In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, A Dozen Cousins partnered with Alter Eco to create a limited-edition pair of Hot Cocoa bombs inspired by two nostalgic Latin American drinks: Mexican Hot Chocolate, flavored with cinnamon and a hint of spicy chipotle, and White Chocolate Coquito, a traditional Puerto Rican beverage that translates to "little coconut" and is often referred to as "Puerto Rican eggnog." The goal of this partnership was to celebrate two classic drinks in Latin American culture, while also spreading brand awareness in the sweetest way.
A Dozen Cousins is a black-owned natural food brand specializing in Latin American, Creole and Caribbean meals and sides with 100% of its team coming from minority or multiethnic backgrounds while Alter Eco is a Latino-led “cleanest, and greenest” chocolate company! All proceeds were donated to the hurricane-recovery efforts in Puerto Rico.
Alter Eco has expertise in making really great, really decadent chocolate products while A Dozen Cousins understands cultural recipes and pulling out the history in a dish. And so we came together to pay tribute to these two traditional Latin American drinks in several intentional ways. This included: working with only Latino influencers, creating a new series called “Breaking Bread” where Ibraheem (A Dozen Cousins Founder + CEO) interviewed Arnulfo (Alter Eco CEO) about his Mexican heritage and how the Mexican Hot Cocoa shaped his childhood, dedicated emails about the history of each drink, and lastly, pitching efforts to top-tier media outlets to increase brand awareness.
The product formulation process included several “test” rounds of the Cocoa bombs where we were looking to nail the following variables: authenticity of the cocoa bomb recipes, ability to avoid melting in transit, the cocoa’s ability to melt and mix into the milk, and lastly, the aesthetic of the bomb upon arrival. We had to game-plan for worst-case scenarios when shipping chocolate in the Summer time, and were lucky to have made our consumers happy enough to sell-out a second time with our December re-launch. We were truly able to nail the best Hot Cocoa experience from website order to first sip.
As a result, on the launch date of September 15, 2022, the co-branded products were so popular that they sold within 1 hour after launching! Due to the excitement around the collaboration, A Dozen Cousins and Alter Eco restocked the Hot Cocoa bombs on December 6, 2022 resulting in another sell-out within hours. The paid influencer campaign generated an impressive 316K+ impressions, 11.5K+ engagements, and average engagement rate of 6.24%. All-in-all, both brands were able to create a successful product that aligned with their values!
