Theonista (n.) - Leaders of the chocolate revolution. The revolutionaries can often be heard chanting "Viva Cacao Organico!, Viva Cacao Calidad!" Considered a peace loving sect of the global food industry, the Theonistas are prone to Theobromine induced fits of laughter and hugging.Many people ask us where the name Theo comes from. Anyone who has been on our deliciously fascinating tour can tell you it comes from the Greek name of the Cacao tree - Theobroma Cacao, Food of the Gods. In another sense, Theo is all of us, the self-proclaimed Theonistas who put a little piece of our heart into the work we do here in the factory. Last October we began a series of interviews with team members, highlighting one Theonista each month in our newsletter. Here is a compendium of all the Theonistas of the Month thus far. Enjoy!!
Steve | Nathan | Dave | Jessie | Joanna | Elric | Kate | Rosa
Rosa is a Theonista!
What do you do at Theo?
I work as a Lead Bar Wrapper & Packer and have been working at Theo for 5 years. I like working here very much.
What is the most interesting thing about working at Theo?
The people. I think people at Theo are interesting and nice. They like traveling and learning different languages.
What is your favorite Theo product?
The 45% Milk Chocolate bar and the Lemon Ganache confection are my favorites.
What is your greatest passion in life (outside of chocolate)?
I have a daughter and a son and they are my passion in life. My husband too. My family is everything to me and we are very close.
What food would you be willing to drive all day for?
Salvadorean & Mexican food, especially pupusas. I also like Ethiopian food.
What is your earliest chocolate experience?
My early experience was when I was about 6 years old. My mother would give me chocolate when I was good. Since then, I've liked milk chocolate.
What is your favorite green-tip or eco-action?
I use cloth bags instead of plastic and re-use my ziplocs.
Elric is a Theonista!
What do you do at Theo?
I am a Roaster at Theo and basically coax the best possible taste out of our beans via our 1937 German ball roaster.
What is the most interesting thing about working at Theo?
I get to taste chocolate at every stage of production. Seeing how each step affects the flavor from a pallet of bean filled jute bags to a pretty wrapped chocolate bar is quite crazy.
What is your favorite Theo product?
It is a toss-up between the Madagascar confection or hot Dominican Republic beans right out of the roaster while they are still chewy.
What is your greatest passion in life (outside of chocolate)?
Anything that involves taste really but specifically well - crafted spirits, gin whiskey and tequila!
What food would you be willing to drive all day for?
It would take more than a day but I would drive for as long as it takes to get to my friends in Arizona, Tony and Raquel, and eat anything they would make me.
What’s your earliest chocolate experience?
The earliest that I can think of is most likely eating chocolate covered Moon Pies which are basically smores the size of English muffins. I used to eat waaaaay too many of them (one or more).
What’s your favorite eco-tip or eco-action?
Living in Seattle has made it significantly easy for me to eat as locally as possible which I really love and just tastes way better. I didnt really have a chance to do that in Arizona unless I could live on oranges and Prickely pear fruit (which i would if I could).
Joanna is a Theonista!
What do you do at Theo?
I am the confection kitchen manager.
What is the most interesting thing about working at Theo?
I have really enjoyed being part of a fast growing local company, seeing first hand the transformation of a grassroots ‘movement’ into a viable international business. My co-workers are all interesting people as well.
What is your favorite Theo product?
I’m a fan of the limited edition 1 oz bars, especially the vita coffee and milk chocolate bar.
What is your greatest passion in life (outside of chocolate)?
I am a sculptor and an urban farmer. I strive to bring awareness to the local and organic food movements through public art installations and guerilla food gardens.
What food would you be willing to drive all day for?
I’ve been working in pastry for 14 years now, and have been known to make special trips for the elusive pan au chocolat.
What’s your earliest chocolate experience?
Chocolate and caramel-covered marshmallows from Louisville, KY; otherwise known as majeskas, they’ve been in my Christmas stocking for as long as I can remember.
What’s your favorite eco-tip or eco-action?
Re-use your ziplock bags, already!
Jessie is a Theonista!
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What do you do at Theo?
I am the Office Manager. I process all invoices, account payables, help customers with orders, answering phones, payroll, help anyone in the company as well as the customers who come into the store. I definitely have a variety of roles here at Theo. That's what makes my job so interesting - I do not do the same thing all the time.
What is the most interesting thing about working at Theo?
The people here are just like family to me, so it really makes the job fun. We can all laugh, cry, play and just be who we are here at Theo. I'm so glad that I'm a part of this wonderful company.
What is your favorite Theo product?
I have a lot of favorite flavors. My favorite bars include hazelnut crunch, coconut curry, bread, nib brittle, and Madagascar. In confections I love the lemon, orange thyme and vanilla caramels, pb & j, mint and many more. Sometimes it's just so hard to pick a flavor.
What is your greatest passion in life (outside of chocolate)?
My greatest passion is going sailing, motorcycling and doing needle work. My boyfriend and I have a 38 ft Erickson sail boat and he has a Honda Gold wing. We try and get out on both of them as often as we can. I really enjoy when we can just go sailing and not have a real destination.
What food would you be willing to drive all day for?
I would be willing to drive all day for really good Mexican food. I can eat Mexican food every day. I just love all the flavors that you get in Mexican food.
What's your earliest chocolate experience?
