It is not new that the Californian brand of Bean to Bar Chocolates Dick Taylor has been successful all over the world.
Last February, they saw their prestige rise significantly after The New York Times food journalist and columnist Melissa Clark @clarkbar placed them on a list of the 13 best Bean to Bar chocolates in the US in February of this year, which also included the Acalli Dandelion (read the story here), French Broad, Fruition, Goodnow, Guittard, Kahkow, LetterPress, Madre, Taza, Tcho and Valrhona brands.
Installed in northeastern California, in the city of Eureka, the brand was created by two college friends, Adam Dick and Dustin Taylor, who became woodworkers, then artisans and builders of wooden boats, mostly sailboats, using only manual machinery and often building all by themselves, until they discovered 10 years ago the passion for Bean to Bar chocolates, or artisans chocolate, as they like to say, in a Youtube video by the Mast Brothers, chocolate-makers from New York.
Read here the exclusive interview that Dustin Taylor gave to Grão Especial
Grão Especial – Let’s start from the beginning, as I need to introduce the Dick Taylor brand to Brazilians who have never heard of you. How did two wood craftsmen discover the passion for the Bean to Bar chocolate?
Dustin Taylor – Well, I’ve always been a candy consumer, I liked chocolates, but we didn’t understand anything about it. The two of us, Adam and I, met in college. We were carpenters and started working in carpentry, then finishing wood and eventually started building boats, a lot of sailboats, furniture for stores. This is when we were shopping on E-Bay and on Graigslist ancient machinery for collecting. Adam and I have always shared an interest in how things are done and we’ve always liked to try new hobbies. We’ve done a lot together, like quilting, crocheting, playing musical instruments, having honey production, these things we always thought it was fun to do. In fact, everything that is made at home interested us.
One day in 2010, we were traveling to Southern California, since we were going to play at a wedding, and I found out on Youtube, the Mast Brothers channel on how to make Bean to Bar chocolates. This idea of making chocolate for our family, as one more hobby, really interested us.
We watched the video over and over again and did a lot of research to find out what handmade chocolate really was. These researches led us to meet John Nancy, from Chocolate Alchemy @chocolatealchemy. We also met some chocolate-makers, but there was no one producing Bean to Bar chocolates in northeastern California, where we live. So, we decided to give it a shot.
Grão Especial – and was it successful since the onset?
Dustin Taylor – No way! In the beginning, our chocolate was terrible. When we got back from the wedding, we had already bought a table roaster from John Nancy, a little over two kilos of cocoa from Madagascar and started testing. At the very onset, we made chocolate on top of Adam’s dishwasher. We improved our technique and started to produce in small quantities and sell in local businesses.
Then we went to participate in the NorthWest Chocolate Festival and met several other professionals willing to exchange experiences.
It helped us a lot by the fact that, at the time, everything was new, it was unique, unlike anything we had experienced before. And in our town, there was no one else doing it. If anyone wanted to buy Bean to Bar chocolate, they had to go to San Francisco, which is about 436 km away. But it took us seven years until our chocolate really got good.
Grão Especial – and did you give up on your other activities?
Dustin Taylor – No, we kept our shop and we didn’t lose our passion for hobbies and manual carpentry. We continue to remodel some houses, making kitchen furniture, displays, prototypes for equipment. Carpentry is still part of our lives. We are even working on a big project right now, namely our new store.
Grão Especial – What do you mean? Are you going to move?
Dustin Taylor – Yes, we are working to make the change take place by the end of this year. We bought an 18th century building and we’re renovating it all. Our new factory and store will be at the new address. And all part of joinery, carpentry, displays and furniture is under our responsibility.
We will also have a coffee shop with specialty coffees on the other side of the building, owned by friends who have worked for over 25 years in the business. Our store will be very beautiful, it will be a space totally dedicated to chocolate, not only the Bean to Bar, but we are interested in taking our product to another level: we want to produce different desserts with our chocolates, as well as develop drinks with chocolate as the base.
Grão Especial – What countries do you sell your chocolates to?
Dustin Taylor – Well, we have distributors in the Netherlands dealing with European countries, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and, of course, across the US.
