Our Story

We discovered chocolatiering during our careers as biochemistry professors at North Carolina State University. Like many of our scientist colleagues, we have always enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen.  Around 2005, we began creating and gifting thousands of chocolates to our family, friends, and colleagues during the holidays.

Over the years, we accumulated equipment needed to set up production in our home, and attended multiple classes at the Callebaut Chocolate Academy in Chicago. After retiring from NCSU, we received approval to manufacture chocolates in our home kitchen in Apex, NC, and are now selling our hand-crafted confections as Purple Pod Chocolates.

In a lot of ways, going from science to chocolate makes sense.   Each step of making a chocolate is based in scientific principles – from growing cacao trees to processing the beans, to crafting the chocolate into confections. A chocolatier needs to understand the physical properties of chocolate and other ingredients in order to successfully create their confections and to be able to troubleshoot the process. As in science, attention to detail, reproducibility, and creativity are a must. 

As scientists, we have always enjoyed working at the molecular level with components that are invisible to the human eye. We are so excited now to be making confections in our kitchen laboratory that can be seen and savored.  We strive to bring both classic and complex flavors along with a beautiful presentation to all of our creations.

Enjoy!

Cindy & Paul