"I think Max Brenner was a phenomenal brand," Brenner says. The purity and the cultural origins of it."īlue Stripes uses all parts (shell, fruit and pods) of the cacao to make impressively healthy products - from cacao water and dried fruit, to cookies, energy bars and protein balls, keto dessert bites, granola, hazelnut butter, and pastry flour. "I was like, wow, this is cacao the way I want to talk about it. "I was shocked that I had dealt with chocolate for 20 years and was so unaware of the potential," Brenner says.
He was aghast to learn that chocolatiers only use 30 percent of the whole "superfood," and trash the rest. Brenner had discovered the myriad uses of cacao - a football-shaped fruit with white, somewhat ghostly-looking "pods" inside - on a trip to a Blue Mountain Coffee plantation in Jamaica.
In 2018, the Blue Stripes: Urban Cacao shop opened just a block and a half from the Max Brenner flagship in Union Square. But when the exile was over, he returned with a new venture. And he was banned from creating anything chocolate-related or putting his name or face on any brand for five years ( Entrepreneur reached out to Strauss for comment but didn't receive a response prior to publication).īrenner says those five years were the darkest of his life he moved his family, struggled financially, called up friends to ask for help finding work. Brenner fought down to his last penny, but still lost both Little Brown and his place at Max Brenner. But when the new concept started to find success, Strauss sued him for violating his non-compete. With Strauss's blessing, he opened a separate cafe chain, Little Brown Chocolate Bakery & Coffee, in 2011. And while the brand continued to grow, moving its headquarters to New York and opening 50-plus international locations, Brenner began to feel the loss of control more acutely. In 2001, the company was acquired by Israeli food conglomerate Strauss Group. Word of the chocolate amusement spread, and Max Brenner (a hat-tip to Brenner and his original partner, Max Fichtman) quickly became a household name in Israel. I really turned it into a chocolate amusement park."
MAX BRENNER FREE HOT CHOCOLATE FULL
You say, "I'm addicted to chocolate, I want a chocolate fix.' So I created a big syringe full of chocolate so you can shoot it into your mouth. Let's create a "hug mug,' so you can hug your mug close and feel like you are in a chalet on a ski vacation. I said: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Let's create chocolate pipes that go all around the restaurant. So this was the beginning of Max Brenner. Traditional chocolate stores treat chocolate almost like jewelry, in these beautiful boxes - don't touch it! But when I talked to my customers, they were talking about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, sexy gifts, romantic childhood memories, the emotional connotations of chocolate. "I felt there was a big gap between the way people talk and think about chocolate and the way they experience it in the retail world. We're expecting to see a whole lot of you in midtown after the workday."The things I was doing in my shop were very out of the box, different from classic European chocolate stores," he says. (That's because drinking a hot chocolate actually feels like a warm hug!) Patrons get to personalize their cocoa, choosing from a total of 27 possible variations served in original Max Brenner hug mugs. All are available in milk, dark or white chocolate. In addition to being able to grab a free cup of cocoa in Times Square today, lovers of all things sweet will be delighted to know that the Union Square shop has recently debuted nine new flavors: salted caramel, peanut butter, Mexican spicy, hazelnut (our favorite!), French vanilla-chocolate, Italian thick, mocha, marshmallow and Oreo. The first one, the flagship in Union Square, is the stuff of New York legend. The new shop in midtown is the brand's second around town. After the massive snowstorm we witnessed this past weekend, we can't think of a better way to warm up and feel all cozy inside. In celebration of National Hot Chocolate Day, and as a way to market its newest location, Max Brenner is offering all New Yorkers a free cup of hot chocolate at the store on Seventh Avenue and 48th Street (720 Seventh Avenue) today between 6pm and 9pm.
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