Interview: Emily Stone, Co-Founder Of Uncommon Cacao

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"Craft chocolate is still such a small industry that it's very rare that one, or even five craft chocolate makers would be able to purchase the entire harvest of one origin... they need the stability of a buyer who can bring on the cacao from the harvest as it's coming out, as it's ready to ship, even if some of those specific individual chocolate makers aren't ready for it, yet."
-Emily Stone, co-founder of Uncommon Cacao

Emily Stone has become an important figure in the global cacao industry. In 2010 she co-founded Maya Mountain Cacao in southern Belize, while just a few years later, demand brought her to Guatemala, where her team founded Cacao Verapaz. Over the years, Uncommon Cacao has expanded to include cacao from 14 origins around the world (as of publication), bringing fine cacao to chocolate makers of all sizes.

I had the honor of interviewing Emily just after New Year's for the Cacao Brands episode of my podcast. She's such a well-spoken and knowledgeable figure that I knew I had to share our interview in its entirety. I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation as much as I enjoyed having it.

Note that the topic of cacao branding plays heavily in my questions thanks to the podcast episode for which I was interviewing Emily.

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A post shared by Uncommon Cacao (@uncommoncacao) on Mar 6, 2019 at 3:15pm PST

Emily with a local village head in Ghana, where Uncommon sources one of their cacao origins, many of which are cacao brands.

Topics We Cover

Emily's pet peeves in chocolate & cacao
Some recent inspirations Emily's found in the industry
How Emily defines a cacao brand & Branding 101
The role of middle(wo)men in the cacao supply chain
Cacao Brands' first origin
Specialty cacao exploding & outpacing the specialty chocolate market
Advice for anyone looking to start a cacao brand
The number of farmers Uncommon works with
Price differences between Uncommon's many origins & the reasons behind those differences
The challenges of building a business and its industry simultaneously