Community Highlights: Meet Steven Lambeth of Family and Future Wholesome Treats

Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Lambeth.

Hi Steven, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today. 
Family and Future Wholesome Treats has been through many iterations on the path to what my business is today. Ten years ago, I developed a chocolate bar addiction in the wake of a breakup while living in a yurt on a farm outside of Chapel Hill. I kept a very clean diet and started making dairy-free, raw chocolate bars sweetened without cane sugar as a way of feeding my chocolate habit while eating foods that contributed to my health and vibrancy rather than leaving me sluggishly on the sugar high and sugar crash cycle. After establishing a presence at the Carrboro Farmers Market about 5 years ago, my tiny raw chocolate business got to a place where I could stop catering, driving for Uber, and working random little jobs and could support my barebones lifestyle just making and selling chocolate – what a breakthrough! Fast forward to 2020, as the pandemic was setting in and we were all locked in our homes, I faced a decision point. I had begun dating the woman who would become my wife and started thinking about starting a family and what I wanted my future to look like. Suffice to say, the meager income that I was able to live on as a single man would never support my new dreams of starting a family, buying a home, generating a savings account – being an adult. I had to decide – was I going to put down this little chocolate business I had developed and go back to school in hopes of getting a real job, or was I going to really invest myself into building my business into something I could earn an honest living at. In hindsight, the way covid ground my life to a halt actually created the space I needed to step back, reassess my life, solve a number of production bottlenecks that were keeping me from expanding my business, and point my life in a more focused direction. I launched a Kickstarter campaign in the winter of 2021 and raised $21k to build a 7×14′ cargo trailer into a commercial kitchen and to invest in equipment I would need to scale up my business. An incredibly generous friend and mentor let me park my trailer at his house and taught me how to build out my trailer – everything from interior walls to plumbing to electrical work – and built out what is now my commercial kitchen with me every step of the way. With my production bottlenecks solved, I decided to rebrand my business, changing from Raw Chocolate for the Soul to Family and Future Wholesome Treats, to reflect my purpose for being in business – to work to be able to have a family and to invest in our future, but also to pay attention to supporting family farmers by only buying fair-trade cacao and to have a business that aligns with what is needed for the future of our planet by trying to cut down on plastic packaging in favor of compostable, reusable or at least recyclable options, by being mindful of the carbon footprint of my ingredients both by using organic ingredients but also paying attention to the transit my ingredients take – i.e. I switched from cacao that was grown in Peru, processed in Belgium, stored in Minnesota and shipped to me to cacao that is now grown on a single farm in Peru, processed and stored in Chicago, and shipped to me. By using only vegan ingredients, my products are free of animal suffering and the climate impacts associated with the industrial animal system. By only sweetening my ingredients with coconut sugar, maple sugar, and fruit, I also make products that I hope you can feel good about bringing home to your family, trusting that these products will contribute to your well-being, taking some of the “guilt” out of the pleasure! I also decided to expand my product line. One of my biggest pieces of equipment in my small kitchen is the stone grinder I use for making chocolate. After rebranding my business, I began using that stone grinder to make nut butters. Because these nut butters are made in a stone grinder rather than a mill, I am able to grind the butters for several hours at a time which allows me to create the creamiest textures and to gain more control over the degree of incorporation of my sweeteners, spices, and dried fruits to create a totally unique nut butter experience. I have also begun venturing into coffee beverages for sale at the Carrboro and Durham farmers markets each week, inspired by my other products. For instance, I have the richest, most chocolatey mocha you’ll ever have using a ton of my chocolate bars and refreshing lattes like “cashew cardamom latte,” based on my cashew cardamom nut butter, using a cashew and coconut milk that I make in house. 

Please come find us every week at the Carrboro and Durham Farmers Markets! We do occasional craft fairs in Raleigh and ship from our website year-round. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It most certainly has been a circuitous journey. For the first few years of my business, making and selling chocolate was probably more appropriately considered a hobby. I might make $200 in a great month while supporting myself catering and driving for Uber. For years, I thought I would never be able to expand my business because I could only make 40 chocolate bars in a full day of production. I had to completely redo my recipes and learn to use new equipment to be able to produce about 200 chocolate bars in a full day of production. Chocolate bar sales have proven to be surprisingly seasonal, with a notable dip in sales during the summer months and another dip in sales during the winter, the latter of which I believe is primarily due to farmers’ market attendance being slower in the colder months. Expanding my product line has helped to flush out my sales through the different seasons, although winter remains a much slower time for my business. I have also had quite the time starting to take on employees. I have had to develop my skills as a manager, learn how to develop systems and communication skills so that the myriad details that live as second nature in me from having done this for years can be taken up by someone who is doing everything for the first time. Also, just taking on the responsibility of hiring someone, sometimes accepting leaner months for my income, so I can provide predictable employment for the folks who do me the service of showing up and helping to keep my business running. 

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We produce vegan chocolate bars, nut butter, drinking chocolate mixes, and specialty lattes, all sweetened with only coconut sugar, maple sugar, and fruit. We use organic ingredients wherever possible, which is at least 95%+. At the end of the day, what we are most proud of is our products – we have unique flavors like our smoked sea salt chocolate bar or our cashew cardamom, or hazelnut praline nut butter, and our approach to making these products allows us to create these products with real depth of flavor and intentionally created textures. For instance, with our smoked sea salt chocolate, 3/4 of the sugars are stone ground overnight, which creates a silky texture, and the other quarter of the sugars are left unground, adding a little bit of texture and grit to the chocolate. Our cashew cardamom nut butter is ground for 4 hours to highlight the incredible creaminess cashews can have, while our hazelnut praline is made by first grinding in the coconut sugar, maple sugar, coconut flake, cinnamon, and vanilla with 15% of the hazelnuts to fully blend the flavor profile and then the remaining 85% of hazelnuts are rough chopped and added in at the end to create satisfyingly crunchy nut butter in its texture with a totally smooth flavor profile. When we make mocha, we melt down a ton of our coffee dark chocolate bars with coffee, almond milk, coconut milk, and maple syrup to create a truly rich mocha that is 100% vegan. Our new apple pie almond butter (coming back in stock in March), is sweetened with dehydrated organic apple juice rather than what you might see in a grocery store which might include cane sugar (or worse corn syrup) and some mysterious ingredient called “natural apple flavor.” We only use real ingredients, and we build each of our products from the bottom up so that we can be in control of exactly what ingredients, proportions, and techniques are involved. 

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
The biggest piece of advice that I would give to someone starting out is to experiment freely and pay close attention to what is and isn’t working. Just throw all your ideas at a wall and see what sticks. After you do that, focus on refining those offerings to create brand cohesion. 

Pricing:

• I’m not sure it’s worth including this info, but here are my prices
• Chocolate bars $7
• Nut butters $12-$16 depending on nuts (macadamia and pistachio come in at $16)
• Lattes $5-$7

Contact Info:

• Website: https://familyandfuturechocolate.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyandfuturechocolate/