Michigan’s Chocolate with a Conscience: Grocer's Daughters Chocolate
Episode 215 • 17th October 2025 • Total Michigan • Cliff Duvernois
00:00:00 00:26:40

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In the tiny lakeside town of Empire, Michigan, the scent of melted chocolate drifts through the air. But inside Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate, co-owner Jody Hayden is doing far more than creating sweet treats — she’s rewriting the story of chocolate itself.

From her early days working with Mayan farmers in Mexico to handcrafting ethically sourced confections in northern Michigan, Jody has built a business that proves indulgence and integrity can coexist. She shares how small farmers across the globe are finally being paid fairly, why some cacao growers have never even tasted chocolate, and how every bar from her shop carries a piece of social change.

Address:

11590 S Lacore St,

Empire, MI 49630

Links:

👉 Website: https://www.grocersdaughter.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GrocersDaughterChocolate

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Find us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/totalmichigan

Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@totalmichigan

Transcripts

Jody Hayden:

I got to go to West Africa last year and it was really

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eyeopening to see that these folks

are growing this incredible tropical

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fruit that will turn into chocolate.

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And aren't being treated fairly,

like we're just getting water

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brought into the community for the

first time because of an initiative

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And just getting schools

built in their community.

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And it's crazy to think that we enjoy

this treat here and that the farmers

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on the other end really haven't

been living in a dignified way.

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And we can change all this.

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Cliff DuVernois: Hello everyone.

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Welcome back to Total Michigan, where

we interview ordinary Michiganders

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doing extraordinary things.

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I'm your host Cliff DuVernois.

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It's fall time in Michigan.

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It's an absolutely beautiful time of

the year and it's a great time for us to

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think about the color tours and going out

and seeing the leaves changing colors.

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If you happen to do that this year, I

would highly recommend that you stop

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by this little town called Empire.

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In Northern Michigan, it's right on

M 22, and as you go through town,

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there's this little darling chocolate

shop that you really ought to treat

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yourself to when coming through town.

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And that is actually called the

Grocer's Daughter's Chocolate,

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located in Empire Michigan.

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Joining me today is the co-owner.

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Of the Grocer's Daughter's chocolate,

and that would be Jody Hayden.

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Jody, how are you?

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Jody Hayden: I'm doing great.

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Thanks for stopping in.

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Cliff DuVernois: Thank

you for having us today.

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Why don't you tell us what is

Grocer's Daughter's Chocolate?

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Jody Hayden: Yeah, so Grocer's Daughter

Chocolate is a craft confectionary.

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So what does that mean?

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It means we source all of our

chocolate directly from small

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scale farmers in Ecuador.

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We've been doing that since 2013

when we bought the business.

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We also have a gelato shop next door.

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It's only open right now,

Memorial Day till the end of fall.

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But everything is house made,

all natural, no preservatives,

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and we use dozens of Michigan

ingredients, which are extra proud of.

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We love our home state.

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Cliff DuVernois: Yes.

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Jody Hayden: Yeah.

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Cliff DuVernois: Yes.

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Perfect.

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So, Jody b before we dive

more into the story of your.

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Ridiculously good smelling store here.

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Why don't you tell us where are you from?

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Where did you grow up?

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Jody Hayden: I'm actually from southern

Arkansas, so I was born in southern

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Arkansas among, you know, a bunch of small

town folks that really loved good food.

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So a lot of scratch made food.

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So that will come, you

know, into our story later.

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My family moved to Iowa, very

small town in Iowa when I was.

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Young.

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And so I grew up along the Mississippi

River among corn fields with horses.

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You know, I've been fortunate

to have a pretty idyllic life.

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And then I moved to the Midwest,

but I ended up in Michigan in:

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after living in Chias, Mexico,

finishing my graduate degree.

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So I studied social change.

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Um, it's actually a business management

program focused on social change, and

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I ended up in chias, Mexico working

h Mayan indigenous farmers in:

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And started a coffee

roasting business first.

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Yeah.

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As a result of that that

time in Chias Mexico.

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Cliff DuVernois: What an adventure.

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Jody Hayden: Yeah, it was an adventure.

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Cliff DuVernois: Oh my goodness.

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I love the story already, so.

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Let's take a step back here.

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'cause you were talking about getting

your master's degree in social change.

