1 00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:12,060 We have taken confectionery and chocolate making to another level by 2 00:00:12,060 --> 00:00:15,620 piece beautiful, hand -painted, decorated. 3 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:21,720 We want people to kind of take a pause when they get a box of our chocolates 4 00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:26,620 before they start eating them. We go through about 20 to 24 tons of chocolate 5 00:00:26,620 --> 00:00:29,400 year. So this is it all melted. 6 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:34,300 It's a very sensorial experience on the visuals of what we do. 7 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:41,360 Now, behind that, we put just as much effort into how these chocolates taste, 8 00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:45,660 into the ingredients that we've painstakingly sourced from around the 9 00:00:45,660 --> 00:00:46,660 the years. 10 00:00:46,740 --> 00:00:52,020 So we often refer to our craft and what we do, and it's not just cooking. 11 00:00:52,300 --> 00:00:55,480 We are creating edible pieces of art. 12 00:01:45,320 --> 00:01:49,120 So this is a mold that's been airbrushed and painted, ready to go out to the 13 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:53,220 production floor and go to the next step of the chocolate -making process, which 14 00:01:53,220 --> 00:01:54,700 would be to actually form the shell. 15 00:01:55,960 --> 00:02:00,520 So we'll actually use colored cocoa butter, and we'll paint the molds, and 16 00:02:00,520 --> 00:02:04,500 once that's done, we'll fill these molds with chocolate, we'll create a shell, 17 00:02:04,700 --> 00:02:07,860 and then we'll fill it with whatever particular filling we're going to do. 18 00:02:08,060 --> 00:02:12,360 And then at the end of this process, you end up with a really beautiful bonbon 19 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:14,060 that would look something like that. 20 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:16,660 really vivid, that's really shiny. 21 00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:22,840 So when you open that box, you almost don't even want to eat them. 22 00:02:23,500 --> 00:02:27,140 I didn't set out to be a chocolatier. I didn't set out to open a chocolate 23 00:02:27,140 --> 00:02:31,060 company. It was never a childhood dream of mine. 24 00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:33,000 I actually wanted to be a chef. 25 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:36,040 I wanted to own restaurants. 26 00:02:37,150 --> 00:02:40,550 You know, and I thought that's the direction that I would go, and it's the 27 00:02:40,550 --> 00:02:44,550 I started going down in college. And once I graduated from college, I went 28 00:02:44,550 --> 00:02:48,690 on into it, you know, worked with a lot of really great famous chefs around the 29 00:02:48,690 --> 00:02:51,790 country. So now we've got to create the shell that's going to hold the filling. 30 00:02:52,030 --> 00:02:55,750 I got thrown into the pastry kitchen at one of my jobs. 31 00:02:55,970 --> 00:02:59,010 And we do that by just flooding the mold with chocolate. 32 00:02:59,270 --> 00:03:03,770 You know, he said, look, work in the pastry kitchen for a while, you know, 33 00:03:03,770 --> 00:03:05,230 we'll move you over to the savory side. 34 00:03:06,090 --> 00:03:09,830 And it was such a well -known, reputable chef that I didn't want to pass up the 35 00:03:09,830 --> 00:03:11,610 opportunity to be able to work for them. 36 00:03:12,410 --> 00:03:15,730 And I never went back to cooking savory food after that. 37 00:03:16,070 --> 00:03:19,510 Constantly flowing, it's held at a very specific temperature for us. 38 00:03:20,850 --> 00:03:25,250 Temperatures and humidity are super important. They have a lot of effects on 39 00:03:25,250 --> 00:03:30,730 chocolate, so we are very careful to control that. There was a precision to 40 00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:35,960 That is a little different than savory cooking, right? In baking and chocolate 41 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:37,920 making, it's a science. It's exact. 