Details Pollinator Chocolate
30g bars – 70% Cacao and 50% Dark Milk 120g – drinking chocolate
Batch –
MAIN STREET, CARBONDALE
Check out Pollinator’s limited edition “Cellar Door” chocolate bars infused with Batch “Dark Corner” stout, available only at the brewery’s Main Street Carbondale location.
Deja Brew –
1101 GRAND AVE, GLENWOOD SPRINGS
New products are always on the horizon, starting with Deja’s Brew’s “Cool Brew,” a perfect mid-day coffee boost.
Pollinator Chocolate.com When he’s gotten it tempered exactly right, Burrows pours his chocolate carefully into leaf-patterned candy molds showing the cacao fruit, a perfect symbol for a brand laser-focused on origin. Each tray gets placed onto a vibrating platform to release minuscule air pockets in the mixture. These rise to the surface and glisten as they pop, like pieces of glitter on the surface. This step results in a shiny, smooth final product that, after cooling slowly at room temp, gets hand-packed with the Pollinator Chocolate label in a clear, corn-based plastic sleeve (that can eventually go straight into your compost). The end result of this entire process – manufacturing chocolate on a human-scale by one individual over five days – results in around eighty 30g bars that Burrows sells for less than $6 each. It’s not snarfing chocolate. It’s the kind you sit with and taste slowly, so you can observe its tooth and its viscosity, so you can experience the transformation as it melts and releases layer upon layer of flavor.
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The Cottage Food Act, passed by Colorado’s legislature in 2012, opened the door for this type of small-scale industry. It provides a regulatory means for direct-to-consumer sales by artisan food producers, a way to incubate a new idea before investing in the commercial space and equipment needed to leap into larger-scale production. Having tested the waters through local tastings and pop-up venues, Burrows is preparing to take his chocolate production to the next level by subleasing space in a commercial kitchen. Licensing for retail distribution will be his next hurdle. “I want to create ‘pillow chocolates’ for local hotels, and this requires a retail license, which requires a commercial kitchen. By making this leap, I will also be able to work with brick and mortar shops in the Valley and elsewhere who are asking to sell Pollinator Chocolate,” Burrows shares his intentional-growth model. “With a commercial space, I’ll be able to scale-up the cycle of production and hire people to work with me – but I’ll never turn this into something that takes humanity out of the equation.”
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His vision includes infusing a line of chocolate with medicinal mushrooms, bringing Water Buffalo milk from Erin’s Acres near Carbondale into his Dark Milk line, and soaking roasted cacao beans in Deja Brew dark coffee for a signature chocolate selection now available at the Glenwood Springs coffee shop. For Mark Burrows, the creative opportunities are boundless. It seems his commitment to high-integrity everything plus his soulful quest for flavor make a good recipe for success.