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Jody Hayden: Yeah.

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So my master's degree was at

the school for International

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Training in Brattleboro, Vermont.

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This was a program that started

the Peace Corps in the sixties.

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Oh, okay.

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And so they have it's called

organizational management,

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focused on social change.

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They also had a lot of

international education programs.

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So a lot of my colleagues from

graduate school ended up at Catholic

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Relief Services and U-S-A-I-D.

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My background was, my

undergrad was in anthropology.

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Right?

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And so,

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Cliff DuVernois: oh, there you go.

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Jody Hayden: I really, really

was fascinated with different

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indigenous cultures around the world.

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And so, here I am, 25 years later

and I got to combine my education

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and my passion for social justice.

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I'm doing something I feel

so fortunate to do every day,

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which is work with chocolate.

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Cliff DuVernois: Alright, so

you, you talked about how, so

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what brought you to Michigan?

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Jody Hayden: Yeah, so Michigan, um,

I ended up here because my former

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husband who still has higher grounds

trading company in Traverse City.

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Okay.

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He vacationed here as a child growing up.

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my PA family was living in

Texas, in Houston, Texas.

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His family was in Toledo and Ohio.

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And while both of the cities are

wonderful, we did not wanna live in them.

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So, we decided to relocate to

Traverse City after we were in

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OPAs Fi finishing graduate school.

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Yes.

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But again, starting a small business.

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Then I was 23 and starting

Higher Grounds Trading Company,

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a new coffee roasting business.

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Yes.

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And so Traverse City really

embraced this, right?

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And so being located where we are

here in Northern Michigan is really

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special because our community loves to

support food makers and entrepreneurs

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that are doing things ethically.

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And that's not the case everywhere in

the in the country, which I'm learning.

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And so I feel.

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Super fortunate because both the

coffee business and now this chocolate

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business has really been like I

said, embraced by the community and

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they're, they're helping keep us

alive and thriving year after year.

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Cliff DuVernois: And I know, and we're

gonna explore this a little bit more, but

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this is something that is both beautiful

and dare I say, unique about Michigan in

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the fact that a lot of people who are.

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Purveyors of, in your case would be

chocolate or, uh, it could be popcorn,

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it could be any number of things are

borderline fanatical about using Michigan.

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Products because the theme that

I hear again and again is that

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you cannot beat the quality.

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Jody Hayden: Absolutely.

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Because

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Cliff DuVernois: everybody wants

wants to have a good quality

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product for their customer.

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Jody Hayden: Yeah.

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Cliff DuVernois: Why go outside the state?

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In the state, we have the best.

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Jody Hayden: I absolutely agree with that.

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And you know, a lot of people don't

know that Michigan's second only to

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California in the number of agricultural

commodities that we produce as a state.

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So from honey to fish, right?

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We have all of these amazing ingredients,

and so while we can't grow chocolate

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or cacao, which is actually the

tropical fruit that chocolate comes

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from, we cannot grow that in Michigan.

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We can include.

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Honey, and dozens of berries,

herbs, teas, you name it, things

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that are made here in Michigan.

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All of our dairy for our gelato

comes from Mayo, Michigan.

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There's Oh yes.

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Five Amish families there

that supply our dairy.

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And we actually learned a few years

ago, and we opened our gelato shop that

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were one of the few, ice cream gelato

makers in northern Michigan that are

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doing it from scratch from the beginning.

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So dairy brought here.

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We're getting local fruits

brought in sometimes local herbs.

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And so we use mint from our garden

to make our mint chocolate chip.

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It's just fantastic.

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The flavors are amazing.

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This

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Cliff DuVernois: is great.

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I, I am.

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I'd love this story more and more.

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Let's go back here, because you

first mentioned about getting

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into the coffee roasting business.

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What sparked that?

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Jody Hayden: Yeah, so when I

was in Chapas, Mexico in:

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I was studying trade policy.

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That's what my graduate

program was in, right?

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And I quickly learned that there was

amazing coffee in Chapas, Mexico.

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But the market was not good

for these farmers, right?

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They're indigenous people.

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A lot of them don't even speak Spanish.

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They speak Sal.

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They're Mayan indigenous language.

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Okay?

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And the reality of both the coffee

and the cocoa trade is that these

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have been exploitative extractive

industries for decades, right?

