Chocolate Expo

I heard about the Chocolate Expo through News12. It was a spontaneous decision to go on my part. There was no planning involved whatsoever. I literally saw that it was happening on the news, purchased the ticket through EventBrite, and drove to Secaucus. That’s how much I freaking love chocolate!!!
My GPS got me exactly where I needed to be. The signs (or lack of signs I should say) sucked. I drove around for awhile to find where I could park before I realized there are plenty of spaces, and the garage is attached to the Expo Center!
The event itself was very nice. There were plenty of vendors to choose from. I went to every booth and picked up samples where I could. Then I did a second round, where I was more selective with the products I wanted to buy. Had I not done this, I would have spent at least a hundred bucks!
The great part about the expo is that there were non-​chocolate booths sprinkled throughout. I could see how this place could give you chocolate over load syndrome (even for chocoholics like me!) if there was solely chocolate and nothing else. Other products you can purchase include donuts, macarons, spices, oils, lotions, cheeses, etc.
I’ve heard that if you go during the last two hours of the expo, vendors start slashing prices. I probably should have gone later, but I didn’t want to drive in the dark. That’s my own problem.
To give you an idea of what I spent here:
Ticket — $ 16.82
Goodies — $ 37.00
Samples — loads of them!
Parking — Free
Tolls and gas — $ 7.00
Total: $ 60.82
Time spent: 1.5 hours

This was such a rip off. I would not recommend this at all. I paid $ 85 for 5 people to go thinking it would be fun for my kids and their friends. Many of the vendors did not offer samples, they were only concerned with selling their merchandise. I spoke to the Manager, several times who approached the vendors about it. He told them it was in their contract that they had to provide consistent samples. The vendors didn’t seem to care and I was tired of getting Marvin each time I found a vendor not providing samples. It was a waste of money and time. DO NOT GO next year. Other people were also complaining to Marvin about the same thing.

Wow! This is the first chocolate expo I’ve ever been to and it was quite an experience. First off, getting there is quite a hassle. The Meadowlands Expo Center is by no means easy to find and the parking signs weren’t exactly clear either. We arrived at about 12 pm and the event started at 11 am. There was already a line out the door, down the stairs and into the parking garage. The wait wasn’t too bad, it was just a bit disorganized. There needs to be clearly identifiable lanes because the security people just kept on yelling at us to come towards them, but the e-​ticket holders had a separate line from the rest and you didn’t know that until you approached one of the security workers.
As for the actual expo, it was pretty interesting. There were a ton of vendors, most of which sold chocolate, or chocolate-​covered something or something that had chocolate in it. It wasn’t necessarily just chocolate, which I’m really happy about. I love chocolate, but there needs to be some variety and some flair to it. Just chocolate isn’t that exciting. Anyway, a lot of the vendors were offering samples, which was nice. It really gives the consumer the ability to taste it before committing to buy it. I feel more comfortable buying from a place that I had a sample from and know I like rather than just taking a gamble. For example, there’s this chocolate covered bacon booth there. Everything they said was just chocolate covered bacon. No samples though. I thought hey, I love bacon, I love chocolate, what the heck, I’m going to buy a bag. A small bag costs $ 8. It was pretty ridiculous in retrospect. Anyway, opened the bag later and didn’t like it. Waste of $ 8.
I can’t remember all the vendors there, but I really enjoyed the following:
Chocodiem: customizable chocolate bars. very cool, you can choose what toppings your chocolate bars have. They make great gifts to chocolate lovers.
Unbakeables: if you like chocolate chip cookie dough, this is for you! I’m obsessed with eating cookie dough, so I had to stop at this place. Their eggless cookie dough has a variety of different flavors. I ended up sampling the chocolate pretzel one, loved it and bought a small box of it. It was $ 5 for 3, but well worth the money.
The Challah Fairy: delicious, delicious, delicious! Challah is a traditional Jewish bread. My bf and I had a sample of their cinnamon raisin challah and we were hooked. We got a big loaf and it only costs $ 8! Pretty good deal, we’re trying to see where we can repurchase after we finish this loaf.
Maple Syrup Cotton Candy: not the name of the company, but they had amazing maple syrup cotton candy. It was surprisingly not too sweet.
Chocolate Bacon: I said it before, it was weird. I wouldn’t recommend it.

Could this event be organized better? Absolutely.
We arrived early, hoping to skip the lines to enter, however they were already huge by my arrival. At 11am they line started to move, but after a few minutes I heard the man at the entrance yelling that the line is only for people who pre paid for tickets and waiting to pick them up. If you need tickets just go up and buy them, there was like 5 people online to buy tickets. After I bought tickets I went right in, skipping everyone who was waiting to get their pre paid tickets which in sense were supposed to make it quicker but in reality resulted in unnecessary wait time. Anyway moving on to the actual event.
Once inside the area was filled with chocolate vendors and all of them were very generous giving out samples of their products. The wait times and crowds were massive, but due to the large variety of vendors no one really waited for more then a few minutes to sample a product and to make a purchase. They all kept everyone moving.
I loved the chocolate fondue, you could also mix the fruits and the marshmallows if you wanted to just had to ask them. The truffles were great there too, as well as the pickle and olive vendor.
Also, toward the back the Gelato station with so many flavors was excellent.
Entrance fee was a bit steep, but for the amount of samples and experience it was worth it. I stayed only a few hours, but it was enough to sample and purchase everything that I needed too. Also, parking is free which is a huge plus as that alone can run up to $ 20 for such events.
I’ll be back next year hopefully they would get more organized.

Super crazy and long lines even though I came really early. If you’re not a patience person this isn’t the place for you. Be prepared to wait in line to just get to a table.

The chocolate expo in the Meadowlands Expo center use about 70% the floor. Tickets are $ 15, plus a tiny fee of you’re buying on Eventbrite. I’m guessing there are 60 booths and over half of them let you sample. From wines, cheese, lotions, crackers, pastries, and of course, handmade chocolate. From sheer quality and variety of samples, I think I made my money back. That said, I wasn’t wowed by the number of booths. I bought a pear spiced cider from Friitering Away which was delicious. The maple cotton candy at Breezies Maple Farm is out of this world. Hangover Pretzle won our business for the sweet and spicy mix. I bought a few Bacon Bite’s chocolate bars for stocking stuffers. Miller’s Mustard was also delicious.
We arrived halfway through the show at 4 pm, and managed to stay until 6 pm. We made two rounds of the floor to try samples and stake things out. Then at 5:30 pm, a lot of booths started giving bigger samples and putting up sale signs. We got a great deal at Chocodiem (hand painted lovely truffles) and the staff were super accommodating.
Ticketing went smoothly, the place was clean, security did a good job, and I had fun. All around a good local event. Wish it was closer to Christmas so I’d spend more money!

Chocolate chocolate everywhere! The venue is crowded but it’s still not terribly long waits to get a sample. I know access to free chocolate is what brought most people here, but let’s remember the vendors also need to make some money too.
There is a wide variety of vendors including local and at least one international
Chocolatier. Also pasta sauces, mustards, pickles, gelato, bakeries, pretzels, empanadas stands, rum cakes, maple cotton candy, jerky and I’m sure plenty more. The space is definitely big enough to manage the crowds, but there is no denying that there’s a crowd.
Hint — there’s a sitting area across from the entrance if you need a break or want to grab a quick savory snack.

Chocolate Expo? Sign me up!
I’ve been to the Chocolate Show in NY and LOVED it. So when I found out about the one in nearby Secaucus, I gathered a group of friends and eagerly barreled to the Chocolate Expo.
Boy, what a letdown.
There were so many problems with this Expo, I do not know where to begin.
Most importantly… where the chocolate at?
There were 70 booths, and only about 7 had chocolate. There were pretzels, cupcakes, Greek dips, wine, lemonade… Greek dips? Of the 7, only 2 of the chocolate offerings were even any good. It would have been fairer to bill this as a food expo, to avoid any confusion.
From what I remember of the NY Chocolate show, every booth was chocolate. There was no Greek dips to be found. Furthermore, the Ny version was filled to the brim with gourmet chocolate offerings. The NJ one had several booths with Whitman-​quality chocolate. Hardly worth the $ 15 admission.
Let’s move to samples. Lots of booths were not even offering samples. Why charge $ 15 if you need to come in and buy everything anyway? Skip the admission fee if that is going to be the case. Also, from a marketing perspective, when you offer samples, your sales go up exponentially. Don’t offer samples, and you are penny-​wise, pound-​foolish. You have a captive audience, and let me tell you. everyone there is looking for samples. I could tell from watching my friends only– evey single thing they sampled they bought. Everything not being offered as a sample, they skipped and moved onto the next booth.
And crowded. Ok, we understand the crowds. Everyone loves chocolate. But pushy, inconsiderate, selfish crowds. Other Expos I have been to, every lines up and is is respectful. This was crowds of people bum-​rushing each booth for samples. Uncomfortable and obnoxious. The only booth with a line was the Cabot Creamery, and tons of people were pretending they did not see the line, and cutting off people to get their cheddar. People don’t see what they don’t want to see.
What a let down.