Raising the bar

Yahara Chocolate sells chocolate bars made with single-origin chocolate from around the globe

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Yahara Chocolate barely has a sign. The words writ large over the front door of the shop, at 261 W. Main St. in Stoughton, say “Stoughton Art Center.” There’s a small printed sign taped in the window and a sandwich board on the sidewalk, but if you come here looking for chocolates, bring the address because you may drive right by. 

The building, just west of the bridge over the Yahara River, is home not only to Yahara Chocolate, but is also the studio for Green Road Pottery. Both are run by Brook Johnson.

A potter by training, Johnson is a fine chocolate enthusiast and evangelist. “We’re under the radar for everyone except Stoughton,” he says.

Johnson was spending “hundreds of dollars” mail-ordering chocolate bars made with single-origin chocolate from all over the world. There was no single place to buy a variety of single-origin chocolates locally. Although some specialty shops carry a few bars, most chocolate shops make their own confections and don’t stock others’ products.

What interests Johnson is the terroir of good chocolate, the flavor that comes from the environment (soil, weather) through the cacao bean and into the end product, the chocolate bar. Currently, Yahara Chocolate carries bars made from cacao grown in countries from Belize to Vietnam. Johnson also carries chocolate bars made by three Wisconsin makers: Sjölinds, from Mount Horeb; Wm. Chocolate, from Madison; and Mayana, from Spooner.

Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, Johnson and his wife (from Champaign, Illinois) found Madison to be a good base of operations between their two families. They moved to land in the town of Dunn, outside Stoughton, and Johnson quickly outgrew the space he had there for his pottery classes. 

“I wanted an inexpensive building on Main Street in Stoughton where I could hold pottery classes,” Johnson explains, “and this was by far the cheapest building on Main Street.” He bought it in 2016 and moved his classes there, waiting to do any renovations to see if things would take off. They did; his classes began filling up within six months. 

He had plenty of room in the building, a former restaurant and bar dating back to the 1920s (it was built before that, but Johnson can find no record of what it was used for), and more recently Nelson Cards. Original wood flooring and wood shelving units as well as the original ceiling give the large open room character.

The marriage of pottery and chocolate came as Johnson tried to think of a way to expand without offering more art classes. A shop with fine chocolate, in bars, from all over the world was “a niche no one else occupied.”

In November 2017, Johnson found a distributor and bought 20 cases of chocolate bars, which he set up on shelves in a corner of his storefront. He sold all of them before Christmas, even with no sign outside. 

Johnson was stocking 50 different bars from 20 different manufacturers by the end of 2018. “That was already the widest selection in the state,” says Johnson. He expanded to 130 different bars in 2019. Most of his customers were buying gifts, but Johnson, who had always offered free samples, started offering in-store talks to further educate his consumer base.

“So much of this chocolate is completely different from what most Americans are used to,” he says. “I’d charge $5 and cap attendance at 20.” 

February 2020 was his biggest sales month since he started; in March he had to shut down completely. No pottery classes, no chocolate classes, no in-store sales of chocolate bars. 

Johnson tried moving his education talks online, but cost proved an issue. In-store talks meant he could give small samples of several chocolate bars to a group of people. With the online class, he had to ship students whole bars. To cover even five bars, with each bar priced about $10, costs added up fast. 

He was at last able to return to an in-person version of the class in April. Four tables can seat four persons (from the same pod or household). The April class, which focused on chocolate from the Carribean, also had a virtual session for $55.

In his next class, May 21 (in person) and May 22 (online), Johnson will be discussing chocolate from Africa: Pump Street dark and milk, with chocolate from Madagascar; Dandelion, from Tanzania; Twenty-Four Blackbirds, from Tanzania; Beyond Good’s salted caramel, from Uganda; Sjölinds, from Uganda; Wm. Chocolate, from Ghana; and more.

Americans, generally weaned on milk chocolate, tend to “chug down” mass market bars that taste more of sugar than actual cocoa. You can scarf a Hershey’s with almonds, and enjoy it for what it is, says Johnson, but if you are spending $10 for a chocolate bar, “why would you want to do that?” 

Johnson breaks bars into small pieces and instructs tasters to put the piece in their mouth and let it melt on the tongue, maybe pressing it in with the tongue and swirling to distribute flavor. That contemplative consumption, not unlike enjoying a glass of good wine, means that you can take a $10 bar of chocolate and share it with friends as a dessert “and it’s not that expensive,” Johnson says.

Johnson is like a human algorithm for pointing consumers in the right chocolate direction. If you walk into the store wanting to buy just one bar, he’ll start with asking, “Do you prefer a dark or a milk chocolate, straight chocolate or with other elements like nuts included?” He can narrow it down quickly. My confession that I like the sea salt and caramel combo and prefer milk chocolate resulted in a near-instant rec for Sjölinds’ “Lillehammer” bar, with sea salt, toffee and cocoa nibs in dark milk chocolate.

It’s not just the country of origin that distinguishes the bars. Some chocolate is aged in bourbon barrels. Some bars — like Fossa’s “Salted Egg Cereal” white chocolate bar — take inspiration from global cuisine.

Now Yahara Chocolate carries more than 250 different bars (though some are available only seasonally). Johnson is currently working on establishing more direct relationships with some cacao farmers and helping them maximize efficiency and their profits. Situations can vary greatly from country to country, from the availability of facilities for fermentation to shipping costs and taxes. 

He’s also developing his own line of drinking chocolates, which he will sell and serve in-store, in pottery mugs he’s made himself. He’s planning an October launch but in the meantime he’ll be experimenting with test batches to see how different chocolates taste with different milks (whole milk, almond milk), among other variables. Folks stopping by the shop should feel free to ask to try some.

Yahara Chocolate is currently open Tuesday-Thursday 3-5 p.m., Friday noon-5 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m.-3 p.m.