Sixteen years in business, making chocolate and sharing chocolate with the world.

It’s been a journey of many bumps, direction changes, wonderful connections, and somehow seeing a little dream come to life.

And it really did start as a little idea.

I remember thinking about business ideas and things I might want to do with my life, and chocolate came up. I literally wrote “chocolate” on a Post-it note and stuck it on my fridge so I wouldn’t forget the thought.

At the time, I was getting really interested in good food and wine. To me, there was this whole world opening up around where food came from, how it was made, and why it tasted the way it did. But when I looked at the chocolate on grocery store shelves, something seemed to be missing. Chocolate felt like an afterthought, with no information about where it came from.

Then I tried some single-origin chocolate from Europe and remember thinking, why isn’t chocolate like this more available here?

So we started researching.

We read old books and fell in love with stories of chocolate makers in Switzerland and Europe. There was something incredibly romantic about the labor and passion involved. People living in little lofts above their chocolate shops, with old machinery churning away below them.

So we took the plunge and tried making chocolate ourselves.

Operation Chocolate

One of our very first batches was lovingly named “Operation Chocolate.”

We made it on tiny equipment in our little apartment/test kitchen, wrapped it into tiny little bars and shared it around with friends…and pretty much any random person we could convince to try it.   It wasn’t very good. But we were completely hooked.

Then we visited a cacao farm in Costa Rica, and I think that was really the point of no return.

Seeing cacao growing, tasting the fruit, meeting the people who grew and fermented it, and beginning to understand just how much happens before it ever reaches a chocolate maker completely changed the way I looked at chocolate.

Chocolate wasn’t just chocolate anymore. It was agriculture, people, place, flavor, craft, and an enormous amount of work.

And Somehow, We Kept Going

That little Post-it note eventually turned into something much bigger than I ever imagined.

We went from making chocolate in a roughly 400-square-foot studio apartment/test kitchen, to leasing a factory in Denver with old European chocolate-making equipment, to a 3,000-square-foot space in Park City, Utah, and eventually to our current home in Heber City.

There have been old machines. New machines. Fully refurbished machines and tears over broken machines. And we’ve had our fair share of chocolate spills and splatters on walls.

And somehow, we kept going.

In the beginning, we were purists. Real purists. Two ingredients: cacao and sugar. Single-origin chocolate. We wanted to show people just how extraordinary chocolate could be when you started with beautiful cacao.

But through the years, we loosened up. We realized that taking chocolate seriously didn’t mean chocolate itself had to be serious.

Living and making chocolate in the mountains of Utah started influencing what we made. We played with flavors and ingredients that connected us to this place and the things we loved: juniper and lavender, local honey, cherries, salt, toasted grains, and all sorts of other ideas. Our Mountain Line was born.

Chocolate became another way to tell our story, celebrate the place we call home, and work with other wonderful producers around us.

The Little Dream

The company today doesn’t look anything like I imagined it would sixteen years ago.

We’ve changed factories, packaging and plans countless times. We’ve made mistakes and learned some tough lessons.

But when I look back at all those twists and turns, I think the little dream underneath it all has stayed simple: Make exceptional chocolate. Care deeply about where it comes from. And share it with people.

I used to joke that when we started, I wasn’t sure whether I’d be completely sick of chocolate within a year.

As it turns out… that day never came. 😂

And I’ve certainly had my share of eating-a-pound-of-chocolate days.

But after sixteen years, I think what I’ve come to love most about chocolate isn’t even entirely the chocolate itself.

It’s what happens around it.

People light up talking about chocolate. They want to learn about it and taste it together. Chocolate is a food for connection.

And I think that connection has only become more meaningful to me through the years. In a world where it can feel like we are becoming more disconnected from one another, those little moments of connection feel increasingly important.

We know we’re not changing the world by making chocolate. There are bigger problems to solve and more important things happening in the world every day.

But I do think there’s something worthwhile about making something that brings people together. Something that adds a little pleasure, richness and happiness to an ordinary day.

So perhaps, in our own very small way, we are changing the world.

Thank you to everyone who has been part of these sixteen years. ❤️