Missionary Chocolates: Dr. Melissa Berry, ND

How does someone go from studying naturopathic medicine to building a chocolate company?

For Dr. Melissa Berry, the answer began with a simple act of care: creating a chocolate her mother could safely enjoy. What started as small experiments in the kitchen gradually evolved into Missionary Chocolates, a brand known for its handcrafted vegan truffles and thoughtful approach to ingredients.

Along the way, Melissa navigated doubt from others, discovered the power of community support, and learned how focusing her time on the right work could help the business grow.

Listen to her story in the latest episode of The Chocolate Pod. 🍫🎙️🎧

Discover more at www.TheChocolatePodcast.com

Transcript

Welcome to The Chocolate Pod, a show about founders and innovators in the craft chocolate industry and the stories behind the chocolate they create. I'm Zack Gallinger-Long and today we're in Portland, Oregon speaking with Dr. Melissa Berry, founder of Missionary Chocolates. Melissa's journey into chocolate is anything but conventional. She's a naturopathic doctor who began making chocolates while she was still studying naturopathic medicine. What started as an effort to create a treat her mother could enjoy despite several food allergies soon turned into something much bigger. Over time, Missionary Chocolates grew from a small booth at a local farmers market into a beloved chocolate company with a loyal following. Along the way, Melissa has combined her background in medicine with a passion for flavor, creating chocolates that emphasize quality ingredients and thoughtful sourcing. In this episode, you'll hear how Melissa blends medicine and chocolate, why community has played an important role in the growth of her company, and what she has learned over nearly two decades of building a business from the ground up. All that and more coming up in this week's episode of The Chocolate Pod.

Calling all chocolate lovers and flavor adventurers. The sweetest weekend of the year is back. Mark your calendars for March 6th, 7th, and 8th and make your way to the Ashland Hills Hotel for the 22nd annual Oregon Chocolate Festival. Indulgence awaits.

In Portland, Oregon, there's a chocolate shop where you'll find shelves lined with handcrafted vegan truffles in flavors like elderberry, strawberry, and Meyer lemon. But one thing you might not expect to find behind the counter is a doctor. Dr. Melissa Berry spent years studying naturopathic medicine before starting the company that would eventually become Missionary Chocolates. And at first glance, that path may raise some questions. How does one go from studying medicine to making chocolate, and why? For Melissa, it started with a simple goal: creating a chocolate her mother could safely enjoy. And from there, the mission continued. Join me as we unwrap the story behind Missionary Chocolates.

I'm Dr. Melissa Berry. I'm a naturopathic physician and the founder and owner of Missionary Chocolates.

Can you tell me the story about making truffles for your mom and how all that began?

So I was in my third year of the National College of Natural Medicine. As a student I was a single mom of a one-year-old and I needed to make her something that she would actually enjoy for Christmas given that I was a broke single mom. And she has many food allergies. She is allergic to dairy. She then became celiac during my medical career. So I made different chocolates with different dairy-free bases to see what she would like.

Can you tell me more about naturopathy? I'm not familiar with how that differs from other studies of medicine.

Exactly. So I'm an ND, which is definitely different than an MD. Our basis of education is very similar for the first two years as far as we get anatomy and physiology and the basic sciences, but the approach is very different as far as we look at all of the things that go into health from your lifestyle and your environment to your mental and emotional health. Obviously that all plays a factor and naturopaths are much more focused on trying to prevent diseases than to actually treat them. We do a lot of treating obviously, but if I had a choice between treating diabetes and preventing diabetes we would definitely like to try to intercept people before they progress to needing very intensive medical care. More like kitchen sink medicine, things that you would use in your kitchen, garlic, ginger. All of these are things that I use and recommend frequently to people because these are sort of the building blocks of how do you achieve health every day.

How does that intersect with chocolate?

For me, given that I started my company literally standing at a farmers market booth with my little guy underneath the table. He took his very first steps at the Buckman Farmers Market. To be in the environment of a community farmers market and to be still in medical school and creating my recipes based on what I was seeing, the raspberries were in season, beautiful herbs, the peppers, all of these things. The idea at the farmers market is like a pharmacy right there and meeting people in the community and knowing my background and my mom and her food allergies. It really coalesced into people feeling like I was somebody that they could really trust and that they knew that I was extremely aware and careful of ingredients and sourcing and that our products were going to be safe for them to eat no matter what diet or orientation they had.

