Hey plant friends! I’m excited to tell you about something happening down at Garden Gateway. On December 4-5 we’re having some special visitors! Cocoa Camper will be coming to Garden Gateway. If you haven’t heard of them, we’re going to introduce you!
Wyatt and his wife Jenna are the owners of Cocoa Camper. Ever since Wyatt was 12 he wanted to be a businessman. Through the years he has tried his hand at various small businesses like selling crafts and making t-shirts, but nothing big or long-term. Two years ago that changed! As he was browsing Pinterest, Wyatt saw little coffee shops that had been created out of old remodeled camp trailers. He loved this idea, and decided to try it with hot chocolate instead and commit to a real business.
Wyatt took a chocolate class at Utah State University, bought a trailer, and started renovating. That first trailer didn’t really work out, though. A friend of Wyatt’s started the same kind of thing in Provo with a trailer, and did well! It wasn’t until late in 2019 that Wyatt was able to raise enough capital to try again. In the meantime, Wyatt didn’t stop experimenting with the hot chocolate. Every single month, even in the summer, he was trying out hot cocoa recipes, finding the perfect ones.
Finally, he found a boxy little 80’s camp trailer and got to work. After 300+ man hours, largely alone, he remodeled the whole thing. He had to custom-fit the walls, prime and paint, put in a new window, reframe, redo the wiring, and even install a sink. The sink was the biggest challenge, since it cost more than anything else in the whole trailer. It took a lot of willpower and workarounds to make it work.
Originally it was named Hot Shacklate, but people struggled to pronounce that, so later they changed it to The Cocoa Camper, which flows a lot better. Don’t you agree? They started an Instagram, and it grew naturally to 2,500 followers. It was amazing to see all the support people were giving, even before they opened.
Now that they’ve opened, they have done a few events and are trying to find the best dessert to pair with their cocoa. In the future they want to do another shack built from scratch and slightly bigger, and take it around Northern Utah to various events and permanent locations. Even though people say the hot cocoa is really good (it’s hard for Wyatt and Jenna to tell anymore, they’ve had so much hot cocoa!) they continue working on perfecting their recipe.
All of their cocoa comes in 16 oz cups. Customers can choose their flavors, such as Mexican Spice (Jenna’s favorite), Pumpkin Spice, Caramel, Raspberry, and Vanilla Cake, and some secret flavors for the more adventurous. Their website is cococamper.com and their locations are always posted ahead of time on Instagram @thecocoacamper. The website also has fun things like hoodies and jars of their special chocolate elixir! Come on down to Garden Gateway December 4-5 to taste some of the excellent hot chocolate, and try it for yourself!
Come on out to the greenhouse on Friday and Saturday and enjoy Logan's best Hot Chocolate and checkout our poinsettias, amaryllis, Christmas Cactus, succulents and HOUSEPLANTS!!! And thanks for gardening with the Gardening Moose!