A barn on a quiet farm in Sudbury, Massachusetts, may not look like it is the birthplace of an award-winning chocolate — but looks can be deceiving. Inside that barn, Goodnow Farms is making chocolate that’s repeatedly ranked among the best in the country, consistently winning awards from the International Chocolate Awards, the Academy of Chocolate, and many others. Unlike most American producers, the founders of Goodnow Farms, Tom and Monica Rogan, roast, winnow, grind, and press their own cacao on-site. The result is chocolate that’s incredibly delicious, and certainly not what you’d expect from something that began its life in a shed.
In fact, Goodnow’s entire approach to chocolate is surprisingly considered and personal. The Rogans even travelled to Latin America to meet small farmers directly in their search for single-origin cacao beans that carry distinct notes. And while single-origin chocolate may be more expensive, it’s worth the cost; on the brand’s website, the Rogans themselves say, “every bean has a story” — it’s just one written in roast profiles and grind times rather than in ink. The attention to detail in its process is what really sets Goodnow Farms apart from so much of the American chocolate scene. It’s also why Goodnow is the perfect brand to mention when you want to squash the old American versus European chocolate debate. These bars can easily stand beside anything coming out of Belgium or Switzerland.
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Close up of cacao beans being ground in a mill – Arpan Bhatia/Shutterstock
What you may not know is that many bean-to-bar chocolate makers tend to buy pre-pressed butter to save time. However, Tom and Monica Rogan insist on pressing their own cocoa butter from the beans. It may be a small detail, but in chocolate, small details really are everything; this is part of what makes Goodnow’s product so distinctive.
And technically speaking, Goodnow Farms falls under the category of fine chocolate, which is chocolate that’s crafted in small batches, from single-origin beans where every stage of production is controlled by the makers. (Because yes, there is a real difference between fine and premium chocolate, even if those terms often get blurred.) But there’s more going on than just taste alone — each bar produced by Goodnow Farms has been built on the promise of fair pay and transparency. This means often pre-paying farmers to assist with their cash flow and investing in their infrastructure to help keep things running smoothly. This approach is a lovely reminder that in a market typically obsessed with speed and scale, care still counts for something.
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