a look at chocolate resources
you might have more than you realize
As the saying goes, we all start somewhere.
Somewhere doesn’t mean “where we live” or “what place we use for making chocolate,” of course. It means with whatever it is we have. What includes intangibles we can’t put our hands on but are important nonetheless: things like skills, experiences, know-how, education, a knack for figuring things out, drive, will, curiosity, energy, creativity, and support.
Our tangible what typically includes access to a physical space, money (investors, family funding, savings, credit cards, loans), equipment, or even a job where we learn chocolate-making firsthand.
We might have things—intangibles as well as tangibles—that we don’t even realize we have. Something useful we can do as makers — no matter how many minutes or years we’ve been making chocolate — is to clarify exactly what we have and what we can use in pursuit of our craft. So much emphasis is on equipment and ingredients, understandably so. But these two things are not the things creating a successful chocolate business hinges upon, or makes/breaks our ability to create a livelihood or side-gig through chocolate.
The ability to figure things out is as important to making good chocolate as the melnager we choose. Unless someone is there holding our hands (who is a chocolate maker!) we will encounter questions and decision points (don’t want to scare anyone with just how many on a daily basis no matter how long we’ve been crafting) that literally go into our finished batches.
The drive to see it through, learning a whole new set of skills and steps and techniques that add up to “making bean to bar,” can’t be underestimated. If we don’t have the drive to do it, the brand new Selmi tempering machine might as well stay in its wrapper, unplugged.
The bravery required to recognize that our creativity is not just our strength, but our story, which every marketing expert will tell us isn’t something we simply write down in a social media bio, but is embedded in every choice we make for our business
For you naysayers: what is the single most important ingredient we need as bean to bar makers and/or craft chocolatiers?
Cocoa beans.
Do you live at origin? Lucky you! and I want to come visit :) But most of us in craft chocolate don’t. We source our bean supplies from “someone who sells them to us,” which can include middlemen like Chocolate Alchemy or boots-on-the-ground producers like Zorzal or Kokoa Kamili, who work with farmers and fermenters.
My point: not having something is simply a matter of figuring it out. Not having beans in our backyard could be seen as a roadblock (which, it once was, and why craft chocolate as a thing is not even 30 years old!), but, each person in the world who is making a batch this very minute has figured out where/how to get beans, right?
We googled it, asked a chocolate maker, saw a post on Instagram, talked to a supplier at a chocolate show, stumbled on a quirky newsletter called the Next Batch.
Here is why clarifying our resources—all our resources, the ones we can touch and the ones that live inside us—like an audit would list our supplies—is important.
Making a handfull of bars is one thing, but understanding the systems we need in order to craft a hundred (hundreds) is something very different. This is the leaping-off point between hobby craft chocolate and a craft chocolate business. Almost all makers start out a few bars at a time, so if that’s you, this is okay and you’re in good company.
Note: I said systems. Equipment is used in our system, but (and if this was a livestream I would wave my hands wildly for emphasis) how we decide to pursue our craft is the foundation that comes first.
Making a few bars at a time before deciding to go all-in is never a bad idea. Apprenticing with a chocolate maker or spending a day or two with one is also a good way to get a feel for chocolate making as a business.
If you plan to make chocolate as a business and by this I mean, as a livelihood that you will invest your blood, sweat, tears, time, and a lot of money in, before taking the plunge you need to ask yourself (and answer honestly) if you love it. Even if you’re planning to make batches as a part-time or weekend gig. Time = our one wild and precious life.
Also be aware that if you’ve never worked in food before, and by food I mean a bakery or cafe, restaurant, coffee shop, maybe even in some chocolate company’s kitchen as an employee or apprentice, then there will be a big learning curve—taking a class in food safety, even if not required where you reside, is necessary. The steps of making the chocolate (choosing a bean, sorting, roasting, cracking + winnowing, creating the % formulation for the batch, batchcrafting, deciding when/if the batch is done, and tempering) are just the steps. No different than measuring flour and weighing ingredients, doing all the steps of baking a cake. Still, these are just steps, not working knowledge.
Growth — increasing the amount of products (and possibly diversifying our product line) in order to generate more revenue — comes from producing more. There are two ways to grow a chocolate business.
You will either need to be making a lot of bars, or charging a lot of money for fewer bars.
Hobby-crafting a handful of bars is not the same as being on the hook for thousands of dollars of equipment, ingredients, and overhead, and maybe even employees’ salaries. Employees increase production. Labor costs (employees) are the highest cost of production, and can account for as much as 70% of total business costs.
This is one reason why some of us choose to stay small. Reality check: you can’t bring in employees (not talking partners/significant others/your kids) unless you have money available to cover the cost of having them in the kitchen BEFORE they begin to produce more for you.
Small is not easier. It means more work for the one or two folks doing it. More responsibility for “all the things” a business requires. It requires a hell of a lot of hustle (intangible resource), an eye for efficiency (intangible resource), and being uber-organized (intangible resource). Having the beans neatly stored and labeled, all the best small batch equipment, a pristine tempering station are only aspects of this. The key is (wait for it) identifying our resources and making the most of them, which is where creativity shines.
Hustle means business first, and knowing where to allocate energy and other resources. Aiming at understanding the deep layers that make up the nature of each step of the process so we can design a plan and layout for each step leads to efficiency. Organization is productivity, and not just how we don’t waste or misuse resources, but identifying our resources.
What about those deep layers? The only way to get to them is through practice. This is why when new makers consult with me because they have their eye on a bigger melanger I will ask them how they plan to fill that 60kg melanger: what is their roast capacity? what winnower do they plan to use?
Are you wondering why the heck would anyone want to be a chocolate maker? Back to that love bit. This is where intrinsic value comes in, which means being motivated to do something because we love doing it or it sparks our curiosity, or fuels our creativity. Meaning, it’s not about the money, and not about the awards. We can be motivated intrinsically and also be 100% fiscally responsible — earn a livelihood, pay our bills, grow our business — while doing work that feeds our soul.
Intrinsic value is the glue that holds all our resources together.
My favorite chocolate quote ifrom early craft pioneer Shawn Askinosie—there’s a short video here where he sums it up—points to this.
It’s not about the chocolate, it’s about the chocolate.
A bit more on resourcefulness: One of my favorite business thinkers and writers (and podcasters) is Tara McMullin of What Works.
If scarcity thinking leads to fear and anxiety while abundance thinking is often more like magical thinking, resourcefulness is a way of perceiving the world creatively. Resourcefulness recognizes the intrinsic limits of some resources and the remarkable flexibility of others.
Note that she links being resourceful with looking at the world (change that to our chocolate, our chocolate biz) creatively. You can read the full post below.
FYI, registration is open for the Bean to Bar ChocolateCraft Workshop, with our livestream sessions beginning February 18. If you have any questions email me: mackenzie@thenextbatch.com
Happy chocolate making,
Mackenzie
This is a thought provoking post. Always good to acknowledge those strengths/skills/attributes that we possess that help us along whatever path we are taking, but are often overlooked when you think of what a process requires.