From Cocoa Bean to Bar: The Journey of Craft Chocolate in Rushville

In this heartwarming episode of The Hoel Truth Podcast, we sit down with Dustin Cornett, co-owner of the Chocolat Café in Rushville, Indiana, and founder of the Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival.

From growing up in eastern Kentucky to starting a family, running a bed and breakfast, and eventually moving to Rushville — Dustin shares his incredible journey of how chocolate, family, and community came together in one small Indiana town. He opens up about:

-Failing his grandmother’s candy recipes… until a key memory unlocked the magic
-Self-teaching chocolate-making after living in Japan
-The process of launching an international chocolate festival in a town of 6,000 people
-What makes real chocolate different — and better — than mass-produced bars
-His family's passion-led entrepreneurship

📍 Rushville, Indiana
📆 Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival: https://www.midwestcraftchocolatefestival.com/
🍫 Visit Chocolat Café: https://www.chocolat-inn.com/
🎟️ VIP Tix: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/midwest-craft-chocolate-festival-tickets-1335995050159?aff=oddtdtcreator
🎙️ Hosted by Hoel Roofing & Remodeling

Transcript

Dustin, how and why did you land in Rushville, Indiana for Chocolat Cafè?

So, it just seemed like the perfect fit, the community support the size of the town, And... why not?

Welcome to this edition of this Hoel Truth Podcast! Today, our special guest is Dustin with the Chocolat Cafe. And we've got a whole bunch of things to talk about. So, Dustin, take a second. Introduce yourself. Sir. Dustin Cornett

I'm from Beattyville, Kentucky. It's eastern Kentucky and Appalachia. I'm the owner, with my wife of the Chocolate Cafe here in Rushville, also the founder of the Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival, which we launched here in Rushville as well.

I like making chocolate. So how, I mean, I think a lot of people watching this are going to like chocolate on a little fat. So I kind of like a little too much of it. How how did you get making chocolate?

So what happened was a long time ago, my grandma made bonbons like caramels and vanilla creams, butter creams, this type of thing, old fashioned candies.

And I was always struck by those, I enjoyed eating those. But the majority of my life, she wasn't making them around when I was in elementary school, she kind of retired from making those things. But it always kind of stuck with me. And when I got back from living abroad in Japan, I had a little bit of time.

I was kind of in limbo, and I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do with myself. And I stumbled across her recipes, so I set out to make them, and I failed miserably. Time after time after time, I just couldn't do it. And at the time, my grandmother, she was still living, but she was kind of battling, dementia.

So she couldn't just point blank tell me what I was doing wrong. Which, was unfortunate, but she still had all those memories, which are cool. And when we would just casually talk, like she would tell a lot of the same stories over and over, but sometimes a new nugget would just fall out. And one day she was talking about it and she was like, yeah, butter up the marble real good.

And then I'd get, you know, and I'm like, Holy crap, I'm not buttering the marble. And I'm like, I did that. And then like, the magic appeared and this thing just started like going grade on on the slab here. And the candy was coming together. So I started to be able to make these centers. So that's that's half the battle, grandma.

Back in the day, I always use Hershey's. You tell stories about just calling up Hershey's and getting them to send a 10 pound bar of chocolate to her. And, you know, that's a romantic thing back then. But today it's a little bit different. So I set out to bring my own touch to her candies and decided to learn how to make my own chocolate.

So I taught myself how to make my own chocolate to basically complement her candies. So that's what got me into doing it. So what? What ingredients go in? I mean, I know you're not going to want to tell us every single ingredient or you know, your exact recipe, but what does it how do you make it? I mean, what does it take to make chocolate?

Chocolate can be as simple as actually as simple as one ingredient. If you want to do 100% cacao chocolate bar, it's just chocolate nibs. But typically chocolate is two ingredients. And then I use three, because I add extra cocoa butter, which kind of counts as a third ingredient. The cocoa butter is actually in the cacao itself.

So okay. But anyway, cacao and sugar. So if I was to give you a 70% chocolate bar from a craft chocolate maker, it's going to be 70% of cacao or cacao and cocoa butter. And then the other 30% is sugar. Okay. That's it. Now, if you look on the back of a Hershey's bar, it's a fairly long ingredient list.

It's a very different thing. So craft chocolate is full of like the good ingredients, the real ingredients that you know, the necessary ingredients. So what how do you how do you end up in Rushville, Indiana, to open a chocolate, store? Yeah. So, that's kind of a long story.

So when we were in Kentucky, we also had, like a bed and breakfast.

So I was making the chocolate. We had lodging as we were around the Red River Gorge, which is, a touristy area. And then we had our cafe and they all kind of complemented each other. So the lodging we, ran is a bed and breakfast. So my wife would make that breakfast for our guest, which they could get from the cafe.

Plus she would make something warm for them as well. And it worked really well together. And then the traveling, they bought chocolate bar souvenirs, and go home. It was was a really good flow and a really good way for us to grow our business. But very time consuming. And we're I was always on call. And then after we had our child, you know, that was during 2020 with the pandemic and all that fun stuff.

