Meet the maker
Foundry Chocolate
About Foundry
Co-founded in late 2018 by David Herrick and his wife Janelle, Foundry Chocolate is a boutique craft chocolate maker dedicated to celebrating the flavour of single-origin cacao. Based north of Auckland, New Zealand, David and Janelle focus on crafting two-ingredient chocolate—using only cacao beans and organic cane sugar—highlighting the full potential of the tasting notes of each origin. Ethical sourcing, flavour, and craftsmanship are at the heart of everything they do, with a mission to expand their selection of cacao varieties.
Foundry Chocolate – pouring chocolate
In 2023, the team moved to a dedicated chocolate factory in Silverdale, enabling them to carefully expand production while remaining hands-on in roasting. Foundry has been recognised through numerous awards including three Gold Awards at the 2023 Academy of Chocolate and Best in Show at the 2024 Northwest Chocolate Festival in Seattle.
How they became makers…
Co-founders David and Janelle drew on their backgrounds in marketing and art, combining a love of flavours, creativity, and hands-on experimentation. David discovered craft chocolate by chance and began experimenting at home, often using domestic appliances in inventive ways, while Janelle contributed her design expertise and support. After testing dozens of origins and harvests to find optimal roast profiles and flavour notes, they developed their own approach to single-origin chocolate. Encouraged by positive feedback from a professional chocolate judge, they committed fully to chocolate, bringing their passion for chocolate-making, ethical sourcing, and meticulous flavour development to life with Foundry.
Foundry Chocolate – two roasters in action
Foundry’s Sourcing
Initially, Foundry’s sourcing process involved tracking down farmers and suppliers, securing small mixed shipments from Uncommon Cacao and Meridian Cacao in the USA alongside direct imports from Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. As their operation has grown, almost all of David and Janelle’s cacao is now direct-sourced from single origins, including Tanzania, Uganda, Vanuatu, Peru, India, Mexico, Vietnam, and the Solomon Islands. Ethical sourcing is a core priority for Foundry, who ensures that every relationship is fair and contributes positively to the cacao community. David’s encounters with industrial cacao sellers have reinforced the importance of these standards.
Above all, Foundry’s focus is on flavour; using two matched gas-powered drum roasters—a 2kg test roaster and a 10kg production roaster—each new origin or harvest is first roasted in small test batches. These are carefully tasted until the optimal roast profile for each single origin or harvest year is found, allowing the chocolate’s unique notes to shine. They also strive to ensure that their packaging, beautifully designed by Janelle, is environmentally responsible by shifting from a compostable inner wrapper to a recyclable paper inner wrapper for their bars.
Foundry Chocolate – sorting cacao beans by hand
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