Bean to Bar Chocolate Maker Location: Meadowlands, MN 
Website: Meadowlands Chocolate
Date Established: September, 2013
Organic: Yes
Ingredients Used: 2 - Organic Cocoa Beans, Organic Cane Sugar
Allergy Information:  No added soy lecithin or extra cocoa butter, dairy, nuts, or anything else

When we asked Clyo Howard and Beryl Wells Hamilton of Meadowlands Chocolate Company to tell us a bit about them, here’s what they had to say, "Our introduction to fine-quality chocolate came one day in the summer of 2013 while watching a cooking show on television which featured organic chocolate. The owner of the chocolate company was being interviewed. When he said that he started out making chocolate bars in his kitchen, it was like we were hit by a bolt of lightning! We looked at each other and said, 'We can do that!'

We immediately drove down to the local co-op and bought a few bars of organic chocolate. When we tasted the bars, we said, 'Maybe we can do even better. Let's try it!'

A few weeks later, after talking late into the night for many nights, and researching everything we could find about making bean-to-bar chocolate, we purchased four pounds of cocoa beans from four countries of origin; one small grinder; a small temperer; a table roaster; a few chocolate leaf molds; and some colored foils. We started making chocolate in our kitchen. Since then, we haven't looked back. It's all about handcrafted, bean-to-bar chocolate.

The fine, distinctive flavors found in our chocolate come from the soil, sun, flora and fauna of the cocoa bean’s country of origin, in essence its terroir. We make our chocolate from bean-to-bar by hand in small batches to bring out the best these very special beans have to offer using only the highest quality, organic, fair trade cocoa beans, and pure, organic cane sugar.

As artists, we believe that making craft chocolate is a form of making art. As chocolate makers, we want to make the best chocolate possible from the simplest, purest ingredients. Chocolate has become our passion.

It's important to us that our cocoa beans are ethically harvested and fairly traded. We are happy to know that the farmers and their families where our beans are grown are being given fair wages for their work. The greater the demand for ethically harvested, organic, fair trade chocolate, the better it is for the rainforest."