So she was born. The schedule became a lot more difficult, checking people in at all hours. You're really hard. Breakfast at basically any time. Yeah. My wife can't really do that so much anymore. So we decided this is not going to get easier. It's only going to get more time. Can constraint tense constraints there going forward?

So we thought we kind of have to sell the place. It was our passion. We built it from, a roadside motel that was just completely like, we completely had to like to gut it. And then we themed out the rooms like a London room, a Paris room. Osaka, Japan. We had, adjoining room. So we had an East Berlin and a West Berlin.

So we're kind of fun with it. It was really cool and very unique. So it was very it was a really big passion project. So we hated to to do that, and it was my hometown. So that was kind of a difficult two. But in the end, it was going to be better for all of us as a family to to do that.

So the Rushville part. So my family is originally from Connersville, okay. I was the only one born and raised in Rushville. Not Rushville, Beattyville, but my family's from Connersville. So I have aunts and uncles in Connersville. And one day I was just discussing with my uncle about kind of like the struggles I was having in my home town, about not being able to get through to leadership and like, I want to do more.

I just have this for some reason inside my DNA that I just want to create things and, and be part of things. And I was struggling with it. So I was venting to him about it. And this was before I was thinking about selling my place or anything. And he was like, you know what? There's a little town not far from here called Rushville.

And he said, they're just doing amazing things there. Anything kind of new coming is gone to Rushville. They've they've taken like, the, the struggles that small towns are having these days about ten years ago or something like that, he said. They've, they've seen what was happening and they made a plan to go down a different path. And everybody's kind of working together to do that.

And that just sounded really cool. But I didn't give it a whole lot of thought because I wasn't intending on selling my place at the time. But after I did sell my place or was in the process of doing it, I remembered it. So I thought, maybe that could be a good fit. And we were free agents, kind of.

So we were looking around to to where would best fit, where would be best fit. But we knew we didn't want to be in a big city. We liked the small town feel, we liked the community. We liked this type of things. So, we took a trip up here, checked it out. It was really clean. Nice.

We went to the stores, people would greet us. Good morning. How are you? It's like this feeling. I like this feeling. So I called up the mayor's office, got a meeting with them the next day. Brought a box of chocolate bars, met with him and, some special project people as O'Brien, she had. And Kyle Gardner.

Yeah. We talked and before I was leaving, they're, they're already trying to like hook me up with people to help me out. And like before even any decisions were really made. They were already like planning my life. I was like this is kind of cool. And then even further, they connected me with Joe Wright, Sandy Fussner I like that the chamber in the heart of Rushville.

And they immediately started helping me too, and set up meetings and discussed things and it just seemed like a really good fit and like it was meant to be and just kind of let it fall into place.

And here I am today, you know, and with with zero regrets of that at all. Like, this is this is where I want to be.

So. So how you got one? One, kiddo. One child. Yeah. So how old is she now? She's five. Okay. Awesome. Yep. She's in kindergarten. Awesome. Yeah. So? So, how long were you in Japan? I was in Japan for about six years. Okay, yeah, I was teaching English over there primarily. My favorite part about Japan is I love baseball, so I got to be part of a baseball team.

Awesome. And so I'm, like, the only white guy on the team, and they walk me a lot, which is great because I'm actually not a really good hitter, but I'm big, bigger than them, I should say. I'm not really that big, but, yeah, I got walked a lot and I'm like, yeah, they think I can hit what?

So how far is the hometown? From here? From here? About 3.5 hours or so. Okay. Still, a lot of your family down. My dad. My brother? Yeah. Okay. I'm still down there. Okay. Yeah. So how much families in Connersville, aunts and uncles kind of thing. Okay. So not a whole lot don't have a very huge family, right?

Right. And my cousins, they kind of moved to to Indy. Yep. So I need to get them back in this area. I don't know what's wrong with them. What, what is, where where'd your wife grew up? Osaka, Japan. It's the second biggest city in Japan. Okay, so you met. So you met your wife while you're in Japan, too?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I met her over there, when I was, like, completely thrown off. When we get. When we land in my hometown to see. I'm planning ahead. I'm thinking reply end up on the west coast. Will they do something where there's more Japanese culture? And she's like, you know what, I think I want to live here and I'm like, that's a curveball.

You know? Just like you want to. You want to live here. Like growing up. Like, to be perfectly honest, I growing up, that was my hometown was not necessarily the place I wanted to be. I just saw all the negative that I get brought. And I think that's probably common with a lot of people. And as we age, we see things differently.

Yep. After I travel kind of around the world, I saw my home town completely different. And when I came back, I saw it through the eyes of a tourist almost. And I saw all the beauty, all the beauty, all the nature, all like the possibilities. There. So it it was okay when she said that, I felt like this could be a really cool challenge, that we start here.

And at the time, her English wasn't great. So it was a harder transition for her just to step in and get a normal job. Right. So entrepreneurship was on the table there because we could, I could create, like, a job for her. Yep. So that was kind of a step I took. And it was a real struggle, man.

