Chocolatier Mimi Wheeler:
Founder of Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate

Chocolatier Mimi Wheeler infuses her Ecuadorian chocolates with organically-grown fruits, nuts and flowers and herbs from her own garden. Her small workshop, Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate, is perched on the side of a forested dune in the Lake Michigan beachfront village of Empire, 20 miles west of Traverse City.

“I aspire to sell beautiful, soulful chocolates that are delicious, wholesome and sing in your mouth,” she says.

A native of Denmark, Wheeler made her first truffle when she was nine years old. She emigrated to the U.S. in 1980, and spent the next two decades as a social worker. Only after retiring to Northern Michigan did she return to her childhood dream of designing and selling chocolates. In 2004 she founded Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate. The company name is a tribute to Mimi’s mother, whose sepia-toned portrait adorns every box.

After working for several years with Belgian chocolate, the variety used by most commercial confectioners, she switched to the potent dark Ecuadorian cocoa. Her blends often contain as much as 75 percent cacao from Arriba beans.

“I’ve always loved chocolate, but this is something special,” she says. “I traveled to Ecuador and was able to meet the people who grow and process and package this chocolate. It’s a wonderful privilege to be able to use such a wonderful product.”

The cocoa Wheeler uses is a Fair Trade product, which means the Ecuadorian growers receive a larger share of the profit from its sale. It’s also certified by the Rainforest Alliance. Arriba plants can be grown in deep forest shade, so farmers don’t have to cut down the surrounding jungle to cultivate them.

Grocer’s Daughter chocolates have begun to attract a cult following around the country, particularly the subtle, complex truffles, flavors such as lavender, rosemary, and Mayan   with a warm touch of chili, and blueberry with blueberry butter from local fruit, sage from Wheeler’s garden, and a pinch of lemon zest.

Wheeler also makes enormous hazelnut-covered Turtles, the caramel centers enriched with thick local cream and honey from the star thistles that clothe the nearby hillsides; Puddles, flat pancakes of chocolate laced with fruits, nuts, seeds and coffee; and Wally Bars, bricks of chocolate mixed with a trail mix of nuts and fruits.

Wheeler’s chocolates can be found in many stores, markets and gift shops in the Traverse City area and by mail order.

Visit www.grocersdaughter.com

Edited by Patricia D. Sherman
Photo Credit: Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau

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