Get to Know the Market: Bellflower Chocolate Company

When I heard that there was a chocolate vendor selling at the QAFM, I knew I had to interview its founders. Bellflower Chocolate, run by husband and wife team Callie Neylan and Will Dixon, is back at the market this summer selling their small-batch chocolate. We talked with them about how chocolate (or cacao!) is farmed and how the high-quality ingredients they use impacts the lives of the farmers they source from. We also learned that if you miss them at the market—which we hope you won’t—you might be able to find Bellflower delivering their goods around QA by bike.

How did you get started?

My wife and business partner, Callie Neylan, and I both love food. We tried a lot of expensive craft chocolate (with not-so-great branding) and we had the audacity to think we could deliver a better experience. We see our business as a vehicle for positive change.

Can you give us a brief description of how cacao plants are grown? 

Like coffee, the cacao growing belt is between 20 degrees north latitude and 20 degrees south latitude. The best cacao tends to be grown on plots of 10 hectares or less by subsistence farmers for which we gladly pay a premium. The trees produce tiny blossoms that emerge directly from the tree trunks and produce large iridescent pods that are harvested about four times per year. The most sustainable farms are those where the cacao trees are interspersed with teak and mahogany trees. The cacao trees grow best in broken sunlight and the other trees, when harvested, can provide farmers with a second source of income.

What is your best-selling product?

We continue to see increased interest in our single-origin, chocolate milks. Our classic chocolate milk uses whole Jersey cow milk from Twin Brooks. As with all of our products, we limit the sugar we use and seek to emphasize the unique flavors of the cacao. MolokoTM is our branding term for our plant-based chocolate beverages. We offer oat-based and a hazelnut-based version of these to customers eager to enjoy our chocolate without the inclusion of dairy. 

How do you make your hazelnut butter? I've tried at home but haven't had a ton of luck.

Callie does a lot of our R&D and she has been working on that. Frankly, we have tried several approaches and are still deciding which approach produces the tastiest result. We are always seeking willing testers!

Count me in! Is it true that you deliver chocolate on bikes? Is this a Covid response?

Well, over the years, we have done some local bike delivery. But with the advent of Covid-19, we wanted customers in Queen Anne to know that we could deliver goodies that would lift their spirits during the lockdown. The Chocolate BikeTM continues to make this kind of delivery practical and fun.

Do you have any good recipes that are made with your chocolate that you can share with us?

We have been fortunate enough to have our chocolate used by Cornelia Wright when she was the pastry chef at The Herb Farm. We collaborated with her to produce a unique set of macarons.  She used each of our four cacao varietals to produce macarons with the distinct flavor notes of each bean type.

What do you love about the QAFM?

This year we appreciate that customers are showing up in spite of Covid-19 and that many of them tell us they are glad to see Bellflower again.

Are you working on any new products that you can tell us about?

Yes. We are increasing our focus on women athletes. They seem to appreciate our brand and our products, so we are working on some possible new offerings for them. Stay tuned!

Anything you want to tell me that I haven't asked? 

Sure. Some people ask us, "Why should I pay $10.00 for a bar of chocolate?" Bellflower is very driven to produce healthy food products with an emphasis on transparency. There is a reason a Hershey Bar costs $1.00. It's mostly made of sugar, but more importantly, the labor practices associated with industrial chocolate keep farmers in poverty. Bellflower charges more, in part, because we pay a premium for our beans; this allows our sourcing partners to pass along this premium and help farmers improve the quality of their crop, for which we are happy to pay a premium. We see it as a virtuous cycle. 

Interview by QAFM reporter Max Chandrasekaran