Mindo Chocolate Makers Bring Ecuador to Michigan

A Dexter couple has developed a rich-tasting retirement business known as Mindo Chocolate Makers.

Barbara Wilson and Jose Meza of Dexter decided to go into the chocolate business in January 2010. While visiting her husband's native country of Ecuador, the couple toured various cocoa plantations and stumbled on what Wilson calls "the best-tasting chocolate."

The couple makes chocolate from the ground up, beginning with the cacao beans, which they ferment for six days and dry for one to three weeks before roasting and grinding them in a stone grinder with sugar for three to four days. Once the chocolate is melted, it can be molded into bars.

"Most companies buy their chocolate already made into bars. We actually make chocolate from the bean," Wilson said.

She said the entire process provides for a superior product, adding that some companies don't allow the chocolate to ferment as long, which results in a chocolate that is not as smooth in texture.

When the couple first began the business, Wilson did much of the chocolate preparation in her kitchen, which required long hours.

"We got little bits of help as the business grew," she said.

The couple employs five workers in Ecuador, one chocolate maker in Dexter and may soon be looking for a manager.

"We ship online orders, and the whole business is getting big enough that it is too time-consuming for one person," she said.

Meza said the company recently purchased larger grinding equipment to expedite the chocolate making.

"Our first grinder did about 8 pounds. Now it grinds 65 pounds," he said.

The couple also are able to temper about 50 pounds of chocolate at a time. Tempering allows chocolate crystals to form, creating a dark and shiny chocolate.

"Chocolate goes through a sequence of changes and becomes hard," Meza said. "If it didn't temper, the chocolate would become powder."

The bars have varying percentages of chocolate, from 67 percent to 77 percent chocolate. Instead of sugar, Mindo Chocolates uses evaporated cane sugar juice. It also adds Michigan dried cherries, blueberries, hazelnut, almond, ginger and jalapenos for different bars, as well as bars with crystalized sugar, similar to European candy.

"Chocolate is very versatile. You can do anything you want with it," Meza said. "The Mayans made chocolate into a drink that they gave to soldiers. People could march for hours."

And it offers health benefits. "There are more antioxidants in chocolate than in anything else," Wilson said.

She and Meza use only beans that are certified organic.

The chocolate bars are available at specialty food stores and restaurants, including Ann Arbor Food Co-Op, Arbor Farms, Zingerman's, Morgan York, the Ypsilanti Food Co-Op, Joe and Rosie's Coffee of Dexter, the Dexter Pharmacy and the Dexter Card Shop.

For more information, visit the Mindo Chocolate Makers website.