Rolla, came up with the idea of selling the chocolates at the Goshen Market.
The Goshen Market is held from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday from mid-May to mid-October. The market consists of local farmers and bakers selling fresh produce, baked goods and crafts.
The two sold steadily there all year and through word-of-mouth, their business has grown to selling roughly 20 to 30 pounds of chocolate per week during the summer, according to Rock and Hortsmann. During the Christmas season, the duo sold 40 pounds of chocolate in a week and a half. They have also mailed their chocolates to destinations as far away as California, Arizona and Nova Scotia.
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