42 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:43,100 One degree up or down makes a massive difference in the final outcome of a 43 00:03:43,100 --> 00:03:47,160 product. There's a lot that can go wrong in chocolate making. You've got to be 44 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:51,920 so precise. And I think that fed into my personality of being detail -oriented. 45 00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:56,240 A lot of our fillings are pretty loose, runny caramels. 46 00:03:56,920 --> 00:03:58,320 So we try to get... 47 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:03,200 A very even, thin shell that's going to create a better eating experience for 48 00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:07,700 the bonbon. I fell in love with the fact that chocolate could be worked with, 49 00:04:07,740 --> 00:04:13,880 you know, like an art medium, like maybe a painter does with paints or clay. 50 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:18,100 This is probably going to take about 20 minutes for it to set up, and then it's 51 00:04:18,100 --> 00:04:19,440 going to be ready for us to fill. 52 00:04:21,060 --> 00:04:26,110 Perfect. I was working as a pastry chef, and we would make chocolates and small 53 00:04:26,110 --> 00:04:30,170 things to send out at the end of the meal. And customers started asking if 54 00:04:30,170 --> 00:04:33,150 could buy them. And that's literally when the light bulb went off. 55 00:04:33,390 --> 00:04:38,550 And I was like, oh, I could do this for a living. Only this. Only make 56 00:04:38,550 --> 00:04:43,090 chocolates. So this would be a caramel that we've infused with fresh lemon 57 00:04:43,090 --> 00:04:45,770 and lemon zest to get a really good lemon flavor. 58 00:04:46,150 --> 00:04:50,490 Six months later, Christopher Bravo Chocolates was born in 2003. 59 00:04:51,390 --> 00:04:55,870 And I started in a 400 -square -foot room above a restaurant. I thought I 60 00:04:55,870 --> 00:05:00,650 be there for five or six years. I didn't anticipate what would happen. But in 61 00:05:00,650 --> 00:05:06,290 2004, we won a chocolate competition in New York. So once we filled them with 62 00:05:06,290 --> 00:05:09,510 the caramel or ganache or the filling or whatever we're putting inside, they 63 00:05:09,510 --> 00:05:13,650 have to set overnight to crystallize so we can actually come back and seal this 64 00:05:13,650 --> 00:05:16,830 bonbon up. We call it capping. This will become the bottom. 65 00:05:17,350 --> 00:05:19,770 That really started this upward trajectory. 66 00:05:20,810 --> 00:05:26,050 ultimately picked up by oprah magazine so i was on the phone all day long 67 00:05:26,050 --> 00:05:30,190 orders and then making chocolate at night to fulfill those orders and ship 68 00:05:30,190 --> 00:05:35,490 out that allowed us to move down the street to a bigger facility and within a 69 00:05:35,490 --> 00:05:39,230 year and a half being in there We were already outgrowing that space. 70 00:05:39,510 --> 00:05:42,730 Because we've done the right tempering process on it, it's already starting to 71 00:05:42,730 --> 00:05:47,130 set. In about 10 minutes, these will be ready to flip out. So in 2006, we opened 72 00:05:47,130 --> 00:05:49,450 up our existing retail store where we are now. 73 00:05:49,710 --> 00:05:54,310 The building was 3 ,700 square feet, and we thought we would never fill that 74 00:05:54,310 --> 00:05:55,310 space. 75 00:05:55,430 --> 00:05:57,230 We produced everything here. 76 00:05:58,110 --> 00:06:02,010 Lo and behold, you know, in three to four years, we were bursting at the 77 00:06:03,190 --> 00:06:04,770 And then after that, it was just... 78 00:06:05,300 --> 00:06:08,900 holding on by the seat of our pants, trying to keep up. So this is kind of 79 00:06:08,900 --> 00:06:10,180 moment of truth, right? 80 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:14,600 If we've done everything correct, right? We've painted, temperatures are good, 81 00:06:14,760 --> 00:06:16,940 we've molded right, we've filled it right. 82 00:06:17,420 --> 00:06:21,800 We ended up opening our second refill store out in San Francisco in 2008. 