Sweet success: chocolate factory in Hidalgo

_{Daniel Williams, a chocolate producer at Mozna Chocolate, explains to visitors the grinding process of cocoa during an April 20 tour at the chocolate factory in Hidalgo. Grinding is the process by which cacao nibs are ground into “cocoa liquor.” The cocoa liquor is mixed with cacao butter and sugar. The process can take from five to six days. Fatima Gamez Lopez/THE RIDER}

No golden ticket is necessary to experience a sweet adventure at Mozna Chocolate in Hidalgo.

 “[It is] the only chocolate factory in South Texas and one [of] only a few in the nation,” according to its Facebook page.

The factory, founded in 2015, is located at 115 E. Brazil Ave. and specializes in using single-origin cacao beans. 

Mozna Chocolate uses cane sugar and cacao beans to manufacture 70% single-origin cacao chocolate bars. 

“By using these two ingredients the original flavors of the cacao beans remain intact, giving our consumers a unique, flavorful and nutritious experience,” its website states. “Mozna Chocolate sources cacao beans from Colombia, India, Mexico, Tanzania, Venezuela and Vietnam. Just like coffee and wine, cacao beans inherit specific flavor characteristics according to the region they are grown, creating unique flavorful chocolate bars.”

Hassan Mulla and Anthony Matulewicz are the founders and co-owners of Mozna Chocolate. 

Daniel Williams, a chocolate producer at Mozna Chocolate, said Mozna is a Polish word that means “You can” or “Sí se puede.”

The bean-to-bar is a seven-step process that includes sorting, roasting, winnowing, grinding, conching, tempering and molding.

Before making the first chocolate, Matulewicz said he joined a group for chocolate tasters in the world in London.

Because the chocolate industry is regulated in the United States, he had to research the Code of Federal Regulations before starting Mozna.

“I literally traveled to see what were considered the best chocolate makers in the world and just started talking to them and through that, one thing led to the other,” Matulewicz said.

He said the design of the Mozna Chocolate logo came from a squirrel.

“A lot of the cacao producers complain that there’s this little squirrel that goes and eats the cacao,” Matulewicz said. “So, I figured out I needed a little animal. … So, instead of doing a squirrel, we decided to do a chimp and do the logo with a chimp.”

He co-wrote a book, “Mozna on the Island of San Lorenzo” with Alejandro Ochoa, who also illustrated it, giving life to the logo by creating the chimp that likes to eat chocolate and lives on the island of San Lorenzo. 

“We wanted to create environmental awareness and everything that goes on the island and the volcanoes and all that,” Matulewicz said. “I mean, most people don’t realize this, but 100% of the cacao that comes from the Americas comes from volcanic soil. … So, the Americas, which means Mexico, Central America, South America, they all, at one point in their lifetime, had to deal with a volcano.”

Williams said chocolate has a lot of health benefits, such as lowering cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

Matulewicz said he told Mulla about his idea of starting the chocolate factory and from there, they started working on it together.

_{Victoria Guerrero, an Edinburg resident, pours chocolate into a mold to create her chocolate bar during a tour April 20 at the Mozna Chocolate factory in Hidalgo. Fatima Gamez Lopez/THE RIDER}

“One time, I was getting my medical checkup and my doctor told me that he wanted me to have true cacao,” Matulewicz said. “And then at that time, I had just finished reading about all the fraud that goes on with olive oil. … Sometimes, [it is] not really olive oil. … When the opportunity to start the company came, I had that in the back of my mind.”

He said their initial goal was to deliver high-quality dark chocolate.

Matulewicz said South Texas is a good area to make chocolate.

“Our atmospheric pressure and our percentage of humidity are … perfect to create chocolate,” Matulewicz said. “So, we have that big advantage that the chocolate makers up north don’t have, and it’s pretty much trial and error. … We have been doing this for almost 10 years now. So, we have a very good idea of how flavors interact, what goes well with what, what may be crazy, whatnot. And you start going around. I mean, it’s pretty much like they say in Spanish, jugando a la comidita.”

Mozna has a coffee shop in San Antonio. Matulewicz said the plan is to have different points of sale.

“Right now, we are building the second part of our plan where we are going to have classrooms [in the factory],” Matulewicz said. “We are going to be taking this to the area of agriculture and chocolate, but to kind of give more of an exploration to children [during] tours of how physics, biology and chemistry all mixed together to create a product here.”

He hopes to do a project with UTRGV for students to get educational tours of a cacao plantation and learn about its process. 

Maria Luisa Espinoza, a staff member at Mozna Chocolate, has been working at the factory for five years. 

“For me, this is really an experience because I didn’t know where cacao came from, what cacao was or what it tasted like,” Espinoza said. “It is an experience to know … that there are different flavors in each seed, depending on the country.”

She said her favorite chocolate flavors are from Tanzania and Venezuela.

“It is very different,” Espinoza said. “Tanzania is the one that sells the most and is a little sweeter. It’s not that strong. Venezuela is very rich and is a bit strong. Both are very different, but they are the two countries that I liked the most.”

Lea Marin, an Edinburg resident, attended the tour for the first time with a single moms group from Vertical Community Church as part of their “Adventure Day.”

“It was really interesting,” Marin said. “Very informative. Very hands-on and the tasting was amazing. I learned the original way to make chocolate and how it’s made, from it being planted, all the way to your table.”

Matulewicz encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to start from the ground up.

“I always say that all businesses start with clean bathrooms,” he said. “And what I mean by that is if you take the detail into having clean bathrooms, that means you’re going to be taking care of everything. … Make sure you are trying to do the best you can. So don’t take shortcuts and just always learn, always educate yourself and always play around. I believe the quality always sells. So if you worry about having good quality, eventually you’ll be up there.”

For more information on Mozna Chocolate, visit its website.