When the forces of Baby Yoda and gourmet chocolate are combined together, you find Truffle Cottage. Jennie Hales is the creator and owner of Truffle Cottage. Hales says “I’m a pretty picky chocolate eater. I’m the type of person who will get a box of chocolates and sample all of them until I find the one that is actually good.” She began to wonder if she could create an assortment of chocolates, where each one tasted great. “I started messing around, coming up with a basic ganache, and coming up with some different flavors like lime and coconut, and it went well. We started making chocolate and people started to get excited about trying them. Two years later, I started the company in 2013.”
Since Jennie Hales has started the company, she has had great success with her themed chocolates, such as her Star Wars and Harry Potter chocolates. These themed chocolates came about when Hales’ friend said, “I can get you a booth that’s half-off at Salt Lake Comic Con (now known as FanX®).” Hales knew better than to turn down a half-off business deal, so she agreed. Hales admitted, “Then I had to get on my computer and google, ‘What is a Comic Con?’” After learning what Comic-Con was she thought, “‘We can’t just go to a convention without bringing something nerdy.’” Truffle Cottage had great success with their Star Wars and Superhero themed chocolates: selling out after the first day, and staying up the next two nights to have more to sell.
Hales knew that she had found her niche. “It was such a success that I thought, ‘We can’t stay just at Salt Lake, we need to jump on this, because nobody really does novelty chocolate like this.’’’ Truffle Cottage started out as a “commercial kitchen in part of [Hales’] house, we moved into that commercial kitchen for two or three years. Then we had to grow a bit more into a bigger kitchen, and ended up renting a little storefront on Main street. The whole basement is 1100 square feet of kitchen.” Truffle Cottage continues to gain customers and popularity, so Hales says, “I don’t think this is our end destination, we’re just going to keep going.”
Truffle Cottage, with their unique and creative designs has had some memorable encounters over the years. After catering a Star Wars-themed wedding, Hales was contacted by a worker from Disney, but “rather than saying ‘don’t use our property’, he said ‘I don’t care, let’s do Captain Marvel.’ So we actually designed a box with the Captain Marvel symbol on the top, there was a paw print, and then there was the name of the cat in a three-truffle set that we actually did for Disney.” Another iconic Truffle Cottage moment was meeting Rupert Grint, where they were able to “actually do the chocolate-dipped, gummy slugs in a tin bucket, and presented that to him and his girlfriend.” Finally, Truffle Cottage got the opportunity to meet Carrie Fisher. “At the very end of the Rose City Comic-Con convention in Portland, Oregan a few years back she [Carrie Fisher] came walking by with her dog and her handlers, and she said ‘I will take all of the Han Solos in Carbonite.’”
Jennie Hales says, “I am living the dream, but along with owning your own company and being a successful company, it also means sometimes 12-hour days, in fact a lot of 12-hour days. It’s a lot of work, and I’m in it for the long run.” One of the things that she loves most about Truffle Cottage is that it doubles as her creative outlet. “I get to take an idea and put a chocolate spin on it, whether it’s coming up with the flavors that tie in with the theme, or just coming up with cool chocolate, like Pokemon balls that have Pokemons inside.”
While Hales loves designing and creating innovative chocolates, she can also honestly say that “it’s so rewarding seeing our customers over and over again. We have the chance to build a great relationship with those people. When Covid-19 happened, it was those people that jumped on the bandwagon, ordered chocolates online who really saved our bacon.”
Truffle Cottage is currently taking orders online, and they are hoping to be able to reopen their shop in Pleasant Grove shortly. Of course they will be taking the precautions, and all that we’re required of them in light of Covid-19. Truffle Cottage has an email list with all of their sales, discounts and free-shipping. You’ll be notified of all the exclusive deals and upcoming products, events and promotions. While The Truffle Cottage’s chocolates may look too good to eat, after their customer’s “eat it, they realize that it actually tastes better than it looks. It’s good quality chocolate, so they come back for more.”
