Our award-winning dark chocolate is made by a handful of people. Working as a team is important to us, so every week we make an effort to get together over coffee - this week, we interviewed two of our lovely staff members Laura & Dinx aka. Andrea.
Laura and Dinx are masters of everything at Solomons Gold, from making the chocolate, hand moulding the bars, foiling and wrapping. Nearly every chocolate bar that is sent out, Laura or Dinx has had a hand in making!
We sat down with them and asked them a few questions!
How did you first get involved with Solomons Gold?
Dinx: When my dad, Glenn first mentioned managing a cacao plantation in the Solomon Islands, I joked about us making chocolate because I've always been obsessed with it. I then moved to the Solomon Islands and live there with my parents. I got to see first hand how the cacao grows and experience the whole process of picking the pods, fermenting the beans and then the drying out and grading. When we came back to New Zealand mum and dad set up the factory. I have worked on and off part-time, sometimes grading beans, doing office work and over the years, I have done most of the wrapping work. I am now working full-time making chocolate!
Laura: I had heard about Solomons Gold through Andrea and I came along for a trial which then led to full-time work! It's pretty awesome that Mount Maunganui has a chocolate factory at its doorstep!
What's your favourite part of the job?
Laura: Eating dark chocolate. I love how the chocolate is so pure.
Dinx: I love being able to work with and learn from my dad - Glenn, it's pretty awesome being able to work with my best friend Laura too! I have been obsessed with chocolate since before I can remember and it's an absolute dream of mine to be working full time in a chocolate factory!
How do you start the day?
Laura: Eating! I love having a good old' porridge to start every morning!
Dinx: I like to make myself a hot drink and listen to the birds. I also love watching the first light of the day change the colour of the sky. I try and set my mood for the day with positive affirmations.
Favourite Solomons Gold Dark Chocolate flavour?
Laura: It has to be 70% Dark Mint! - I love the flavour of cacao and mint together - it makes a delicious combination.
Dinx: It's too hard to pick one, I would choose the Dark Mint, Dark Caramel and both the Velvet Range chocolates!
What's the one thing you can't live without?
Laura: Water! (editors note: she took this quite literally).
Dinx: Again, hard question! I would choose chocolate, my faith and my husband
Quote you live by?
Laura: From Harry Potter - 'Don't pity the dead, pity the living and most of all, those who live without love'.
Dinx: Have courage & be kind & treat others how you'd like to be treated!
Thanks Dinx and Laura! We love your work.
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We are very happy to introduce to you our friends at Twin Treats. If you hadn't guessed, these two mumtrepreneurs are also twin sisters and create delectable treats!
We picked their brain about business, baking and life.
What was your background before starting?
Probably best to mention here that we are Twin Sisters! Though growing up we use to find it hard that this is what identified us, now we fully love that we are Twins. Alisha studied psychology and worked three years in child and adolescent mental health before becoming a full time stay at home mum. Jasmine studied occupational therapy and currently works in the stroke unit at a Christchurch hospital.
What inspired you to start Twin treats?
I (Alisha) had just had my 3rd child, and Jasmine was about to enter maternity leave. We got chatting on a walk one day about how we are going to make this year different. Jasmine in particular wanted to start doing something extra while on maternity leave and thought she could whip up some raw baking and sell around the neighbourhood. We expanded this idea a bit and came up with Twin Treats!
Where do you look for inspiration?
Firstly it’ll have to be our mum I reckon. She has been on the raw food/whole food bandwagon way before it became a big thing. She used to whip it up for us as teens and we would love it. It wasn’t until we moved into our own homes that we started playing around with ingredients and having a bit of fun. Mum’s also our toughest critic - but we definitely trust her guidance on this. We have also followed the journey of Sarah Wilson and Dr Libby for a while - though we don’t agree on every single one of there views, we do think they are incredibly talented women who know what they’re talking about.
How do you decide which ingredients to use in your creations?
Our biggest eye-opener when starting our raw food business was recognising that there are a lot of raw treats out there that are crammed with a tonne of unrefined sugar. Though we love the idea of making treats with unrefined sugar, we feel it’s really important to ensure that people understand and know exactly what they are eating. With that said, we now aim to make each of our treats with less than 10g of unrefined sugar per serve. So the ingredients we use are definitely worked out to suit this criteria. But a majority of our ingredients consist of nuts, seeds, cacao and coconut. Our sweeteners are typically A-grade maple and dates, and of course your fabulous Solomon’s Gold Chocolate.
How were you introduced to Solomons Gold chocolate?
Initially, I was introduced to the chocolate by my sister in law but started using the product for our business after chatting to the lovely ladies at the Auckland Food show in 2019,
How do you use Solomons Gold Chocolate?
We use it in soo many ways! We love using the chocolate pieces to make mousse and ganache, or simply melting it down as our toppings for a lot of our slabs. We even sometimes just sprinkle the kibble on as it is.
What’s your favourite part of making new products?
Our favourite part would be when we know that our customers love it too, and tell us this is the best thing we’ve made to-date! Then we know we are on to something.
The best piece of advice you have received?
That’s a hard question to answer, I feel like we’ve always been pretty blessed with a lot of guidance. But a big thing we discussed prior to starting our business was that in our current stage of life (with five very young children between us) we weren’t going to invest all of ourselves into the business, so the key for us is to keep it fun and keep it simple and see where it goes. As soon as it becomes stressful and starts to impact our relationship with our children and loved ones, we know that it’s getting too much. So for now.. ‘fun and simple is key’. Mum continues to remind us of that.
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Click here to learn more about Twin Treats.
]]>We are often asked what the difference is between Cacao and Cocoa – here goes ..
You could be forgiven in thinking that cacao is simply cocoa misspelt. However, it is not.
The difference is all in the processing - Cocoa and cacao are pretty much the same things in terms of where they come from.
Cacao beans come from the Theobroma cacao tree. The trees produce fruit called pods which is where the nutritious cacao bean is found. The cocoa tree bears fruits of all ages, all year long, which ripen alternatively. The pods grown directly off the trunk and branches of the tree from small nodules, it does not hang from the ends of the little branches, as other fruits, but rather along the stem of main branches; this is not uncommon, several trees have similar proprieties: cocoa trees, apricot trees papaya trees, etc.
The beans are neatly packed in rows inside the pod, a total of up to 40 or so beans, the beans are covered in a white soft pulp which is sweetish but quite tart to taste. These pods are hand-picked and cracked open to harvest the beans
The cocoa beans are fermented, roasted and separated from their hulls. The beans are ground to produce cocoa mass, also known as cocoa liquor.
In cacao production, beans are harvested and fermented to enhance the flavour. They are then crushed and chopped to make cacao nibs.
The next step is to then produce a cacao paste or liquor which in commercial chocolate is then compressed to remove the cacao butter, and the remaining product is dried and used to produce cocoa powder.
If you have any questions, please email us at hello@solomonsgold.co.nz.