Meet Connor Tierney of Chocolate Thunder

Today we’d like to introduce you to Connor Tierney

Hi Connor, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In the midst of the pandemic I found myself stuck at home with my place of work reduced to a skeleton crew. With all the time on my hands I got into a routine of reading on the porch, eating healthy, and working out. I also binged every documentary I could find on Netflix. That’s when I learned about the unpaid labor and child labor in the cacao supply chain. Fate would have it that I had purchased a bag of cacao beans on a whim. I put them in a $20 Hamilton Beach blender and spun it until it started smoking. The blender was ruined but I had a proof of concept. It tasted horrible.
After confirming making chocolate from bean to bar was possible, I started researching where I could source cacao beans ethically. I also purchased a few hobbyist level machines to get the job done right. After the first batch came a surprise; Chocolate tastes different depending on where it comes from. The chocolate had notes of raspberry! I couldn’t believe it and at that moment I knew I was going to start a business of ethically sourced, bean to bar, craft chocolate. I had to share the flavor with everyone I knew.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Balancing family and my day job has always been a challenge but thankfully I have a few very part time workers that are able to make chocolate better than me so I can focus on sales, ecommerce, purchase orders, etc in the evenings. Sales have been the biggest challenge. Specifically finding the right customer for an expensive bar of chocolate. Be it wholesale retail locations or the right demographic of end customer. Another big challenge is simply shipping during the summer. I turned off my online store the first half of this summer before I decided to let the customer make that decision. If they want to pay $50 for overnight shipping, more power to them and that decision allowed me to maintain a slow trickle of online sales in addition to the farmers market.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Chocolate Thunder?
We make craft chocolate from single origin cacao beans and sugar. Depending on where the cacao beans come from, the chocolate tastes different. Notes of raspberry or raisin or caramel and the list goes on. The farmers are paid a fair wage for their harvest and we often times pay 5x more than what Big Chocolate brands pay. In addition to that, everything is hand made. Each batch takes 3 days and the price is very much driven by the labor cost. When you buy our chocolate, you’re supporting livable farmer wages as well as livable local wages. You’ll also experience chocolate unlike anything you would find at the store.
I have met a lot of other craft chocolate makers so it’s safe to say I specialize in single origin. Many other makers make infusions or add nuts or spice. I love the purity of letting the cacao beans take you on their own adventure. For this reason, we also roast our cacao in small batches in a table top coffee roaster whereas many other makers use large machines or inaccurate ovens. I feel this makes our product more consistent and allows us to emphasize the fruity notes. I’m naturally drawn to the fruity notes in the cacao and love finding a roasting profile that brings those out.
In terms of branding, the custom lightning bolt chocolate bar molds are my own unique stamp that no one else has and I love it. They match the pattern on the boxes.
Consumers should know single origin craft chocolate is totally different and they need to try it. Retailers should know I offer wholesale prices as well as white label options.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Move to a state that let’s you produce food from your home kitchen. Michigan Cottage Food Law prevents you from selling online or in stores. They also set a revenue cap. If I lived in North Carolina for example, I could run my entire business out of my home kitchen which would save my A TON of money.

Pricing:

• Dark Chocolate – $12
• Milk Chocolate – $7

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ChocolateThunder.us
• Instagram: @Chocolate_Thunder_Official
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChocolateThunderOfficial/