Our Story

Meet Chris, the Maker Behind Confluence Chocolate

If you had told Chris two years ago that he would leave a career as a pharmacist to become a chocolate maker, he probably wouldn't have believed you.

But looking back, maybe the ingredients were there all along.

Chris has always been fascinated by food and the science behind it. Over the years, he experimented with making beer, wine and cheese and spent plenty of time in the kitchen. Then one day, he discovered videos about bean-to-bar chocolate making.

He decided to give it a try.

His first batch was about as small-batch as you can get: cacao and a mortar and pestle.

That experiment quickly led to buying his first melanger, making chocolate at home and sharing those early batches with friends and family.

The reaction was immediate.

This wasn't chocolate like they were accustomed to eating. The flavors were complex and unexpected—and Chris was hooked.

For the first time, one of his food-science hobbies felt like it could become something more.

From Pharmacist to Chocolate Maker

Food had actually been part of Chris's life long before Confluence. His earliest jobs were in kitchens and food service, and he became a partner in his first business while he was still in high school.

His professional path, however, took him in another direction.

Chris studied pharmacy in college and went on to build a career as a pharmacist. But eventually, he found himself looking for a change—and thinking seriously about building a business of his own.

Then he discovered bean-to-bar chocolate.

The combination of food, science, creativity and entrepreneurship clicked.

He decided to go for it.

Before Confluence had sold a single chocolate bar, Chris found himself driving home from Buffalo after writing the biggest check of his life for the equipment he would need to make the business possible.

He remembers being ecstatic.

There was no guarantee it would work.

But to Chris, there wasn't really another option.

Why “Confluence”?

A confluence is the place where two rivers meet and become something larger.

For Chris, the word represented exactly what he wanted this company to become.

There is a particular place that inspired the name and became the foundation for the legend printed inside Confluence Chocolate's packaging. But the meaning has grown with the company.

Confluence is where cacao growers and chocolate lovers meet.

It's where simple ingredients meet science and modern chocolate-making techniques.

It's where cacao from around the world meets a chocolate maker in Ballston Spa.

It's where a community's support of a small business creates an opportunity for that business to give something back.

And, of course, it's where really good chocolate happens.

We Don't Just Make Things With Chocolate. We Make Chocolate.

There's an important distinction between a chocolatier and a bean-to-bar chocolate maker.

A chocolatier typically begins with chocolate that has already been produced and transforms it into confections.

At Confluence, Chris starts with the cacao bean.

Different cacao varieties and growing regions can produce dramatically different flavors—much like grapes grown in different regions produce very different wines.

The challenge is figuring out what each particular cacao has to offer and then developing a recipe and process that allows those characteristics to shine.

That's exactly the challenge Chris loves.

Confluence sources cacao through brokers focused on ethically sourced, sustainably farmed beans and relationships with the farms that produce them. New beans are tested to discover their natural flavor profiles and determine which existing—or entirely new—recipes might bring out their best qualities.

Sometimes the bean inspires the chocolate.

Sometimes Chris starts with an idea for a flavor and searches for the right cacao to complement it.

Eventually, however, recipe development often ends the same way: a group of people standing around a collection of ingredients, making and tasting different versions until everyone agrees:

That's the one.

There Is a Lot Behind One Little Chocolate Bar

Making bean-to-bar chocolate is not a simple process.

Before production even begins, Chris is sourcing cacao, selecting ingredients, testing recipes and developing packaging.

Then the real chocolate making starts.

Beans are inspected, weighed and roasted using settings developed specifically for that particular cacao. They're cracked and winnowed to produce cacao nibs, pre-ground and milled with the other ingredients.

Temperature, time, viscosity and other measurements are carefully controlled throughout milling and conching to develop both flavor and texture.

Then comes tempering, molding, vibration to remove air bubbles, adding inclusions when the recipe calls for them, and finishing in a temperature- and humidity-controlled environment.

Every finished bar is inspected, wrapped and heat sealed. The packaging is individually marked with its lot number and expiration date before the chocolate is boxed and stored until it's ready to find a home.

It's an extraordinary amount of work for something you might eat in a few minutes.

Chris wouldn't have it any other way.

Chocolate Isn't Supposed to All Taste the Same

One of the biggest things Chris wants people to understand about chocolate is surprisingly simple: Cacao is a fruit. Different varieties grown in different places develop different flavors. Mass-produced chocolate is intentionally formulated to deliver essentially the same flavor again and again. Bean-to-bar chocolate celebrates the opposite. Origin, season and variety can change what you experience.

That's why tasting your first Confluence bar can be surprising. You may discover fruit, floral, nutty, earthy or other flavor notes you never associated with chocolate—and those flavors can come from the cacao itself.

For Chris, that's part of the fun.

Chocolate becomes something to actually taste rather than simply something sweet to eat.

Finding a Home in Ballston Spa

When Chris began looking for a place to manufacture Confluence Chocolate, he found something else in Ballston Spa: A community willing to get behind him. That support appeared almost immediately.

When Confluence's first bars were finally ready, Chris had already missed the deadline to participate in the winter farmers markets. Instead of waiting for the next season, something unexpected happened.

Local businesses began contacting him, asking if they could carry Confluence Chocolate. Then came restaurants. Wineries. Breweries. Caterers. Farmers markets. And, most importantly, customers.

Those relationships haven't simply helped Confluence grow—they've helped shape what the company makes.

The Origin of Something Bigger

Ask Chris which Confluence bar feels most like him and he'll tell you it's Origin.

From the outside, it looks deceptively simple. Inside is a 70% dark chocolate made with only three ingredients.

Then you taste it.

The experience can open the door to an entirely different understanding of what chocolate can taste like.

That's why it's called Origin. The name also fits the larger Confluence story. Origin, Journey, Explorer and Passage—the company's flagship bars—were inspired by rivers, confluences and outdoor adventure. Other bars take their names from ingredients, holidays and causes that inspired them.

And new journeys are already underway, including region- and bean-specific dark chocolates and explorations into 100% dark chocolate.

Because Confluence was never really about making just another chocolate bar.

It's about curiosity. Science. Ingredients. People. Community. And all the interesting things that can happen when they come together.

Welcome to Confluence.