Like we were living at a Bible camp. We didn't really have anything. So we were fortunate that a bank saw our vision and the the hotel that or the motel that we bought or were able to purchase came with a home. So we were able to get a home, which was kind of priority number one, and then be able to start that, that project and just work nonstop on it.

And we were able to do it together. And then she was able to take the time and teach herself how to bake, like she does. She's self-taught there. And in Japan, she was, like a daycare type of teacher. They if they have a license to be, in, in that type of schooling. Okay. So she didn't really have any formal education and like being a pastry chef, but when I was working at a job down there, I would come home for lunch and she'd be watching, like, the Food Network, like, nonstop.

She learned English and how to cook from the Food Network. Now I get home and I'd have a new lunch every day. I'm like, this is great. I don't get those anymore. I don't get. But during that time, like, I had all this fantastic food, every, every lunch, I came over to work because she was learning and like taking all that in.

And then then she focused it all on baking. And that's where she is today with what she does with her cheesecakes. And the people have been lined out the door when it first opened up, just buying all of her cheesecakes and things. So she what else does she enjoy? Cooking? Love pastries. I think cheesecakes are her favorite.

She likes to experiment with different things, too. So she switches out kind of, her cheesecakes each week and kind of does some fun stuff, but, yeah. Different pastries. Her cream horns are really popular. They're very popular in eastern Kentucky, too. She always had to have cream horns ready, and the Danish she does is more of a French style, with the custard and the fruit and stuff on top.

They're not necessarily super sweet. So in, in Japanese pastry and desserts, they're sweets aren't super sweet at all, right? Right. Yep. So she kind of takes that approach, but she knows that she needs to make it a little sweeter. Because where we're at. So she does that. So it's kind of like a hybrid version, which is, which is nice.

00:13:51:02 - 00:14:16:11
Unknown
And I think a lot of people appreciate that the sweets aren't too sweet, right? They're all delicious too well. And and you've got to, as a business, like you've got to diversify or you've got you've got to be different. Like if yours tastes the same as yours, tastes like walking in to buy one, it's in a bag, you know, it's been processed three months ago, sitting in a gas station walk, you know, walking in like, you know, that's different.

00:14:16:16 - 00:14:43:52
Unknown
And you know, how long you guys been married? So, yeah. Sorry. So we got married in 2013. So 12 years? Yeah. 12 ish years. Yeah. So where are you guys? So we're. How long has she been in the States then? Basically since 2014. Okay, yeah, so we do. We dated for three, so years in Japan, then got married.

00:14:43:52 - 00:15:04:19
Unknown
And then the decision of getting married, it and kind of came together with, all right, I'm going to be married. I kind of need to think about my future as a doing what I want to do. Yep. I didn't want to do English. I was already like done with teaching English. So it wasn't my passion or anything. That could be a good career for me.

00:15:04:21 - 00:15:21:43
Unknown
Yep. So we thought, all right, we can move to the States. She was always curious about that. She seemed interested in it. So that was kind of the plan. Get married. This is like a phase in the process, you know? So you couldn't even teach your own life English. Is that what you're saying? I was so bad.

00:15:21:45 - 00:15:39:33
Unknown
She had such a horrible teacher, so she had to learn from the the from the the hillbillies in eastern Kentucky. Right. Next, she goes, okay, but yeah. Well, and like, you know, so you've built this with your wife.

00:15:39:33 - 00:15:55:40
Unknown
Me and Emily, we've built this roofing business like there's just a it's it's so fun and it's so challenging at the exact same time, you know, and you know, the best part is to build that with them, you know?

00:15:55:44 - 00:16:19:25
Unknown
And the worst part, I guess, you know, but it's, it's always nice to, to look and watch. Like, what you do. Well, what she does well, you know, because like you really we can really complement, you know, each other, and you know, and one thing I've, I've enjoyed watching building whole roofing with Emily is she's, she's had to stretch a lot as a leader.

00:16:19:25 - 00:16:40:46
Unknown
Like she's a really, really, really good follower. Like if I'm like, let's go do this like half the time she'll tell me I'm. It was the dumbest idea she heard. She just goes and helps, you know. But it's it's been fun as our company has expanded to where she's been forced to kind of step into a leadership role, you know, and, you know, to me, that's that that's probably the funnest part.

00:16:40:46 - 00:16:50:33
Unknown
Like, I thoroughly enjoy getting other people to step out of their comfort zone and grow and stretch. But like, you know, it's for me, it's something really special when it's your spouse, you

00:16:50:33 - 00:17:01:36
Unknown
know? So yeah, it's there's there's a learning curve there. But you first start for, for my experience now we're sharing a kitchen and stuff like that.

00:17:01:41 - 00:17:22:30
Unknown
Well, I mean, you know, we don't know what we're doing being married and then we don't really know what we're doing running the business, and then we're trying to learn. Yep. All that. It's like, oh, boy, all that together. So what is, so kind of in as the business currently is kind of what is your what is your role specialty.

00:17:22:30 - 00:17:41:10
Unknown
What what is your wife's. So. Yeah, her specialty is like the cheesecakes and pastries and she does that type of thing. So I focus on the coffee and the chocolate. Okay. So we kind of do our separate things sometimes. Now, I'm kind of asking her to come in and help me with the candies, like the confections and stuff like that.

