We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Barbara Wilson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Barbara , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I had no plan to start a business. My husband and I ran a business for 35 years and sold the business in 2015. I think we were just in the habit of having a business so what began as a small house to go to in the winter turned into an internet café and then a full restaurant and chocolate factory.

Her chocolate making adventure begins with a trip to visit Ecuador, there Mindo Chocolate
founders, Barbara and José, fell in love with the tiny town of Mindo. Mindo is located about 2
hours from Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Mindo is surrounded by protected cloud forest, it is
a lush and biodiverse area where you can find more bird species than just about anywhere on
earth.
In 2008, they bought a plot of land in Mindo with a plan to build a winter home.
Even though they had stepped out of the day-day operations of their Michigan-based auto
repair business, they still wanted to stay in contact with it via the internet. But there was a
problem: it was not cheap to get Internet access in the middle of the cloud forest. in the
middle of the mountains, in Ecuador.

Barbara , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

So the two entrepreneurs opened an internet cafe to offset the cost of internet access. They
began roasting and serving locally grown coffee in the café and Barbara made brownies
(double the chocolate and half the sugar) and they were really good. Really good. So
good that tourists who tried them would beg to have them shipped to places as far as
Belgium. Now there was another problem: At the time Barbara could not find quality baking
chocolate In Ecuador. So on trips back and forth from Michigan. she would pack a few pounds
of chocolate into her suitcase. Ridiculous. Barbara thought so. too. and decided to do
something about it. She started learning all about chocolate and learning why she couldn’t
find the best chocolate in a country that is known for having the best cocoa in the world. In
fact, Ecuador is where cocoa and chocolate originated.
Making chocolate started with a 53 lb bag of cocoa beans (what seemed like a massive
amount at the time) and a tabletop juicer. It resulted in a rustic-style chocolate, a primitive
first batch that led to many, many more. Things sort of snowballed from there – the
homemade chocolate took on a life of its own. Barbara and José devoted more and more time
to cacao processing. They searched for native, fine-flavor Nacional variety of cacao grown in
an environmentally friendly way. On their property, they set up facilities that allowed them to
ferment, dry. roast, and winnow cacao.
In 2009, Mindo Chocolate Makers opened in Dexter, Michigan.
Almost by accident, the entrepreneurs had setup two bean-to-bar chocolate making
businesses that spanned international waters. Since that time. José in Ecuador and Barbara in
the US location have been busy searching always to improve each part of the process,
ultimately in pursuit of the most delicious finished chocolate.
Barbara has always been welcoming and open with information to anybody who wants to
make chocolate on their own. Education about chocolate remains at the core of Mindo
Chocolate Makers – from daily tours at the Ecuador facility, Chocolate Making Experiences in
the Dexter location, to week-long intensive chocolate making courses in both Dexter and
Mindo.
Barbara works together with cocoa farmers, employees and customers to create the most
delicious chocolate possible.

We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.

I am lucky that my two daughters want to take over the businesses. We are in the transition of passing on the businesses to our daughters. While they are learning the business I will be answering all of their questions.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Refusing to kowtow to all of those people who said chocolate needs to be sweeter and that chocolate must have soy lecithin in it.

Focusing on quality and educating our customers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mindochocolate.com/
• Instagram: mindo_chocolate
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mindochocolatemaker
• Linkedin: mindochocolate
• Twitter: @MindoChocolate
• Youtube: https://www.facebook.com/mindochocolatemaker

Image Credits
all taken by us in house