Thanks for the last 3 years!
December 1, 2009
Taza Chocolate reached a remarkable milestone recently, and I wanted to share the excitement with you. We rented our first production space in September 2006, just over three years ago. I am extraordinarily proud of what our team has accomplished since then. That small space has since become the Taza Chocolate Factory, and we’ve grown far beyond our hopes and expectations in the short time that has passed.
Back in fall 2006, Larry, Kathleen and I began building Taza Chocolate from the ground up. Mike, who would later become our head chocolate maker, also pitched in between skydiving stints. We laid out our first chocolate making system, designed packaging, created our brand and logo, and of course, starting developing chocolate recipes. We partnered with a local bakery, running a chocolate lounge in their space once a week. And we began to look for beans, a process which would take us all over Central America and the Caribbean.
It was all incredibly exciting, and more than a little nerve-wracking. In retrospect, we were probably a little nuts – trying to create a new kind of chocolate, while also creating a business, and a brand. Larry managed to sell our first products to retailers in Boston before we even had products to sell! He did it just to figure out how, we were so new at this. I remember Larry hopping on his bike with a couple tins of our Velo Rouge and Cabra Sentada hot chocolate drink mixes, heading across the river in the hopes of finding someone to buy them.
In the time since those first beginnings, our team of three has grown to eighteen, and our chocolate factory has grown from 1,600 sq. ft. to more than 10,000. And in spite of this growth, we’re still making everything by hand in small batches with love and care. Of course, we’d be lying if we said that there weren’t substantial hurdles along the way. Making chocolate the way we do presents its own unique set of challenges.
For example, how do you efficiently and consistently hand-wrap round chocolates? What do you do when your tempering machine breaks down and they don’t make spare parts for it anymore and the instructions are in German? Or how do you get cacao from rural Dominican Republic to Boston while insuring the quality and integrity of the beans en route?
But I’m getting ahead of myself. In the very beginning, it was me, and Laura, and Kathleen, and sometimes even Larry, sitting in the factory wrapping chocolate bars by hand. In one day, we’d make a batch, mold the bars, and pump up the stereo while we all wrapped feverishly. As soon as they were done, Larry would speed off on his bike to make deliveries to local shops and cafes. We would never have gotten off the ground without friends like Diesel, Sherman and Darwins, or Lionette’s, Savenor’s and Formaggio Kitchen. We’re very grateful to them, and each of them proudly stocks Taza to this day.
Times have changed, and we’ve grown and evolved and learned and improved. Now we have a full time packaging staff of six people all trying to keep up with our full time chocolate making crew of Mike, Kellie and Greg. Together, the production team now crafts 1,800 lbs of chocolate each week! On the sales side, if it weren’t for the efforts of Larry, Sara, Laura, and Vanessa, we’d never have been able to sell all the chocolate we learned to make. Aaron joined us just over a year ago to help us market our chocolate better, and to help us explain to our customers exactly what our chocolate is, and why it's special. And Stephanie is now happily a full-time member of the family, bringing Taza out into the world in the form of tastings, demonstrations, pairing classes, and more.
It's been an amazing three years, and we are beyond grateful to everyone who helped and supported us along the way. With the passion and talent of the team we've put together, I look forward to our continued success over the next three years, and beyond.