00:17:41:15 - 00:18:03:52
Unknown
I can make things, but I have a difficult time making them pretty. She can make them pretty, but I'm not really good at making them pretty. And then I have, like, no patience. And then she can. She has more patience. So it's kind of kind of like that. But yeah, working together is is fantastic. Like, I wouldn't trade that for anything.

00:18:03:52 - 00:18:32:44
Unknown
And then being able to bring our daughter into that too is like fantastic. So this is I'm not motivated any money to survive, but I'm not motivated by like how much money I can make in my business. I'm motivated by how much I can do together with my family. Absolutely. So our kind of our schedule, it goes around my, what my wife can kind of do, without getting too over overdone and with, our child's school schedule.

00:18:32:49 - 00:18:58:13
Unknown
So our hours are not great for business because we open at like eight when we need to open earlier, but because of getting ready for school and all that and not being able to use the bus right now, we kind of have no option there. So that's where we're setting at 8 to 1. I only open three days and just to get everything ready, we're hoping to open on Wednesday as an additional day.

00:18:58:17 - 00:19:27:18
Unknown
But we'll see how that goes and we'll try it, see if we can get everything done. But yeah, it's like a balancing act, but I rather have that then. Then the other I it's hard for me to manage people. It's not something I thoroughly enjoy. It just with, with the festival and everything. I love working together with the team, but it's hard for me to tell people what to do, and things like that.

It just, it's just tricky for me. So I prefer, like, that flow as a family and working together more so than the other. Well, and one thing, like in today's age, so many kids are on phones and tablets and stuff, like, we were just at a cattle show last weekend, and we've got a six, eight and ten year old and the lady running the show, a friend of ours knew.

So like she knew, you know of us already. And like by the end of the show, like there's probably 500 people there, okay? Like we're like, Where's Riley at? And she's over there helping that lady at, at kind of the, the table where they're where they're running the show. And she's just, I mean, little Riley, she just talks about her cows and the feed and this and that, you know?

So. And the lady's like, I can't believe how how articulate she is. And, like, how much, you know, I was like, but they grew up, you know, now we're in an office the last couple years. But in the freaking beginning, like, her car seat was in the truck and we were going out to sell jobs and check on job sites and pick up extra material and take, you know, take material that was needed.

And there's just I don't think I think it'll be a while for my kids ever really fully understand, like how much that's going to really help them in life because like they like I said, they've got to have conversations. You know, they, you know, the ten year old can run equipment and, you know, just at the end of the day like it's that, that that's exactly when you said that like is where I'm at.

Like if people look at my schedule now, if it's not with my wife or my kids, I'm just really not that interested in doing it. Like, yeah, we've got a team to love and train and lead, and that's one thing. But like, you know, our hobby now is showing cattle and it's it's a family thing. Like we go out every day, take care of them together.

We have to go to shows together like, you know. So yeah, I mean, when you said that like that, that hit home like it's. Why not live your life like that? Because one thing I've always said is, like, I don't want my kids growing up hating the wrestling business, like, well, you know, dad made a lot of money, but, you know, I hate that business, you know, like, he was never there, you know, and I in there, I'm also I don't try to get political here on a total soapbox, but I also feel like we're starting to see a shift again of letting men be men.

And there is there is value, in my opinion, for kids to see dad, go to work, put to work in, like and build something to, you know, like you know, and there's gotta be conversations like, hey, I might miss this. I've got to go do this. You know, it's not that I don't love you or, you know, it's just, you know, the other day, it does take money to.

Yeah. You know, to provide or whatnot. So now that's that's awesome. What the balance. Yeah. The balance is the tough part. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And, and and really there is no balance and I, I feel like 50 years ago there was no balance. Like, dads worked 70, 80 hours a week every week. And then I feel like we almost the last few years almost got was dad was home maybe too much like so like there in my opinion, there is no balance.

Like there's a season. Like when you got this chocolate cash going, like, you know, maybe you're working a few more hours and you are. Yeah. You know, so like and I think that's okay. As long as there's that short term where we know, hey, it's going to be like this six months or a year, you know, you don't want to look up and be like at five, ten years later and now your little girl is going to her first homecoming dance and you're like, Holy cow, like that happened real quick.

So what? What is, maybe you or your wife. Like what? What has been your favorite part about Rushville? And you know, and the community here is fantastic. So how we were welcomed into this community was just like, we were like we were from here almost. So that was the fantastic part. And we when we opened the doors, like I said that before, there was the alliance out, out the door for several months.

And but when we first open and people meeting us for the first time, they were waiting in line for quite a while. But the first time they got in there to see us, they were like, Welcome to Rushville. We're so glad you came here. And like, very nice and welcoming. They were waiting outside an hour and cold, right?

Right. We didn't have what they wanted because someone in front of them got it right. It's lovely to meet you. Thank you for coming. Like, wow, this is great. And that type of, like, reinforcement of, like, our decision to just route up and go somewhere we've never been. But yeah, that's great. So the community is the best part.

