Tyler Cagwin of Nostalgia Chocolates on Selling Cacao to Breweries

In today's episode, Tyler Cagwin of Nostalgia Chocolates gives advice for craft chocolate makers on selling cacao nibs and other ingredients to craft breweries. Tyler has sold cacao to many breweries in upstate New York and now in North Carolina, and it's become a substantial part of his business at Nostalgia. Here he walks us through things to consider in advance, how to approach prospective brewery partners, what he presents when he meets with them, how he builds these relationships, and how he schedules cacao roasting for his brewery customers in his regular chocolate production schedule.This interview is filled with great advice for craft chocolate makers who would like to begin working with breweries. At the end, we also talk about the newest edition of Nostalgia's Hop Aged bar.You can listen to my past episode with Tyler here. You can also read a blog post about his Hop Aged bar here, and his work with New York breweries here.Episode timeline (approximate):1:00 - Introduction3:10 - How Tyler got started selling to breweries6:30 - The knowledge level of brewers in regards to cacao13:55 - Consistent questions he expects15:10 - Info he provides proactively17:20 - Pricing and sticker shock21:50 - Workflow for providing nibs23:55 - Marketing and co-branding28:45- Production schedule considerations29:55 - Roasting profiles31:45 - Impact on his own cacao bean orders35:40 - Providing husks and other ingredients39:25 - Final thoughts on selling to breweries42:20 - Hop Aged bar Check out David's book Pairing Beer & Chocolate: A Guide to Bringing the Flavors of Craft Beer and Craft Chocolate Together.Follow Bean to Barstool on social media!InstagramFacebookPinterestSign up for host David Nilsen's beer newsletter for regular beer musings, and the Bean to Barstool newsletter for pairings, collaborations, and maker profiles.