Lawren Askinosie Shares Why Good Will is in the DNA of Askinosie Chocolate
This summer marks 15 years since Shawn Askinosie sold his first Askinosie Chocolate chocolate bar in Springfield, Missouri. The company is a family business that includes his daughter, Chief Marketing Officer, and co-owner, Lawren Askinosie has not only been involved in the look and feel of the company, but shares the message of its larger mission, to do good.
Background
It’s been quite a ride since longtime defense lawyer and company founder Shawn Askinosie, left Springfield courtrooms behind, following back-to-back first-degree murder trials. He contemplated his next move and experimented at home with cacao beans, purchased online. Shawn finally decided to focus on the art of making chocolate and headed to the Amazon to educate himself.
Shawn opened Askinosie Chocolate in a Springfield, Missouri neighborhood and a 100-year-old building with no electrical, or water service, hoping to help spur community revitalization as his business grew.
Shawn’s daughter Lawren Askinosie joined the company in 2010. “I had the unique opportunity of watching and helping my dad build the company from the ground up,” she adds “I really loved design and branding and I was lucky that he wanted to talk with me about that. I also studied business at Drury University.” Today she is responsible for company sales and marketing strategies and public relations. The Austin, Texas resident recently resumed bimonthly visits to headquarters in Springfield.
The Askinosies share their mission on the web, for all to see, “We at Askinosie Chocolate exist to craft exceptional chocolate while serving our farmers, our customers, our neighborhood, and one another, striving in all we do to leave whatever part of the world we touch better for the encounter.” That mission statement is so core to the Askinsosies, that Shawn who is also a sought-after public speaker, released a book with Lawren, titled Meaningful Work: A Quest to Do Great Business, Find Your Calling, and Feed Your Soul in 2017.
Crafting Chocolate
Doing good is a concept that impacts every aspect of operations. Most of their products are crafted from sugar plus single origin beans (except for cocoa nibs), that often come from only one, very distinct, farmer. Most Askinosie Chocolate items are Kosher-certified, dairy-free, and vegan. This company was the first U.S. maker of natural cocoa powder and the first small batch chocolate maker in the U.S. to press its own cocoa butter—allowing them to also hand craft premium white chocolate.
Doing good also means being efficient and looking around the world for ways to improve making chocolate. Production equipment in the factory has come from across the globe. “Parts of our molding equipment are from Ecuador,” Lawren says. “Our universal refiners from Scotland crush the beans and we can add our organic cane sugar (and perhaps orange oil). We just purchased a flow-wrapping machine for the inner wrapper of our chocolate bars. It now takes one hour to do what took 24 hours, when we hand-wrapped our bars.”
Keys to Premium Quality
The concept of ‘terroir’ definitely applies to Askinosie chocolate products. Because specific regions grow specific cacao varietals, with very different and distinct tastes, resulting products can also taste very different. Lawren says that fermentation is the first and most important step in creating the chocolate. “[Our fermentation] has only improved as our farmers have grown and improved over the 15 years.”
Askinosie Chocolate prohibits use of chemicals and pesticides on crops from farmers who they work with. Operating in Ecuador, Honduras, the Philippines, and Tanzania, these farmers receive above-market pay too. And Shawn and Lawren are especially excited that their suppliers include women-led farmer groups in Ecuador plus rural, southwest Tanzania.
Askinosie Chocolate is the only chocolate maker practicing Fair Trade on four continents. But Lawren says, “We actually practice Direct Trade, because we think it makes a better chocolate bar and we think it’s the right thing to do. We visit our [suppliers] at least once a year and bring them chocolate bars made with their beans.”
In addition, each farmer receives 10 percent of net profits from products that incorporate their beans, as well as company financial statements. It’s a form of profit-sharing, through Askinosie Chocolate’s Stake in the Outcome™ program.
Each ‘origin trip’ allows Shawn and Lawren to bring these relationships to Askinosie Chocolate products. Shawn recently took a solo trip to Tanzania, with additional solo visits planned to Davao, Philippines, plus Ecuador and the Amazon area, before 2023.
Inspiring the Next Generation
In keeping with a desire to better the communities where they have a presence, Askinosie Chocolate operates Chocolate University through its Askinosie Foundation. This summer Springfield high school students will participate in a weeklong leadership academy about small business, entrepreneurship, and cocoa, with plans to resume visits to international farmers’ cooperatives next year.
“The success of this business will be when kids from Chocolate University come to me 10 years from now, and ask, ‘How do I start my own business?” Shawn says.