We live in town now. My, my wife likes to to walk around and on our bike and go around. She likes that too. I like that as well. She does it more than me. But being able to to do that and to to feel safe and just, you know, just should be normal things. Right. But yeah, that type of stuff is, is really nice.

And the school is a community to, everybody kind of supports each other. It kind of works together. And that just, I don't know, it just makes us feel like this is our home, you know? So that's definitely what we like about it. So, another thing getting ready to come up is the chocolate festival, and I'll let you talk about it because it may be totally named something different, completely around there.

But so the Midwest had a little bit of the Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival. So I'll tell you how it was born, because it's it's another thing. Rushville, surprised me on. So I have all this momentum. Right. Moving up here, people excited about about this chocolate guy coming to town. So I get, tourism, the city, hard to rush.

Feel like every organization I can think of, together. And to have a little think tank. And I pitched the idea. Hey, you guys interested in doing a chocolate festival? They're like, yeah, that sounds nice. I'm like, all right, so do you want to do it with other stuff? You want to do, like Indiana Jocko Festival? You want to do like a tri state type of thing?

Or do you want to do like a region like the Midwest? They're like Midwest. And I'm like, hey, these are my people. Like, go big or go home. So we set out to make the Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival. So I connected with people I knew in, in the area, like kind of the region or a little bit further than the region and, started getting those conversations together, started building a team.

We started building a team locally and, as well. And the idea was born and we created it, and last year was the first year for it. We did it downtown, which was really cool. It was a little bit of, logistical nightmare in a sense that we were like in five different buildings. And this is the first time I've ever organized a festival.

So a little stressful. But it went together beautifully. And so we were, I think, probably lucky. The weather was nice. Everybody kind of knew what they were doing, where they were going. But this year we're doing it at the left community center where everything is going to be under one roof, which I'll miss the downtown feel.

Yeah. But being at the end of November, you never know what the weather's going to be like. So to not have to worry about that will be great. And then not have to coordinate people from walking from the library to the courthouse. You know, it's not a super close walk. So being able to have everything under one roof will be a lot easier for us to do.

So we have we have chocolate makers coming from all over the world. We have a maker from Japan, Honduras, Norway, Colombia, Madagascar, Canada, Mexico. Like, they're just. Yeah, coming from all over and then coming from all over the States as well. I'm going to be the only vendor from Indiana. Again, everybody else is from a different state or country.

So what is so where's the best chocolate made at? I mean, besides in Rushville, Indiana, get good one there. I didn't know if if there's a, you know, if there's a perk up of a to a certain part of the of the world that, you know, is like, hey, that's where really high quality chocolate comes from or not.

So there's this, like, you know how bourbon comes from Kentucky, right? Right. Well, chocolate, comes from Europe or like Belgium, right. This is kind of. But that doesn't really mean anything. That's just there was good maker's there like a long time ago that established good chocolate. And that's where that came from. Yep. So you can good chocolate can be made anywhere and how it's grown.

So it can only be grown in certain places. Okay. So you grow these pods 20 degrees north or 20 degrees south of the equator. It's the only place they can grow. So. So I'm not very smart here. So how far is 20 degrees? Down. Like up to Mexico. Okay. It's parts of Mexico and then down to, like, Brazil.

Okay. And kind of that little area. So pretty. But then all around the world or it's got to be warm. Okay, okay. Go ahead and can be seasons. You know it's got to be straight kind of warm going going and going. Yeah. So primarily Africa is the biggest producer. Ghana Ivory Coast biggest producer of cacao. There is a whole lot to unwrap when we talk about curl and kick out, because now you told me this is a fruit, right?

Yep. Okay. Grown on a tree. If you get that fresh off the tree or even a few days later, cut it open and you kind of suck on what's inside, okay? Because it's got like the little chocolate nip things that are kind of hard. You don't necessarily want to eat those, okay. But it's got like a pulp kind of thing around it.

It's kind of sweet. So what you do, when you're farming it is.

You get it like that, you cut it open and then you throw all the the pulpy kind of beans in, there's different ways to farm it, but in, like, a container, and you can't do it. So you fermented for so many days and then you need to dry it afterwards, after it's dried, then they throw it in the big burlap sacks, and then they ship it out around the world for people, for people like me to make chocolate with it.

So depending on where it's from and how it's farmed, it has different flavors naturally. Okay, we all know what Ghana typically taste like in Ivory Coast because that's what Hershey's pretty much uses now they over roasted. So you don't get a lot of the cocoa in there. Because if they use a high percentage it's going to taste like burnt Starbucks coffee.

00:30:42:16 - 00:31:05:38
Unknown
So it's just like, you know, so people think dark chocolate equals bitter because of how Hershey's makes their chocolate or industrial makers make their chocolate. But that's not necessarily the case. But what I'm trying to say is it has like fudgy ness to it. Right. So that's kind of like their profile where if you get some beans grown in Madagascar, it can have more of a fruitiness to it.

00:31:05:40 - 00:31:25:41
Unknown
Okay. And Hawaii is the only place in the United States that you can grow cacao, and a lot of it has fruity notes to. I got a bean in from this volcanic island, that, has smokiness to it, just natural smoky notes, which I find really cool. So it just kind of depends on where it's from. And then the magic happens.

