Olive and Sinclair Chocolate

October 23, 2020

Olive and Sinclair is Tennessee’s first and only bean-to-bar artisan chocolate maker and a mainstay of the Nashville artisan food scene. Their slow-roasted, stone-ground creations deliver unexpected flavors, often in collaboration with other local makers. Celebrity clients like Gweneth Paltrow can’t get enough of this sought-after, hand-crafted treat.

Olive & Sinclair chocolate has a distinctly Southern flavor and feel. The beans are stone-ground like grits, the flavors are inspired by Tennessee staples, And O&S is the only chocolatier in the world using pure cane brown sugar, giving it a delightful molasses hint.

Every Olive & Sinclair bar is hand-finished, covered in cacao nibs, salt crystals, coarse ground pepper or other unexpected taste. It’s then hand-wrapped in a gorgeous package, each one a design collaboration between O&S, local artists, and a favorite hometown print shop.

Olive & Sinclair chocolate bars get national attention, but the company still operates as a hyper-local business. With a small workspace and a staff of just five, this little chocolate factory thrives on collaboration with other makers.  Local breweries use the bars in special beers, and hip Nashville pubs create signature cocktails with O&S flavors. Even the coffee beans in the Coffee Crunch bars are roasted just down the block, and O&S repurposes its cacao shells as mulch for local gardeners.

Owner and Middle Tennessee native Scott Witherow dreamed up Olive & Sinclair from his own kitchen in 2007, making micro-batches of chocolate for friends to taste. He oven-roasted and hand-cracked the beans in those early days, using a hair dryer and an old French chinois to separate the beans from the shell. The days of hand-grinding are over, but Witherow is still partial to antiquated methods; O&S grinds its cacao beans using a hundred year-old stone mill, brought here piece by piece from Spain. Today, O&S is headquartered in an 1890s grocery storefront in quirky, historic East Nashville, a fitting location for Witherow’s “doing new things the old fashioned way” approach.

Olive & Sinclair is known for its signature bars: Dark, Salt and Pepper, Sea Salted, Cinnamon Chili Chocolate, Buttermilk White Chocolate, Bourbon Nib Brittle (featuring Corsair Bourbon); Coffee Crunch (featuring Bongo Java coffee beans) and specialty seasonal blends. Today, the O&S shop invites curious visitors in for tours of its one-of-a-kind space every week.

Made in TN is proud to offer Olive & Sinclair chocolates. Find your favorite here.

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