Our story

Kevin and Stephen’s lifetime love of food - and sweets - led them to experiment with making bean-to-bar chocolate, leading to the fudgy, aroma-filled chocolate workshop we have today.

Kevin’s background as a polymer chemist and passion for trying to make anything at least once illuminated his path to becoming a chocolate maker. Chocolate-making is very scientific - you must recognize the relationship between roasting temperature vs. flavor development and understand how the ingredients interact with one another. With his technical knowledge and everyday learnings, he dives headfirst into the new flavor creations we conjure up every month.

As a zoologist and avid permaculturist, Stephen’s interest in becoming a chocolate maker grew from understanding the negative impacts commodity agriculture imposes on the planet and communities around the world. We discovered an alternative path to make chocolate, one that benefits Nature and people. Craft chocolate is better for the Earth, is better for the farmers growing it and it not only tastes better, its better for you. There’s a need for more chocolate makers to purchase this regenerative cacao to make it financially stable for producers. These reasons helped Stephen decide this was something worth pursuing.

ethics

At Eigen Chocolate, we are chocolate makers applying the ethics of Earth-care, People-care and fair share as our foundation to transform your perception of chocolate. These learnings from Permaculture inspire and direct our path forward in every step of the chocolate-making process. This journey built the intentions we proudly keep: crafting and sharing exceptional chocolate with you, providing for farmers by using ethically traded cacao, and reducing our impact with compostable packaging.

Sourcing

We source our cacao from Meridian Cacao Company because Meridian shares our Earth-care, People-care and fair share foundation. Meridian connects small farms from around the world with craft chocolate makers throughout the US. They have a transparent supply chain and only work with producers they have direct contact with. By visiting the farms each year and communicating directly with producers, Meridian chooses to work with farms that treat their staff and the environment with respect. They purchase cacao at direct trade pricing, a price substantially higher than fair trade that allows these ethical farms to prosper. In the near future, we hope to build connections of our own with farmers to directly sourc cacao from all over the world. Until then, we are proud to use Meridian Cacao.