Grão Especial – But you are not in Brazil, right?
Dustin Taylor – Unfortunately, no, despite the fact that we produce chocolate bars made with cocoa from Bahia, from the Gamboa farm. It is Vanilla Milk Chocolate with 55% cocoa and A2/A2 milk from the Alexandre family farm and vanilla from Madagascar, from the Bertil Akesson farm. It’s an organic bar plus just cane sugar and cocoa butter.
Grão Especial – Just like Dandelion, do you travel the world buying cocoa?
Dustin Taylor – No, although we’ve grown a lot, we’re still a small company and we don’t have the time or resources to personally look for the best cocoa in the world. From a moment in our history, they began to be offered to us. Dandelion has a person who does just that kind of thing, Greg D’Alessandro, that just does that and that acts as a kind of ambassador for the Bean to Bar chocolate producers. And I’m very grateful for the work they do, which allowed the market as a whole to grow a lot in quality. Greg helps farmers by visiting them, validating their work.
Grão Especial – How many cocoa origins are you working with?
Dustin Taylor – At this moment, we make single origin bars from Mexico, Soconusco, Gamboa Farm in Brazil, Vale de Sambrano Farm in Madagascar, and Belize, from the Maia do Cacau Mountain. And we also work with microlots from different origins, which we call opportunities.
Grão Especial – Have you ever been prejudiced against cocoa in Brazil?
Dustin Taylor – No, we were never prejudiced against Brazilian cocoa and our partnership is proof of that. It turns out that we are always looking for new origins and we prefer those that can reach San Diego, because logistics often make it impossible to work with certain origins. We get cocoa from all over the world, all the time, and I must say we also get bad cocoa all the time. And our partnership with Bertil Akessol is important, as he supplies us with his cocoa from Brazil and Madagascar, as well as vanilla produced in Africa.
Grão Especial – What makes Dick Taylor chocolate so special that it’s on the list of the best American Bean to Bar chocolates?
Dustin Taylor – We are very proud of our work. I think it has everything to do with our background, with carpentry. Chocolate and wood, in a way, come together, because both are crude raw materials. I believe that, as we come from other industries, we were used to other nuances and we wanted to imprint this trait on the way we produce chocolate. And, of course, our fascination with old machinery, including that from old chocolate factories, is also a point off the curve. To repair them, we had to completely disassemble them. So, we have an advantage because we know how and why these machines were made, to get the best out of chocolate.
I don’t want to create controversy, but what is certain is that the old chocolate-makers knew how to make good chocolate, despite not having access to a special cocoa. They worked with the worst cocoa, the bulk one. And nowadays, today’s chocolate-makers think they’re reinventing the wheel, but they’re not. They are being naive. There is still a lot to be done in this market, there is so much important machinery for creating a superior chocolate, and one can’t make an excellent chocolate with just a melanger. These wonderful machines can extract different flavors and textures from cocoa. And that’s what we’re exploring at Dick Taylor. Not to mention, of course, the wonderful recipes that Adam creates.
Grão Especial – Was Covid-19 good for the Bean to Bar chocolate industry in the US?
Dustin Taylor – In a way, yes. Early on, in March 2020, we sent everyone home, closed the factory for a few weeks. But, as we have a large sales team, they managed to create a number of previously untried ways to sell the chocolates. We quickly returned to the office and I can say that without a doubt these last two years have been the fastest growing, thanks to our online presence, selling directly to our clients in a variety of ways.
Grão Especial – And what is your expectation in terms of post-covid sales?
Dustin Taylor – Everything will depend on whether we’re really going to get rid of the virus. But I see the Bean to Bar chocolate market developing with the creation of new products and the use of special cocoa as an ingredient for ice cream, desserts etc. There is also a little explored market for Bean to Bar chocolate for gifts, for example.
We have to take into account that we need to help cocoa producers by paying ever fairer prices, to perpetuate our business. I’m also positive about discovering new origins for cocoa. I’m very excited about the cocoa scene in Hawaii and most likely we’ll see new origins dawning, more consumers, that is, the market flourishing.