83 00:06:22,100 --> 00:06:26,420 And that's what we're looking for, really shiny, clean, beautiful -looking 84 00:06:26,420 --> 00:06:27,420 bonbons. 85 00:06:27,980 --> 00:06:32,360 So this is a two -layer one that we do. We have a cookie praline and a vanilla 86 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:33,360 bean ganache. 87 00:06:36,620 --> 00:06:41,720 We used to think, you know, when we made a batch of flavor and we would pack up, 88 00:06:41,780 --> 00:06:46,560 you know, 100 boxes of chocolates, we used to think that was pretty stellar. 89 00:06:46,660 --> 00:06:50,600 Like, wow, we just boxed 100 chocolates and sold them, you know, the day we 90 00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:51,399 boxed them. 91 00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:53,240 And now it's in the thousands. 92 00:06:59,950 --> 00:07:03,410 We like customers coming into our stores because we're able to tell the full 93 00:07:03,410 --> 00:07:07,450 story. They get the full experience of walking into a really cool design space, 94 00:07:07,610 --> 00:07:13,250 seeing all the chocolates on the counter, experiencing in a way that you 95 00:07:13,250 --> 00:07:16,450 if you just get a box shipped to you. But that's great. 96 00:07:16,790 --> 00:07:17,790 They're still delicious. 97 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:23,060 But it's a whole other level in here when we're serving hot chocolate and 98 00:07:23,060 --> 00:07:28,140 and they're able to take their time and pick out their chocolates and really 99 00:07:28,140 --> 00:07:30,900 have a different interaction with our brand. 100 00:07:31,220 --> 00:07:32,280 Welcome to the Kakao Experience. 101 00:07:32,660 --> 00:07:35,480 My name is Ethan. I'll be doing the presentation for you today. The Kakao 102 00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:38,180 Experience was started by Chris to have a place to educate people about where 103 00:07:38,180 --> 00:07:41,420 chocolate comes from, some history about it, where it's grown, how it's grown on 104 00:07:41,420 --> 00:07:44,280 the farms it harvested, and then ultimately how we turn it into chocolate 105 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:45,259 we get to enjoy. 106 00:07:45,260 --> 00:07:48,540 Cacao has essentially been around forever, and it's been really important 107 00:07:48,540 --> 00:07:53,220 Mesoamerican cultures of Central and South America for over 5 ,000 years. 108 00:07:53,220 --> 00:07:56,380 would have taken the beans and ground them on a stone, similar to this one, 109 00:07:56,380 --> 00:08:00,200 chilies and spices and vanilla and corn and mixed it with water and consumed it 110 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:03,640 that way. Into the 1500s, that's when the Spanish started to explore, and they 111 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:06,520 got introduced to cacao through the indigenous cultures, and they took it 112 00:08:06,520 --> 00:08:09,600 to Spain, where they did start adding the addition of sugar and honey to it 113 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:10,599 make it more palatable. 114 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:13,680 Chocolate houses started popping up, kind of predecessors of modern -day 115 00:08:13,680 --> 00:08:18,070 shops. Then into the 1700s, that's when milk chocolate was invented and also the 116 00:08:18,070 --> 00:08:21,730 first production of chocolate bars were being made. Twelve years into the 117 00:08:21,730 --> 00:08:26,890 business, we were focused so intently on creating these confections that we kind 118 00:08:26,890 --> 00:08:29,510 of stopped and were like, well. 119 00:08:30,140 --> 00:08:34,740 What is this stuff we're working with, right? Where does it come from? Cacao is 120 00:08:34,740 --> 00:08:37,799 a tropical plant, and it grows all the way around the Earth along the equator, 121 00:08:37,940 --> 00:08:42,360 about 20 degrees north and south. In the 1700s, they tried to find other places 122 00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:45,020 that it would grow, and they found they grew really well on the Ivory Coast in 123 00:08:45,020 --> 00:08:49,220 Africa. Kind of back then, it really wasn't heard of for a chocolatier like 124 00:08:49,220 --> 00:08:53,240 to go to a chocolate farm in Central America or South America or Africa. 