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So farmers haven't been

guaranteed a fair price and often

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have been paid below poverty.

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Wages.

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Right?

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And this is for us to enjoy

a luxury treat, honestly.

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And so, yes, I realized, I saw

firsthand that there was a possibility

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for a real social change and

just to be a good human, right?

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Yeah, I want you to have a good life.

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I wanna have a good life.

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Everybody in the world should

enjoy that same privilege.

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There is enough resources in

the world for that to happen.

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Yeah.

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So if we can do one little small thing.

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And that means paying

someone a fair price.

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Why would we not do that?

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So Higher Grounds Trading Company was born

out of that really wanting to do right by

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farmers and by our community here and help

connect consumers to the story of coffee.

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Cliff DuVernois: Oh,

you know, yes, yes, yes.

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Like

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Jody Hayden: many people in

the United States drink coffee

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every morning and many eat.

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Chocolate since they were children

and have no idea where it comes from.

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And I've never met somebody that

actually grows the raw material.

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Yeah.

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And so that clearly

changed my life, right?

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And so I just wanted to

bring that home to Michigan.

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And the beautiful thing about that is

the response from people, like once you

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learn, once you hear the story, once you

taste something that really has love.

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Like in every step of the way,

it changes how you feel about it.

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And I really do think in today's world

where we're, everything's so digital

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and we're so online that these are two

beautiful foods that can connect people.

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Cliff DuVernois: Yes.

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Jody Hayden: And we see

it every day in our chefs.

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Right?

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People come in here, they're

treating themselves, they're

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treating their loved ones.

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It's, I mean, this is such a beautiful

industry to work in and such a privilege

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to do what we get to do every day.

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Cliff DuVernois: I can imagine that

for many people, and you probably,

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you've probably experienced this quite

a bit based on your story, that a

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lot of times people can just get so

used to the fact that their coffee

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comes through a drive through window.

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Jody Hayden: Yeah.

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Cliff DuVernois: Without thinking

that there's a farmer that's

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like on the back end of this.

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Right.

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And what's beautiful and very

unique about your story is that

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you've spent time with them.

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You got an opportunity to actually

like meet them face to face to

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see exactly how they are living.

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'cause you were talking about before,

about bringing about this social change.

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Jody Hayden: Yeah, yeah.

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And you know, the.

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Thing it all boils down to is people

are people everywhere you go in the

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world, we all want the same things.

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We all wanna take care of our

families, take care of our health,

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pursue what we are, what we love.

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Whether that be music or comedy

or whatever it is, that's wherever

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you go in the globe, people are the

same and they want the same things.

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And everybody should have a

right to some very basic Yes.

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You know, like health, education,

the pursuit of happiness.

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Yes.

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And so, through chocolate, we get to help.

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Elevate that, not just across the

globe, but also here with our own staff.

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You know, I get to see these 14 year

olds coming to work with us for the

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first time and they're quiet and

shy and just to watch them blossom

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into being their own people, like

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Cliff DuVernois: you bet

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Jody Hayden: it's such

a joy to get to do this.

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Cliff DuVernois: It is.

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I wanna talk about that a little bit more,

but I wanna circle back on something here.

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'cause you, you started off with

the Coasty, a coffee Roasty Yeah.

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Company.

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Yes.

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Now you're into the

chocolate business, right?

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So how did that come about?

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Jody Hayden: Yes.

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So I would say specialty cacao

and chocolate is about 15

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years behind specialty coffee.

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And when I say that, I mean in

the way that we trade or source.

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So when I was working in coffee, it

was pretty easy to go to Mexico or

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Ethiopia, which I've been to many times,

and sourced directly from farmers.

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When I joined Cho, the chocolate industry,

there wasn't as many direct relationships.

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Ah, because chocolate.

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It's a lot harder than coffee.

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Chocolate has a lot more steps in

production to get to, the candy format

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or even the not so candy format.

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People eat it in now.

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A lot of people like high

percentage chocolate.

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But anyway, it's much more

difficult process than coffee.

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And I think.

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How did I get into it and what

excites me right now is that

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chocolate is in a Renaissance period.

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Mm-hmm.

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Um, the Mezo Americans we're

consuming cacao mostly as drinking

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cacao in very sophisticated formats.

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Like sometimes they would

have cete or spices.

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Oh, I love cete.

