Milking Chocolate

The short and sweet version of Theo Chocolate Inc.'s story goes like this: While working with cocoa farmers in Central America and West Africa, company founder and CEO Joe Whinney says he witnessed horrible social and environmental degradation by "Big Chocolate," the big companies that hold much of the world market.

He sought to ensure that farmers received a fairer price for their crop by increasing chocolate's perceived value and making the production process more transparent.

"In this country, we treat chocolate as this cheap, brown, sweet commodity. It's totally devalued," Whinney says.

So, with a $20,000 loan from a relative in 2006, he started Theo (named for theobromine, a chemical stimulant present in the cacao plant) in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood and in doing so, tapped into the $16 billion chocolate business and $23 billion market for organic foods, not to mention the multibillion-dollar gourmet foods industry.

Theo is the first American bean-to-bar chocolate maker headquartered in the Pacific Northwest. More important to Whinney, it's also the nation's only organic fair trade bean-to-bar chocolatier.

Besides the traditional dark and milk varieties, Theo's chefs also experiment with more imaginative ingredients like chai tea, spicy chile and coconut curry.

Since the company started, sales have increased nearly sixfold to $3.5 million in 2009 from $600,000 in the first year of operation.

Production also doubled in October 2009. By June, the end of the fiscal year, Theo will have produced 400,000 pounds of chocolate and imported between 150 and 200 tons of cocoa beans, Whinney says.

In 2010, Theo intends to expand distribution and invest in marketing with a focus on metropolitan markets on the east and west coasts as well as Chicago, Ill., and Austin, Texas.

Story has been updated with the correct year of the company's founding.

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