125 00:08:53,580 --> 00:08:57,380 So all these pictures were taken by Chris on his travels, except for this 126 00:08:57,380 --> 00:08:58,680 where he's there. 127 00:08:59,070 --> 00:09:01,510 cutting a pod out of a tree. 128 00:09:01,790 --> 00:09:06,950 So we started going to the farms where we know our chocolate comes from to meet 129 00:09:06,950 --> 00:09:10,610 the farmers, to see the fruit in the field. 130 00:09:11,090 --> 00:09:15,070 We really wanted to have a deep understanding of where it comes from, 131 00:09:15,070 --> 00:09:19,190 grown. The plant itself is really interesting because in the wild it's 132 00:09:19,190 --> 00:09:20,230 to 35 feet tall. 133 00:09:20,670 --> 00:09:24,930 When the fruits fully ripen, they never fall from the tree. So if you do want 134 00:09:24,930 --> 00:09:28,090 them out of your tree, you have to chop them out with a machete. I always like 135 00:09:28,090 --> 00:09:31,430 to make sure that people understand how difficult it is to do this. 136 00:09:31,690 --> 00:09:36,270 Behind the looks, behind that artistic aspect of our product, we put just as 137 00:09:36,270 --> 00:09:38,670 much time and effort into how we source ingredients. 138 00:09:39,190 --> 00:09:41,190 We seek out the world's best chocolate. 139 00:09:41,410 --> 00:09:42,850 No compromises there. 140 00:09:43,130 --> 00:09:46,930 This is a proprietary blend unique to us, and the reason we wanted to 141 00:09:46,930 --> 00:09:51,850 something that's unique to our brand is we do a lot of different flavors with 142 00:09:51,850 --> 00:09:52,850 this chocolate. 143 00:09:53,330 --> 00:09:56,590 So we wanted something that was going to be big enough and bold enough to stand 144 00:09:56,590 --> 00:09:58,850 up to hundreds of different flavor combinations. 145 00:09:59,490 --> 00:10:04,070 Use natural flavors and not extracts. This is where we actually make all the 146 00:10:04,070 --> 00:10:08,330 caramel and all the fillings. And that's just a big part of, I think, the 147 00:10:08,330 --> 00:10:11,110 success of our business is sticking to those. 148 00:10:11,610 --> 00:10:15,170 guidelines and and never wavering from that one of the most expensive 149 00:10:15,170 --> 00:10:19,750 ingredients that we use are real vanilla beans there's times when those are on 150 00:10:19,750 --> 00:10:24,970 par like per ounce just as expensive as like real silver so this is a actual 151 00:10:24,970 --> 00:10:29,100 vanilla bean it's a member of the orchid family The real flavor comes when you 152 00:10:29,100 --> 00:10:33,720 split this pod open and there's these little seeds in there. So we scrape that 153 00:10:33,720 --> 00:10:38,120 out and that's what we infuse into the caramel for this particular bonbon 154 00:10:38,120 --> 00:10:39,900 flavor. We choose to make everything. 155 00:10:40,220 --> 00:10:44,180 We don't buy our caramel from somebody else. We make it ourselves because we 156 00:10:44,180 --> 00:10:47,060 control the flavor and the process and the texture. 157 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:50,180 Caramel is one of the few things that I go by sight. 158 00:10:50,810 --> 00:10:52,170 smell and sound. 159 00:10:52,390 --> 00:10:56,410 As it gets quieter and quieter, that means the caramelization level is 160 00:10:56,410 --> 00:11:00,270 higher and higher. You'll actually start getting some of that kind of smoky, 161 00:11:00,270 --> 00:11:02,730 burnt aroma going here shortly. 162 00:11:03,370 --> 00:11:08,430 It's definitely taking on a more amber color here. Smells like we're pretty 163 00:11:08,430 --> 00:11:09,430 there. 164 00:11:09,510 --> 00:11:15,190 We're slowly adding the hot cream that's been infused with vanilla bean into the 165 00:11:15,190 --> 00:11:20,320 caramelized sugar. It's called deglazing. We work really hard. We've 166 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:24,500 these flavors to work by using natural ingredients, and you get an authentic 167 00:11:24,500 --> 00:11:29,560 flavor. But you can see all of the vanilla bean specs in there. I think 168 00:11:29,560 --> 00:11:33,080 know, like, we have customers that have been buying our product for 22 years 169 00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:34,080 since the day we opened. 