Rogue Chocolatier

Rogue Chocolatier was an American bean-to-bar chocolate maker founded and almost entirely operated by Colin Gasko. Started in 2007, Rogue used cocoa beans from locations not typically used in chocolate production, and through an unusually long and meticulous production process, created small quantities of chocolate bars for retail. Across the business's lifespan, it operated out of Minnesota and Massachusetts.
Rogue was responsible for introducing and popularizing sources of cocoa beans to market, including Peru and a site in Ecuador. The chocolate produced was widely praised: a 2015 profile of Gasko quoted expert Clay Gordon describing him as "probably the best chocolate maker in the country right now", and the products were extensively awarded. The bars were unadorned, tasting simply of chocolate without inclusions such as fruits or salt, highlighting the flavors of the beans terroir.
The company shut down in 2019, as Gasko criticised his business model, and that of craft chocolate more generally as environmentally and financially unsustainable, as well as citing disillusionment with craft chocolate's ability to affect substantive change on labor practices of cocoa production.
Rogue chocolatier was founded by Colin Gasko. Its name was a misnomer; it was a chocolate maker rather than chocolatier. Before founding Rogue Chocolatier, Gasko worked in coffee shops and Whole Foods. In 2006, a boss from a Minneapolis Whole foods where Gasko worked selling cheese taught him how to make rolled truffles and ganache. He proceeded to take up chocolate making as an "expensive hobby", buying a small stone spice grinder and grinding beans by hand, and roasting them in an oven he made from a box fan and a hair dryer in a sober living house he ran for college students. He learned about chocolate making by reading technical manuals, experimentation and discussions with industry figures. Thereafter he bought better equipment and rented a 350 square feet (33 m) space to produce in.
Rogue was incorporated in April 2007, named by a Whole Foods cashier, launching in November. The company was founded in the midst of an early wave of craft chocolate manufacturing of the mid-aughts. From the start of operations, Rogue paid producers twice the minimum price for cocoa. In 2008, the brand was featured on a segment of Martha Stewart's TV show Martha, wherein Stewart toured the facility. That year, Gasko described the most challenging part of production as sourcing and troubleshooting machinery, opining that the industry was oriented towards large-scale production. At this time, his conching machine was a modified machine designed for grinding dosa batter. The chocolate was initially only available within the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. In 2010 Rogue was still operating out of Minnesota.
Manufacturing chocolate bean-to-bar, in 2010, Gasko, dissatisfied with the quality of beans being sourced from South America, purchased a batch from a farm in Peru to create the Piura Bar. This move is credited with inspiring the Peruvian government (along with a desire to reduce coca production) to promote Peruvian cacao, which by 2015 was a popular source for chocolate makers. Around 2011, he bought beans from Ecuadorian farmer Vicente Norero who utilized technologies to process and ferment cacao in novel ways. With a 75% blend of two types of these beans, Rogue released the Balao bar, the first single-farm blend. Other chocolate makers proceeded to release their own Balao bars. In 2013 he released the 80% cocoa Porcelana bar, made from the eponymous Venezuelan beans. This was the first American bar sold made from such beans; rather than the delicate taste Porcelana was known for, the flavor of the chocolate was intense. By 2015 Rogue was operating out of Three Rivers, Massachusetts. Gasko was researching the creation of biodegradable packaging to hold chocolate within the wrapper that would not impact taste. Between 2015 and 2016, Gasko developed a cacao quality screening method with anthropologist Carla Martin and coffee grading instructor Jamin Haddox.
On June 6, 2019, Gasko initiated a $75,000 crowdfunding campaign. The money was to pay debts, and fund finishing a last batch of bars and the transfer of equipment and knowledge to a new owner in a cocoa-producing nation. He said he had lost confidence in the production model, saying a minimal positive social impact was outweighed by a large environmental impact. He said that craft chocolate did not generally improve working conditions of farmers and producers as it did not address those who were the poorest. He also said the income Rogue generated could not support both his family and the business. He expressed that he was saddened that the message he had been attempting to communicate in producing his chocolate had not been as widely received as expected. The campaign was closed on June 26 after raising less than ten percent of the goal, refunding contributions and announcing it was looking to form a non-profit to transfer to a new owner.
Profiles of Gasko described his approach to chocolate as intellectual, and in 2008, soon after founding Rogue, Gasko said he enjoyed the challenge chocolate making presented, and the potential for improvement. He was characterized as passionate, focused and giving great attention to details, and in 2015 was quoted as saying "I obsess about this 24 hours a day. My job is my life and creating meaning", while simultaneously saying chocolate made him "suicidally depressed" to the point he avoiding eating it. To support his partner and child, as of 2015 Gasko was living with his parents to save on rent as Rogue was not profitable. In profiles and reviews, his young age at the founding of Rogue and temperamental personality were highlighted.
