The super insider, peek-behind-the-curtain story of CoCo, the thoughtfully generous chocolate Easter bunny.
Back during the very first days of the COVID pandemic when schools were abruptly closed, I was searching for ways to insert normalcy into what had just become highly abnormal days for our then 7 and 10 year old kids. Living in southwest Atlanta, just a few blocks from our chocolate factory, I would take the kids on daily bike rides on the Beltline’s westside trail as “PE class”. The trail was bursting in color with the early-blooming wildflowers and wildgrasses planted by Trees Atlanta, the sky full of diving hawks and the staccato beat of woodpeckers, but the landscape: almost entirely empty of people as the city stayed hunkered indoors.
One morning, having given up on virtual classes for the day because of spotty internet and plotting ways to get the kids to notice the spring scenery, I promised ice cream that night to whoever spotted a bunny during their bike ride that day. Thinking that the bribe would keep the kids biking further and for longer (but assuming there was very little chance I’d have to shell out since none of us had ever spotted a bunny on the trail before), I was stunned when our 7 year old made the first bunny sighting—startle, freeze—within the first 5 minutes of our ride. My 10 year old spotted a second brown bunny a few minutes later. Unbelievably, I found the third bunny on that ride just as we were nearing home. The three of us have never again had as much success in bunny spotting as on that particular day, but now we can attest that Atlanta is full of little brown bunnies that venture out in our city’s wild spaces when they think no one’s around.
During the school shut down, I was acutely aware of how many of our kids’ classmates within Atlanta Public Schools relied on the school-provided breakfasts and lunches they received when school was in session and, like other parents, we donated easy-to-make lunches to the school for distribution to those kids who were staying at home alone during the day. In acknowledgment of the advantage my kids had because I was able to be home with them during that insane time—just weeks before Easter in 2020—we committed Xocolatl to annually helping food insecure families in Atlanta by donating $1 from every “CoCo, The Crispy Almond Milk Chocolate Bunny” we produce to the Atlanta Community Food Bank. The ACFB is able to convert every $1 donated into 3 meals.
While we have been making chocolate Easter bunnies since our very first Easter in 2015, they were never quite as sweet and dear until we made the connection between providing high quality, special Easter chocolate for fortunate families and supporting our neighbors and families in need.
"Born under the waves of wildflowers coloring the Atlanta Beltline’s westside trail, just a stone’s throw from the city’s chocolate factory, CoCo (the sweetest bunny in town) spends her days hopping with the frogs in the cattails & napping below the longleaf pines. She has a heart as warm as the spring sun & loves to share—whether it’s nibbles from fresh pawpaws with her squirrel friends, or ripe figs she sets out for passing children to find.
Every Easter, CoCo has a special mission: to spread joy & help her neighbors. She’s teamed up with Xocolatl Chocolate & asked the chocolate company to share $1 for every bunny made in her name with the Atlanta Community Food Bank to bring meals to families in need."
When you (or a lucky kid in your life) take a bite of CoCo, The Crispy Almond Milk Chocolate Bunny, we hope you’ll not only taste the deliciousness of one of our most kid-friendly (and parent-approved) chocolate flavors, but also the goodness of giving. What a win-win-win for Easter.