/ Case study
CASE Chocolates
Design Subtropic designed a speakeasy-dark home for CASE's liquor-filled chocolates, and we built it in Webflow so the shop and reservations could switch on when CASE was ready.
Who CASE Chocolates is and how Design Subtropic brought us in
CASE Chocolates makes chocolates filled with fine spirits in Houston. Founder Casey McNeil learned the technique for liquid-filled chocolates from a Swiss master chocolatier, and the brand pairs it with rare whiskeys, wines and a speakeasy tasting room in East Downtown. Adri Tamayo, founder of Design Subtropic, designed CASE's new website and brought us in to build it. Adri handed us the design with a clear plan for what visitors would see first and what would wait backstage, and we took it from there as Design Subtropic's Webflow development team.
The challenge: launch now, open the shop and the speakeasy later
CASE was still getting ready to sell online and take reservations, but it wanted a home on the web right away. So the site was planned to launch in phases. The first phase would show the hero, a gold announcement band that invited visitors to join the newsletter (and later counted down to product drops), the CASE Journey and a contact section. The shop, the location and reservations section and the About page had to be built at the same time, then kept hidden until CASE was ready to switch them on. And because every chocolate carries real liquor, the whole site sits behind a 21+ age gate.
How we built CASE's Webflow site and shop
We built inside Design Subtropic's own Webflow workspace, so the project stayed with the designer and the client from day one. Adri's design asked for a story told on a map: the CASE Journey, a dotted line that curves from Houston through spirits and wine to Switzerland and Peru, drawing itself as you scroll. For the store, Adri chose a Webflow Ecommerce template and asked us to re-skin it in the CASE brand, so we cleared out the old template pages, kept the shop and rebuilt it in CASE's navy and gold. Then we gave CASE's team a product sheet and image sizes, so they could load their own collections: single flavors, variety boxes and seasonal drops.
How we handed CASE the keys
Before the hand-off we recorded a walkthrough of the Webflow Editor, so CASE's team could change their own copy without waiting on a developer. On calls with our PM, Camila Ardila, CASE's team planned what came next: tastings at their physical location by reservation only, and a booking tool for them, which we tested as a proof of concept. By the time the site went live on CASE's domain, an OpenTable booking widget sat in the speakeasy section, and the home page put all three CASE offerings in one place: order a classic box, grab a limited edition while it lasts, or book a chocolate and cocktail pairing at the speakeasy.
What happened after launch
CASE ran on the Webflow site through its seasonal drops, from Valentine's Day pre-orders to new collections. About a year after we built it, Casey wrote back to us with news.
"We greatly appreciate your efforts, and luckily the business is growing!"
— Casey McNeil, Founder, CASE Chocolates
Credits
Client: CASE Chocolates. Casey McNeil (Founder)
Design: Design Subtropic. Adri Tamayo (Founder)
Webflow development: Fri3nds, for Design Subtropic. Richard Reynolds (lead developer), Camila Ardila (project manager)
Services: Webflow development, Webflow Ecommerce shop, age gate, scroll animation, Editor training
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