170 00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:37,320 Temper them with a little bit of chocolate, and then we'll let them sit 171 00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:41,320 overnight. And then tomorrow, these will be ready to go into our filling into a 172 00:11:41,320 --> 00:11:46,620 bonbon. We owe it to them to continue that tradition, even as we grow and get 173 00:11:46,620 --> 00:11:48,180 bigger and bigger and bigger every year. 174 00:11:48,900 --> 00:11:51,200 We're still never going to cut corners. So good. 175 00:12:03,400 --> 00:12:05,680 This is my adventure vehicle. 176 00:12:06,040 --> 00:12:11,160 The sprinter van that I built out, and the sole purpose of it was to take me to 177 00:12:11,160 --> 00:12:14,500 some amazing fly fishing destinations in the mountain. 178 00:12:15,020 --> 00:12:17,880 But I've got a full -on kitchen, refrigerator, freezer. 179 00:12:18,180 --> 00:12:23,320 This case carries most of the rods I fish with, anywhere from a three -weight 180 00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:27,700 six -weight in different strengths and flexes, different tapers, different 181 00:12:27,700 --> 00:12:28,900 reels, different lines. 182 00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:34,020 I can pretty much, out of this one case, fish anywhere in the United States. 183 00:12:35,569 --> 00:12:39,990 Tying flies, though, the details of that, I think my training in chocolate 184 00:12:39,990 --> 00:12:44,170 making, doing things on a very small scale over and over and over again have 185 00:12:44,170 --> 00:12:46,050 really helped me in that world. 186 00:12:51,210 --> 00:12:55,550 You know, when I'm on the river, I'm thinking about nothing other than that 187 00:12:55,550 --> 00:12:56,550 that I'm fishing to. 188 00:12:57,570 --> 00:13:00,930 How am I going to get in a position to be able to cast to them? What are the 189 00:13:00,930 --> 00:13:01,930 currents doing? 190 00:13:03,180 --> 00:13:07,340 Everything has to happen perfectly in this natural world that I'm inserting 191 00:13:07,340 --> 00:13:08,340 myself into. 192 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:16,820 When I got out and started fly fishing, I realized that was a big part of my 193 00:13:16,820 --> 00:13:18,080 life that was missing. 194 00:13:18,980 --> 00:13:23,780 Getting away from the TV, getting away from the cities and slowing down a bit. 195 00:13:24,860 --> 00:13:29,120 It's changed the trajectory of my life in the best way possible. 196 00:13:30,410 --> 00:13:35,150 Because that's the vehicle that got me out into nature and wanting to connect 197 00:13:35,150 --> 00:13:36,290 with the natural world. 198 00:13:39,710 --> 00:13:45,370 The similarities between chocolate and fly fishing that have culminated to me, 199 00:13:45,470 --> 00:13:52,030 the attention to detail, how precise you need to be in casting, right? I got to 200 00:13:52,030 --> 00:13:52,669 get this. 201 00:13:52,670 --> 00:13:58,170 fly six inches in front of this fish in a certain current. And the concentration 202 00:13:58,170 --> 00:14:03,130 it takes is really what I love about both arts. 203 00:14:08,090 --> 00:14:11,930 I see it in a lot of other chocolate makers that they're not paying 204 00:14:13,750 --> 00:14:17,850 Anybody can pay attention once and make a good batch of chocolates, but to do 205 00:14:17,850 --> 00:14:23,390 it... hundreds of thousands of times and still have that focus and attention. 206 00:14:24,490 --> 00:14:29,110 I had that in me, and now my staff has that because they've watched me do it 207 00:14:29,110 --> 00:14:30,110 over and over and over. 208 00:14:36,170 --> 00:14:41,990 And I can see it in the product. If we haven't paid attention to every single 209 00:14:41,990 --> 00:14:46,170 step of the process, it's going to be very apparent to me in the final 210 00:14:46,230 --> 00:14:48,230 and we're just not going to. 211 00:14:48,520 --> 00:14:50,280 Be proud of that and put that product out. 212 00:14:53,080 --> 00:14:57,560 So this is a very, very special collection to me, the fly fishing 213 00:14:57,560 --> 00:15:03,140 that we did to pay homage to my love of fly fishing. 