Rachel is a Celebrity

A wonderful article, with a darling picture of Rachel, appeared in the Idaho State Journal today. It was a feature about her (and Sarah's) chocolate business, Sweet Treets. It was a pretty exciting thing to have the reporter call yesterday asking for a phone interview with her and the photographer to do a photo shoot. I was really surprised that our advertising emails and Facebook post could have spurred a story, but apparently Steve has friends in all kinds of places, even The Idaho State Journal! It was so kind of them to promote her fund raising efforts by doing a story on her. She's braced for a whole bunch of strangers ordering chocolates now, but is really excited and grateful for the extra business. It wouldn't surprise me. A cute face like that and a kid trying to earn money for a leadership conference...it's just the sort of thing a community like Pocatello will support.

Budding chocolatier

The Idaho State Journal, Wednesday, January 26, 2011

By: Kendra Evensen, Photo: Doug Lindley

Rachel Brown, a Century High School student, teaches piano and is in the school choir.

    POCATELLO — Rachel Brown had never made a chocolate prior to last year, but that didn’t stop her from becoming a holiday chocolatier.
    The 14-year-old Century High School student and her sister, Sarah, decided to start making chocolates last year in order to make some extra money.
    Although Rachel didn’t have any experience, her mother, Julia, and grandmother, Linda, did and were ready and willing to pass on their secrets. And the sisters learned fast.
    They were able to start their “Sweet Treets” chocolate business in time for Valentine’s Day last year, and, based on their success, have decided to continue selling a variety of goodies, including Oreo truffles, peanut butter blobs, chewy caramels and an assortment of mints, suckers and chocolate bars.
    They sell their goodies during the Valentine’s Day, Easter and Christmas holidays.
    “It’s really fun to see how excited people get about them,” Rachel said, adding that they strive to make them not only tasty, but attractive. “We work pretty hard on them.”
    The sisters and their family members use e-mails to spread the word about their goodies during the holidays, and they’ve developed a website, www.sweet-treets.blogspot.com, to further their business.
    And it seems to be working. Although Rachel wasn’t sure exactly how much they sold last year, she said they have had to come up with ways to streamline the system to meet demand, especially during Valentine’s Day.
    Rachel said she strives for perfection to keep her customers happy, even though that often means extra work.
    “When they get messed up it’s frustrating because I have to make them all over again,” she said, adding that the chocolate bars and the chocolate dishes, which hold a variety of mints, are particularly painstaking.
    But she and her sister enjoy the time they spend working together. They have used the business to help each other earn money for various needs, including history tours and college tuition. Rachel is hoping to use the Valentine’s Day profits to attend a National Young Leaders State Conference she’s been invited to attend in Montana this summer.
    “It’s a really good opportunity for me,” she said, adding that her teachers nominated her to go.
    She needs about $1,519 to cover the cost of the conference, so she’s hoping the community will continue to support their business during the upcoming holiday.
    “It’s really nice of them to support me and my sister,” she said, adding that they work hard to give them quality goodies in return.
    “They taste really good and they look really cute,” she said.

Original Story
Copyright 2011 Idaho State Journal. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.