Interview: Sunita De Tourreil, Founder of The Chocolate Garage

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"How do we keep bringing change to this supply chain, and keep introducing new ways of doing things, so we don't fall into the trap of 'business as usual'?"
-Sunita De Tourreil, Founder of The Chocolate Garage

Sunita De Tourreil has spend the last decade-and-a-half advocating on behalf of chocolate makers. In her craft chocolate retail venture, The Chocolate Garage, she experimented with various ways of funding new chocolate projects, in addition to conducting hundreds of tastings a year. Over the Garage's 8-year run, Sunita watched small-batch chocolate makers from all over the world come into their own as craftspeople. Until its closing in 2018, having a bar for sale in the Garage was one of the highest honors in fine chocolate (in my humble opinion).

So what are the costs of running a retail business like the Chocolate Garage? Are they physical, mental, financial? From her home in California, in the U.S., we dive into the planning that goes into massive-scale chocolate tastings, as well as craft chocolate advocacy and the importance of building community with customers. I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation as much as I enjoyed having it.

Note that the topics of buying, selling, and marketing craft chocolate play heavily in my questions thanks to the two podcast episodes for which I was interviewing Sunita.

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A post shared by The Chocolate Garage® (@chocolategarage) on Aug 16, 2019 at 4:42pm PDT

Sunita (center) with two members of her "chocumentary" team.

Topics We Cover

Sunita's background in craft chocolate before it was called craft
the most recent "Chocumentary" on Switzerland
how Sunita has conducted hundreds if not thousands of chocolate tastings over the years, scaling from 15 to 20 tasters to upwards of 250
Jim & the power of context
the accessibility of tasting chocolate as a "fine food"
acting as an advocate for small-batch chocolate makers (the chocolate whisperer)
building community & trust in her retail space over 8 years in the Bay Area of California, USA