214 00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:07,520 So this is called a transfer sheet, and what it is is colored cocoa butter 215 00:15:07,520 --> 00:15:09,980 that's been silk screened onto a sheet of acetate. 216 00:15:10,700 --> 00:15:14,760 So when we run the filling of the bonbon through the enrobing machine, which is 217 00:15:14,760 --> 00:15:18,860 essentially a waterfall of chocolate, we get a little thin coating on it, and 218 00:15:18,860 --> 00:15:24,340 then we can place this on, and the gentle heat from the chocolate melts 219 00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:28,460 and once it sets up, you pull it off and it leaves the design behind. 220 00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:33,460 So I created this collection with four different types of trout patterns and 221 00:15:33,460 --> 00:15:35,120 then four different flies. 222 00:15:35,850 --> 00:15:39,170 The fly fishing geeks out there, they'll recognize that this is the life cycle 223 00:15:39,170 --> 00:15:40,129 of a mayfly. 224 00:15:40,130 --> 00:15:43,550 I'm probably just as big of a nerd of fly fishing as I am about chocolate. 225 00:15:43,790 --> 00:15:46,950 We often refer to what we do as an art, a craft. 226 00:15:49,890 --> 00:15:56,150 We create new designs, new flavors, and painstakingly paint. 227 00:15:58,410 --> 00:16:01,210 So it's very much a labor of love for us. 228 00:16:02,190 --> 00:16:03,310 You do somewhat. 229 00:16:03,840 --> 00:16:08,520 Have to work quickly doing this. The chocolate sets up really quick. It's not 230 00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:09,339 easy thing. 231 00:16:09,340 --> 00:16:11,580 We don't take shortcuts. We actually take the long road. 232 00:16:12,580 --> 00:16:14,120 We're all hand applied. Yep. 233 00:16:14,900 --> 00:16:18,800 And that's been our mantra from day one. You can see all these incredible 234 00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:22,420 flavors that we've got going on here. Ready to go now into the packaging. 235 00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:26,940 This is one of our signature flavors. It's a lime and vanilla bean infused 236 00:16:26,940 --> 00:16:29,080 caramel. If you scale things. 237 00:16:29,800 --> 00:16:33,500 Things change. You have to make some sacrifices. Maybe it's on texture. Maybe 238 00:16:33,500 --> 00:16:34,500 it's on flavor. 239 00:16:34,580 --> 00:16:38,760 This is our fresh lemon. A fresh lemon marmalade that we make in -house. We 240 00:16:38,760 --> 00:16:39,760 juice our own lemons. 241 00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:42,540 And then a white chocolate lemon -infused ganache. 242 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:46,720 It's not about producing as much as we possibly can. 243 00:16:47,060 --> 00:16:50,980 Our batch sizes are pretty close to the same as when I started the company. 244 00:16:51,220 --> 00:16:54,860 This is a flavor we've done for a long time, passion fruit. We've just figured 245 00:16:54,860 --> 00:16:56,660 out how to reproduce more batches. 246 00:16:57,140 --> 00:16:58,460 Halloween -themed flavors. 247 00:16:59,050 --> 00:17:02,650 Candy corn, chocolate chip, toasted vanilla. 248 00:17:02,970 --> 00:17:06,329 Our staff basically doubles in the holiday season. 249 00:17:06,890 --> 00:17:08,990 Two shifts a day, staggering. 250 00:17:09,650 --> 00:17:13,650 It's pretty awesome to stand back and watch that. 251 00:17:14,349 --> 00:17:17,510 It's still grown to a point that I never thought possible. 252 00:17:22,109 --> 00:17:26,329 Once everything's finished, gets to packaging, the final step is to build 253 00:17:26,329 --> 00:17:28,130 beautiful boxes for our customers. 254 00:17:28,940 --> 00:17:32,620 So not only am I the accidental chocolatier, I call myself the reluctant 255 00:17:32,620 --> 00:17:33,780 businessman as well. 256 00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:39,520 I've had to kind of get my MBA over the last 22 years and make every mistake 257 00:17:39,520 --> 00:17:40,560 under the sun to learn. 