Learn the heart & craft of making small batch bean to bar chocolate

Why would a busy bean to bar solopreneur start sharing her recipes and tried-and-true techniques?

I created the Next Batch because small batch chocolate was being left out of the craft chocolate conversation. The craft community likes to talk about how the early makers started in their garage or shed or on a kitchen counter, but then the discussion turns to buying bigger equipment, growing bigger, selling more: bigger, bigger, bigger, as if that’s the only choice. How to grow, how many metric tonnes of beans they were ordering.

That wasn’t my interest at all. I wanted to talk about staying small and thriving doing what I loved.

I began to realize this feeling was shared by a growing circle of small batch crafting friends around the world, and new makers trying to find their footing on the chocolate path. Makers lwho worked in small spaces, crafted from home, bribed our families and friends to help sort beans or wrap bars (definitely polishing moulds! :). People who found joy in knowing our customers by name.

There’s a big difference in falling in love with making something from scratch with our own two hands and a 75,000 square foot chocolate factory with dozens of employees, and conveyor belts. One isn’t better than the other, they just have different intentions. And very different needs, techniques, costs, and approaches.

The beautiful thing is, the world’s most beloved craft chocolate makers are, and have always been, small batch.

Making chocolate at home or in small kitchens. Winning awards, crafting as a hobby, creating livelihoods, keeping their families, friends, and communities happy with the surprise of handcrafted chocolate.

You’re why I started this school.

~~Mackenzie Rivers, chocolate maker & owner of Map Chocolate Co,

founder of The Next Batch Chocolate School~~