- Are you interested in food preparation?

Today we're highlighting the sweet career path of a chocolatier.

- My name is Beth Dawson, and I work at Moka Origins as the lead chocolatier.

I'm the chocolatier, which means I take the chocolate that's already been made and I temper it.

I come in, we do our morning checklist, make sure that everything is clean and ready to go, and the chocolate will be in the tempering machine.

It needs to come up to temp, about 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and then you can hit the button that will slowly bring it back down to the proper temperature for tempering.

This is the tempering room.

This is where we take liquid chocolate, and we're able to turn it into chocolate bars.

Chocolate has to be tempered, which means that it's brought to a certain temperature, and that will make the chocolate bars that you're used to seeing that are shiny and that have a good snap to them that aren't crumbly.

With chocolate, you have to always be cleaning, making sure you get any bit of chocolate that falls because it immediately will melt and make a mess.

There are a million things that can go wrong, so you have to be vigilant in watching for issues that might signal a bigger issue down the road.

This kind of chocolate making right now, it's not exactly a new business, but interest in it is definitely growing.

It's not for everyone because it is physically demanding.

You're hauling buckets of chocolate around, but the main thing is that if it's something you're passionate about, to reach out and get a relationship with people that are doing stuff you're excited about.

(bright upbeat music) I went to two years of college.

I ended up dropping out because I spent the summer working at a place that had an organic diner.

Learned how to cook there, learned how to do some farming stuff there, and then eventually ended up owning a farm, selling produce and stuff from the farm, and I was also working at the Highlights Foundation.

So they have retreats that are focused for different children's book authors.

So I used to be one of the people there that did farm-to-table cooking for the authors there.

So when Highlights was shutting down for COVID, I came here to help wrap chocolate bars and then learned how to pour chocolate.

(bright upbeat music) Chocolatiering is a fun job.

I always enjoy my work.

One round of chocolate takes 30 minutes to do.

Then those have to rest in the cooler for about half an hour.

When those are ready, they come out and are unmolded, put on sheets, and then those go on a bun rack to be wrapped afterward.

We do quality assurance throughout the day, and then are entering things into our system so we have our inventory up to date, and putting them on the shelf.

Although what I'm doing is a production role, there still is a lot of creative input from everybody in the team.

I am a single mother with three children, so we're not millionaires, but we do just fine.

(bright music) I think what I really love about this job is that it is such a small company.

- It's cookie day.

- Everyone is excited.

You can find the owner of the company scooping cookies in a hairnet.

So a lot of people don't know what chocolate comes from.

It comes from the seed of a tree.

This is a cacao pod.

Inside the pod is a fruit and seeds, and then the nib is inside.

Working at a small production place like this, it provides for a great quality of life.

You get the creative input, you work hard, but also, you know, you appreciate each other.

Working at the chocolate place, you do eat quite a bit of chocolate.

It is part of the job.

But I think all of us love to make a product that we're really proud of.

I never thought I'd be so lucky.

I love being able to tell people I'm a chocolatier.

Any party you're at, if there's a lull in conversation, you could say you're a chocolatier and you're off and running.

- Pretty cool, right?

Join me next time for another exciting career journey, and be sure to follow us on social media.