巧克力衍生的8大职业

    导游

    从巴塞罗那到巴黎，从波士顿到旧金山，巧克力商店随处可见。这给巧克力主题旅行社带来了成熟的商机。有些线路全程步行，不过达拉斯的巧克力之旅（Dallas by Chocolate）提供加长版豪华车全程接送的选项，费用是每人75美元。普通的达拉斯巧克力之旅费用在30到45美元之间，游客乘坐一辆小巴，一路经过公司老板珍妮•史蒂文斯精心挑选的巧克力商店。史蒂文斯在2011年夏天创办了这家旅行社。

    她的第一笔生意是招待自己的同学姐妹们，获得的成功令她大受鼓舞，尽管她回忆那天“几乎有华氏107度（摄氏42度）”。后来业务不断增长，但也遇到过挫折。有时候，很难说服独立的巧克力商店提供免费试吃。但史蒂文斯说，通常几乎每个参加活动的游客都会买上一些，而且会成为回头客。

    史蒂文斯说：“人们喜欢美食，也喜欢逃离现实。”她最近新增了两条巧克力旅游线路，还有一系列其它美食的旅游线，包括一条主打熏肉的线路。她把这块新增的业务叫做“饕餮达拉斯”。不过巧克力仍然是她的主业。她说：“巧克力永远不会错。”（财富中文网）

    译者：周详

    The tour guide

    From Barcelona and Paris to Boston and San Francisco, chocolate shops abound. This offers a ripe opportunity for chocolate tour companies. Some are walking tours, but Dallas by Chocolate offers stretch limousine tours for $75 a person. Most of Dallas by Chocolate tours, though, cost $30 to $45, and guests travel on a small bus to shops carefully selected by owner Jeanine Stevens. She started the business in the summer of 2011.

    Stevens's first tour, for some of her sorority sisters, gave her encouragement, though "it was 107 [degrees] that day," she recalls. The business has grown but not without some sour moments. Sometimes it's difficult to convince independent chocolate shops to give away samples. Yet often, almost everyone on the chocolate tours buys sweets before they leave, and, she says, they return to the shops later.

    "People love to eat, and they love to escape," says Stevens. She's added two new tour guides and a line of food tours including one based on bacon. She calls that part of her business Dallas Bites. Yet chocolate is her mainstay. "How can you go wrong with chocolates?"