Maker Profile: Mindo Chocolate

company name	Mindo Chocolate
website	http://www.mindochocolate.com/
email	info@mindochocolate.com
chocolate makers	Joe Meza and Barbara Wilson
factory location	11061 Trinkle Road Dexter, MI 48130 (734) 660-5635
factory tours	by appointment
direct online purchase	Mindo
direct stores	N/A
retail store purchase	where Mindo is sold
selling bars since	2009
plantation bars	none
single origin bars	100% (Ecuador) 77% (Ecuador) 67% (Ecuador)
blend bars	none
production cycle	bean to bar
added fat	cocoa butter
sweetener	cane juice
flavoring	none
emulsifier	none
organic	yes (not yet certified)
sustainable	recycling, composting
economics	direct trade (not certified)
last updated	December 15, 2011

In 2008, Barbara Wilson and Joe Meza built a winter home for themselves in Mindo, Ecuador. Over the following year, that home transformed into El Quetzal de Mindo, a restaurant and hostel. In 2009, Barbara and Joe established a cacao processing station to do their own fermenting, drying, roasting, and winnowing of cacao. They ship their cacao nibs (by air) back to their place in Dexter, Michigan, to press cocoa butter and make chocolate. (Note: In the past, Mindo sometimes shipped beans to Dexter and roasted them there). Factory tours may be arranged by appointment. They began selling their single origin Ecuador chocolate in 2009.

Most chocolate makers purchase dried cacao beans and have little control over the fermenting and drying processes. Mindo, however, buys fresh wet organic cacao beans from a small cooperative in Ecuador, and does their own fermenting and drying locally. In making their chocolate, Mindo adds only organic evaporated cane juice and, when necessary for viscosity, cocoa butter made from the same cacao. No emulsifier or flavoring is added (except in their flavored chocolate, of course :-)

Mindo chocolate bars are made from organic ingredients (both the cacao beans and cane juice are certified organic), but the bars themselves have not yet been certified. Barbara and Joe established direct trade with the farmers of the cooperative, but have gone beyond a financial relationship (including teaching the cacao farmers the process of making chocolate). They also use only recyclable or compostable packaging.

You can buy Mindo chocolate online directly from them. Mindo chocolate can also be purchased at retail locations throughout Michigan and some other locations around the United States, as well as at El Quetzal de Mindo in Ecuador (as listed on their website).