Grant's Tomb

Brandon Sun - ONLINE EDITION

A full cup of coffee's equivalent of caffeine into a chocolate bar?

Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2012 at 4:04 PM | Comments: 0

I took this Instagram shot moments after seeing the wrapper for the first time. I then devoured it. (GRANT HAMILTON / BRANDON SUN)

We got a box of these delivered to the office today.

Awake Chocolate is new, but I can already tell they are going to be successful. I'm jealous that they thought of this before I did.

You can follow them on Twitter and Facebook, if you like, which proves they are social media savvy.

But they also sent a box of them to my small-city newspaper newsroom.

We don't get as much swag as we used to, in the newspaper business. The cartons of CDs, which hung on for a long time, have dwindled to trickle. For advertisers with samples looking for coverage, things like mommy blogs are the way to go now.

So why did Awake Chocolate choose the newsroom model?

Well, from their website, it sounds like they blanketed the country — so newspapers are probably just one of the target markets.

But guess what? Newspaper newsrooms, for all their faults, are still filled with dedicated wordsmiths. And journalists are some of the most dedicated social media types out there. They are addicted to Twitter and have been long-term bloggers. If you're looking for viral coverage — and have a product you are confident will cut through the chatter — journalists are always on the lookout for the next neat link. And us sensitive journo types love it when someone still appreciates us.

It doesn't hurt that a chocolate bar with caffeine in it is laser-focused to hit our weak spots: candy and coffee.

The only thing that could possibly top it is my favourite ever newspaper swag — a bottle of Grant's Whisky, shipped directly to me.

For delivery of future swag, please address your packages to:

Grant Hamilton
c/o the Brandon Sun
501 Rosser Ave.
Brandon, Manitoba R7A 0K4
CANADA

So — how's the chocolate? Well, in a word: Good.

It's not the best chocolate I've ever tasted, but it's far from the worst, too. I would rate it a solid A-minus consumer chocolate — maybe a bit better than a Cadbury, but not quite as good as a Lindt. There are some tiny crunchy bits, which I presumed were solid caffeine. The chocolate was not too sweet, and was pretty soft, but maybe because it had been delivered on a 32C day. It had the company's cool owl logo embossed on it.

Would buy again! (For the first time.) In fact, I pocketed an additional two bars from the box of 12 that the company sent. Hey — newsroom culture is cutthroat. Elbows out, journos!

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