00:31:25:46 - 00:31:43:20
Unknown
You have this natural taste in this bean, and then people like myself have to figure out, okay, how do I extract? How do I make this flavor taste the best it possibly can? What percent do I use? What other ingredient, what type of sugar do I use? I'm doing a milk chocolate. What kind of milk do I want to do?

00:31:43:25 - 00:31:49:12
Unknown
And then it becomes a science project. So there's a lot that goes into to that.

00:31:49:12 - 00:32:13:32
Unknown
So. So is there sugar. Do you get sugar from a certain area? You can Brazil is a very popular place to get kind of organic cane sugar from. But, this guy that came last year, to the festival says, he's from Colombia, has a farm, he has this sugar that is like dehydrated, dehydrated cane juice.

00:32:13:37 - 00:32:36:19
Unknown
So it's kind of like not exactly brown sugar, but darker than normal cane sugar. And it has some interesting notes to it. So I've used that in a chocolate and take you can use different types of sugar to let it go guy and different types of milk as well. We have to use milk powder. We can't use liquid in chocolate.

00:32:36:23 - 00:33:04:43
Unknown
So I've used buttermilk in chocolate before. I have a new bar coming out that is kind of like my Rushville bar in a sense. I take the buttermilk, I add maple sugar, and then I add sweet corn and so white chocolate. It's going to debut at the festival. Awesome. So, yeah, there's a lot you can do. With white chocolate, I should say white chocolate, since you're talking about it doesn't have any cocoa solids.

00:33:04:43 - 00:33:25:40
Unknown
So you have the nibs, which are the solid and the butter is inside that bean. Okay. So you extract the butter, and then if you just make a white chocolate, you use the cocoa butter to make a legitimate white chocolate. If you go to the store and you pick up a Hershey's cookie and cream bar, that's not white chocolate, okay?

00:33:25:41 - 00:33:51:10
Unknown
It can't even say white chocolate on the package because it's illegal, because there's no cocoa butter in it. There's certain rules for that. So a lot of people have never had real white chocolate. They just think it's a sweet junk they get at the store. It's like a candy bar, but it's not, cocoa butter is the most expensive ingredient in the whole chocolate making process, so industrial makers don't use it so much.

00:33:51:14 - 00:34:13:04
Unknown
But cocoa butter, milk powder, sugar, sometimes vanilla essential parts to make a white chocolate. So what? What are some future plans? What? You know what? Your vision with the chocolate festival, you know what? What's the future hold for you guys? The vision for the festival is education. So

00:34:13:04 - 00:34:16:55
Unknown
we're trying to open up a market here in the Midwest, the East Coast and the West Coast.

00:34:16:55 - 00:34:41:06
Unknown
They have a lot of festivals and kind of events around craft chocolate. They have a lot more chocolate makers. There's a better sense of of knowing what craft chocolate is. Okay, in the Midwest, there's less of it. But the Midwest understands farming more than the East Coast and West Coast. Absolutely. So we are taking that position because as chocolate makers, we have so much passion for the farmer.

00:34:41:19 - 00:35:03:14
Unknown
They are creating this product for us that we try to highlight what they're making. So through craft chocolate, we try to create a better sustainability. So we pay higher prices for the beans so the farmer can make a living wage. And to be able to use more resources and time to create a better product. So when they create the better product, we can create better chocolate.

00:35:03:18 - 00:35:33:02
Unknown
Yep. So that's the vision. So we are bringing farmers to the forefront for our festival. And through that we are going to percent education to the general customer. And then we're going to create educational paths for the chocolate maker and chocolatiers, the vendors themselves. So that's how we see our future, where we're at with our population. It's a little more difficult to to go the route of, hey, this is where you come to make a lot of money selling chocolate.

00:35:33:07 - 00:35:48:42
Unknown
So this is going to be where you come to learn about it. So that's kind of our focus and our festival's nonprofit. So we have to kind of go the direction of that. And, you know, sponsors and donations and working with people to make it happen.

00:35:48:42 - 00:35:58:12
Unknown
You guys have sponsored us. Thank you very much. And this type of thing, for our future so we can keep cost lower for everybody.

00:35:58:14 - 00:36:25:39
Unknown
Right? Right. So that's kind of, what we're doing. And we've got a really good start with the people coming like around 30 or 30 or so vendors, you know, finding like these are, these are some interesting people coming with some great chocolate, to, to Rushville. So this is not a normal thing. I need to kind of say that because we're having an international festival in a town of 6000 people, right?

00:36:25:50 - 00:37:00:19
Unknown
Like it's it's very challenging and it's not normal. And there's no blueprint. So we are trying to figure out how to do this and kind of taking the Rushville model of like working together with everybody. And the team is fantastic. And on our local team and our we have team members as far away as Australia working on things, working on our program, working on different ways to help us promote and market and you know, they just so that type of approach I think is a successful.

