Taza Floods – Please Support Us As We Recover

July 14, 2010

Taza Floods – Please Support Us As We Recover

Today, Taza is reaching out to our wonderful, loyal fans and asking for support.  If you live in the Boston area, you saw how much water dropped suddenly from the sky last Saturday afternoon.  Traffic ground to a halt as streets flooded out just minutes after the rain began. 

Windsor Street River

Around 3pm, Taza’s Director of Manufacturing (i.e. Head Chocolate Making Guy), Mike Schechter, thought maybe he’d pop by our newly renovated, first floor chocolate factory for a quick look, just to be safe.  He arrived to find Windsor St. more river than roadway.  And once inside, he found water pouring unchecked into the factory via a breach in our building’s front exterior wall, and bubbling up from the drains in the floor.  The new chocolate production facility, where we’d turned out our first batch of Mexicanos just last week, was already sitting in an unwelcome lake several inches deep, and the water was still coming. He grabbed his phone and started dialing, letting any Taza employee he could reach know that it might be a good idea for them to come by the factory, pronto.

Retail Store

Now, 72 hours later, we’re taking stock.  A dedicated, non-stop weekend bail-out, mop-up, and salvage effort by many of our amazing Taza staffers, on their own time, has cleared the way for recovery and rebuilding to start.  We’ve hacked out the bottom 16 inches of drywall on every wall in our entire facility, carted ruined office cubicles to the dumpsters, and relocated our laptops to apartments and cafes until we have a functional workspace.  Our chocolate production capacity will be shut down for at least a week, and cash flow will be a big challenge as we find a way to finance the repair of the facility we just made a major investment in upgrading.  The silver lining?  Our stockpile of bars, Mexicanos, and other Taza goodies is still stored on the second floor of our building, and remains safe, dry, and delicious.

Drywall Damage 16 inches tall

Taza has always been a scrappy crew of chocolate fanatics, and we’re determined to get back to the important business of making excellent chocolate as soon as possible.  You have all shown us terrific support and love over our first 3 ½ years in business, and we ask for your support now – if you can, buy some Taza Chocolate (we also think you’d look great in a Taza t-shirt.)  Shop our online store, come out and see us at the farmers’ markets, or find us at your local retailer.  With great customers like you, we’re going to keep on making the Taza Chocolate you love, come hell or high water.

Watch video from Channel 4 about Taza and the Somerville flash floods here.