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Cliff DuVernois: Yeah.

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Yes.

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Jody Hayden: And they would have, you

know, women that were very skill deaths.

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Foaming the top of these drinks.

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There was a whole culture around it.

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And then the Europeans

took it to Europe in:

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Cliff DuVernois: Mm-hmm.

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Jody Hayden: 1700 and they made it

into what we know now as a candy.

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Right.

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They added sugar and they added

milk, and they made it more

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homogenized in a lot of ways.

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And so I think right now what we're

seeing is people are interested again

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in where cacao and chocolate comes from.

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So a lot of folks that come through

our door, they know about our

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chocolate from Ecuador, but they're

also interested in chocolate from

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Madagascar in the Philippines and Africa.

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Right.

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And for us to get to help them explore

that world of cacao is so lovely.

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There are people all over the globe

growing cacao, and the reality is.

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Just like an heirloom tomato

that grows in your backyard.

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Every cacao can produce a different

flavor of chocolate, and that's what

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we're involved with right now, is

exploring all of those different flavors.

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But we're also gonna treat you to

your favorite chocolate like recipes.

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So for example, our peanut

butter puck, it's like a take

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on a Reese's Peanut butter cup.

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Yes.

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So we're trying to span

the entire kind of.

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Customer interest in chocolate from

very dark chocolate that might be

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very special from Africa or Latin

America, and people's favorite treats

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from childhood, which is this peanut

butter and chocolate, you know, recipe.

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So it's been fun to try to like

really engage people in all

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parts of the chocolate industry.

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Flavors, you know?

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Right,

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Cliff DuVernois: Exactly.

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For our audience, we're gonna take a

quick break and thank our sponsors.

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When we come back, we're going

to talk with Jody Hayden from

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the Grocer's Daughter's Chocolate

Shop, located in Empire, Michigan.

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My name is Cliff DuVernois,

and this is Total Michigan.

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We'll see you after the break.

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Hello everyone.

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Welcome back to Total Michigan, where

we interview ordinary Michiganders

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doing extraordinary things.

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I'm your host Cliff DuVernois.

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Today we're talking with Jody Hayden.

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We're talking about all things chocolate,

and we're talking from her shop.

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Uh, Grocer's Daughter's Chocolate,

located in Empire Michigan.

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Jody.

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Before the break, we spent probably

too much time talking about

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all the wonderful ingredients.

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That are being used and that

are raised here in Michigan.

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What I would like to do is I would

like to explore a little bit about the

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offerings that you have here at the

shop and also your philosophy behind

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them, because you've hinted before

at this concept of being simple.

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Jody Hayden: Yeah.

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Cliff DuVernois: So walk us through that.

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What kind of products do you have here?

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How does that simplicity play into it?

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Jody Hayden: Yeah, absolutely.

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So here at our shop, we

believe that good ingredients.

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Are the most important thing

to focus on in a recipe.

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Right.

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And so our dairy comes from

Mayo, Michigan, which is

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just, a couple hours away.

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Yep.

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We get a delivery every Friday.

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Instead of sugar, we often use honey,

which is from Sleeping Bear Farms, honey.

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Oh, interesting.

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We use dozens of other local

Mission Michigan ingredients.

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So from berries to flowers, to herbs,

tea, coffee, spirits, you name it.

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Those are our ingredients.

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And so if you start with really

exceptionally tasting ingredients, your

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recipes should and can be very simple

because you let the, what we say that

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we let the star of the show shine in

our case, that's chocolate, right?

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We want that chocolate flavor

to be something that you, that's

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never masked by in artificial.

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Chemical or flavor.

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And so, one of the, one of my favorite

products right now is our whiskey fig.

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So we take a dried organic Turkish

fig and we, um, fill it with

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an iron fish whiskey ganache.

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Oh wow.

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So a dark chocolate ganache.

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Yeah.

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Um, we use heavy cream from our.

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Friends at Farmer's Creamery

in Mayo, Michigan, we infuse

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the cream with the whiskey.

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And then this ganache is a really

creamy, dark chocolate whiskey flavor.

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Then we pipe it into these figs and we

dip them in dark chocolate, and it is

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just like the perfect decadent tree.

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But again, super simple ingredients

and really just a few ingredients.

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Cliff DuVernois: All right, so

this is the part of the show where

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I start getting super hungry.