At what point did it go from feeling like this is something smaller to this is a developing business?

Well, I have to say that winning a pretty major award our very first year in business. This was the Northwest Chocolate Festival in 2008. We had only been in business since February and in September I won first place at this festival. It was so overwhelming to be in this room with all these really big players. There were guys with chef hats and here I am, a girl with a tray of chocolates and I don't even think I had business cards yet. To win an award like that definitely changed the trajectory of how I looked at the business because for me it was just a present for my mom and a way to make some money while I was still in medical school. I had not even graduated as a doctor yet when I was making chocolates. I continued to practice medicine for six years, but it was increasingly a strange reality that making chocolate and talking about medicine was actually more impactful in my own life and financially than sitting in an office trying to get people to be interested in natural medicine. It was a pretty big disconnect. It took a while for me to accept that that's how my life was going to go. But I have to say that being a mom and being able to participate in my son's life in a different way than constantly being in an office, that was game changing too and really important for not only our relationship but my ability to just have some control over my own life.

Melissa's path didn't lead in a direction most people might have expected. In fact it didn't lead in a direction she expected either. After years studying naturopathic medicine and preparing for a specific career, the work that appeared in front of her wasn't the kind she had originally set out to pursue. But that didn't mean the time she spent studying was wasted. The knowledge she gained along the way became invaluable in shaping the approach she brought to the work that she loved. And there's the lesson. Sometimes the direction of our life ends up being different than the one we thought we'd planned. And that's not necessarily a problem. In fact it can be a sign that we're paying attention to the opportunities along the way. Melissa's story is a good reminder that it's healthy to stay open to these moments. The path you start on doesn't have to be the one you stay on and you never know where that new direction might lead.

You mentioned that award. What won that award?

Meyer Lemon is the very first truffle I ever made. Our chocolates are coconut milk based. My mom strongly dislikes coconut milk. She doesn't like coconut flavored anything. So I put lemon oil in it to sort of hide the coconut. She also grew up in California so Meyer lemons were just everywhere. She would run out and pick lemons for me all the time. I never bought a lemon until I moved to Oregon. So that was some of our heritage in California. I even brought my Meyer lemon tree with me when I moved from California. There was a lot of orange chocolate around but I never saw anything lemon and chocolate and people were blown away.

How do you judge what flavors will work?

All the recipes are mostly my own. Some of our chocolatiers have come up with some of them as well, but certainly all the ones in the beginning because I probably should have been a chef. I love combining nutrition and flavor because everything we eat is contributing to our overall health in some way or another, and then to make it taste good. My mom called us super vegetarians as kids because vegan wasn't even a word. So I grew up with carob and some pretty not awesome natural foods. For me to be a mom and a doctor and look at what was on the market as far as natural foods, there was clearly a big gap between things that were actually good for you and that actually tasted good. That's why I always called my mom a closet See's Candy eater. She would get one box of See's Candy and cut it into pieces because she loves sweeter, milkier, lighter chocolates. I just wanted to make something for my mom that she actually enjoyed eating that didn't cause her digestive issues later.

What do you use to sweeten your chocolate?

Well there's sugar in the chocolate. It's cane sugar in the regular line. But then we also have the monk fruit stevia line, which I'm really excited about. It's a combination of pure monk fruit and pure stevia with no sugar alcohols at all. That's a line that's keto, paleo, and diabetic friendly.

Let's talk briefly about the name. Can you tell me more of that story?

So my mom's parents were both MDs. They met in medical school in the 30s and they ended up working in Thailand before it was even Thailand, it was still Siam. They worked in Ecuador. They took medical supplies basically anywhere they could. My grandfather set up medical clinics in Mexico for many years. I named the company after them because I'm the only grandkid that became a doctor. It's an amazing honor to carry on that tradition even though I'm doing it in the vehicle of chocolate. People are so interested in why a doctor is making chocolate and why these are the superior quality that they are. It's because I care so much and because I've never ever stinted on the ingredients.

We did not open a retail store until the beginning of 2012. We were still doing five farmers markets a week at that point. Farmers markets were my primary outreach especially in the beginning because it was somewhere I could afford to be and be part of the community. People who come to farmers markets are already interested in food, quality, and supporting their community. I love connecting with other farmers and makers and trying to utilize their products because the idea of a circular economy is so important.

