Meet Teresa Culbertson | Bean to Bar Chocolate Maker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Teresa Culbertson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Teresa, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
When it comes to being a creative I really don’t think there is much of a choice. Really we do, but there is a drive from within to create. I feel there are creatives that know exactly what they are here to do, and then there are ones like me that keep trying new things. I have a passion to learn new artistic ventures. I’ve done all kinds of things from painting T-shirts, having fun with polymer clay, taking a cob house building workshop and a lot more. It’s really difficult to choose just one form. Before coming back to making chocolate I learned how to fix and paint furniture. I even painted a mural in our home. When you create you get into a zone and are at one with yourself and the Universe. I feel the guiding force of this creation comes in the minute you start, you set your intention and it’s there. For anyone wanting to create, just do it, start, it’ll come. It all comes from the heart and the connection.

I learned to make chocolate at Vegan Raw Chef school. I’ve had a lot of health challenges in my life and back in 2010, I learned about raw food at the cob building workshop. In 2011 I had a number of infections one after the other and decided to learn more about it. I ordered a couple of recipe books and made one new recipe a day so I wouldn’t get into overwhelm. By the fourth day, the infections where healed and didn’t come back. I was so impressed and the food was amazing. I decided to learn more and researched chef schools. I chose Matthew Kenney’s and the Universe made it happen, a spot in both the two classes opened up for the time I could take off work. It was 2 months of stress and magic! I was in my 50’s and the younger students where running rings around me. Even with that, I excelled and never looked back.

The two things I loved making from chef school was chocolate and vegan cheese. I worked on creating my own recipe for my chocolate and posted the results on Facebook, I got so many likes, it was a sign to me to follow that flow. I took more raw chocolate classes to expand my knowledge and continued to create my own line. From there I started a company and pursued food business and health coaching education. I ran this business for 4 years part time. What I learned was to really make money, I needed to do it full time or do it from home. We were moving and needed to give up the business at that time.

We’ve now moved to Tucson and even though I still have a full time job, I am getting prepared to run my new business from home. I’m not making ‘raw’ chocolate and am roasting the chocolate so I can experiment with chocolate from around the world. All the chocolate I make, I keep health and taste in mind. Most of the chocolate I make is organic and vegan, although some of the vegan has honey. I also use gluten free ingredients and keep them dairy free.

I’m looking forward to opening the website in October.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve created part time businesses. I had my first raw chocolate business in Eugene, Oregon. It was amazing. I learned about how to run costing spreadsheets, create new recipes, create and design labels, market my business on Facebook and Instagram, how to work at markets and street fairs, design the table and how to present the products. I presented my chocolate to two grocery stores and was accepted. At that time, I decided that I would need to do that full time and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to just churn out the same chocolate and loose most of the profits.

Around the time it was going, I started having issues with the tempering of the chocolate and it wasn’t looking professional. There wasn’t anything wrong with it, but there was something wrong. It took me quite a bit of researching and inquiring to find out it was in the tempering process, my chocolate wasn’t being tempered properly in the machine. I learned a different method of tempering and bingo, all was right in the world again. I think there are always challenges, but this one was big and I cried when I finally had it resolved.

Now that I’m starting up a new chocolate business, I’m updating my skills and revising my recipes for ingredients I’m allowed to use under the Food Cottage Law. I absolutely love this creative process. It’s allowing me to experiment with new techniques including painting the bonbons, how fun!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We’ve only been here a year but we have a few places that we love to go. First off, the Loop Path, we love to ride and when my kidling visited we brought them on a bike ride. I think it’s the best path I’ve ever seen, it’s like biking in a garden and you can keep exploring new parts. The next place we love is the MSA Annex. It’s a great hang out. Decibel Coffee is the start of the experience, have an almond latte and something to eat. We make a lot of our bike rides pass thru there so we can stop and enjoy. While we are there we love visiting our favorite bike shop; Transit Cycles. Jenna, the owner is so awesome to talk to and is amazing at what she does. When I had a crack in my wheel, she was able to get a new rim and spoked the wheel from scratch. She and Sebastian are fantastic people and talented bike mechanics.

Next on the agenda is the Tucson Botanical Gardens. It’s such a great place to go a relax. The restaurant there has fantastic food, we love the hamburgers.

For vegan food, we’ve gone to the Midtown Vegan Deli & Market, they have fantastic burritos.

Last but certainly not least a trip over to Saguaro National Park East. It’s a fantastic place to explore and go for a great bike ride! The hills are fun and challenging.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My Dad deserves the shoutout for my love of making desserts! He would get up every Saturday and Sunday early and bake wonderful goodies for the family and all the kids on the street. I’m from a family of 6 kids and he loved baking for all of us. I’d get up and sit at the kitchen table watching him. He encouraged us to watch what he was doing to learn. When I was older, I’d get a recipe from a magazine and just try it. I learned from him to be fearless, that you can just do it. Although he has passed, I can hear him running up the stairs from the kitchen correcting us on what we were calling ‘Banana Cake’. He said, ‘It’s Banana Bread damn it!’ We all laughed and still joke about that today!

After I moved into my own place I would bring desserts to all our family gatherings. My biggest inspiration came from Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook. I loved that book, I would look thru the pictures and pick something new to make each time. I would also look at some of the other recipes and experiment. I don’t know how far I got, but I’ve make a lot of the recipes in that book, it’s fantastic! I learned a lot of new creations from that book!

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