From our co-founders HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We closed 2024 in great spirits celebrating at our traditional year-end party on December 30. We were able to celebrate a year of success despite local, global and personal challenges! 😊
 
The last quarter of 2024 marked two years of Co Chocolat being in the Warsan 3 factory. My cofounder Luchie and I set out at the beginning of 2024 the system-wide theme  “Year of Efficiency and Consistency”. We focused on products and services we knew our customers loved and streamlined systems. We hope that you felt these improvements.

2025 is very exciting as we set to open our first shop in Abu Dhabi and our first shop outside of the UAE very soon now. But of course one of the challenges likely we will continue to face is the unstoppable global increase of cocoa prices which ignited at the tail end of 2023 and conflagrated in 2024. I was interviewed by Dubai Eye 103.8 about this topic last month.  I shared how the local chocolate industry in the UAE is coping and how chocolatemakers globally will have to work harder in 2025.  Experts predict that cocoa prices will continue to be volatile in 2025. Although the problem stemmed from West Africa which supplies 70% of the world’s cocoa supply, the big three cacao grinders of the planet are now sourcing beyond West Africa and that includes Southeast Asia, our turf. We must now compete with global conglomerates who have brought price war to our territory. I’m happy that cocoa farmers are having the best time of their lives, but the concern is how this instability will affect customer retail prices now and in the future. We are still reckoning with this hurdle, but know that my cofounder Luchie and I are keeping our eye on the ball -  Co Chocolat will continue to produce chocolate products ethically-sourced whole cacao beans. We are CO-mmited to health, the environment and our society, and it’s not easy to forget our “why” because we are a family with a diabetic, stroke-hemiplegic here in Dubai. My mother’s twelve tablets a day is a constant reminder that our youthful, unmindful eating habits eventually come with a price.

I trust them completely.. half the time

For the past ten days, my mother has been suffering from severe right hip pain that has left her completely unable to walk or stand independently. Managing the symptoms is worsened by her suffering from dementia. This pain came out of nowhere. One day she can go to the toilet by herself, albeit limping; a week later, she could not sit up in the morning because of the excruciating hip pain. We thought it was just the cold weather. Then later on the doctor said likely osteoarthritis, and a measured pain management regiment is best, but my paramedical background served my family well when we deduced that the newly prescribed Tradjenta (oral diabetes medications) by her new endocrinologist was the probable culprit. Tradjenta is supposed to decrease blood sugar orally, but we were not warned of a side effect. Imagine how many people are like my family - followed what the doctor prescribed because.. well, she’s the doctor. How many patients in the world are experiencing excruciating pain, as a side effect of wanting to be well? Modern pharmacology is a sad, cruel business sometimes.

1 Serious side effect of Tradjenta I found online

I slept very lightly the past week, because I was afraid my mother would have a heart attack while I was snoring away. We sleep now in the same room. So most nights, I was online reading aging and pain management and I found this article entitled  How Do I Prepare Today for Healthy Aging Tomorrow? | UCSF Magazine and it’a a wonderul read/reminder.

“We asked UCSF’s Louise Aronson, MD, and Courtney Gordon, DNP, how to plan for a vibrant future as we age. Aronson is a geriatrician and author of the New York Times bestseller Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Gordon is a geriatric and palliative care nurse practitioner with UCSF’s Care at Home program, which served 100 patients when she joined in 2011 and now serves 500.”

It’s a short read and the article ended with these last notes:

Any surprising observations from geriatric patients?
Gordon: Many people I meet say that where I’m at – two kids in school, a career, essentially the middle of my life – was the happiest, best time for them. Not necessarily the easiest, but the period they’d choose if they could go back. I find this fascinating because I’m always stressed out – as many of us are. But most folks say their lives were meaningful then, surrounded by friends, family, and work. So, pay attention to where you are right now – it may be the best time of your life. It’s great to look forward, but let’s also be in the moment. 