Bartering for ingredients helped too. Our peppermint oil supplier loved our chocolates so he would trade peppermint oil for chocolate for the first couple of years because he knew I didn't have the money to pay for it. Those kinds of relationships and collaborations were incredibly valuable when we were starting out.

I never took business classes and I never went to culinary school. I learned so many things on the fly, especially about business management and working with employees. People have been very generous with me and very kind. I've also been willing to admit when I've failed or when I'm still learning.

There are times when many of us feel the pressure to get everything done ourselves. But the truth is we all have limited bandwidth and we don't have to do everything on our own. There is a difference between how we spend our time and how we invest our time. When we spend time on something we're focused on getting a task across the finish line. It needs to be done so we do it. Hopefully we do it well enough because if we don't it will come back around and demand even more of our time. But when we invest our time we focus on activities where our efforts have the greatest impact and the work generates dividends that continue to create value long after we finish. This kind of work often aligns more closely with our strengths and instead of draining our energy it can actually give some of it back. For most tasks there is someone who is uniquely skilled, talented, and motivated to complete that work. Find those people and partner with them whenever possible. When we acknowledge that someone else may be better equipped to handle certain responsibilities we are not just passing off a task. We are inviting someone else to invest their skills into what we're building while we invest our own time in areas where we are uniquely suited to contribute.

It takes bravery to ask for help. That was one of the hardest parts for me to learn. I felt like I should be able to figure everything out on my own, but at the end of the day you have to sleep and take care of yourself too. Learning when to say no and where to set boundaries has been an important part of building this company.

You're a chocolatier which is different than a chocolate maker. A chocolate maker takes cacao beans and roasts, winnows, and processes them into chocolate. We don't do that. We buy finished chocolate and melt it, then add ingredients and turn it into truffles and other products.

This company was never meant to be a company. It was something to do while I was studying for my boards and trying to support myself and my son.

Chocolate is such a luxury. It's medicine in its own way. Sometimes a good piece of chocolate is enough to nourish someone's soul and make them willing to get up and face another day.

Many customers ask what's in our chocolates and what the base is. They're often surprised to learn that they're coconut milk based. One of my favorite compliments is when someone tells me they can't believe something made with coconut milk tastes this good.

When we come back in just a moment Melissa shares what it's like to pursue an idea when many people in her life doubted her and where she found encouragement to keep going.

Can you tell us about some of the challenges you faced starting the business?

Most people in my inner circle thought starting a chocolate company in an apartment in Southeast Portland with a kid was a terrible idea. There wasn't much enthusiasm for me starting a business. The hardest part was not having people rooting for me except for my customers. When I stood at my farmers market booth and handed out samples people would say please don't stop making these. That encouragement changed everything.

We've been in business for 18 years now and the next challenge is figuring out how to expand without compromising our quality.

We had an opportunity to have a store in the Portland airport for 18 months. The exposure was incredible. Many people told us they had never heard of us until they saw us at the airport.

Josie joined the business after reading about us in the Hollywood Star. She lives nearby and was in a transition period in her life and started working with me. She is stronger in so many areas where I am not. If you can identify what you're not good at and bring people into your team who are strong in those areas it makes all the difference.

My advice for entrepreneurs is simple. You're never going to have all the money you think you need. A huge part of building this company has been moving forward in faith. I never thought this would become my primary job, but I love what I get to do and the people I get to work with. If you're considering starting something just go for it and don't let anyone tell you it isn't your best idea ever.

That was Dr. Melissa Berry, founder of Missionary Chocolates, interviewed in her store in Portland, Oregon. If you'd like to learn more about Missionary Chocolates or explore their handcrafted vegan truffles you can visit them in person or online at MissionaryChocolates.com. If you get the chance to visit Missionary Chocolates in person be sure to let Melissa know you heard her on The Chocolate Pod. Thanks so much for listening to the show this week. Please make sure to click the follow or subscribe button on your podcast app so you never miss a new episode of The Chocolate Pod. If you're interested in joining us for an upcoming chocolate event be sure to visit TheChocolatePodcast.com to see where we're headed next. From facilitating chocolate tastings to collaborating with chocolatiers we love connecting with chocolate fans around the world and hope to see you soon. I'm Zack Gallinger-Long and you've been listening to The Chocolate Pod.