How I got my job... as a chocolatier

Eva Wieleman, 27, works in product development at Tony’s Chocolonely. Here’s how she landed such a sweet gig…

Create your own opportunities

I interned at Tony’s Chocolonely when

I was 19 and studying Food Technology at university (you don’t need a degree to do my job, though). It was a fairly new company, so there weren’t any vacancies advertised, but I wrote a letter explaining my passion for the brand and asked if I could come in as part of my course. Tony’s is committed to producing slave-free products (slavery and child labour exist on many cocoa farms in West Africa), so I made sure to mention how much I admire this too. I had worked in bakeries previously, which also helped to secure the internship. From day one, I learned all about product development and flavour combinations. Then, once I had graduated, I returned to Tony’s full-time and saw the company grow from eight to more than 100 employees.

Diamonds need pressure to shine

Between the team, we make around 10 new flavours a year – it’s such a great opportunity to be creative. I’ve baked cookies at home before, then brought them into work and added them into chocolate. Other times, I’ll eat a dessert in a restaurant, or try a new kind of coffee, and a lightbulb will appear above my head. But transforming the concept of a flavour into a reality can take years, especially as, for us, all the ingredients have to be ethically sourced – something I assist with. I really take the time to get to know our suppliers. There have been instances when we’ve been really far down the line – right in the final stages and close to launching a chocolate bar we’ve worked tirelessly on – and our boss has said, “It’s not right, start over.” You have to find the energy to begin the process again with an entirely new flavour, but I always think of the phrase “diamonds shine under pressure” if I need a boost. Sometimes you have to dig deep, but that drive to keep going is always in you somewhere.

Passion and patience are equally important

The best thing about my job is the same as the worst: chocolate-tasting, which I was taught to do early on. You start with products containing lighter ingredients first, then work up to those with more intense ones, like ginger, and sip water in between. I’m the first to come up with new ideas for a product and the last one to adjust the recipe (I once spent two years trying to find the right texture of toffee and cocoa percentage for our Dark Milk Pretzel Toffee bar – it was so satisfying when I finally cracked it). During that process you have to test the bar over and over again – sometimes

I’ll eat up to 25 pieces of chocolate a day, or if it’s dark chocolate, around 10 pieces because of the intense bitterness. If it wasn’t my true passion that could get tedious.

“Dig deep – the drive to keep going is in you”