Interview: Mackenzie Rivers, Founder of Map Chocolate

Subscribe: Email | RSS

"The first bean to bar chocolate I ever tasted was my own— and I'm sure it was really bad. But I thought it was so exciting, so amazing, that I wanted to keep doing it instantly."
-Mackenzie Rivers, Founder of Map Chocolate

Mackenzie Rivers is the founder, owner, and sole chocolate maker behind Map Chocolate, based in Oregon, USA. For the last half decade she's been "pushing that $50 forward" to build her dream company and pursure her many projects. Bursting with a million creative ideas but just two hands, her recent ventures include chocolate making workshops, a new retail space, and craft chocolate pantry goods.

Map Chocolate's become quite well-known on Instagram for its gorgeous and real looks at what it's like to make chocolate for a living (plus do the accounting, cleaning, retail, etc.). I'm incredibly grateful to Mackenzie for taking time out of her busy schedule to chat with me about her unique journey to becoming a chocolate maker & solopreneur, starting at home. I hope you enjoy listening to this interview as much as I enjoyed doing it.

Note that the topic of home chocolate making plays heavily in my questions thanks to the podcast episode for which I was interviewing Mackenzie.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Map Chocolate Co. (@mapchocolate) on Nov 6, 2018 at 6:41am PST

Mackenzie posing with her first full bag of cacao beans!

Topics We Cover

Chocolate awards systems
How Mackenzie got into chocolate making and purposefully pushes herself in directions of flavor seasonality & creative design
What drives her through tough times and motivates her to continue growing her business
Interacting with some of the thousands of chocolate makers all around the world while working for John Nanci
Struggles of being a chocolate maker at different levels of the industry
#IAmNotAFactory
Mackenzie's dream job
Putting your own perspective into your chocolate