Father and daughter Glenn Yeatman and Andrea King at Solomons Gold chocolate factory. Photo / George Novak
Father and daughter Glenn Yeatman and Andrea King at Solomons Gold chocolate factory. Photo / George Novak
Organically grown in the Solomon Islands, the beans from Solomons Gold chocolate are shipped to a small chocolate factory in the Mount where every step of the bean-to-bar process in completed by hand. Zoe Hunter tours the chocolate factory.
Ten tonnes of organic chocolate beans are shipped from the Solomon Islands to a small chocolate factory in Mount Maunganui every six months.
There, hundreds of chocolate bars are completely handcrafted from bean to bar each day.
Glenn Yeatman came to New Zealand with his family as a refugee from Zimbabwe about 20 years ago.
After being invited to the Solomon Islands to work on a cocoa plantation, he moved back to Aotearoa to start his own chocolate factory in the beachside suburb of Mount Maunganui.
The small chocolate factory on Macrae Ave now stocks its bean-to-bar dark artisan chocolate at more than 70 stores nationwide and in Australia.
From bean to bar
Yeatman said the chocolate is made from single-origin cacao beans, which means they are grown from a single farm or region.
From the cacao farms to grading facility in the Solomon Islands capital of Honiara, Guadalcanal, only the finest chocolate grade cacao beans are hand-selected and dried, he said.
He believed due to his experience in coffee, he was asked to help manage the cocoa plantations in the Solomon Islands where he became the general manager for Commodity Corp (C-Corp).
"Coffee is fantastic but chocolate is mindblowing. It is so diverse," he said.
"Chocolate makes you smile. It is a positive thing."
Yeatman moved from the Solomon Islands to Tauranga in 2013.
"I took some of the beans back and made the first Solomons Gold."
"We want to be a local destination for people to come and experience the bean-to-bar cafe and taking the chocolate to the next level."
Since the beginning, the social enterprise has focused on 100 per cent sustainability and was a zero waste business to benefit the future generations of people living on the Solomon Islands.
Yeatman said they were commitment to improving the Solomon Island communities' standard of living by fair trade including paying premium for their beans, fair wages, workers rights, gender equality and child-free labour.
"We are putting Solomon Islands on the map. Everywhere the chocolate goes, the story goes with it."