Check Out Our New Substack Post!

I’ve just posted our June newsletter to Substack. This edition features numerous updates, photos, in-person event recaps, book recommendations, and more. We post to Substack about once a month. We hope you’ll check it out, and give us a follow! 📖 🍫 😊

Another Order Fulfillment Update

Late March, Maggie Weber (RefashionedHippie) posted a video review of our chocolate bars, which went viral. As of now, the video has approximately over 650K views total. Since then, we’ve received over 600 orders. That’s more than three times as many orders as we received for the entirety of 2025.

The good news? We’ve already sent out about 400 orders! Of those 400 orders, we sent out 200 orders in just the past two weeks. We have around 200 more orders to send out. We’re working hard on preparing everything, and hope to send out the rest as soon as possible.

This is what our shipping process looks like:

1. Print out order invoices.

2. Pull chocolate bars for each order.

3. Purchase shipping labels, and print them on my Brother QL-1100 label printer.

4. Prepare ice packs (soak in water, place in freezer; once frozen, wrap in sandwich bag and paper towel to protect chocolate bars from condensation).

5. Make sure gift orders go out ASAP, and include a gift note.

6. Include the printed invoice (except for gift orders) and Open Book Chocolates menu in each order.

7. Wrap each order in tissue paper, newsprint paper, and insulated bubble wrap. Wrap orders in padded envelopes in corrugated cardboard.

8. Stick the shipping labels on each order.

9. Bring orders downstairs, and load into the chocolate-mobile.

10. Drive to the post office, and drop everything off at the loading dock. A special thanks to Anthony, who always helps us with our packages!

We’re meticulous about packing these orders, making sure the correct number of bars and flavors are included, and protecting everything from melting. We will be working all this week on preparing and sending out orders.

Unfortunately, the weather is currently not ideal for sending out orders. Yesterday through Wednesday, the temperature here is over 90 degrees. It’s supposed to cool off a bit Wednesday afternoon/evening with the rain. Thursday is a high of 60 degrees, and Friday through Saturday is in the 50s. Our current plan is to drop off as many orders as possible at the post office on Wednesday around 4:00 p.m. Then, even more orders will go out next week.

Again, we are just two people (Geri & Irene). When the video went viral, it was right before my wedding (a stressful and busy time for any bride). Post-wedding, in between packing orders, we’ve attended four events as vendors, which we booked months in advance, each with expensive vendor fees and each needing prep time. These four events were seven days total (some days being as long as 11 hours for us) plus travel (being anywhere from one hour to five hours each way).

We have visited River-Sea Chocolates three time in the past month to pick up more chocolate bars to help us fulfill orders. Typically, we visit River-Sea just once a month. This is about an hour drive for us each way. We will need to visit River-Sea at least once or twice more during the next few weeks to keep up with demand.

We are working very hard to fulfill everyone’s orders as quickly as possible. This has been extremely challenging for us both mentally and physically. River-Sea has offered to help us with order fulfillment, which is extremely generous of them, and would be extremely helpful to us. We haven’t had the time or brain power to figure this all out yet. But, once we’re done with this last group of orders, we will work on ironing out the details with River-Sea.

Thank you so much for all your support, understanding, and patience!

All the best,

Geri

Open Book Chocolates

Important Update | Order Fulfillment | Thank You for Your Patience!

Over 50 orders we sent out this past Tuesday.

On March 22nd, fellow Marylander and fashion queen Maggie Weber (RefashionedHippie) posted a video review of a few chocolate bars we sent her via snail mail. As of now, the video has almost 200K views on Facebook, almost 250K views on Youtube, and probably just as many views on Instagram. So that’s approximately over 650K views total.

Since then, we’ve received almost 600 orders placed on our online store, openbookchocolates.com/shop, as well as a significant number of wholesale orders for new and returning independent bookstores and gift shops. To put this into perspective, we had just under 200 orders on our online store for the entirety of 2025 (January through December). Last year, we had under 10 online store orders from late March to early May (the same time period as this year’s 600 orders). 600 orders is over three times the size of an average Open Book Chocolates Kickstarter campaign, and we continue to get more orders every day.

We’ve already sent out around 200 of the 600 orders. We have even more orders prepared to be sent out; we just have to add in ice packs for the warm weather. We’re meticulous about packing these orders, making sure the correct number of bars and flavors are included, and protecting everything from melting. We will be working all this week (today through Thursday) on preparing and sending out orders. Friday, we will need to prepare for Saturday’s pre-Mother’s Day pop-up at My Big Finds. After that, we don’t have another in-person event until Saturday, May 30th. So we’ll be able to go into full gear on getting all of these orders out!

Every day, I receive multiple emails asking about an update on orders. I wish I could individually and personally message each and every one of you myself. But if I did that, I would have zero time to work on packing orders. (I’ve set up an automatic reply instead.) That’s why I wanted to take a moment to give a detailed update via Substack.

Again, we are just two people (Geri & Irene). When the video went viral, it was right before my wedding. As you may know, a wedding is a stressful and busy time for any bride. Post-wedding, in between packing orders, we’ve attended three events as vendors, which we booked months in advance, each with expensive vendor fees and each needing prep time. These three events were six days total (some days being as long as 11 hours for us) plus travel. This includes BookCon at the Javits Center in New York City, which had about 25,000 attendees and required us to take the train up to and back from NYC (with driving to and from the train station, that’s at least 5 hours each way).

We have visited River-Sea Chocolates twice in the past two weeks to pick up more chocolate bars to help us fulfill orders. Typically, we visit River-Sea just once a month. This is about an hour drive for us both ways. We will need to visit River-Sea at least once or twice more during the next few weeks to keep up with demand.

We are working very hard to fulfill everyone’s orders as quickly as possible. This has been extremely challenging for us both mentally and physically. We are looking at our options to help us with the increased work load in the near future, but haven’t had the time or brain power to figure that all out yet.

For anyone upset about the delays, I am truly sorry and hope you’ll understand how overwhelming and stressful this has all been. We take a lot of pride in our business, and we don’t enjoy disappointing our customers. For those of you who have sent us encouraging words, and/or have just been patient and understanding, I truly appreciate your support!

As you begin to receive your orders over the next few weeks, we hope you’ll enjoy our unique, literary-inspired chocolate bar flavors.

Thank you so much for all your support, understanding, and patience!

All the best,

Geri

Open Book Chocolates