Bean to Bar Chocolate Maker Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Website: Solstice Chocolate
Date Established: 2013
Ingredients Used: 3 -  Cocoa Beans, Cane Sugar, Cocoa Butter
Allergy Information: No allergens present in their facility ever

As a company, Solstice Chocolate is very young, but chocolate has been a decade-long pursuit for owners Scott and DeAnn Querry. It began with them using couverture to make gifts for friends and relatives, before morphing into a desire to make their very own chocolate. Their passion started like most other artisan food producers – making chocolate in rented kitchen space and selling at farmers markets around the Salt Lake area. The initial push to share their chocolate with family and friends was because their youngest daughter needed a job. She worked very hard, at odd hours when the kitchen was available for use, which was usually late night and early mornings, and peddled at the markets.

Solstice chooses partners and bean origins carefully to make sure the cacao is of a high standard. Their facility is Utah's first net zero, on-site solar powered commercial space. They are extremely proud of the use of clean energy in producing premium chocolate. Using solar power is a personal choice and one that is of high importance to them. There is no impact on the production other than not using gas or propane to fuel a roaster. The beans are roasted using an electric fluid bed roaster so there is no burning of fossil fuels in the process. With the assistance of necessary machines, they hand-produce and package all of their chocolate. They are also very excited to be an allergen-free food producer. This means no nuts, soy or dairy are used in their facility.