"As soon as the show got aired... we emptied out within 24 hours. So we had to start shipping out pallets and pallets of chocolate because the demand just skyrocketed, literally overnight."-Kjartan Gíslason, Co-founder of OmNom Chocolate OmNom Chocolate has become semi-famous over the last year, thanks to a Zac Efron show on Netflix. But even before that overnight explosion, OmNom had been quite famous within the craft chocolate industry in its own right. From their rainbow-hued wolf icon to their bold Icelandic flavors— like sea salt and licorice or burnt barley— they're memorable, to say the ..read more

"Marketing can help, but… it shouldn’t be [the] primary reason that someone purchases a product."-Julia Choi-Rodriguez, Co-founder of Vesta Chocolate Julia & Roger Rodriguez opened the doors to their shop in February 2020, less than a month after their wedding ceremony. Nearly a year in the making, and their official grand opening was waylaid by covid. And then waylaid again. And eventually it was cancelled altogether, plans were scrapped, and big changes had to be made to keep Vesta alive— they went full bare bones. Working just outside of New York City, at the height of the pandemic, the ..read more

"If you have any privilege that you can get away with doing things that make people’s lives better, you need to do it. Because everybody doesn’t have the ability to do it without major life consequences."-Gillian Goddard, Co-founder of Sun Eaters Organics Gillian Goddard puts her money where her intention is, carefully choosing how her business spends its resources in order to have the greatest positive impact. She's a self-proclaimed "disruptor" in the chocolate industry, and I've seen no evidence to dispute that; her systems bring to life the concept of entrepreneurship as activism. Over the ..read more

"It’s an honor to be able to create something that helps people."-Erin Andrews, Founder of indi Chocolate Even over the phone, Erin Andrews is someone you just feel drawn to continue chatting and laughing along with. Having founded her first chocolate company in Belize in 2008, over the last thirteen years Erin has used this extroverted superpower to build up a subsequent chocolate company in her home of Seattle. That company is indi Chocolate, named after her oldest daughter, who actually inspired the brand's oldest product line: cocoa butter-based lotions. indi has since grown into a large f ..read more

"A 70% dark chocolate bar is really common, and that means thirty percent of that is gonna be your sweetener. And if thirty percent of that doesn’t really have flavor besides just sweet, then you’re losing a lot of opportunity there."-Will Marx, Founder of WM Chocolate Very few chocolate makers are truly going down a new and unusual path these days, and honestly, at first glance, neither is Will Marx. He's making (mostly) plain dark chocolates from ethically sourced single origin cacao. But simplicity can be a good thing— it takes away the complicated window dressing and opens up the world of ..read more

"The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know."-Megan Giller, Author of Bean To Bar & Chocolate Noise In the chocolate world, there are very few in-betweens. Most of us either buy or sell chocolate, whether we make it ourselves or curate it for customers. Megan Giller's case is a bit different; she's more of a go-between than an in-between, connecting readers to remarkable treats from around the world. Since even before her book— Bean To Bar Chocolate: America’s Craft Chocolate Revolution— came out in 2017, she's been bringing the good word of great chocolate to thousands of read ..read more

"I don’t think sustainability should break down at the last mile."-Pashmina Lalchandani, CEO of Bar & Cocoa Pashmina kinda started Bar & Cocoa "by accident," with co-founder and former co-owner Chris Lacey, back when they were offering craft chocolate subscription boxes under the name "ChocoRush." Fast forward half a decade and a few big moves, and Pashmina is now running one of the world's largest online craft chocolate retailers, offering nearly 80 makers & 800+ products. Each brand was carefully chose by Pashmina herself; she's even helped many of them get FDA certification for ..read more

"If somebody wants to buy anything from another country, they have to be more responsible to the end of it... like a marriage, you have to be responsible. Don't look at other places. You stick with it."-Tomo Zukoshi, Co-Founder of Fijiana Cacao Fiji is the land of beach getaways, incredibly strong traditions, and a whole lot of agriculture. In fact, I'd say that despite doubling in size each year due to tourism, most Fijians don't interact at all with tourists, and continue on their lives in the largely rural nation. This is how Tomo came to learn about cacao in the first place, well over a de ..read more

"I hope it’s kind of like a series of Trojan Horses made out of chocolate… introducing the idea, hopefully, of complementary medicine or natural products medicine to many people. [This is] the idea that plants may in…some cases be a better form of treatment than isolated pharmaceuticals."-Marcos Patchett, Author of The Secret Life of Chocolate It's a huge undertaking to write a book, but it's a monumental project to write the book on your chosen subject. Yet that's exactly what you'll find in The Secret Life of Chocolate, a definitive book on cacao written by medical herbalist Marcos Patchett ..read more

"The vast majority of the farming community still doesn't know that they are actually working against nature... Everything is the latest generation of chemicals."-Harish Manoj Kumar, Co-founder of Soklet Chocolate & Regal Plantations Not only is India one of the world's largest economies, but the country has a huge range of micro-climates, even within each of its 36 states & territories. Of these, four are the most hospitable for growing cacao, and Tamil Nadu is one of them. This is where you'll find the farms of Regal Plantations and the tiny chocolate factory of Soklet Chocolate, bot ..read more