sweetriot blog - cacao | culture | cool!

Sundance Black Out!

Last night the Sundance Film Festival went dark!  Imagine it's 10 pm and everyone is out on the Main Street of Park City... All of sudden the street along with every bar, restaurant, and party went completely pitch dark.  I've been to 7 Sundance Film Festivals and this was a first! 

sweetriot at Sundance!

sweetriot is heading out to the Sundance Film Festival this weekend.  Come see us at the GenArt St. Ives Lounge where sweetriot cacao will be abundant!  :)

NY Times Small Business summit

It's a new year and we're excited to be a part of the NY Times Small Business Summit.  This is a great place for entrepreneurial resources for all of you out there starting your own businesses.  Definitely look out for the Fall live event too -- it brought together a great mix of folks this past year.

I love New York!

Since I was running around to stores on Xmas Eve, I had a chance to see some of the most beautiful scenes of NYC.  Sometimes when you work A LOT (did I mention A LOT?), you don't always have a chance to take in the sights of your city. Well, with NYC's fast pace, this is especially true.  Here are a few of my favorite photos from December 23 and 24.  (Washington Square Park Arch, Times Square, Bryant Park Skating Rink with Empire State Building in the Background, The NYC Public Library Lion, Plus A Bonus - Secret Village Neighborhoods) I am so lucky to live in this amazing city!!!

sweetriot in the NY Times!

The New York Times put this great piece on blogging in today, and sweetriot was mentioned!  After just over two years of operating in with a NYC HQ, it's exciting to have some coverage from our favorite hometown newspaper. ( I receive the NY Times at home AND have my homepage set there.)  Thanks to Marci who is an amazing small business and entrepreneurship writer!  NYT even included a picture from Ruby, one of their excellent staff photographers.  Truth be told - Ruby came to visit us at The Riot Room (sweetriot headquarters) to snap some photos and after a bit of sampling, she ended up buying sweetriot Santa Bags for her holiday gifts too!  Thanks, Ruby!  :)

Sundance in NYC...

The Sundance Film Festival is just around the corner - sweetriot will be there again this year supporting independent artists with our independent cacao.  (Have you seen our short film from Sundance on YouTube?)

I had a chance to meet Robert Redford recently.  The Sundance Institute held their annual event in New York City, which featured lemonade served by volunteer waiters - Glenn Close, Stanley Tucci, Parker Posey, Lili Taylor, Oliver Platt, Aidan Quinn, and John Leguizamo.

I stopped by Robert Redford's table with Sally Fields to drop off some sweetriot.   (Robert founded the Sundance Institute in 1981!)  When I told Robert we were an independent candy company, he right away said, "independent is the key word, I like that."

Even the cast of the musical Spring Awakening was present as the Sundance Institute supported their development!   We're getting excited for Sundance already!  (Thanks to Linda, an old Yahoo! friend, who came into town for the event!)

Fast Company's Fast 50 - comment today!

Very exciting news – sweetriot has been nominated for the Fast 50!!!   This would be a HUGE honor to receive from Fast Company, and we need your support.  Comment here on sweetriot!

Fast 50:  “The Fast 50 is Fast Company magazine's annual readers' challenge, a worldwide search for ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Our goal is to remind the world of all the good that's created when passionate people with big ideas and strong convictions are determined to make a difference.”

Thank you in advance, and HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!

GOOD Magazine's December Space in NYC

At sweetriot we LOVE Good Magazine!  The team there is so committed to their social mission and doing things in a new and creative way -- do you know they give all subscription fees to charity?  (I bought my sister a subscription for the holidays - shhh, don't tell her.)

For December, they created "GOOD December" - a collaborative pop-up community center and gallery store run by my friend Ryan at the Openhouse Gallery.   You can even see the making of the space here.  Luckily, this is also just down the street from sweetriot's offices, so I went several times.  You should too before December 23!  We are also happy to have sweetriot featured there in their curated display on natural food products AND as a yummy sample at their parties!  :)

Echoing Green - creating social entrepreneurs.

sweetriot tries to support a select group of non profits that are doing great things to change the world.  Cheryl and her team at Echoing Green are among this group.   They hosted their holiday event 'Be Bold Cockails' and we were happy to supply them with joyous cacao for the crowd.   Echoing Green is an example of a non profit, which creates other sustainable organizations who are working to change the world.

Here is a note from their website - "Since 1987, Echoing Green has provided seed funding and support to nearly 450 social entrepreneurs with bold ideas for social change in order to launch groundbreaking organizations around the world."   Congrats to the EG team for their great work and we wish them great success in 2008!

Green Drinks in NYC.

We celebrated Green Drinks this week with Margaret and her team who bring together wonderful socially minded folks once a month -- the holiday party is the largest event of the year with more than 1000 attendees. Rioters Clare and Lauren set up a great sampling of cacao - sweetriot was spread through out the bar.  There were amazing folks from the NY area from green architects to journalists to food related friends and more!   Josh Dorfman, our favorite lazy environmentalist, was also there.  The holidays are in full swing!