We were lucky to catch up with Anthony Matulewicz recently and have shared our conversation below.

Anthony, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Mullamat, L.L.C, dba Mozna Chocolate (here in Mozna) is a bean-to-bar, single-origin, manufacturer of premium dark chocolate. Mozna, owned by Anthony Matulewicz and Hassan Mulla, has been located at 115 E. Brazil, in Hidalgo since 2015. Manufacturing with original, chocolate equipment used in the 1920’s. From whole cacao beans to finished bars, the artisanal manufacturing process takes special steps to ensure that the signature flavor, intensity and quality is maintained. Mozna is committed in using fairly-traded ingredients and transparent business practices. Being a local, small manufacturer, Mozna is active in the community it serves, educating consumers about the health benefits and inviting the community to educational tours of the facility.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Health-conscious consumers are increasingly interested in knowing where their food products come from. Particularly, chocolate lovers are on the hunt for quality, bean-to-bar, single-origin, and craft products. Consumers want simple ingredients, from trusted sources who offer high quality products. Mozna satisfies these demands from their artisanal manufacturing. Chocolate is made from scratch with simple and recognizable ingredients, known to have nutritional properties. Mozna operates transparently, allowing customers to visit and learn about the origin and history of cacao beans, and the manufacturing and packaging process.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

We started the business without knowing anything about how to manufacture chocolate. The only thing I knew was that I loved chocolate and I wanted to learn how to make it. I began with some certification courses as a Chocolate Taster and in Chocolate Tasting. I did a lot of research as to the equipment needed to process the chocolate and traveled to find high quality cacao beans.

We manufacture a line of simple, high-quality 70% cacao dark chocolate. Ingredients are sourced from single-origin, high quality cacao beans imported from Tanzania, Mexico, Vietnam, Colombia, India, and Venezuela and the manufacturing process uses original chocolate equipment used in 1920’s.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

My partner and I started with pure owner investment, and the business has been able to sustain its own operations. Mr. Mulla, my partner, was with me the day I went to see the warehouse where Mozna Chocolate is now located. We were just going to see the property and when he asked me what I wanted it for and told him I was thinking about starting a chocolate factory, at that same instant he said he wanted to be my partner. We bought it and started making chocolate.

Contact Info:

• Website: moznachocolate.com
• Instagram: moznachocolate
• Facebook: Mozna Chocolate