All I knew about Brian Waldrip before I met him was that he had been the center for his high school football team. Naturally, I expected a huge guy with a crushing handshake when I introduced myself.

Instead, I was greeted by a tall, lean and friendly bearded face at Dominican Joe’s, the establishment most appropriate for this interview considering its connection in name to Latin America and beans.

I also knew that Brian was bravely venturing into the world of manipulating one of my most beloved treats….chocolate.

Now I know that many of you can relate to the satisfaction that comes from eating a quality piece of mouth-watering chocolate, but it is often served with a side of guilt. I have good news for you. Brian is not only making chocolate, but chocolate that is good for you. That’s right. All your hopes and dreams just came true.

Brian, a self-imposed, raw-food guru is producing chocolate that is nourishing to your body. He is one of the few people in North America making traditional snap chocolate following raw food standards. Brian argues that the cacao bean—the main ingredient in chocolate and a revered resource in Latin America—is one of the most nutritionally rich substances on earth. These beans are loaded with protein, beta-carotene, calcium, and thiamine among other nutrients. Using the low-temp process to make the chocolate bars, Brian preserves much of that nutritional goodness in a way that the traditional method of roasting cacao beans does not.

Despite his healthy approach, Brian is determined to leave his customers very satisfied. He told me, “If a chocolate lover picks up a bar that says ‘chocolate’ on it and its like a crunchy brownie—not sweet and really bitter—it’s probably not going to be their first choice. I have always taken that to heart. So I make traditional snap chocolate and I make it sweet.”

He just recently moved to Austin from LA where he spent two years studying the craft of raw food preparation and developing his own sensibilities about the raw food movement. During that time Brian also served as a nutritional consultant because he “cares about people and their health. I try to see how others can change their entire life and shift everything about their lifestyle, but the simplest way I’ve found is to offer one thing that people are used to being a junk food and just turn it into something that’s good for them.”

Brian’s youth was not any different than yours and mine except perhaps that he grew up working on his grandfather’s cattle ranch in the summertime. So he recalls much of his childhood being tied to his family’s beef products and also to junk food like McDonalds and pop tarts. He very specifically remembers eating a half-gallon of Blue Bell Ice Cream for breakfast in high school. With a smile and a disbelieving shake of his head, he told me, “I would start out my day with a whole tub of Blue Bell. That was my life.”

As he left his family and their care and went out on his own, he considered becoming a vegetarian. One of his closest mentors growing up was a certified organic farmer and that influence began to take hold once out of his family’s supervision.

But it was not until his friend became seriously ill that he began to research and learn about nutrition and alternative forms of medicine. These alternative forms of medicine became very appealing to him for their healing abilities and he began to reflect on his own lifestyle and the way he was living. Brian marveled, “When I tried it [veganism], it blew me away. It started a transformational process to where I no longer felt the need to eat for comfort or to hide from my feelings with alcohol.”

Eventually he moved to Denton, TX to attend the University of North Texas as an Engineering major. While in Denton, he lived in what was essentially a healthy living commune that offered accountability and support for people pursuing alternative nutritional lifestyles. It was there that Brian was introduced to the work of David Wolfe and Gabriel Cousens, two experts in the field of raw foods.

Cousens produced a documentary, Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days, which was especially influential in Brian’s decision to become a Vegan. Through the documentary, Brian discovered Melissa Mango, a pastry chef in LA who specializes in raw food pastries. So he contacted Mango and she agreed to allow him to study under her and learn the craft of creating raw food pastries and desserts.

So to the West Coast he went and he learned the tricks of the raw food trade, while also encountering some great networking opportunities in LA. One day he received a call from the Props Master for Fox Studios’ production Drag Me to Hell. She commissioned Brian to make fake Oreos, Clark bars and other tasty junk foods for Alison Lohman (Beowulf, Things We Lost in the Fire) who is a vegan and had to play a junk food addict in the film.

While on set, he got to meet producer, director, actor and writer Sam Raimi (Spiderman and Army of Darkness, among many others), and his daughter, a tot of only 4 years who sampled Brian’s faux Oreos and offered up a positive review.

While Brian was dedicated to the Vegan lifestyle 100% for the two years he spent in LA, it was not an easy choice or path for him. His family was concerned that he was losing too much weight and that he was overzealous about his new way of life. But these trials taught Brian some great lessons. For one, he “learned that this is great knowledge; it’s valuable knowledge, but unless they are asking for it, they don’t want it. They’re not ready for it. That was a hard thing, because you care. You care about people and you think, ‘I need to share this with them.’”

Alas, the big city was not a good fit for Brian and he dreamed of returning to his small town Texas roots and pursuing his craft and passion of sneaking healthy elements into everyday foods.

He moved to Austin to begin anew and follow his dream of making people healthier through his chocolate. In the near future, Brian envisions making his chocolate available to everyone and someday “to open a chocolate shop and serve hot chocolates and green coffee. I would like to have Godiva style shop as well.” At that point, he will “move from hand making the chocolate to manufacturing” so that he can make Godiva style chocolates by hand in addition to what he hopes will be his signature snap chocolate bars.

One of the best things about Brian is that he has a clear sense of purpose in his pursuit of being a world-class chocolatier. He wisely told me, “I can’t go to DC and get on the telephone and call the people we are fighting to establish peace, but you know I can work here in my community, I can change myself. First of all, change my self, and then change those in my initial circle. If we all do that, we’ve got a new world. So that’s my mission.”

While he confessed, “I’ve still got a lot to learn,” he’s putting all of his knowledge and energy into making a chocolate that is nutritionally sound and satisfying to boot.

If you want to try these treats from Brian, you can contact him via: qcchocolatier@att.blackberry.net
or
find his chocolate bars in store at any of the three Daily Juice locations in Austin.

Brian at the Daily Juice

More hand-made chocolates