00:37:00:23 - 00:37:19:32
Unknown
So the business kind of keeping things the same, tweaking anything, adding anything. The business. Yeah. The business. So, I'm not a good business man. And to be honest, I, I need help with that. Probably. But

00:37:19:32 - 00:37:28:23
Unknown
moving from Kentucky to Rushville, I knew there was going to be some differences, and I knew there was going to need to be some time for me to figure out what's going on.

00:37:28:28 - 00:37:58:10
Unknown
So the demand for our product is higher here. That's true. The not having lodging is tricky. So that's an aspect I have to to think about how to run a cafe or how do I grow my chocolate where I can sell it, other places to take pressure off of the cafe? Absolutely. So when in Kentucky, because of the area we were in summer, it wasn't too bad.

00:37:58:10 - 00:38:26:05
Unknown
Like it was. Still, even though we're selling pastries and chocolate, it didn't really die off too much for us here. Summers are rough. Like for our product, it gets pretty slow. So I feel like I need to adjust on maybe what I do in the summer. And then also maybe think about my peak seasons a little bit more and how I can try to do better during those times to maybe take less pressure off of the slower season.

00:38:26:10 - 00:38:49:07
Unknown
This type of model I need to create. I've been able to take the time to create like packaging for Asheville. Finally. Yep. And like this hard truth. We're partnering with Hard Truth for this bar, but this was the first package that I was able to do that has my Rushville information on it. And inside talks about my shop in Rushville and stuff, too.

00:38:49:12 - 00:39:11:28
Unknown
Debuting at the festival will be ten other bars that are new and package like that. That's going to give me the opportunity to seek some, retail partnerships so I can wholesale do some things like that. I need to get my online presence a bit stronger. All this stuff just takes time. Oh, yeah. And the time is not necessarily thing.

00:39:11:28 - 00:39:32:06
Unknown
I have a lot of, But I'm kind of seeing how it's going and what I need to do and how to adjust. I don't want to put too much more pressure on my wife to do certain things, but I think she'll probably try to take more cheesecake orders and things like that when we get organized enough for where it makes sense.

00:39:32:06 - 00:39:53:19
Unknown
So I feel like, yeah, what I need to do on my own or on my side of things is maybe that direction with the chocolate. Try to get that out there. So hard. Truth distillery where is that at? It's in Nashville, Indiana. There's is there there's two of them. Right. Or not, I think it's one. Okay, okay, okay, okay.

00:39:53:24 - 00:40:13:34
Unknown
That's why I ask you. Because I was getting ready to say something that wasn't factual, so I don't like doing that. So, any other retail locations like that that you're teaming up with? Not. Not at the moment. So I, he's kind of set out. I wanted to do a bourbon bar again. I just really think it complements the chocolate so well.

00:40:13:39 - 00:40:13:59
Unknown
So

00:40:13:59 - 00:40:35:40
Unknown
I ask my customers and I ask around at Bobolink, like, you know, who's who's someone good, and everybody said hard truth. And then, then the the icing on the cake here for the pun is they get their grains from Rest County. So I'm like, this is perfect. You know, the grains are grown here and taken there and made into their product.

00:40:35:40 - 00:40:57:26
Unknown
And I bring them back to Rush County and make chocolate out of it. It's like the circle of life. So I sent him a message. And just so happened they were looking for a chocolate product. I'm like, perfect. So I started working out things, and then we made a dark chocolate version, a 70% dark chocolate. And then we made this 55% dark milk chocolate.

00:40:57:31 - 00:41:18:38
Unknown
The dark, uses rye, and this is used as the sweet mash bourbon. And they liked it a lot. So much so that they sent me a barrel. They, emptied out the barrel, unfortunately. And then they sent me this fresh, empty barrel, which still smells so much of bourbon, and I'm using it to age the nibs.

00:41:18:38 - 00:41:26:35
Unknown
And so I threw a bunch of, cacao nibs in there, and I'm aging it. So this would be the first time for me to do an aged chocolate bar. So

00:41:26:35 - 00:41:45:58
Unknown
I'm looking forward to working with those nibs and seeing how that goes. So. So, how long do you have to age them? Good question. I don't necessarily know that, I was thinking about trying to see if I could get a six month out of it and get something done before Christmas, but at this point, I don't think I will.

00:41:46:03 - 00:42:16:34
Unknown
So I might see if it's going to be ready by Valentine's. If not, I'll have it ready by next fall and age a year. Right? So I'm just kind of going with the flow with that. So it's like it, it's a science project. And then working with bourbon is tricky because I soak the cocoa nibs in the bourbon for over a month or so, but I can't have any water content in the machine I use because it just makes the chocolate cease.

00:42:16:39 - 00:42:32:42
Unknown
And just a few days ago, making a new batch, new batch of the bourbon one, I had to fight that thing for hours because there were still a little bit of moisture in there. So you could see like the chocolate kind of seizing up in act and act and bad. And I'm like, oh no, I'm going to lose this.

00:42:32:55 - 00:42:51:01
Unknown
This is like the most expensive batch of chocolate I make. I, I'm like, I can't lose this. So I just had to fight it and fight it. I have a heat gun like a heat gun in it and just saved it. I saved it, thankfully, but it just is very stressful sometimes. So like that. So the life of a chocolate maker, man.

