Sweet: U of A Departments Help Local Chocolate Company Grow, Develop

Photo by David Speer

Rick Boosey (second from the right) with Anne Marie Velliquette (second from the left) and students in her Integrated Marketing Communications class.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — University of Arkansas students across three colleges are working with an Elm Springs-based company, Kyya Chocolate, to grow the company’s brand, enhance the quality and variety of its products, and improve its production. In return the students are getting real-world experience, including internships spent making chocolate.

Kyya Chocolate is the state’s first bean-to-bar chocolatier. It was founded by Rick and Cindy Boosey, who first started making chocolate in 2012. The company is working hard to establish direct cocoa bean farmer relationships across the globe, in countries including Uganda, Dominican Republic, Madagascar, Ecuador, and soon Haiti— countries where few chocolatiers go.

Photo courtesy of Kyya Chocolate

Kyya Chocolate is one of only about 10 percent of chocolatiers in the country to own a cocoa press, which allows them to create hand-crafted artisan powders and syrups.

Last semester the Booseys contacted U of A faculty members in the Sam M. Walton College of Business, the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering, looking for resources to help them realize their business vision.

“We’re a younger chocolate company that has this desire to make world-class chocolate and take chocolate ‘science’ to a new level,” said Rick Boosey. “The university is building expertise and offering advanced degrees that can extend the body of knowledge with regards to chocolate. Working together we are helping each other.”

The first project, starting last semester, involved developing a comprehensive marketing plan for Kyya Chocolate. The Booseys worked with Anne Marie Velliquette, clinical assistant professor of marketing in the Walton College, and with students in her Integrated Marketing Communications class. Velliquette divided the class into “ad agencies,” each with the task of creating three distinct, integrated ads, a social media campaign, and a written creative marketing brief for the company. The Booseys then examined each team’s information and provided feedback. 

“The students’ work was very interesting and gave us some definite ideas that we can develop and use as we continue to market our company,” Rick Boosey said.

“It was a challenging yet very rewarding experience for the students,” Velliquette said. "They were able to gain experience in two distinct advertising agency roles: that of the creative designer as well as the account executive. Plus, the hands-on client experience provided great resume and job interview material for the students.”

As for a different kind of hands-on experience, this summer two food science students from Bumpers College are working as interns with Kyya, actually learning to make chocolate. 

At the same time the company is working with researchers in the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture to improve Kyya’s ability to identify flavor profiles in the cocoa fields where their beans are grown and to further develop their chocolate-making expertise. Andy Proctor, University Professor of food science in the division, is also working with Kyya on flavor development during chocolate processing as influenced by processing steps and bean origin.

“This requires developing new approaches to chocolate science and technology,” said Boosey. “Most farm-to-bar chocolate companies have a lack of technology to help validate cocoa bean characteristics in the field. We believe that kind of technology would extend the growing number of chocolatiers who can know the characteristics of the chocolate they employ.”

“We have always been a department that has significant interactions with the local food industry,” said Jean-Francois Meullenet, professor and head of the Department of Food Science. “As a relatively new company, Kyya is a great candidate for relationship development. We do have a lot of technical expertise in food science and we have an interest in assisting startups with expertise we have. We have formalized our assistance to small food companies through the Arkansas Food Innovation Center and hope that Kyya will be able to develop a relationship with the department through AFIC.”

Kyya’s relationship with the U of A will continue this fall in the College of Engineering, where Boosey will work with mechanical engineering faculty and students to streamline both machinery and processes at the Elm Springs facility to achieve greater efficiency and scalability.

Photo courtesy of Kyya Chocolate

“Students will design, build and test a benchtop system to grind cocoa beans and separate the hulls from the nibs,” said David G. Albers, instructor and student projects coordinator for the department. “The benefit to Kyya is that they get a fresh perspective on their process and approach to the problem. For the students this project develops their ability to apply their training to solve a problem in a way that is useful to a customer while meeting realistic constraints of time, money, complexity, and reliability/serviceability. It is a step in closing the gap between technically competent engineers and engineers who are ready to engineer upon graduation.”

Kyya chocolate bars are available in 65 retail locations throughout Northwest Arkansas, Tulsa, Little Rock, Florida, Colorado and Kansas City. As the company grows, the Booseys plan to donate 10 percent of Kyya’s profits to assist the communities where they purchase their cocoa beans.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.