Chocolatier Kate Weiser didn’t know five years ago that she was creating a million-dollar snowman.
Since then, the popularity of Carl the Snowman has soared. He landed on the 2018 Oprah’s Favorites Things list and today graces the Neiman Marcus catalog. The dark-chocolate snowman melts in a pan of hot milk while the mini-marshmallows inside his head float to the top, yielding five to eight cups of perfect hot drinking chocolate.
This holiday season, Weiser has added three pop-up kiosk locations where you can find Carl ― Stonebriar Centre in Frisco, the Shops at Willow Bend in Plano and Terminal D at DFW International Airport ― in addition to the original Trinity Groves Kate Weiser Chocolate shop.
“It’s kind of funny that such a magical chocolate figure would have a normal name like Carl,” Weiser told Edible Dallas & Fort Worth several years ago. She chose the name, she says, because it made her employees giggle. “If I’d have known he’d be such a phenomenon, I’d have thought about it a little bit harder.”
What makes the ephemeral Carl a million-dollar snowman? This holiday season, a team of 17 employees will have made 60,000 of the melting confection. The retail price is $30 (more at outlets such as Amazon and Neiman Marcus). Do the math: That translates to $1.8 million gross ― and a very merry Christmas for Kate Weiser.
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By Kim Pierce
7:00 AM on Dec 6, 2019