About.com Candy Guide: What's on the horizon for Amano Chocolate?
Art Pollard: It’s an exciting prospect. We launched in February 2007—right before Valentine’s Day. with National Public Radio doing a story in which they rated us as being one of the very best chocolate products in the country. What a way to start out! We had a few months of strong sales before the summer months kicked in and made it too hot to ship chocolate easily. Over the slow summer months, we have won more awards, and the word has really gotten out. The summer has allowed us time to work on our recipes, build or work on our machinery, and get things ready for this holiday season. This will be our first fall and winter holiday season, and. I am anticipating it being absolutely incredible.
We are working on a number of very exciting products. Of course, I cannot go into too many details here. I can say, though, that we are very excited about some of the projects we are looking at. Of course, we are looking at cocoa beans from all sorts of exciting places. High-quality cocoa beans are difficult to find, but it is our job to hunt them down and make the chocolate so that you can enjoy it. We are looking at some amazing beans from a number of different sources. It is all about making sure the timing is right for what we want to do and when we want to be there.
I would be remiss to to point out that we have just released our Limited Edition Cuyagua bar. It is phenomenal and is really catching people's attention. We are working on some other products which are just as eye catching, I believe. So the horizon is bright for Amano. We hope the public will join us; it is sure to be an incredible adventure.
Read more interview questions:
- How did you first get interested in making chocolate?
- How did you learn to make chocolate?
- What is your factory like?
- How long did it take you to open the factory?
- How are you working to gain recognition for your company?
- What has been your biggest challenge in starting your own chocolate business?
- Do you have any advice for would-be candy entrepreneurs?
