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Making beautiful bean to bar chocolate together
When you share your life and your business!
The craft chocolate industry has grown rapidly in the United States in the past 10 years. In 2006, there were only a handful of companies making their own chocolate in small batches from the bean. Now there are well over one hundred chocolate makers in the U.S. alone. Another interesting trend is the number of couples that have decided to make chocolate together – partners in every sense of the word, if you will! With Valentine’s Day just a few days away, it seemed the perfect opportunity to celebrate love and chocolate! We talked to our Ecole Chocolat graduates to delve a bit deeper into making chocolate with your other half.
About their chocolate business
Sandra Bedoya and her partner David Mejia are Nibble Chocolate of San Diego, California. They make their chocolate in small batches from single origin cocoa beans using only two ingredients – organic cocoa beans and organic cane sugar. Their chocolate is Certified Organic, vegan, soy free and gluten free. Supporting direct trade and paying a premium for their beans, each of the chocolate bars tells the story of the country of origin and the farm from which their beans are sourced.
On life before chocolate
For Sandra and David of Nibble Chocolate, this wasn’t the first time they’d been in business together. They had always collaborated well together, on everything from home projects and event planning, to managing a family dog daycare business for a year: “We collaborated on all activities related to the business such as financial planning, staffing, operations, marketing and promotions. It was a very good learning experience for us”.
Sandra and David of Nibble Chocolate
Hey honey, let's make our own chocolate!
How did they decide to go into the business of making bean to bar chocolate? For Sandra and David, they were inspired by a mission that was personally important to them.
For Sandra and David, it came from a desire to provide people with an indulgence that could fit into a healthy lifestyle “We changed our diets significantly a few years ago, and had a hard time finding healthy chocolate. During this lifestyle change, David and Sandra developed a passion for food. They were searching for chocolate without other additives and excessive amounts of sugar and dairy. Once they started learning more about chocolate, they were fascinated by the different flavors of chocolate depending on where the beans came from. David had been in the wine industry for 11 years and knew a lot about terroir, flavor notes, etc. from that industry. "This gave us the idea later on when we were ready to start our own business. As we learned more about chocolate, we realized how similar it was to wine and one of us had been already in the wine industry for over 11 years. This is when all our passions: food, health, wine and business came together!"
Making chocolate from the bean at Nibble Chocolate
Testing chocolate particle micron size to make sure it meets their standard for smoothness & consistency
Division of labor
Division of labor can be a hot button topic among couples, but even more so when you're talking about your business! So who does what? For Sandra and David, they both like to be involved in all aspects of the business. "For now, as our business is still small and we continue to learn, we both have a hand in all aspects of the business. Primarily because we are so excited about everything that is going on that neither of us wants to miss a thing! Also we are both creative in different ways but still have the same vision, so we find that when we discuss the ideas and issues together we find better solutions".
Tempering and packaging at Nibble Chocolate
Working with your other half
This wouldn't be a post leading up to Valentine's Day without talking about the best things about working with the person you also share your life with! Sandra and David talked about the joys of sharing their passion with their partner. "We love that we share the same dreams and we are working towards the same goals. We both feel very grateful every day to wake up and do something that we love, so one of the best things is to be able to share the everyday accomplishments. Of course during the hard times is the same. We share the struggles and the challenges and we push each other to do our best and overcome them" says Sandra.
Nibble Chocolate 72% chocolate bar flight
Is there something about making chocolate that makes it an appealing business for couples?
We wondered if there was something specific about making chocolate from bean to bar that made it appealing to couples. For our grads, it's about sharing your passions with the person you share your life with. "Chocolate making is a fun and rewarding experience. It's a dream! It would make sense that if just one person was doing it for a living, the other person would just be jealous" says Sandra. And there's also the practical aspect of entering into an all-consuming business. "This business requires long hours of hard work, which are much more enjoyable when you are together; otherwise you probably wouldn't have much time left to spend with your significant other!" says Sandra.
Thank you so much to Sandra and David of Nibble Chocolate for taking time away from their insanely busy production leading up to Valentine's Day to share their stories with us. We hope that you also get a chance to enjoy some time with your Valentine this weekend – even if it's during production!
All images courtesy of Nibble Chocolate - to learn more visit them online!
Want to learn more about making delicious chocolates and confections? Check out our Professional Chocolatier Program!
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Photography by Jessica Washburn, Bliss Chocolatier and Ecole Chocolat

