Our show hosts are headed off to New York next week for the Fancy Food Show. Follow them on @masoniandmarshall . And now for a chocolate show, a fan favorite. Maureen Nikaido, is founder of Moku Chocolate a chocolate company with a great story. Since Maureen sponsored a Nicaraguan child and made a visit to the country, she has been dedicated to spotlighting cacao farmers around the world, Her chocolate handcrafts high-quality, bean-to-bar, single-origin chocolate from raw, direct trade cacao beans. Moku’s direct trade beans are sourced from farmers in Nicaragua, Peru, Dominican Republic, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, and Colombia. This ensures socially responsible compensation to the cacao farmers and fosters prosperity among the farming communities with a focus on integrity, quality, and environmental sustainability. However, it’s the stories she shares with her customers about the farmers, their country and their lives that creates a bond far beyond eating a chocolate bar. Maureen and our host Sarah Masoni originally met at the Portland, Oregon Good Food Mercantile, sponsored by the Good Food Foundation. Its mission is to celebrate, connect, empower and leverage the passionate and engaged, yet often overlooked, players in the food system who are driving towards tasty, authentic and responsible food in order to humanize and reform our American food culture. Maureen started selling Moku Chocolate in February 2021, but the idea had begun on that Central America tour in 2013. She went to a chocolate museum in Granada. The story of cacao bean, the source of chocolate, the fact that it grew on trees, the natural beauty of the region and the care and craftsmanship that went into creating chocolate was so richly told that Maureen was hooked. There was another side to the story, however. The cacao bean was essentially a second crop for the farmers, to bring in some extra income. But the share of the global market value they received as incredibly small, and most families were barely subsisting. After a few years, Maureen jumped into researching the chocolate craft community and in 2019 things got serious business-wise. Luckily, she found a legion of people who wanted to make chocolate treats, but also support fair trade and a better life for the farmers. Maureen then took some online classes to learn how to make chocolate and since then the notoriety has been excellent. Her first big award was International Chocolate Awards for her goat milk chocolate. And the awards have been stacking up ever since. Maureen’s packaging is extremely sophisticated and consistent, so take a look on her website when you have a chance. Her distribution is currently online and about two dozen grocery stores down the central valley of Oregon. Where to find out more about Maureen and Moku Chocolate: Website - Moku Chocolate – moku chocolate
Instagram - Maureen Nikaido (@mokuchocolate) • Instagram photos and videos Twitter - Moku Chocolate (@MokuChocolate) / Twitter Good Food Mercantile - https://goodfoodfdn.org/event/good-food-mercantile-portland/ @masoniandmarshall on Instagram
Thank you for listening to The Meaningful Marketplace Podcast with your hosts, Sarah Masoni of Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center and Sarah Marshall, owner of Marshall's Haute Sauce. Connect with us on Instagram @meaningfulmarketplacepodcast.
Call our hotline with questions for Sarah and Sarah at 503-395-8858. If you want to support our show, write us a review, share episodes with friends, or subscribe to our Patreon.
Producer: Sarah Marshall of The Joy of Creation Production House
Audio engineer, mixer, and podcast editor: Haley Bowers
Show logo design: Anton Kimball of Kimball Design
Production Coordinators: Dave Drusky
