How is Sotto Chocolate shipped?
Chocolate orders are shipped to the continental United States only, via USPS Priority ground.
Orders are not mailed with cold packs unless you specifically request they be included (extra charge), but are generally shipped out on Mondays or Tuesdays in order to limit time the chocolate may spend in warm storage on its way to you.
Shipping is a flat rate of $8 for 1-8 bars (regardless of the actual postage required), or free for 9+ bars.
Bonus for local customers: If you live within 5 miles driving distance of Watertown MA, you may select free personal delivery when you check out. If you live further away than this, please do not select this option even though the website software may allow it; I’m unable to hand-deliver to further locations at this time.
May I buy Sotto Chocolate in any stores/markets?
I currently sell my bars at Simon’s Coffee Shop in Cambridge MA, Common Good Co. in Waltham MA, the Mount Auburn Hospital gift shop in Cambridge MA and as a guest vendor at the Watertown MA farmers market on Wednesday afternoons in cooler months (June, Sept-Oct). I will also be a guest vendor at SoWa Outdoor Market in Boston MA on October 8, 2023 only. I am currently exploring working with a few additional stockists, and can keep you updated if you sign up to be on my mailing list. I will likely work with no more than a few select stockists in Massachusetts and/or with one or two local farmers’ markets.
May I pick up your chocolate rather than have it shipped?
Because I do not have a brick-and-mortar storefront, town zoning at my chocolatory location does not allow me to see customers.
May I place a special order, or order bars that are listed as out-of-stock, for future delivery?
Yes, if you are ordering 20 or more bars of a single type, you may contact me directly at amy@sottochocolate to arrange for a special order or place an order for bars that are out-of-stock, and I will let you know if I am able to accommodate the order. My melangers work best with batches in a minimum quantity of 20 bars. Special order bars (such as those with unique inclusion ingredients or custom labels) may be priced to accommodate extra supply costs.
A word about bar beauty
As a microbatch craft chocolate maker, I work with smaller versions of the equipment than bigger makers have - roasting batches of 2.5 pounds of beans at a time, hand-feeding a small winnower, tending small melangers that grind and conche most of my batches for 48+ hours, and hand-tempering each batch. I don’t have a high-speed winnower, ball mill grinder, tempering machine or even another employee to wrap my bars or polish my molds for me. My aim is delicious, origin-representing chocolate. But my bars are each unique and you may find evidence of their hand-craftedness in little bubbles, jags or temper marks here and there…I hope you can see them as evidence that a real person - me - brought each bar into being for another real person - you.