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Dagoba Organic Milk Chocolate |
Dagoba's Homegrown story...
Founding Alchemist Frederick Schilling started Dagoba from a love affair with fine food and the desire to create the world's finest chocolate with an edge of sustainability and innovation.
In the late 1990's, Frederick was working as a chef in Boulder, Colorado at night, while pursuing a song writing career during the day. Music was my mission and I was cooking to support the music. I love food and cooking kept the creativity flowing for me. It's a beautiful art form. The kitchen started taking its toll on me and I wanted to find another source of income, as the song writing wasn't providing any. I came up the idea to make organic chocolate. The idea that spawned the entire line was the milk chocolate infused with chai tea essence. I am a huge fan of chai tea and blending it with chocolate sounded so good. The crystallized ginger bits just sent it over the top.
Frederick quit his job and started to experiment in his kitchen. I'd be in the kitchen all the time, blending this and blending that, it was a total family affair of friends as well. I had a few roommates and everyone was involved in the creative process. We would sit around the kitchen table with a few bottles of red wine, eating chocolate; coming up with different ideas for flavors, name and packaging ideas. I was a group effort by a lot of my friends and myself.
As he researched the chocolate industry, Frederick realized the importance of sustainable cacao farming in protecting rainforestss, and encouraging the growth of rare and dying breeds of the cacao. Most chocolate is made from a variety of cacao named, forestero. It is a very strong strain that is resistant to disease, easier to grow, and higher in yields, theoretically bringing more money for the farmer. The flavor of the beans isn't ideal for specialty chocolate because the beans have more acidic and bitter notes and more sugar needs to be added to mask perceived undesirable flavors. The strains of cacao known as flavor beans that offer more delicate notes and softer flavors but are harder to grow aren't being replanted or supported by cacao farming communities. If true chocolate is to be kept in existence, chocolate makers must support farmers financially by paying a premium, so they will take the extra effort and grow the quality varieties of cacao.
In the summer of 2001, after Dagoba perfected its initial line, the company debuted at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City. With a tiny booth and no idea of what to expect or do, Frederick was met with a warm welcome and positive response from retailers. We were the first premium organic chocolate and we caught a lot of eyes at that show. I think a lot of retailers had preconceived opinions about organic chocolate and the quality it represented. We were different and the people tasted the difference.
The media took notice just as retailers did. Food & Wine Magazine discovered Dagoba at the New York Fancy Food Show and rated them as Best Organic Bars December 2001. In February of 2002, The San Francisco Chronicle conducted a blind taste test with industry professionals to rate leading organic milk chocolate bars. Dagoba was deemed the darling of chocolate Best Milk Chocolate and took first place; leading the runner up by more than 20 points. Dagoba scored so high that the Chronicle inducted the company into their Food Hall of Fame as one of the two highest scoring food products of 2002. In 2004, the San Francisco Chronicle carried out another blind taste test this time reviewing dark chocolates. Dagoba once again secured the first place rating as Best Dark Chocolate as an organic chocolate competing against the most highly respected brands in the wider chocolate industry, organic and non organic.
Since then, Dagoba has received reviews such as Worlds�s Best Chocolate by CNN/Money, Best Dark Chocolate by Organic Style, Best Organic Hot Chocolate by the American Culinary Institute and Best Flavored Organic Bars by TIME Magazine. Not bad for a chocolate company that started out in a kitchen with a few bottles of red wine and that seeks to support ecological sustainability and equitable trade in addition to making the worlds finest chocolate.
As attention grew, so did demand for the product. I never took one business class in my life and had no idea how to run one. I may be able to write a tune or cook an amazing curry, yet the principles and concepts of running a business were totally foreign to me. All of a sudden I was pressured to perform as a business owner. I had no idea what I was doing in retrospect. As things progressively got more complicated, Frederick's father offered to come out of retirement to help run the company. Being with IBM for 25 years, he was able to offer a lot of hard business perspective. He moved to Boulder as a temporary helping hand, yet soon realized he was needed as a full time employee and stayed on as Minister of Money Chairman Emeritus. He has been an invaluable part of Dagoba's success, states Frederick.
Dagoba decided to relocate its factory in the summer of 2002 and selttled in the Rogue River Valley of Southern Oregon. We were looking for a lifestyle change more than anything else. Boulder, while it is an amazing town, was getting very expensive and very busy. It was losing some of the appeal that it offered me when I first moved there. We decided we should move before the company got too big and was too difficult or impossible to move. The reason for Southern Oregon was because of its similar attributes to Colorado mountainous with plenty of outdoor recreation. Commerical space is also a lot less expensive than Boulder, which can make a huge difference for a young company.
Dagoba initially set up shop in Central Point, OR but had outgrown its facility by mid-2004. The company relocated to nearby Ashland, OR in a facility with three times as much room, but that is quickly filling up with chocolate, energized staff and innovative ideas.
As always, Dagoba continues to produce premium organic chocolate products while promoting ecological and social sustainability. All products are USDA certified organic and Kosher and many are Fair Trade Certified. The company's manufacturing plant runs entirely on renewable energy. A family owned and operated company; Dagoba strives to do what is right in life and in business.
Dagoba Organic Milk Chocolate |
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