As he shut Rogue down, Gasko said that he found the experience scary: "It's the only thing that I've ever been modestly successful at. My whole sense of identity and everything that I've ever worked on... all of that is going [away]." By the time Rogue was closed, Gasko disliked eating chocolate.
Rogue sourced cocoa beans from single-farmed lots in locations infrequently sourced for beans, such as such as Jamaica and Ecuador. While Rogue visited cacao growers, and attempted to build relationships, sourcing decisions were made by evaluating raw cacao provided by suppliers able to export to the United States. As of 2012, West African cocoa was not used, as Gasko said such cocoa had a standardized flavor inappropriate for single-origin chocolate, and because producers did not want to sell small amounts of cocoa for Rogue's small-scale production.
Cocoa beans were sorted by hand to remove debris (such as sticks, rocks) and germinated seeds. They were roasted in a convection oven, cooled and then hulled using a machine Gasko had designed and built. The nibs were ground with cane sugar to a paste containing particles smaller than 20 microns. They were then conched for between one and three days, and then molded, cooled and packaged. With few exceptions, the chocolates produced were a combination of sugar and cocoa, without the inclusion of ingredients such as additional cocoa butter, lecithin and vanilla. Gasko oversaw the packaging in letterpress-printed paper. By 2016, the inspiration for the packaging's design had moved from modelling off a historic, less-industrial production era, to emphasizing the role of science and technology in improving chocolate quality.
Producing each batch of bars took at least 45 days, significantly longer than competitors, with each individual bar requiring three days to make. As of 2015, for the existence of Rogue, Gasko had been the sole employee, apart from his long-term girlfriend who occasionally helped with roasting. Gasko said that he had not increased production since starting; the production technique made scaling up difficult. Production became more complex and labor-intensive as the business developed. At its peak, Rogue made a small amount of chocolate per month: 1,000 bars. While he had initially modelled his production after highlighting "aggressive" flavors (such as acidity), by 2015 he was modifying the way he roasted beans to highlight the bean's terroir.
Initially, Rogue sold two bars: the Ocumare, made using beans from the Ocumare Valley in northern Venezuela, and the Sambirano, made of beans sourced from the north-west of Madagascar. Writing in Gourmet Magazine, Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl described the former as tasting "massive", containing notes of "black walnut, bacon, blackberry, blackcurrant liqueur, peat-smoked whiskey, and sourdough toast". She described the latter as containing notes of "raspberry tea, cedar, cinnamon, and burnt lemon peel". She compared the two to alcoholic beverages; an old Scotch whiskey and a Chianti respectively.
A later bar was called the Hispaniola, a 75% cocoa chocolate named after the Caribbean island containing Haiti and the Dominican Republic where the cocoa was sourced. Going further than usual with single-origin chocolate, the cocoa was entirely sourced to a single drying and fermentation on a small co-op. With a smooth texture, it contained fruity and acidic flavors. The Rio Carabe bar, named for the town in Venezuela, was more intensely flavored. Gasko has said Rogue was the first company in the United States, and possible the second worldwide, to produce chocolate using beans from that source. Other bars included Jamaica, Porcelana, Balao and Sambirano. Rogue occasionally released limited edition bars. The chocolates were expensive, the Jamaica bar for example retailed for US$18 in 2015.
In a 2010 review for The Atlantic, Ari Weinzweig praised the texture of the Hispaniola bar, despite saying that it may not appeal to some people who prefer creamy chocolate. He highlighted what he described as the flavor's simplicity, giving it praise and said the bar was particularly aromatic. In his review, Weinzweig took pains to praise the packaging's graphic design, saying "I buy by flavor, not fashion, but if I were going to buy a package alone, this would be one of them", researcher Kristy Leissle also praised Rogue's packaging, describing it as "elegant" in 2013. In 2011, food writer David Lebovitz positively reviewed a Piura bar. Rogue's chocolates were noted as primarily tasting of chocolate, rather than the other flavors such as fruit, nuts, or liquorice in chocolates produced by other manufacturers. The chocolates never contained inclusions such fruit or salt.
The Good Food Awards named Rogue one of America's best chocolate brands every year between 2011 and 2014. In 2012, Bon Appétit listed Rogue as among the top twelve best new chocolate makers and chocolatiers in America, and in 2018, Eater listed Rogue among the top six bean-to-bar manufacturers in the United States.
In 2015, the Porcelana bar was awarded the gold medal at the International Chocolate Awards. That year, author Megan Giller wrote that chocolate expert Clay Gordon had described Gasko to her as "probably the best chocolate maker in the country right now." Rogue was not as widely known as other bean-to-bar manufacturers such as Mast Brothers.