We had the good fortune of connecting with Marty and Terrie Watts and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Marty, Terrie, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Terrie, my wife had been searching for a hot chocolate mix that reminder her of her time in living in the French Alps. Almost all of the mixes that she found were loaded with sugar and other sweeteners., Finally she decided to come up with her own mix. She used spices traditionally used in Europe and South America. She also use chocolate in addition to cocoa to give the drink a rich smooth taste usually reserved for drinking chocolate. Drinking chocolate is generally made be shaving a solid bar of chocolate into hot milk. Terrie ground the solid chocolate to make it easier to melt into the milk. After much experimenting she hit on a mix that we fell in love with. We often shared our drinking chocolate with our friends who often ask if we would make a batch of the mix for them to take home. After a year or so of doing this we decided to give it a go using the recently passed rules in Colorado allowing for cottage industry food products. We sold our product in street fairs for a year and then decided to take the next step to manufacture for wholesale. We were fortunate to land in a Whole Foods Market about nine years ago. We have been supplying Wholefoods and some smaller markets ever since.
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Terrie is a painter, I design products and homes. I have always believed that the places we dwell in have a huge impact on how we approach life and view the world. I have specialized in using natural material in my building, including adobe, stone, timbers, and clay. In our business, we have also taken an artistic approach. Terrie is a master in the kitchen. Developing taste profiles comes natural to her. We have also tried hard to be kind to the earth and to human biology with our chocolate business. Our ingredients have been carefully sourced and we have avoided using preservatives, thickeners, emulsifiers, sweeteners, and other chemicals that may make our products more mainstream, but would take away from the natural beauty of chocolate and the spices flavors that we use.
If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We live on the south slope of the Grand Mesa in Delta County. We also have a bed and breakfast which gives us a lot of chances to recommend the wonderful natural wonders of Western Colorado. First we recommend the Grand Mesa. It is awe inspiring any time of the year. In the winter, cross country skiing, alpine skiing, and motorized winter sports are at world class levels on the Grand Mesa. In the summer and fall, hiking, biking, fishing, and camping are easily accessible activities. Just being on the Grand Mesa during any season is awe inspiring. The wild flowers stretch through the supper. Wild mushrooms are a delight to forage. Sitting in a meadow or at a vista and drinking in the extraordinary beauty is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison is also less that an hour from our bed and breakfast. I consider it one of the wonders of the world.
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have been an entrepreneur most of my life, designing and building products and buildings. Creating another business came second nature. I did draw on resources larger than my. I consulted with teachers at the Mesa County Small Business Development Center. I also participated in a small business class through our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My brother has often served as a mentor to me. He taught business development classes at Merrell Hust College and the Portland Community College in Portland Oregon. In college I studied with Steve R. Covey, an organizational behavior professor at Brigham Young University. He is best known for his book “Seven Habits of Successful People.” I will never say that we were alone in our effort, but we have basically built our business on our own, without any dept.
Website: https://www.antelopetradingcompany.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maison_de_terre/
Image Credits
I own all of the pictures. The people in the pictures are Terrie and I.