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So let me, let's take a step back here.

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And so what you were just describing

there, right, using the whiskey from

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iron, fish, excuse me, figs dip.

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Where do these recipe ideas come from?

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Jody Hayden: Well, I think, and how do

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Cliff DuVernois: you not

weigh like 500 pounds?

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Jody Hayden: That's the question

we get all the time here.

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But I, here's the other thing, a

really great chocolate is satiating.

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So we don't always want to eat

a huge amount of chocolate.

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A little bite of something

delicious is enough.

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Yes.

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To appreciate you, right?

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Yes.

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Yep.

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And so, but the ideas come

from different places.

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Like one, if there is a local ingredient

that's available and it's ripe, of course,

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like if we can work with that, we will.

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The other thing is we'll taste, something

that we enjoy in a dish at a rest.

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And we try to recreate that here.

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Um, a lot of times we have partners

that are like-minded in their values,

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so they care about the same things

we care about, which is really

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just being a good human right.

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But then we want to work with them and

we wanna put our ingredients together.

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And a lot of times that's

how new recipes are created.

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This past summer, our c chocolatier

created what we called our

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Asian vacation collection.

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It was a four piece box of tr and I think

there was a couple ideas behind that.

396

:

One is just this.

397

:

With all that's going on in the world, we

wanna say we actually do love and admire

398

:

all of our friends from round and globe.

399

:

And you know, and, and Asia is

really kind of in the news right

400

:

now, um, about, our relations,

the US and China relations, right?

401

:

Yep.

402

:

And it's just our way of saying.

403

:

In our minds, we're more

alike than we are different.

404

:

And that we wanna, that's

true, reach across borders and

405

:

boundaries and be good humans.

406

:

And so also we love the flavors.

407

:

We use miso and uzu and Vietnamese

coffee and things that we don't

408

:

always have in our kitchen.

409

:

So it was really fun.

410

:

And we keep hearing from our customers

is one of their most favorite

411

:

collections we've done in a long time.

412

:

And so sometimes we bring in exotic

flavors that we don't always have, but

413

:

mostly we have Michigan ingredients.

414

:

And we keep things very

delicious and very simple.

415

:

All of our cacao and

chocolate comes from Ecuador.

416

:

We work with five co-ops now and a

lot of women driven organizations,

417

:

which is another passion of ours.

418

:

But we take chips every year to Ecuador.

419

:

So if anybody's interested

in joining us Oh, nice.

420

:

Next.

421

:

Spring, we'll lead our next trip.

422

:

But I'll go to Ecuador

in October next month.

423

:

Probably around the time this airs,

I'll be in Ecuador actually visiting

424

:

one of the co-ops that we work with

and just checking in with them, making

425

:

sure that, you know, our trading

partnership still works for them.

426

:

this is such an honor to get to do this.

427

:

And again, it's just sharing the

story of chocolate with people.

428

:

It's a, it's a food we've eaten since

we were little, and so many of us

429

:

have never seen it grow on a tree and.

430

:

It's just amazing, you know,

the connections that can be

431

:

made across this beautiful food.

432

:

Cliff DuVernois: So this is beautiful.

433

:

I love this idea that you take

time every year to go down

434

:

and visit with the farmers.

435

:

That you are working with.

436

:

I could imagine a lot of people out

there would be just happy enough to work

437

:

with an, you know, importer exporter.

438

:

I don't need to know the harmers,

just give me the quality of beans.

439

:

You are about the relationship.

440

:

Jody Hayden: Yes.

441

:

Cliff DuVernois: Why is that?

442

:

Jody Hayden: For me, I mean, this

whole business is about relationships.

443

:

It's about taking care of our customers

and taking care of our staff and

444

:

taking care of everybody along the way.

445

:

And it's really, I think it

goes back to the golden rule

446

:

that we learned in kindergarten.

447

:

You know, you do as do unto others,

is you want them to do unto you.

448

:

Right?

449

:

And it's really simple, but I, I would

hope that in my life that people will

450

:

treat me the way I wanna be treated.

451

:

And I wanna do the same for folks.

452

:

And, I've been privileged to be

born and raised in the United

453

:

States and have access to all this

resource and all of you know, helpful

454

:

people to help me grow my business.

455

:

Right?

456

:

And if I can give a little bit of

that back through this business, then.

