Chocolatier Mark LaPolla is the owner of Life by Chocolate in Greenville, NY. Located in the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn that he also operates with his wife, he creates unique chocolates and confections.
The 8Q interview: 8 questions answered by successful chocolatiers
1. Were you formally trained to work in the art of chocolate making?
Yes. I went to the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) to study pastry and chocolate making.
2. What was the moment that you knew you wanted to be a chocolatier or work mainly with chocolate?
The reason I became a chocolatier was that I wanted a dessert that I could just pull off the shelf and serve. Something easy to serve with dinner. Then people started buying the chocolates and I had to print up a menu. I find making chocolate fun and interesting. I am a culinary chef as well as a chocolatier and I also make all of our pastries. I don’t like to limit myself.
3. How would you describe the product line your company offers?
Extensive and ambitious. We offer not only over 200 different chocolates and confections but also done in multiple types of chocolate, white, milk, dark and vegan. All of our dark chocolate is fair trade and this year we are converting to organic, fair trade and vegan. Though, even after the conversion, not all of our confections will be strictly vegan, just our vegan line. Our vegan line is already organic and fair trade as well as vegan. Our dark chocolate all comes from the Americas or islands associated with the Americas.
4. What is your best selling product and what is your personal favourite?
Our best selling product is probably our Bee’s Knees bar. Then our Goddess bar would be next and then our O Sunny Day, Smoke on the Chocolate and our Vegan Red Dog bars. Overall our bars are our biggest sellers. Our Cherry cordials would be next. We sell an amazing number of Cherry cordials.
5. Up to now, what has been the greatest highlight of your chocolate career?
Getting a Cherry Cordial order by Harry Winston, which they wanted sent to Hong Kong. I thought that that was interesting. I think the rate at which we’ve been expanding is unbelievable.
We also do demos for charity functions and that is always fun. The NRDC (National Resource Defense Council) asked us to send them Bee’s Knees for their Tiny Worker program. It was a charity event for raising awareness of the plight of honey bees. We were more than happy to help. One highlight, especially for a chocolatier is hard to pin down.
6. What has been most difficult challenge you have faced in your chocolate career?
Every day making chocolates is the greatest challenge. Not just making any old bar or machine manufactured cordial but making tiny works of art by hand every day. This is the greatest challenge.
We were at a charity event for a public library in Connecticut. We donated some chocolate prizes and we also agreed to demo making chocolates there at the library. People came up to me to ask questions. One fellow in particular had a ton of questions and he also wanted me to look at the chocolates he’d made for the event. I quote, “It is not as easy as it looks (making chocolates).”
People in general do not realize how difficult it is to make chocolates and confections. When the chocolate agrees to work with you, it can be a breeze, but when the chocolate decides not to work with you, it can be hell. Many chocolatiers, some of them my friends, have given up because of the difficulty of working in this medium.
7. If you weren’t working with chocolate, what would you be doing?
I’d be retired and helping my lovely wife run our inn.
8. What is next for you and for your company?
We only ship right now to 15 states. The next step is to expand our distribution. Also, I want to expand our vegan and organic chocolates. Presently, we are converting all of our fair trade, dark chocolate to fair trade, organic chocolate. Currently, we have different chocolates for different lines of products.
All of our dark chocolate is fair trade but soon it will be fair trade, organic and vegan. That’s our next manufacturing step. We also want to get a new factory space for our chocolate lines. But I think that’s in the future. Probably next year. We’ve been looking and have not found a suitable space yet.
Mark LaPolla
Life by Chocolate
www.lifebychocolates.com
twitter: LifeByChocolate
Read more 8Q Interviews from other successful chocolatiers.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
What an illuminating interview! Great concept for the site. Will be reading some more!
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Thanks, I want to make this a regular feature. It’s nice to learn a little more about the person behind the chocolate.
I visited your blog and your birthday cakes with the fruit looked delicious. I love the way you decorated creating patterns with the fruit. Now if only there were some sprinkles of dark chocolate curls on top!
Mark is so nice! I did a review of some of his chocolate bars on my blog last year. They were really delicious!