The sweet side of Manitoulin: Gore Bay chocolatier and pastry chef plans to expand business.

• Author: McKinley, Karen
• Position: SMALL BUSINESS FOCUS

Manitoulin Island is known for many local delicacies: hawberries, dairy, whitefish, and soon one more unlikely treat, chocolate.

Lisabeth Flanagan has been passionately working to create a unique bean-to-bar and confectionery business, Ultimately Chocolate, from her home in Gore Bay.

She has gained a loyal following.

"My Toffies (a truffle concoction she invented) have been growing in popularity," she said. "It's becoming a bit of an island treat."

Her journey started when she was 27, spending a year in France for school. She noticed two things: the people were slender compared to Canadians and there was a chocolate shop on practically every corner.

"I was fascinated over how they could have so much chocolate and stay slim."

The big difference in French chocolate, she said, was the richness compared to North American chocolate.

As soon as she returned to Canada she started to experiment with it, making cakes for friends.

When she moved to Manitoulin in 2008, she was heavily into researching bean-to-bar businesses, which had just started to appear in Canada.

She sampled different kinds for a blog she was writing, as well as compiling for a database she kept for herself.

She started ordering couveture chocolate, a type often used in professional kitchens.

Eventually she began receiving so many cocoa beans for review from other countries that she bought her own refiner.

From there, she fulfilled a dream of starting her own bean-to-bar operation.

She has been experimenting with dark and milk chocolate concoctions for a year and a half, and selling them for the last few months.

"I fell in love with bean-to-bar chocolate," she said. "People with food allergies can leave things out. I tend to not use soy lecithin, which is found in a lot of mass-produced chocolate (as a stabilizer).

"You really need two or three ingredients, and add any flavour or spice. It's always exciting to make your first batch of chocolate. No matter if it is good or bad, you end up loving it anyway."

Among her products is an ever-changing variety of bars, including single-origin bean bars and limited edition flavours, pastries and truffles, as well as trademarked items like her Cacao Cookies.

She often receives beans for review with samples coming from Mexico, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Colombia.

Flanagan explains factors like soil acidity and climate can affect the flavour of a bean, can determine how long it takes to roast, and much sugar can be added...