457

:

Then it's a success.

458

:

Right.

459

:

Cliff DuVernois: So now when you go down

there and visit, do you actually take

460

:

chocolates that you make with you so

they can taste what the final product is?

461

:

Jody Hayden: Absolutely.

462

:

Yeah.

463

:

It's unbelievable to know that so many

farmers never do get to taste chocolates

464

:

made in the United States with the

cacao that they're growing and Right.

465

:

You know, I got to go to West

Africa last year and it was really

466

:

eyeopening to see that these folks

are growing this incredible tropical

467

:

fruit that will turn into chocolate.

468

:

And aren't being treated fairly,

like we're just getting water brought

469

:

into the community for the first time

because of an initiative Oh, wow.

470

:

That we were going as part of, right.

471

:

Right.

472

:

Cliff DuVernois: Mm-hmm.

473

:

Jody Hayden: And just getting

schools built in their community.

474

:

And it's crazy to think that we enjoy

this treat here and that the farmers

475

:

on the other end really haven't

been living in a dignified way.

476

:

And we can change all this.

477

:

Cliff DuVernois: Yes.

478

:

Jody Hayden: So it's

just the will to do it.

479

:

And so that inspires me to get up every

morning and keep doing what we're doing.

480

:

But we're just a little pebble

in the shoe of big chocolate.

481

:

Right?

482

:

Sure.

483

:

And we're gonna keep doing what we do.

484

:

But it is, it's an uphill battle

and I think it's changing people's

485

:

hearts and minds about this little,

this product that we've been

486

:

consuming since we are children.

487

:

Cliff DuVernois: This is wonderful.

488

:

Now, in addition to chocolate, is there

anything else that you offer here?

489

:

Jody Hayden: Oh gosh, yes.

490

:

So we have gelato next door.

491

:

Again, the house made gelatos available

for Memorial Day and then more in

492

:

a limited capacity in the fall.

493

:

But um, you can stop in and get gelato.

494

:

We have Fudgesicles,

which are really popular.

495

:

It's.

496

:

Basically chocolate frozen on a stick.

497

:

And we sell tens of thousands

of those every year.

498

:

We have really good cookies, so you

know, we're crazy about chocolate chip

499

:

cookies, so we worked on our recipe

for a long time before we release them.

500

:

We don't have a lot of flavors and most

of the year we only have our chocolate

501

:

chip cookies, but they are so delicious.

502

:

Yes.

503

:

And then this time of year

we do a lot of drinks.

504

:

So drinking chocolates

with chili and cinnamon.

505

:

Yeah.

506

:

Mochas, I don't know.

507

:

We have over, hundred items here,

so you're bound to find something

508

:

you like if you like a sweet treat.

509

:

So yeah.

510

:

Cliff DuVernois: Holy, sweet.

511

:

Moses.

512

:

Over a hundred items.

513

:

Jody Hayden: Yeah.

514

:

Cliff DuVernois: In this shop.

515

:

Jody Hayden: Yes.

516

:

Cliff DuVernois: That's amazing.

517

:

So let's talk a little

bit about the gelato shop.

518

:

Where did the idea for that come from?

519

:

Jody Hayden: So, we were in Belize

visiting our friends who have a cacao

520

:

farm and there was a gelato shop there

run by some Italians, and they were

521

:

using amazing tropical fruits to again,

make this very simple recipe gelato.

522

:

And we were seeing our, you know,

our summers here are very busy.

523

:

We're right here in the

sleeping bare dunes area.

524

:

And so people coming up in the

summer were, some people don't.

525

:

Chocolate, believe it or not.

526

:

And so they're looking for other

cheap, and so we thought, gelato,

527

:

this house made gelato might be a

fun addition to our business model.

528

:

And we opened it in 2022 and it has.

529

:

Become very popular very quickly.

530

:

And then this summer we actually invited

a popup to open in our gelato shop.

531

:

It's in the spirit of Zingerman's

or Cherry Republic where they

532

:

have food and treats on site.

533

:

Yes, Uhhuh.

534

:

And so we have a Mexican family

offering tacos and tostadas next

535

:

door also this fall on the weekends.

536

:

Cliff DuVernois: So, Jody, let

me ask you this question here.

537

:

If so.

538

:

Somebody were coming

here for the first time.

