This week someone who reached out to me about the upcoming in-person Cacao Roasting Workshop expressed surprise to learn that I am, in fact, an actual, working, chocolate-spattered apron-wearing bean to bar chocolate maker, who not only knows how to roast cacao, but has roasted it, and in fact, roasts it to make chocolate I sell.
What were they expecting? and why-oh-why had they come to expect “just someone who knew about bean to bar”?
In the same week I had someone leave a comment on an Instagram post about why I should be supporting their chocolate sommelier book (they also have a $900 certification course). It’s not unusual to read an Instagram post on what chocolate makers should be doing, and often, what we’re doing wrong, written by someone who is not a chocolate maker.
One of my favorite business/livelihood/media writers, Tara McMullin, wrote today about What Makes an Expert an Expert
“Our media environment also makes it easy for charismatic or media-savvy people to present themselves as experts, teachers, or guides without much in the way of knowledge or experience. Visit Threads or X or Substack, and you’re sure to find any number of threadbois¹ peddling their pseudo-expertise wares. The levels of misinformation, disinformation, and bullshit² make it hard to know who or what to trust.
The argument for trusting experts and rejecting armchair scientists or charismatic influencers is common in the realms of climate change, medicine, politics, and the law. But I think less attention has been given to how we think about the kinds of experts (or non-experts) that influence our daily lives—our decisions about how to plan our days, what moves to make in our careers, which foods to put in our bodies, or how to navigate our relationships. And yet, because these are questions with serious business potential, there is even more potential for bad advice or ungrounded guidance.
Not necessarily nefarious. But certainly not helpful.”
In chocolate, we encounter lots of people who want to sell us things. Like me, for example: I want to sell the bars and drinking chocolate I craft, the classes I teach, and the posts I write for this newsletter via paid subscriptions.
There are also lots of chocolate-adjacent folks who want to sell us equipment, beans, ingredients, certifications, awards, booths at festivals, or their brand. None of this is bad! If I want to be a chocolate maker I need cacao. I need equipment I can depend on. I might decide awards are a way to highlight my dedication to this craft, or even a pat on the back for busting my bee-hind. A booth at a festival can bring in sales, but also, bring in wholesale accounts and new, loyal fans.
I can speak directly about all of these things because I have actual, real, experience with them. Notice I didn’t say anything about certifications; I’ve never enrolled in a How to Taste Chocolate certification course, or any of the many others. I only know what I’ve heard second-hand, from makers who have taken various cert courses, and their thoughts yay vs nay. More importantly for me, I never felt a certification aligned with my goals; goals directly influence our budget.
Here’s what I mean:
If my goal is to have my bars sold in the shop at Post Ranch Inn (rooms start at $1600 a night), I need to have packaging that appeals to someone who might stay at the Inn. That statement leaves a lot of unanswered questions, but “what my packaging looks like” is always a budget decision, as much as it is a branding decision, unique and personal to our goals. Here is my answer.
So, if you ask me, Should I get a booth at Northwest Chocolate Fest? I can offer my insights, and how having a booth worked for me, how I planned and prepared, how many bars I took, how I made my booth stand out and why there was a constant crowd at it. I can also detail what I’d do differently, what mistakes I made, what I loved about it, and how it profited Map Chocolate, financially and otherwise.
I can offer insights on ordering cacao and ingredients, not just because I do these tasks routinely, but because I worked for five years at Chocolate Alchemy (2014-2019), and have insights from my experience there.
I can, and do, offer insights on crafting chocolate and being a professional chocolate maker, because I am one, and have been one long enough to feel confidant in what I know and how I approach teaching. By professional makers I mean someone who works for themselves (or with a partner or team) and is building a bean to bar business, or growing one. Making craft chocolate entails the steps, and many layers of details: it truly is where art meets science. Building a bean to bar business or growing one means being a maker and also, making a business out of our craft: two hats, one goal.
This is where Tara’s last statement in the quote I shared hits home:
Not necessarily nefarious. But certainly not helpful.
I think this is where selling only a brand comes in.
Advice and lessons on making chocolate and becoming a chocolate business might not be given with bad intentions, but equally true is that “expert” advice might not be actually useful. In my longtime experience, just because some expert gives us advice or writes an Instagram post from their viewpoint atop the expert tower, or posts a YouTube video, definitely doesn’t mean it’s correct. That Bon Appetit video that says to make chocolate you need to start with one pod? Um, no.
If I want to learn how to drive a car, I want to learn from someone who knows more that how to turn on the ignition. I want to know they’ve driven the car, understand how it works, and have driven it in all kinds of conditions, but especially the conditions I’ll be driving in.
Am I saying I’m the only chocolate maker you should listen to? Oh heck no.
I’m saying when we seek or listen to advice, we need to do two things:
Ask,
What actual, hand-on experience does this person have and where/how did they acquire it?
Where is this person coming from?
This helps separate the wheat from the chaff. Wheat: the good stuff we need. Chaff: doesn’t offer substance.
If you have questions about origins, ask the experts who have boots on the ground at origin, because they answer n1 very clearly. And because there is A LOT more to selling cacao than just listing it for sale, the answer to Where is this person (or entity) coming from? can easily be found in a transparency report (or the fact they make one available!) because it’s not just selling cacao they’re interested in, but creating a new model in the chocolate industry: that’s what I mean by “where they’re coming from,” the reason behind the need to sell. Entities like Uncommon Cacao, the folks at Osito Coffee and Cacao, Kokoa Kamili, are a few examples of boots on the ground.
So what about what I’m selling? My classes online and in-person, and the posts I write here have how-to’s for sure, and all my a-ha moments as I keep having them, some inside-chocolate-industry insights, and flat out mistakes I learned from or wished later I’d paid closer attention to. It’s not just the online course materials that have been four years in the making, because anyone with upwards of a $100,000 can hire a web designer specializing in online courses to build one (I built the Next Batch myself, no web designer hired: not in my budget). It’s not just the ten years of having my hands in chocolate, because again, there are lots of makers with their own techniques etc, though few who are willing to share them, fewer still who decide to devote ¾ of their time to teaching and mentoring, leaving ¼ of their time for what, when it was full-time, was more profitable.
Now does the title of this post make sense?
It’s sweet, yes, and definitively chocolate, more so than sugar-coated versions. When single origin, cacaolove-focused, it brings the traditional approach to chocolate closer to the now of what it was always meant to be: a path illuminated by a bright tang of truth.
I’m selling my chocolate path, not because I think you should follow me, but so you can find yours.
If you subscribe for free here I’m specifically asking for your help. Paying subscribers make the newsletter available for everyone. They are a group of longtime makers, award-winning makers, cacao-curious never-before makers, and many brand-new to bean to bar makers.
I understand not everyone can swing a subscription: cocoa beans come first! always. But you can help make this newsletter possible for everyone too.
It’s simple, and I am fairly sure most of you know how to do it.
Hit the like button. It’s the ❤️ button at the bottom of every email (it’s also at the bottom of every post). This tells the algorithm that my info is worthwhile, and helps more people to find me.
And as long as folks are finding me, and finding me useful, I’ll be here.
xxoo,
Mackenzie
Forever grateful for your knowledge, insights and inspiration. Our chocolate wouldn’t be where it is without it.
Thank you, Mackenzie! As always, your posts give me much to think on and much to aspire to! <3