So, what’s the secret to aging well?
Gordon: In our caseload now, we have 14 folks over 100 years old. I ask, “What’s the secret?” Nobody has the answer, but there are some commonalities. Most were physically active. Many have a sense of humor, or they just don’t take things too seriously. They enjoy life along the way, realizing it goes fast, and it’s a gift to be able to keep getting older. There’s no magic pill. I believe we shouldn’t be so antiaging – we should enjoy it.
 
And here is another interesting article:
 
“The Road to Rejuvenation” It’s about fortified stem cells, enhanced memory, a longevity hormone, etc. University of California SF researchers are finding out whether we can cancel – or at least delay – old age.

New Year's Resolution
One of my new year’s resolutions for 2024 was that I finish reading ten books. I succeeded at only four but I am re-reading notes from Xiaolan Zhao’s book “Traditional Chinese Medicine for Women”. The last decade have prompted me to search for something better than what’s out there in terms of healing people. I realized that Western Medicine, alongside their education system, is not our partner “in sickness and health”. Actually they are there mostly when when we are sick.  It’s about spending much on the cure rather than on the prevention. Because being sick is BIG business. Hospitals are big business. So really, it is up to us – potential patients - to take care of ourselves to NOT become their customers. And in this age when information is at the tip of our fingers and there are many alternative medicinal options, it is up to us to find that holistic path most compatible to our beliefs and lifestyle.
 
Ugly people don’t exist anymore, only lazy ones
There is a saying amongst SE Asians : “Ugly people don’t exist, only lazy ones.” Tools, products and information to become pretty is at the tip of everyone’s fingers. It’s just up to people to follow regiments.. and not be lazy. Similarly, alternative medicine is at the tip of our fingers now more than ever. Whether it’s Ayurveda, Balinese medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) , Homeopathy, etc., information abounds and more importantly communities are present now to support people in their choice of an alternative lifestyle or wellness path. I personally am inclined towards TCM because I grew up practicing them already albeit unknowingly. (Kung fu movies from the ‘80s in my unconscious?) Plus TCM has a lot of intersections with Islamic traditions. You may notice if you have been following us in Co Chocolat, that we truly endorse the benefits of fasting; not just because of its religious import, but also because of the studies that now show how fasting allows a body reset, giving a break to most of our organs when no liquid or solid enters our gut for long hours. My point here though is that we are all different and it’s a matter of finding a path, a holistic way of taking care of ourselves as an investment for our future selves. How can we eat better, sleep better, work better, live kinder, love better for a looooong time?
 
Yin-yang in business
Speaking of Chinese, Yin is a concept from Chinese philosophy, representing one half of the dualistic system of Yin and Yang. It is associated with qualities that are typically passive, receptive, and feminine. Yin is often seen as complementary to Yang, which represents active, assertive, and masculine qualities. According to the book “Built to Last”, even businesses have a yin-yang. For Co Chocolat, this means the soft yin of ethics, sustainability and health, and the harder yang of profitability and growth. Can we achieve this? As JFK once said, “if not us, then who? If not now, then when?”
 
A few days ago I watched Netflix’s “Buy Now: the Shopping Conspiracy” and it’s good to be reminded why we have to act NOW. The buy, buy, buy culture is a catastrophe for the planet. Plastic is a problem, now and in the future. Personally, I’ve once more reiterated to my own household the very limited use of single-use plastic at home. We are to avoid use of hardplastic containers for hot foods, because the evidence that plastic CAN be ingested is stronger than ever. Plastic simply doesn’t biodegrade. It just becomes nano-small when it goes to rivers and seas, and as we all unwittingly abide by the circle of life, plastics somehow can find its way to enter our body. Plastic so tiny that when we drink on disposable plastic bottles, we actually drink some of it. Now how many times last year did  we drink from a plastic bottle? Must we even wonder why every other female in our generation has cyst/s. In the coming months you will see even bigger changes at Co Chocolat in terms of packaging. I am excited to roll this out in the coming months!