539

:

Okay.

540

:

They've watched the video,

they've heard this interview,

541

:

and they're like, you know what?

542

:

I'm actually gonna be up that way.

543

:

I'm gonna swing by and I'm gonna

try some of these chocolates.

544

:

Yeah.

545

:

What would be a couple of items

that you recommend that they try

546

:

and you could say, all of 'em.

547

:

And I'm sure some members of my

audience would love to do that, but

548

:

what, what would be a couple things

that you would recommend that they try?

549

:

Jody Hayden: Yeah,

that's a great question.

550

:

So our chocolate gateway drug is

called a sea salt caramel, right?

551

:

And a lot of the c chocolatiers that

I know around the country joke that

552

:

this is how they pay their rent.

553

:

Sea salt caramels of any format

are always the most popular.

554

:

Start with ours because ours

is a honey sea salt caramel.

555

:

Ooh.

556

:

We always have our own take on everything,

so we use local honey, and of course we

557

:

put chocolate in our caramel because.

558

:

We love chocolate here.

559

:

Yes, we do.

560

:

Um, and so we have a milk and a dark

chocolate version, and they have

561

:

smoked applewood, smoked sea salt on

top, and they're just really lovely.

562

:

So if you wanna start there,

that's a good gateway.

563

:

And again.

564

:

Our milk chocolate is delicious,

but our dark chocolate outsells our

565

:

milk chocolate almost two to one.

566

:

Cliff DuVernois: I'm not surprised.

567

:

Jody Hayden: Yeah.

568

:

Which is awesome, right?

569

:

Because most c chocola here in the US that

are, my friends actually sell more milk

570

:

or white chocolate than dark chocolate.

571

:

So we're unique in that way.

572

:

But from there, I would say.

573

:

If you like peanut butter, try

our peanut butter pox or a peanut

574

:

butter truffle, or try a marzipan

bar, which is like a almond paste.

575

:

So try a different nut.

576

:

But then our truffles and honey

caramels are our number one

577

:

seller always so wonderful.

578

:

Maybe try the raspberry honey caramel.

579

:

We have lots of flavors of truffles

and caramels, so just explore,

580

:

whether you want a spirit, a coffee

if you like fruits or nuts, there's

581

:

something for everyone there.

582

:

Cliff DuVernois: Wonderful.

583

:

And if somebody does want to

find you, connect with you, look

584

:

in your socials, whatever it

is, where can they go for that?

585

:

Jody Hayden: Yeah, so we're

online@grocersdaughter.com.

586

:

We have Instagram and Facebook.

587

:

So check us out there and then,

um, if you'd like to come visit.

588

:

Our brick and mortar chocolate shop

is open year round, seven days a

589

:

week except for the major holidays.

590

:

And then we actually have chocolate

apartments that are available on Airbnb.

591

:

You can just go down.

592

:

Empire Chocolate Apartments and they'll

pop up and they're they're available

593

:

year round too, but they're mostly

booked from Memorial Day through October.

594

:

Cliff DuVernois: And I can imagine,

because you call them chocolate

595

:

apartments, they're probably

the, the smells of the chocolate

596

:

place make their way up there.

597

:

Jody Hayden: We stock them with a

little bit of chocolate, but also

598

:

you're stumbling distance to the

chocolate shop and Empire Beach.

599

:

So it's a pretty great

location for a getaway.

600

:

Cliff DuVernois: Jody, thank you

so much for inviting us here today.

601

:

I thoroughly appreciated it.

602

:

I love, love, love the smell of your

shop, and I love your story too.

603

:

But thank you again for

letting us come here today.

604

:

Jody Hayden: Thank you so much.

605

:

We're so excited for you to be here, and

we hope, uh, everybody that's listening.

606

:

Comes down from Michigan and

visits us this year or next

607

:

summer or whenever you can.

608

:

Cliff DuVernois: Yes, definitely come.

609

:

And with that being said if you

want to learn more about the

610

:

Grocer's Daughter's chocolate,

learn more about Jody, their story.

611

:

Come here and visit.

612

:

You can always go to total michigan.com.

613

:

Click on Jody's interview and you'll get

all the links that she mentioned above.

614

:

We'll talk to you next time when we

talk to another Michigander, doing

615

:

some pretty extraordinary things.

616

:

We'll see you then.

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