The Functional Chocolate Co: Indulging Your Way to Wellness
Originally Published on July 14, 2021
Not too long ago, I was trying to find products to help me deal with stress. I happened to stumble upon The Functional Chocolate Company and their brand promoting chocolate that serves multiple purposes. Each bar combines researched ingredients that are blended together to address specific issues. These range from stress/anxiety, to period symptoms, menopause, insomnia, and more. Intrigued by this unique approach to chocolate, I placed an order.
A few days later, a box carrying jewel-toned chocolate bars appeared on my porch. The packaging was artful and informative and I began to incorporate the chocolates into my routine for the next few weeks. I noticed the most difference from the Carefree and Sleepy chocolates. The Rhythm chocolate also helped ease some of my period cramps. With the Carefree chocolate, I would take the suggested dosage (one-two squares) whenever I was feeling particularly anxious and it would mellow me out. I’m also a night owl and sleep does not come easy to me until the blushing hours of dawn. So, I was extremely surprised by how well the Sleepy chocolate worked for me. I found myself getting tired earlier and actually staying asleep throughout the night.
Other than the effects of the chocolate, the flavors are also delicious. My favorite flavor is natural ginger snap (Rhythm Chocolate).
Having a pleasant experience with their products, I decided to reach out to the brand to get more information on their story. I’m grateful that they were eager to share.
What is the backstory of how Functional Chocolate came to be?
For the last five years, founder and COO of The Functional Chocolate Company, Chris Peruzzi has been working on his idea for a new product line that would offer condition-specific stacks of nutraceutical ingredients refined over his three decades in the natural products industry, with something better than the large pills, bitter drops, and gummies that dominate market shelves. By bringing together indulgent chocolate with clinically researched ingredients and powerful botanicals that cater to specific symptoms, chocolate now does more than ever before. These vegan, gluten-free and ethically sourced creations address everyday health realities – cramps, stress, hot flashes & other common issues.
“Women face unique health concerns, many of which remain underserved by traditional wellness and nutraceutical approaches. Combining chocolate with our stacks of proven ingredients creates an indulgent and especially effective experience, as the natural healthy fats in the chocolate act as a carrier to improve bioavailability of the other ingredients, and of course, it makes it more likely that customers actually consume regularly.”
— CHRIS PERUZZI
Is the long-term goal to replace synthetic medicines with chocolate or other natural alternatives?
Our goal isn’t necessarily to replace all medicines, as we believe there is a time and place for a wide variety of approaches to a wide variety of health realities. We simply want to offer another, more pleasant option for consumers for many of their most common, everyday issues.
Can you share the journey/creation of your bars of chocolate? From where the beans are sourced all the way to packaging and being ready to eat?
We source our dark chocolate from a cooperative of small farmers in South America. All of our chocolate is Fair Trade, ethically sourced—as well as vegan, gluten, and GMO free.
As a start up, we don’t currently have our own production facility. We work with a family owned contract manufacturer that has been producing fine chocolate products for decades, and that we have a long term relationship with.
Our manufacturer receives all of the raw inputs, cacao, flavorings, botanicals and the patented, clinically researched ingredients like Saffserene and LibiFem at their facility in Idaho. Their team blends, tempers, cools and carefully packages each bar for us.
Our distribution center ships out the chocolate for each customer or store.
What types of research goes into each bar?
Chris has been working on the concept of functional chocolate throughout his 30+ years as a leader in the natural products space, where he worked in senior roles at top companies including Nordic Naturals. He spent his free time formulating and reformulating his “stacks” of ingredients for various conditions, and over the past five years began to more seriously work on introducing these products. By thoughtfully combining blends of well studied botanicals with a variety of clinically researched ingredients such as LibiFem, Chocamine and Saffserene, he is able to bring the best researched and safest formulations to customers.
Sadly, the chocolate industry is one of the most exploitative in the world, (child slavery,
unfair wages, harming the environment or eco-colonialism as some call it). Why is fair trade important to you as a brand and why is it important for a brand to be transparent with its consumers?
As a business, we recognize our responsibility to ensure that our impact on the communities that we work with is positive. We feel it is our responsibility to ensure that we cover all of the costs, both direct costs and externalities, of our products. Sourcing the cheapest ingredients often means passing along environmental or social costs to the communities that can least afford them, and that is not acceptable.
We believe that fair trade and ethical sourcing are essential for any business, but especially businesses that work with products that are often tied to exploitative conditions. Unfortunately, cacao is one of the products too often tied to mistreatment of both workers and the environment.
By building relationships and sourcing our cacao from a cooperative of farmers and paying fair rates, we can say with confidence that our products are helping farmers and the environment, not exploiting them. Transparency goes hand in hand with that approach. By running our business ethically and sharing that journey, we feel that our customers are more likely to resonate with our brand and choose to build a long term relationship with us.
The bars you have seem to be targeted towards women, any plans to have them available for men or all genders in the future?
Absolutely. While our initial formulations are designed to target common everyday conditions primarily for women and people with female-related health realities, all ingredients are safe for anyone over the age of 12. Our newest offerings, Energy & Sleepy, are for all genders. We’ll continue to offer new products across demographics over the coming months.
Is the packaging on the bars recyclable?
The outer cardboard sleeves that our bars come in are 100% recyclable. The inner flow wrap is recyclable in some areas, where programs exist.
Any words/advice you’d like to share with others?
We believe that if you work with good people, good things happen.
Every body is different, so although I got positive results from these bars, it doesn’t guarantee that you will have the same experience. However, I recommend trying them out because at the end of the day, it is some really good chocolate.
Use Code SPREADTHEWORD to get a free bar of chocolate
with any minimum purchase on funcho.co
You can follow @FunctionalChoc on:
Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/FunctionalChoc
Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/functionalchoc/
Pinterest —https://www.pinterest.com/FunctionalChoc
Twitter — https://twitter.com/FunctionalChoc
Ifrah Akhtar
Ifrah Akhtar is founder and editor-in-chief of MODEST. She works on a number of other projects and is an avid writer and foodie. Most days you can find her with a book in her hand, eating something good, or sipping a colorful cup of tea.
