A Sweet Start: Hello Cocoa Brings Craft Chocolate to Fayetteville

Fayetteville-based chocolate maker Hello Cocoa asserts on its wrappers that consuming one of its artisan candy bars is like going on an adventure, and such a claim is true to its roots.

The origin of the company is in the African country of Uganda, and it all started because several of its owners were doing nonprofit work there.

Hello Cocoa co-owner Charles Davidson in 2010 founded ForgottenSong, an organization that helps establish self-sustainable and reproducible small businesses in war-torn countries.

In northern Iraq, ForgottenSong worked with local partners to create a child-care facility that aims to serve single mothers and refugee families who have financial need.

In Burundi and Uganda, the nonprofit has set into action pay-it-forward systems to create and reproduce chicken farms.

The pay-it-forward model requires the establishment of a hub farm, which provides recipients with chickens, and those recipients in return must each provide the hub farm with 1,000 fertilized eggs, according to the ForgottenSong website. The hub farm incubates these eggs to produce more chicks, which are then used to expand the farming network.

Uganda was the setting for the organization’s first project, which began in 2012 at Blessed Hope Orphanage and Academy in Bulamu, with 500 chicks to feed 380 children.

Two years later, the farm had replicated into 30 throughout the area, according to the website.

“The goal is to empower people to be self-sustainable,” said Lauren Blanco, an international affairs expert for ForgottenSong and co-owner of Hello Cocoa.

However, as the nonprofit continued to give individuals and communities the tools to support themselves, Blanco said the team began to see irony in the fact that, as an organization, ForgottenSong depended on outside money for its operations, and a mission ensued to find a means of self-sustainability.

 

Cocoa Encounter

During a trip to Uganda, Davidson met a passionate cocoa bean grower named Cosmos, and from there things fell into place.

“We thought, ‘Let’s make a chocolate company,’” Blanco said.

And soon, it took on a life of its own, no longer ancillary to ForgottenSong as a source of funding. It became its own entity, and Hello Cocoa was born.

Three couples co-founded the company, including Davidson and wife Abby, who focus on sales and distribution; Blanco and husband Mark, who handle marketing, public relations and some administrative aspects; and Preston and Abby Stewart, who make the chocolate. 

The company is mainly run at night and on weekends, as most of the partners have day jobs.

Preston Stewart is the Internet sales manager for Potter’s House Thrift Store in Fayetteville.

However, his degree in chemistry from the University of Arkansas, as well as his reputation for appreciating good cuisine — “I’ve always been kind of a foodie,” Stewart said — made him an obvious choice for longtime friend Charles Davidson to recruit for the project.

He spent hours learning to make chocolate and streamlining the process. He worked to find the right heating times and temperatures and also to fine-tune the adjustment of the company’s house-made winnower, which separates the cocoa beans from their bitter husks.

The whole process took several months and involved a lot of trial and error, and also plenty of research.

“We had a real backbone of how to make chocolate from all the research we did,” Stewart said. “We’re not on the cutting edge of craft chocolate. There are people all over the world doing more impressive things.”

But, here locally, they are on the edge. And if you ask Stewart, the high-end cocoa market is ripe for the picking.

The company has been putting out chocolate since August, and people at community events like street fairs and downtown events have consistently reacted with excitement over locally made chocolate, Stewart said.

“We just think, craft coffee has become such a big thing in the area, with Arsaga’s and Onyx [Coffee Lab]; craft beer has been taking off the last couple of years; why not craft chocolate?”

“We saw a niche, maybe, in the market,” he said. “And so far it’s going well.”

 

Artisan Technique

Hello Cocoa in September won an award for its wrapper design from Los Angeles-based packaging industry website, The Dieline.

However, while its visual presentation might set Hello Cocoa apart, the quality of the chocolate is of paramount concern to the partners.

During the chocolate-making process, Stewart sorts the beans by hand — inspecting them three times — and also carefully adjusts the roasting method based on the type of cocoa bean being used. 

For example, Stewart roasts criollo beans, a rare species from Venezuela, on a low temperature so as not to affect the nuances of the delicate, unique flavor.

Criollo beans make up only about 10 percent of the worldwide crop and are used in Hello Cocoa’s 74-percent dark chocolate bar, one of its two signature products.

The 57-percent dark chocolate bar is made from sturdy, traditional forastero beans out of Uganda.

The two signature bars are made with only three ingredients:  sugar, cocoa butter and cacao nibs. There are no preservatives and no emulsifiers, Blanco said, and “if you buy a bar, it was probably made within a few days.”

Hello Cocoa’s priority is “to do good business,” she added.

The partners’ vision for the company is to build relationships and set up direct trade with farmers like Cosmos as its main source of beans. However, setting up such a system is difficult and expensive, so Hello Cocoa sources its beans from a third party now.

The sourcing company sells ethically and sustainably traded beans — and the relationship led to their introduction to the Venezuelan criollo beans.

However, Hello Cocoa plans to get the ball rolling on direct trade down the line, Blanco said. She believes environmentally and socially responsible practices are becoming increasingly standard in business, with consumers expecting that sort of attention to detail.

In addition, each Hello Cocoa bar is molded and wrapped by hand, Stewart said.

Because the company is funded solely through internal investment, it hasn’t spent a lot on equipment, although the company was compelled to make investments on key items including a melanger, which refines the chocolate.

With more equipment, Hello Cocoa would be able to produce a higher volume of products, but the company wants to take it slow.

“We are not going Gung-ho before we are ready,” Stewart said. “We sell all the chocolate we make.” And right now that’s about 1,200 bars a month.

Hello Cocoa products are sold online and at several locations, mostly in Arkansas, but also in Louisiana and Texas. Northwest Arkansas spots include Arsaga’s and Onyx locations, The Wine Cellar in Fayetteville, Tontitown Winery and various shops, including The Handmade Market in Fayetteville, Mason’s Boutique in Fayetteville and The Mustache Goods & Wears in Bentonville.

Prices range from $6 to $6.50 for a two-ounce bar, a cost Blanco said is under the average price point for artisan chocolate.

 

’Tis the Season

In addition to making the two signature bars, Stewart puts his culinary expertise to work creating Hello Cocoa’s seasonal bars. The Hello Fall bar, with roasted pumpkin seeds, dried tart cherries and pumpkin spice, was recently offered and in November the company released the Winter Wonderland bar, which is made with dried cranberries, cacao nibs and orange zest, along with criollo cocoa beans.

In keeping with the adventurous theme, Stewart also intends to do special releases as often as possible.

“Travel is something we’re all passionate about,” he said. “We hope to continue to travel to different countries and make relationships with farmers. We might then come back with some beans in our suitcase and then make a small-batch, special release.”

Stewart said the company has already collaborated on products with local artisans like Arsaga’s and hopes to expand that effort, in addition to becoming more involved in the community.

A retail space is another goal for the chocolate makers, although Stewart does not see that happening in the next few months. “Maybe in a year,” he said.

Ultimately, he would like to set up a shop that would showcase the manufacturing process and to start making truffles and bonbons. “My dream is to become a real chocolatier,” he added.

“We’ve just scratched the surface of what we want to do.”