“Here, put on this hair net,” says Andy McShea. He walks through the showroom of the Theo Chocolate factory, past heaps of chunky samples on gleaming slate. McShea is the Chief Operating Officer of the 4-year-old company, which he describes as the fastest-growing organic, fair-trade chocolate producer in the country. He’s known as Doc Choc, because he came to Theo Chocolate in 2007, after 7 years at the Seattle biotechnology company CombiMatrix and 3 years as a postdoctoral fellow at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He’s now using his science background to make better—and healthier—chocolate.
McShea goes through a door to the factory, which is full of natural light, industrial noise, and a rich, biting chocolate smell. “That sharpness is the acetic acid,” he says, pushing buttons and flipping switches next to giant tanks of ...
