What started as a farmer’s market idea between two college students has grown into one of Arizona’s most decorated craft chocolate companies. Founded in 2012 by Steven Shipler and Kasey McClasin, Stone Grindz Chocolate began with a stone grinder, plenty of trial and error, and a deep curiosity about chocolate-making. I sat down with co-founder Steven Shipler to talk about how Stone Grindz Chocolate got its start and the story behind the small llama stamped onto each square.
How did Stone Grindz Chocolate get started?
Back then, we were broke kids and thought it would be cool to start our own thing at the farmer’s market. We were already selling a ton of bread for the bakery where we worked, and we thought maybe we could do something ourselves.
We got on YouTube and started Googling, trying to figure out what we wanted to do. We came across this interesting guy who was grinding his own chocolate in this little electric stone grinder. So, instead of buying pre-made chocolate, melting it down, and turning it into confections, we realized we could do the whole process ourselves. So, we bought a stone grinder and started making chocolate.
Can you explain what a stone grinder is and how it works?
The technical term is a “mélanger”. It’s essentially a stainless-steel drum with a granite bottom and two granite wheels. The drum spins while the wheels apply pressure, grinding the cacao and sugar until the texture becomes extremely smooth. For us, it usually takes about 72 hours, sometimes up to four days, to get the chocolate down to that silky smooth texture.
I understand you and Kasey are self-taught, so how did those early batches turn out?
Honestly, the first 20 or 30 batches tasted horrible. Chocolate is very finicky. We were trying different roasting profiles, but we were roasting the cacao beans as if they were almonds. We didn’t realize that cacao is supposed to be roasted very low and slow, which is why European chocolate tastes so good.
It took us about a year to find a European textbook on chocolate making that gave us some key golden nuggets. It taught us to start roasting well below 300 degrees and for a long period of time. It gives the chocolate some warmth while allowing it to retain its floral, lingering flavors. When we started doing that, that’s when everything changed.
When did you bring your chocolate to market?
Once we felt we had something decent, we made a bunch of chocolate bars and wrapped them up in aluminum foil and kraft paper with some stickers we ordered online; it was very makeshift. We sold out completely on our first two days and made more money than we were making in a month at our regular jobs. So, we decided to quit our jobs and go all in.
When did you begin entering chocolate competitions?
About six years into the business. The first year we entered, we didn’t win anything. But we kept refining. We bought some of the award-winning chocolates and tried to reverse engineer them to understand what made them different. The following year, we won a bronze at the International Chocolate Awards and became a finalist at the Good Food Awards. We knew we were on the right track. The year after, we won a gold medal at the New York City International Chocolate Awards. Since then, we have won more than 40 awards, including multiple gold medals and two world gold medals in Italy.
Where do you source your cacao beans?
All over the world. At this point, we’ve tried beans from over 50 different farms and well over 100 different types of cacao beans. The first question is whether it tastes amazing. We look for beans with unique flavors. We want something that feels elegant compared to the flavor of bulk commodity chocolate. Many beans can have floral notes, fruit tones, or other flavor characteristics that make the chocolate much more interesting.
How many different chocolate bars do you produce today?
We always carry eight staple bars. Four of those are our origin bars from Peru, Bolivia, Madagascar, and Ecuador. Then we have flavor bars like bourbon pecan and cherry, almond butter with black lava salt, crystallized ginger, and cappuccino. Outside of those staples, we rotate flavors every week. Every Thursday, we release two new bars, two new truffles, and one new stuffed bar. Sometimes we do themed releases inspired by different cuisines or places. It keeps things fun for our customers.
Tell me about your logo.
We hired a local artist, Joe Mehl, to create a detailed mandala-style illustration. It is very intricate, featuring shapes, patterns, and symbols related to the story of chocolate. Hidden within the original artwork was a small llama character we loved, and we decided to make it our mascot. Now every square of chocolate has that little llama stamped on it.
written by: marci symington
photographed by: luke irvin