Lehi People
Lehi mom turns love of chocolate into booming business
“I’ve always wanted to start something, and I’m not surprised that candy and chocolate ended up being part of my business,” said Andrea Carruth, owner of Given Utah. She started making cocoa bombs right before they became hugely popular, packaging them in cute boxes tied with her signature gingham ribbon. Carruth quickly realized she’d found an untapped market – in the middle of a pandemic.
“My idea was to create birthday or work-related anniversary gifts for smaller offices so that a secretary or admin didn’t have to run around looking for something cute and a card to go with it at the last minute,” Carruth explained. She had dentist offices, salons and medical offices ordering her cocoa bombs and candy bombs for employee gifts and started filling orders for friend and neighbor gifts.
Carruth has created new products and seasonal cocoa bomb flavors to keep up with demand. For Easter, she made an egg-shaped chocolate shell filled with candy. The best part is the little wooden mallets that come with each candy bomb to break them open. The cocoa bombs melt open to reveal colored marshmallows when hot milk is poured over them. Carruth is creating something special for Mother’s Day, and she’s excited about her Father’s Day idea. “My product is always going to change, but it will probably always involve chocolate. The idea is giving a gift, getting that sweet little box and knowing someone thought of you,” Carruth explained.
“This has been a great creative outlet for me, and I love being able to work from home and still be with my kids,” said Carruth, who is the mother of four children. “They do ask for candy a lot, but they know not to touch anything while I’m working. Maybe because they know they’ll get candy when I’m done.”
Andrea Carruth’s business has steadily grown each month from her Instagram posts and word-of-mouth; she hasn’t paid a penny for advertising so far. “If you saw behind-the-scenes of my photoshoots, you would laugh,” she chuckled. “It’s working, though. I get orders from Instagram every day.”
“I didn’t realize when I started a business how much community support there would be. I’ve found people want to buy local, and it makes me, in turn, want to support small businesses,” added Carruth. “We’re so happy to be here in Lehi.”
