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Ella Schneider 鈥�26 launched an award-winning bean-to-bar chocolate company with her father.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, some people made sourdough starter. Ella Schneider 鈥�26 made chocolate. She and her father, Steven Schneider, purchased a melanger鈥攁 stone-on-stone chocolate grinder鈥攊n January 2020, just before the pandemic. But it was during the long hours of lockdown that the Wakefield, R.I., residents experimented with different varieties of cacao beans鈥攁long with sugar, milk, and cocoa butter鈥攖o perfect their recipes. Ella gave bars out to friends and teachers, while her father, an OB-GYN at South County Hospital, gave them out at work. 鈥淲e got such great feedback,鈥� she says, 鈥渨e thought we might actually have something.鈥�

It turns out they had the seeds of a business. In 2021, the Schneiders started , now Rhode Island鈥檚 only bean-to-bar gourmet chocolate company. In the past year, they鈥檝e sold thousands of chocolate bars and won national awards. Ella, a business major at 溏心vlog免费B站, has been perfecting the company鈥檚 business plan with the help of Launch Lab, an initiative combining mentorship, networking, and events for budding entrepreneurs on campus. 鈥淚t helped us map out our true costs and better plan for the future,鈥� she says.

Steven Schneider has long been obsessed with small-batch bean-to-bar chocolate and got his daughter hooked when they toured a chocolate maker in 2013. When they got serious about experimenting, they used cacao beans from a small producer in Peru. 鈥淭hey come in smaller quantities and cost more, but they were the best ones we tried,鈥� Steven says. The Schneiders also add less sugar鈥攋ust 30 percent鈥攃ompared to some commercial chocolate makers who use up to 70 percent. So, the pure taste of the chocolate comes through.

Father and daughter started making dark chocolate, then milk, before getting increasingly creative with recipes鈥攍ike Rhode Island coffee milk, a white chocolate and coffee combo. 鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing how much it tastes like the drink,鈥� Ella says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 our most popular flavor now.鈥� Other top sellers include Lil鈥� Rhody Sea Salt and 70% Dark Brown Butter Sage. For next Easter, they are considering releasing a 鈥淲hat鈥檚 Up Doc鈥� bar, with carrot cake flavor. (A milk chocolate with everything bagel spice, on the other hand, didn鈥檛 make it off the drawing board. 鈥淭hat was just gross,鈥� Ella says.)

Despite being new to the industry, the Schneiders achieved a sweet victory at the 2022 Chocolate Alliance Awards when they were among six out of 150 entries to win a gold medal for their milk chocolate鈥攃onferring instant acclaim on their fledgling enterprise. 鈥淚t was a really emotional day for my dad,鈥� Ella says. 鈥淗e cried a little.鈥� Since then, they鈥檝e also won a gold for their Rhode Island coffee milk and a silver for milk chocolate at the 2023 Craft Chocolat Challenge, a fledgling bean-to-bar chocolate competition sponsored by Kentucky craft chocolatiers Chocolat Inn & Cafe.

The business has brought the Schneiders closer together, as they bounce ideas off each other and spend long hours roasting beans and setting chocolate bars in molds. 鈥淓lla is a go-getter and dedicated to the business,鈥� says Steve. 鈥淲hen other students are sleeping on weekends, she鈥檚 spending most of her Sundays with me making chocolate.鈥�

Ella plans to continue working for the business part time while she earns her 溏心vlog免费B站 degree, then launch the business full time in a storefront upon graduation. Even after all the hard work, she remains a chocolate lover herself. Her favorite flavor? 鈥淢ilk chocolate,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou can never go wrong with that.鈥�

鈥擬ichael Blanding