Julie McLean’s journey to find the right cocoa bean provided the foundation for establishing a premium, bean-to-bar business.
As Julie McLean notes on her website for Sibu Sura Chocolates, “We began our journey in 2007 in Virginia, and are now located in the quaint town of Myersville, Maryland.” That journey, which took her to the cocoa-growing farms of northern Peru to find a single-origin supplier of beans, has catapulted her into a very select group: an artisan bean-to-bar chocolatier.
In fact, Sibu Sura Chocolates is the first premium, handcrafted bean-to-bar producer in the Maryland and Virginia area. Having worked for government and criminal justice agencies, think tanks, consulting firms, intelligence analytics firms, and as a government contractor, McLean’s previous experience was more top-brain than tactile.