Great chocolate, better priorities: Raleigh candy man mixes it with love

He moved to the Triangle in 2009 from California with plans of running golf courses for a living.

“Up until 2009 I didn’t know chocolate grew on a tree,” Sam joked.

But, once he was introduced to the process, he took a career mulligan.

6 NC chocolate shops to check out

“I got a job in another chocolate factory where they were starting their bean-to-bar process. My job was to sort and roast the beans and I fell in love with it the first time I touched the beans,” he explained. “Just kind of a winding road that got me here.”

There was a lot to learn, but Sam is a quick study.“I did a lot of reading, I did a lot of research, did a lot of eating, and then I just kept on refining it,” he said.

VCA spotlight: Videri Chocolate Factory to keep soft serve ice cream on the menu

“Ever since that point, we’ve been making bean-to-bar chocolate in bars, bon bons, caramels, big blocks, croissant sticks, selling cocoa nibs to breweries, and everything in between,” Ratto said.

Let’s get back to that bean-to-bar thing for a minute – what exactly is it?

“This is a bean that we turn into a bar of chocolate,” holding a single bean in his hand that he pulled out of a barrel of thousands. “Approximately a hundred of these beans will make a bar of chocolate.”

That many beans for just one bar means he’s going to need a lot. So, where does he find them?

“We get all of our ingredients from Central and South America, mainly Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala,” he said.

And from whom?

“One of my favorite brokers that I’ve ever met walked up to me at a trade show and said, ‘I live in Belize, would you like to try my cocoa beans?’ I was like, ‘sure.’ Two years ago, I went to her wedding in Guatemala,” he said. “So, building those relationships are important to us.”

Sam takes this seriously, not only for the quality of the chocolate, but for the humanity of the process.

“One of the main things we do is when we talk to brokers or farmers or co-ops, we ask them how much they’re paying each farmer,” he explained. “We ensure that they’re getting paid above fair-trade wages.”

While that humanity extends across borders, it’s also plentiful right here at home.

“The main thing we do here that I’m really proud of is, during the pandemic, we added a round-up feature to our checkout process, and we’ve raised more than $10,000 for local and national charities we believe in,” he said. “In the month of June, we just raised about $1,300 for Raleigh Pride and the LGBTQ center of Raleigh.”

He says choosing where to donate the money is a team effort.

“Everyone who works here is a part of that,” he said. “Every month, someone else picks a new charity that we fundraise for.”

When you treat people well, it’s generally reciprocated. And it was Sam who needed the support when the pandemic struck.

"It was pretty hard,” he said. “It just put a lot of strain, as it did on most people, trying to figure out how to be safe, still keep people employed, still pay your rent, things like that.”

Things are slowly improving, but nowhere near back to normal.

“It still feels a little shaky because tourism isn’t back yet, business travel isn’t back yet, but we have a really great community here, the city of Raleigh has been really wonderful, and the people in our community show up for us and we show up for them,” Sam said.

“You could walk around here, show your kids around the factory, see everything that we’re doing, and then walk up front, then get samples and ask us more questions if you have them,” Sam said.

I mean, who can just teach himself how to make chocolate, create ethically-sourced, organic treats, survive a pandemic and still give thousands back to his community?

The candy man can!

“Still being in business, and raising money for our community are the two things I’m most proud of.”