00:42:51:05 - 00:43:16:03
Unknown
So what is, outside of encouraging people to come to support your store? Check out the Midwest, chocolate Festival. What? How else can we support you? I mean, hey, this is this is supporting me right here. Like. Yeah, okay, come see us say hello. I mean, that's supporting us. And you've even sponsored our festival, so that's a big support year.

00:43:16:03 - 00:43:38:49
Unknown
You're helping, you know, feature my business. That's a big support. So I think you're doing probably more than enough already. But if you have anybody watching this once to support is like, definitely just come say hello at the shop, check out the festival. This is nothing normal to come to an area like this. We want to keep this thriving.

00:43:38:49 - 00:44:00:36
Unknown
We want to keep our chocolate makers coming here happy. So definitely check out the festival. A really cool thing we're doing this year at the festival is a VIP night. So it's the Friday night. November the 21st. It's also, Christmas on Main, but we're doing it kind of after they finish their stuff. So ours will start at seven and go till 830.

00:44:00:50 - 00:44:24:02
Unknown
We have easels, winery out of Indianapolis, and then we have Heart Tours Distillery out of Nashville coming up as part of the ticket. They're sampling out their their wine and their bourbon or putting together a pairing sheet because the chocolate makers, they sample out their chocolate as well. So you'll get to just go around the Love Center with your bourbon and your wine, and you pair your chocolate.

00:44:24:14 - 00:44:49:16
Unknown
There'll be some live music. I mean, it's going to be beautiful. And the tickets are $50, but all the proceeds will go to the Love Community Center. So kind of giving back, to them as well as they're letting us use their facility that weekend. So, yeah, fun stuff. Yeah. That's, you know, it's it's it's so cool.

So that, you know, you had a vision, you say God works in mysterious ways, you end up in Rushville, and then you reach out to hard truth and narrowly buying grain for Rushville, like, you know, it's, it's cool. Like, for me, this community raised me, and, like, in these. Not for me, in these, not for the base of my roofing company.

And I'm completely fine with that, you know. And it's just, it's so cool for me to see businesses like this grow because, like, you know, how many people tell me you can't grow a roofing business in Rushville? My girl. Shut up and watch me, you know, so. But it's it's for me. What is enjoying is just seeing everything kind of come together and work together.

And, you know, the Love Center we just had, we just had Zen for a podcast because I'm horrible with names and, you know, come to find out, we had, she got here because her husband is, high up at a dog food factory, like, so. So they got the, you know, dog food plant here, and then finally got to the community center that they've been talking about for years, you know, and not finally in a negative way, but like, and then now she's here running it because her husband's here helping run the so like and then now, we're in the process of helping them fix some roofing issues that they had done on the brand new building.

So, like, it's just so cool because, you know, and for me, it's fun. Like, we've got Adam behind the camera, like he went to school for this kind of stuff. Like, he enjoys it. He went to Russellville. Like how cool it is to employ, you know, somebody with his talent that he can keep his talent here in Rushville like that. 

That's that's what business is about. I mean, you know, you talk about, you know, stressing over this and showing that and figuring this out. It's what we're all doing, you know, you know, you've got there we've got the same problems. They're just a little different because I'm trying to sell roofing. You're trying to sell chocolate.

Yeah. You know, so but at the end of the day, like, it's I always enjoy other business owners. I always enjoy visionaries, like you said, your creator. And there's just something about when you're made to create, like, some people think you're crazy, but it's like, you know, no, like, I, I love that, you know, our business like, is.

So yeah, I tell people, I tell our team that we're a media company that happens to sell roofing, siding and gutters, you know what I mean? But then there's talent like Adam that we get to use and, you know, that kind of stuff. So, yeah, like, I, I love Rushville. Like, you can complain about small towns for this or that if you want, but I mean genuinely like when you drive through Asheville, you know, like I remember that downtown kind of being a little rundown, you know, Adam so young, you probably don't even remember that.

But I remember when I tore the buildings down for. I mean, it's been a bunch old buildings there where CVS is that? And then now there's CVS, you know, so I mean yeah. So I to me I enjoy that kind of stuff. You know and you know it's just it's fun to see what all opportunities, you know.

Yeah. There there is around here. It's our honor to support like we try to we try to be very involved, in our community. So, I'm just going to go ahead and say that. Well, go ahead. Had Adam purchase a couple of them VIP tickets and we'll do a giveaway, to kind of help promote that, you know, thank you.

And, we'll be busy with Christmas on Main, because the last three years, somebody from a whole roofing either my kids or somebody that worked here, they do a cancer drive, and we take it pretty serious around here. We've won three times in a row. Okay? And this year, my baby girl Riley's got to run, so she'll make sure you know.

So we'll we won't be busy with that, you know? But I mean, it's awesome. Thank you for your time. I want to say encourage people. Go support. Go support them. It's cool to have it's cool to have this talent, you know, in Rushville. So thank you for your time. And, anybody listening? Go check them out and, give them support and hopefully, check out the Midwest Chocolate Festival.