Glenn Yeatmann was working for a Honiara cocoa company back in 2002 when he had the idea of turning the high-quality local cacao beans into chocolate.
His Mount Maunganui factory has been producing organic chocolate with ethically sourced Solomon Islands cacao beans for over ten years.
Glenn Yeatmann, general manager of Solomons Gold Chocolate Photo:
Born and bred on a Zimbabwean coffee plantation, Yeatmann moved to the Solomon Islands in 2002 to work for the cacao company C-Corp.
“I was walking through the cacao plantation, and just it's got such a beautiful growing environment. I thought this has got to make a good product.”
Yeatmann says his first attempt at making chocolate from cacao beans at home wasn’t a huge success.
“I basically took the beans home, put them in the dryer, and put them in the oven. After they cooled down, I crushed them, blew the husk off with my wife's hair dryer, put them in a blender, added some sugar and made the first Solomon's Gold.
“It was pretty awful actually, compared to now, It was very strong ... It wasn't tempered or anything. But it had something.”
Yeatman eventually proposed the idea of a New Zealand chocolate factory to his boss at C-Corp.
“I said to him 'I'll build your chocolate factory, as long as it's in Tauranga, in the Mount' ... He agreed and that was 10 years ago, almost to the day”.
The high-grade cocoa beans grown in the Solomon Islands originally came from South America, he says.
“Basically, the cacao came from the low Amazon forest to the Solomon Islands, and it has remained the same. So its origin is pure.”
Once ripe, the Solomon Island beans are sent to Mount Maunganui to be turned into Solomons Gold chocolate bars.
As well as being dairy, gluten, nut, soy and refined-sugar free, the chocolate is very high in antioxidants, Yeatmann says.
In 2014, scientists at Massey University measured the antioxidant level of Solomons Gold cacao beans (cacao nibs) and found it six times higher than spinach.
“Because of the antioxidant level, our classic range is classed as a healthy chocolate, which is, I know, a strange concept.”
Mt Maunganui chocolate company Solomons Gold makes dark chocolate with ethically sourced beans from the Solomon Islands. Photo: The Modern Forager
