Collaboration for Chocolate Makers: Why It’s Worth It, and Things to Consider
Back in my first podcast episode of 2026, I shared some lessons I think craft chocolate can learn from craft beer. Most of these were lessons to learn from beer’s mistakes, but a few were things beer does really well and chocolate could benefit from. One of those had to do with collaborating with other businesses.
I’m launching a short podcast and blog series called Collaboration for Chocolate Makers to share why I think craft chocolate makers should consider collaboration partnerships, and how they can go about them. This post will be updated as more entries are released, and you can find the links at the bottom of this post.
Let’s start by looking at the potential benefits of collaborating!
Benefits of Collaboration
The main benefits of collaborating fall into two broad categories—financial and cultural—so let’s break down each.
Financial Benefits
Expanding Your Customer Base. When you’re selling primarily directly to consumers or small businesses, you are scrapping for every single possible customer, and struggling to make potential customers aware of your brand and products. Collaborations allow immediate access to another company’s customer base, an expansion of reach that might take considerable time or expense otherwise.
Other Craft Segments. If you’re collaborating with an artisan food or drink producer outside chocolate, a collaboration can get you in front of potential customers who might know little to nothing about craft chocolate. It’s easy to forget how small our industry really is, and it’s invisible to many of the consumers who might be primed to become customers with a little awareness and education. This not only grows craft chocolate as an industry, but gets you in front of potential fans you might otherwise have no way to reach.
Other Geographical Areas. One big advantage craft chocolate has over alcohol or other beverage producers is it can be fairly easily shipped anywhere in the country without legal restrictions. There’s a good chance a lot of your sales are already direct-to-consumer through your website. That means your collaboration partner doesn’t need to be local to you to be a benefit. If their fans like what they see from you, they can become new customers even if they’re states away.
Ongoing Revenue Opportunities. Collaborations can be a gift that keeps on giving, especially for chocolate makers. Many breweries need an ongoing source for cacao nibs and/or husks, and might not have a strong tie to their current source. A collaboration can open the door to being an ongoing cacao purveyors for local or regional breweries, even after the branded collab is complete. The same is true for coffee roasters who might be intrigued by a new (and likely better) hot chocolate source.
Cultural Benefits
Knowledge Sharing. One of the biggest institutional benefits of collaborating is the opportunity to learn how other artisan producer do what they do. If you’re collaboration with another craft chocolate members, you have the chance to exchange expertise and gain no idea for how to do things. You can learn new techniques, ways to solve problems, and ways to work with familiar ingredients. Don’t waste the chance to learn from each other—it can be super valuable.
Creative Infusion. Being around like-minded people can stimulate our creative juices and pay dividends when we get back to our own shops. Chocolate-making is a solitary endeavor, and you can get really used to the four walls of our work space as your primary company. Running a small business is a slog, and the work itself can feel tedious. Being around other creative people can remind us why we do what we do. It might sound cheesy, but the camaraderie that can come from these collaborations can be incredibly valuable.
Employee Buy-in. If you have employees, collaborations can be an incredible way to help them invest in what you’re doing. You can treat being involved in the collaborations—especially if this will mean a field trip to another producer’s facility—as an employee perk! Most likely, your employees started working for you because the needed a job and you had an opening, not because they envisioned a career in craft chocolate. Giving them the chance to be involved in a creative project like this and meet other people who are as passionate about chocolate as their boss is can be hugely valuable to deepening their buy-in to your business.
Storytelling. Selling chocolate is hard. It can feel like you have to fight and scrap for every sale, and trying to get the attention of both new and existing customers with a new product on social media can feel like banging a cymbal during a thunderstorm. A collaboration offers completely new storytelling opportunities, new settings for photos and videos, and new ways to talk about ingredients.
Considerations Before a Collaboration
There are a few things to keep in mind before embarking on a collaboration to make sure it goes well and both partners get the most out of it they can.
Make sure your values align. When you collaborate with another business, your company’s logo will be right next to theirs on the packaging. Your name will be associated with theirs. You’ll be all over each other’s social media feeds. You need to make sure in advance that’s not something you’re going to end up regretting. Do some due diligence in advance to make sure this is a partner you want to be connected to in the public eye. It’s not inappropriate to inquire from trusted sources about a potential collab partner’s reputation, both from a standpoint of quality and character.
Plan everything in advance. The day of the collab is not the time to be winging it. You need to plan every detail in of the partnership in advance and make sure responsibilities are clearly outlined. Who’s ordering/bringing different ingredients? Which facility will host the collab? Who’s designing the labels? Who’s paying for what? Who will host the release event? Make sure all of these details are agreed on beforehand so the project itself can run as smoothly and enjoyably as possible.
Ensure equal commitment. We all remember group projects in school when one group member did 80% the work and resented everyone else in the group for getting the same grade. No one wants to have to be that person. As you discuss the idea of a collaboration with a prospective partner, and before anything is finalized, get a feel for whether the other team has the same level of enthusiasm for this project as you do. Otherwise, you might end up shouldering an unfair amount of the work to get the project across the finish line. Depending on the details of the project, it might not be realistic that work loads and expenses are evenly split, but they should be balanced relative to the nature of the collab.
Maximize benefits. Doing a collaboration is going to take a little extra time, and probably a little extra expense, so you want to make sure you get the most out of it you can. Think through in advance what kind of event or events make sense for the release, any design assets that will be needed, how you can best tell the story in a way that will engage your fans and hook the new ones this collab is going to expose you to, what media members might be interested in covering the collab or release, etc. Brainstorm. Think big. Then get to work on the ones that are feasible, so you can get everything you can out of the project.
If you have any thoughts, questions, or suggestions for me to consider about this as well, please feel free to reach out!
Collaboration for Chocolate Makers series
Episode 1—Why Do It, and General Considerations
Blog Post 1—You’re reading it!
Episode 2—Collaborating with Beverage Alcohol Producers (coming soon)
Blog Post 2—Collaborating with Beverage Alcohol Producers (coming soon)
Episode 3—Collaborating with Other Craft Chocolate Makers (coming soon)
Blog Post 3—Collaborating with Other Craft Chocolate Makers (coming soon)
Episode 4—Creative Collaborations to Consider (coming soon)
Blog Post 4—Creative Collaborations to Consider (coming soon)