I thought my first experience with chocolate was when I was a child. Instead it was when I started working here at Theo! When I tasted the first chocolate that we made I was shocked. It was not what I expected chocolate to really taste like. The overwhelming chocolate flavor was just tremendous. Even with other flavors added the chocolate flavor shines through.
What's your favorite eco-tip or eco-action?
I have a small Shi Tzu at home who has to be alone all day, so she has been trained to use what they call "potty pads." In the last year I've found some earth friendly potty pads and now I use those so that they compost into good earth.
Dave is a Theonista!
What do you do at Theo?
I serve the masses through customer service, taking orders and pitching chocolate to the uninitiated.
What is the most interesting thing about working at Theo?
There is a real egalitarian sentiment here at Theo. There is a sincere and often expressed appreciation for work done in all quarters - from the factory floor to the administrative office to the confection kitchen and retail store. Feedback, opinions, new ideas and critiques are both accepted and requested by ultimate decision makers here who apply those observations to the growth of the company. The mutual respect results in a true feeling of camaraderie here. We all work hard but have lots of laughs too. That's interesting to me and rare.
Also, Fair Trade Certification and the values that Theo promotes are not something symbolic or vague to us who work here. There is a real understanding of these by all and a shared passion for the social responsibility inherent in them.
What is your favorite Theo product?
There's nothing quite like the 3400 Phinney Fig, Fennel & Almond dark chocolate bar.
What are you currently reading?
I'm reading "How Nonviolence Protects the State" by Peter Gelderloos. It is a critical analysis of protest tactics, when they are most strategic and how as a movement, activists are often neutralized by the limits of those tactics in times of great social crisis. The book is blowing my little mind.
What food would you be willing to drive all day for?
If they'd let me behind the wheel of a 1958 Pontiac Catalina, I'd drive for Seattle's Bamboo Garden for the Szechuan Eggplant.
What's your earliest chocolate experience?
My parents used to throw these late night parties at home and the guests typically crashed on our living room floor. My little sister and I seized on these opportunities to get up at the crack of dawn to tiptoe over the sleeping bodies, quietly making off with all the leftover peanut M&Ms we could carry back to our bedrooms.
What is your favorite Eco-Tip or Eco-Action?
If you are so moved, pass on your martial arts skills to cows and pigs so that they might effectively defend themselves.
Steve is a Theonista!
What do you do at Theo?
I'm a chocolatier, which means I hand make the fillings inside your confections using granite table tops to temper the fillings to the perfect consistency. In other words, I make creamy and delicious slices of heaven, and each bite is accompanied by a chorus of cherub-like angels......I'm a confectionist-perfectionist!
What is the most interesting thing about working at Theo?
I would have to say, it's the people. I have developed some great friendships at Theo, and it's one of those rare work environments where there is a sense of family, and that what we do makes a difference in our community - and the world, for that matter.
What is your favorite Theo product?
I think that just choosing one is like choosing only one of your kids to love more....it makes the other chocolate sad! I like our single origin line of chocolate bars the best though. I love the distinctiveness of flavors, it's like tasting a country! My favorite single origin bar is the Madagascar.
What is your greatest passion in life (outside of chocolate)?
My greatest passion outside of work is music. I've played drums for about 17 years and have been in many bands and toured the country. It was also through my last band that I met the most wonderful person in my life, Crystal, who also works at Theo. How adorable is that!?
What food would you be willing to drive all day for?
Recently we took a vacation in California and Crystal took me to this amazing little bakery in her home town. It's the first time I ever had pan dulce and empenadas which are like fruit filled sweet bread that are to die for. I would drive all day for that. Which we did!
What's your earliest chocolate experience?
Like most people, my first chocolate experience was through that wonderful chap the Easter bunny. My mom got me a chocolate Easter bunny which I ate most of and wore the rest as facial decor. It is how I still maintain my youthful glow.
What's your favorite eco-tip or eco-action?
Use cloth bags at the store. It will help you avoid the avalanche of plastic bags that you end up stuffing in a cupboard, and possibly avoid serious neck or head trauma.
Nathan is a Theonista!
What do you do at Theo?
I am one of the cocoa roasters at Theo. We take raw cocoa beans and roast them in our 1937 German cast iron roaster until they have reached the pinnacle of their flavor development. This point is judged solely on tasting, which means we get the award for eating the most cocoa beans of any other employees at Theo.
What is the most interesting thing about working at Theo?
I sometimes forget how special it is that we are the only company in the U.S. that is currently making chocolate from Fair Trade and organic cocoa beans. It is a real privilege and source of pride to be a part of this team.
What is your favorite Theo product?
The Single Origin Ghana Bar. It's not only incredibly delicious but also extremely versatile as a baking chocolate.
What are you currently reading?
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I am looking for inspiration to be more mischievous.
What food would you be willing to drive all day for?
If France were accessible by car I would make the morning commute for fresh croissants - every day.
What's your earliest chocolate experience?
I was in Paris with my parents when I was about seven years old and I ordered chocolate mousse for dessert. The waiter brought the largest bowl of mousse I have ever seen to this day and left me a serving spoon and a bowl to help myself. No joke it was at least two and half gallons strong. I was in heaven.
What's your favorite eco-tip or eco-action?
I still pick plastic six-pack rings off of the ground and cut them up so birds won't get stuck in them; an unforgettable life lesson from Captain Planet.
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