Today we’d like to introduce you to Gregory Clark.
Hi Gregory, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was working in my career field, had my children off on their own, and decided to pursue a passion and create something special for the community. I did market research to investigate the viability of a fine chocolate store in my community. With little competition, it looked very favorable. I attended an online international chocolatiering program through Vancouver, Canada: Ecole Chocolat. This, along with other trainings with world renowned chocolatiers, helped build my skills and knowledge of all things chocolate. I continue to attend trainings an conferences but am now teaching classes of my own to people of all ages, The process was long. I left a career in a different field and received an SBA loan for the entire project as an outsider. The building I bought took 18 months to remodel because of the condition it was in but now I have a beautiful store on a highway near the connection to an expressway which is helping me to develop my store into a destination. Our mission statement is “Locally focused, globally aware, making the world better through chocolate.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Everything was a struggle from the beginning. Gathering support from family, working on classes, developing products, and all other aspects of the business. I still work in private practice at my old job to pay bills at home so I don’t draw money from the business. I worked on everything until I felt I was ready to move ahead with the financial commitment since I already had a job. It took a very long time to get it to the point of opening. I spent a year on the business plan and working with banks to complete the loan. The construction took 18 months. Due to the unexpected problems discovered during construction, everything was delayed and the project became much more expensive.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
In chocolate, there are three categories of consumers: Mainstream, Premium, and Fine. Mainstream is obvious but important to know cheap chocolate with familiar brands isn’t real chocolate. They only use cocoa solids which is one of two essential parts of the product we enjoy as chocolate. Cocoa butter is removed, Tempering cocoas butter gives chocolate the qualities we enjoy. It gives mouthfeel, snap, melting at body temperature, retraction in a mold, and shine. It is illegal in the U.S. to call a product chocolate that doesn’t have cocoa butter. Words used are chocolatey, or maybe chocolate flavored. Some companies are starting to use a little to meet a minimum requirement so they can say chocolate. Premium are the real chocolate that’s mass produced like Dove, Ghirardelli, Lindt, etc. This is good real chocolate that is mass produced and made to withstand long shipping journeys and long shelf-life in a store. Fine chocolate is the category I fall into. This is real chocolate made in smaller batches, with fresher ingredients, and done by real people’s hands, in most cases. You can have larger fine chocolate productions of fine chocolate, but they usually serve a locality or a region only. Although in the fine chocolate category, our chocolate is a step above the rest in this area. Although we carry many of the traditional favorites, we have many products that other fine chocolate stores don’t carry. Our signature chocolate is our painted truffles. These are hand painted with colored cocoa butter. Almost all chocolate stores by their chocolate from suppliers or make the same offerings chocolate stores have sold for 50 years. There must be a philosophy that if it worked before, it will work now. However, they aren’t keeping up with trends in the industry. My chocolate reflects more modern techniques and unique flavors. For example, our jasmine, lemon verbena, and lavender vanilla truffles are all made from dried flowers infused in cream and painted with colors to express the flavor profile. We also have a line of Ecuadorian chocolate that is made in Ecuador (not grown in Ecuador and shipped out) to help improve conditions for farmers and workers. It gets cacao beans from farmer co-ops in different regions showing off the variations in flavor with varying terroir in the mountains, slopes, and coastal regions.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
*I am a mental health therapist that continues to counsel people online and in-person. Much of my care for each product, each class, and the design of the whole business is an attempt to nurture all of those who engage with us. Going back to the mission statement “Locally focused, globally aware, making the world better through chocolate.”
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*I have trained with experts from all over the world and traveled extensively to learn about products, packaging, and techniques from chocolatiers all over the U.S. and Europe.
Pricing:
- All of our products in our display coolers are sold by the piece so everyone can have exactly what they want and sample as much as they would like without worrying about a per pound price.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.enchantedmountainchocolate.com (going live soon), info@enchantedmountainchocolate.com
- Instagram: Have this but isn’t active with it yet. Soon.
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/enchantedmountainchocolate/
- Yelp: coming soon