258 00:17:40,980 --> 00:17:46,080 I often reflect on that and think, gosh, if I only had my MBA or understood 259 00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:49,300 business going into this, you know, things could have been maybe a little 260 00:17:49,300 --> 00:17:54,770 smoother sleeping on my... office floor during Christmas, you know, because I 261 00:17:54,770 --> 00:17:59,650 was afraid to go home and miss production and fail to deliver to our 262 00:17:59,650 --> 00:18:01,510 what we set out to do. 263 00:18:01,870 --> 00:18:05,790 But I don't think we would be the same company. I don't think we would have the 264 00:18:05,790 --> 00:18:06,790 same soul. 265 00:18:07,190 --> 00:18:11,930 I think those things shape a company. I think that gets in our DNA, and the rest 266 00:18:11,930 --> 00:18:15,890 of the team and staff see me doing that, and they want to work that hard and 267 00:18:15,890 --> 00:18:18,350 care that much about the product that we're putting out. 268 00:18:19,660 --> 00:18:25,580 So these are going in a very particular order, nymphal stage, the emerger, the 269 00:18:25,580 --> 00:18:30,800 adult done. And then once that mayfly lays its eggs, falls back into the 270 00:18:30,880 --> 00:18:32,400 and that's called the spinner stage. 271 00:18:32,620 --> 00:18:36,360 It could have been a lot easier. I just think our company would have been a lot 272 00:18:36,360 --> 00:18:41,800 different had we not had that kind of process of figuring it out on our own. 273 00:18:42,260 --> 00:18:46,640 We worked so hard to create these beautiful and delicious bonbons that the 274 00:18:46,640 --> 00:18:48,640 packaging has to match that experience. 275 00:18:49,630 --> 00:18:53,130 You know, traditionally growing up, you would think of really fine, high -end 276 00:18:53,130 --> 00:18:57,570 chocolate of coming out of France or Belgium or Switzerland. And it's true, 277 00:18:57,630 --> 00:19:02,790 there is fantastic chocolate makers there. But why can't we do that in the 278 00:19:02,790 --> 00:19:03,790 United States? 279 00:19:04,550 --> 00:19:08,890 Why can't we be known for making some of the best chocolates and finest 280 00:19:08,890 --> 00:19:12,870 confections in the world in the United States? Well, we can, and we do. 281 00:19:13,590 --> 00:19:16,930 Unboxing the chocolates, you know, you kind of build up this anticipation of 282 00:19:16,930 --> 00:19:18,070 like, oh, what's inside there? 283 00:19:18,590 --> 00:19:22,570 We make chocolates, we make experiences, and it's different than candy. 284 00:19:23,150 --> 00:19:27,170 Candy you kind of consume mindlessly, right? You pick up a candy bar at the 285 00:19:27,170 --> 00:19:30,710 station, you just eat it, it's something you don't really think about, throw the 286 00:19:30,710 --> 00:19:31,710 wrapper away. 287 00:19:32,670 --> 00:19:38,130 Our product, our confections, our chocolates, you consume more mindfully, 288 00:19:38,130 --> 00:19:42,510 that it makes you think about what things can be, what can chocolate be. 289 00:19:42,850 --> 00:19:45,310 We hope you don't just pop it in your mouth and... 290 00:19:45,560 --> 00:19:49,800 That's the end of it. We really think that you can sit down with our product 291 00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,940 have a moment of your day that's just really special. 292 00:19:53,260 --> 00:19:56,780 These will go over to shipping, and they'll get packed up and shipped out to 293 00:19:56,780 --> 00:19:57,780 customer. 294 00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:03,540 I want to be remembered, hopefully, as someone who's given a lot of joy to 295 00:20:03,540 --> 00:20:04,540 people's lives. 296 00:20:05,780 --> 00:20:08,080 We love that our product is part of... 297 00:20:08,330 --> 00:20:11,590 people's Christmas celebrations and Valentine's and birthdays. 298 00:20:11,830 --> 00:20:15,590 We've had a lot of great anecdotal stories over the years from customers. 299 00:20:16,910 --> 00:20:21,090 Our product is so special to them because it was part of very special 300 00:20:21,090 --> 00:20:22,090 their life. 301 00:20:22,410 --> 00:20:26,470 And I hope that we continue to do that, and that's what we're remembered for.