How Scott Witherow of Olive & Sinclair is Creating Truly Southern Artisan Chocolate
The South is known for lots of different confections, and Nashville is home to Goo Goo Cluster, but bean to bar chocolate? Not so much. Scott Witherow of Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Co. was Tennessee’s first bean-to-bar chocolatier. He’s also defining Southern artisan chocolate by incorporating local food traditions and ingredients and partnering with local companies.
Background
During 2007, Scott Witherow began making chocolate in Nashville, with tabletop equipment, after spending decades in the restaurant and food industries and earning the Grand Diplôme® from Le Cordon Bleu, in London. Years of chocolate experimentation, tasting, and packaging design followed. In 2014, he launched his company and began production and retail sales inside a historic building. Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Co. creates Southern Artisan Chocolate™, using minimal ingredients. “We only use cacao and pure cane brown sugar,” Witherow says. “It was a knee-jerk Southern reaction. The added molasses in the sugar creates a slower, warming-up flavor.”
Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Co Retail Shop
Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Co. factory and retail shop are located in a building that has always been a food destination. Beginning in 1890, it housed a neighborhood grocery store and was also once the home of Archway Cookie Company.
Today, Olive & Sinclair’s ambiance, equipment, and packaging honor its heritage, from antique cabinets and pendant factory lighting to neon, and new beams crafted from antique pine. Retro-style labels fit right in.
A tour through the compact production area is like a step back in time. Here you’ll find Olive & Sinclair’s roaster and tempering units, plus a vintage melanger chocolate grinding machine.
Bars
Signature 2.5-ounce bars sell for $8.50, or customers can purchase an Olive & Sinclair 4 Pack for $32. This selection typically includes a 75% Cacao Dominican Republic bar and a 67% cacao bar, plus a Sea Salt bar and an award-winning Mexican Style Cinnamon Chili bar.
Unique flavor combos include 75% (cacao) Lemon and Sea Salt bars or $10 limited edition flavors such as 67% & Red Hots. In addition, the company’s ‘brittles’ combine cacao nibs with bourbon from local Corsair Distillery, or smoked nibs, courtesy of a Madisonville, TN smoke house.
Olive & Sinclair doesn’t sell typical caramels either. Its Duck Fat Caramels are a tantalizing combo of caramelized cane sugar and rich duck fat. Witherow will tell you these confections were ‘literally born behind the duck blind.’ Sea salt and vinegar infuse other housemade caramels.
Every day the doors are open Witherow exudes enthusiasm for chocolate-making. And with every bite of these premium chocolates, you’ll understand why. We spoke with Scott Witherow to learn more about his business.
Scott Witherow photo credit David Braud Photography
Interview with Scott Witherow of Olive & Sinclair
Where do you source your non-cacao ingredients?
Anytime we can source locally or via friends, we do. Our cream comes from Hatcher Family Dairy [in College Grove, TN].
What’s your philosophy and approach when it comes to chocolate?
That it’s made in a fun, friendly, caring environment. We don’t use additives or thickening agents. Everything is ethically sourced and Fair Trade. We all sit down, as a team, and we discuss new ideas because that’s exactly what we are. We know that salt and vinegar go well together, and we wanted to do a salt and vinegar caramel. From a food standpoint, it makes for really clean caramel, and now it’s a factory favorite.
How many chocolate bars do you make, annually?
We make roughly 1,200 bars per day, in one eight-hour shift. Customer favorites are our Sea Salt bar, our Mexican Style Cinnamon Chile, and our newest bar-Candied Lemon (preserved lemon). Our Bourbon Brittle and Duck Fat Caramels are other favorites.
Your bars are 2.5 ounces when many other chocolate bars are 3 to 3.2 ounces. Is there any significance to this difference?
The majority of chocolate bars sit up, and down, whereas our bar design is horizontal. I’m an against-the-grain kind of guy. To me, our size is ample and good, but I don’t look at other people’s chocolate because I don’t really care.
What is the farthest away that you sell your products, wholesale?
We’re in all 50 states and it’s the majority of what we do. I know we’re in Canada, the U.K., and Spain, too.
Tell me about the equipment you use
Whenever I started to conceptualize [the company] there weren’t many folks making chocolate. I’d read books about how to make it. Chocolate, historically, has always been stone-ground. I knew we had to reduce grain size like we stone-grind grits. I wanted to find European-style grinders: melangers. I started with Mexican-style mills. Then I got an email from a guy in Spain who said he had one, in pieces, but all the pieces weren’t there. So, he found two and sent both. I fully rehabbed the mills because I love tradition. And there’s somewhat of a romance to seeing them roll and grind up the cacao that we roast.
Nashville can get hot in the summer. How do you ship your chocolate?
We use ice packs and set sizes of insulated shippers, depending on where it’s going. We mostly use FedEx and there’s a USPS option to Hawaii, Alaska, or beyond. But, if somebody from California orders on Friday, we will hold off and ship it on Monday so it’s not sitting in a hot warehouse. Because, if you get [your order] and it’s melted then you’ll be upset. We want you-or anyone else-to be happy when you get your products.