About Us

About the Fortina Family:

Presently, Fortina Chocolate calls Sedona, Arizona home.  It is a family business run by my wife, Annie, and I.  We work with Kelly Johnson, of Sedona Chocolate Superfoods, and Ecuadorian organic chocolate company, Pacari.  We use only organic fair-trade cacao working directly with our friends and farmers in Ecuador to enrich their communities as we offer the finest handcrafted chocolate to ours.   The native Ecuadorian cacao,, called “Arriba Nacional” is grown, harvested, and processed in Ecuador using methods that their ancestors used. We use traditional handcrafting methods for turning the raw cacao into the finest chocolate available. We believe in the importance of simplicity, creating from the basics the way it has been done for generations, keeping tradition alive.

At Fortina Chocolate, we focus on environmentally sustainable practices from bean to bar.  Our packaging is printed on 100% recycled paperboard using water-based inks. Our wrappers are made of wood cellulose and 100% compostable.

Thank you all for being a part of the Fortina Family!

~ How the Magic of Cacao was gifted to me to share with all of you…

I have always been a Chocolate Lover. As a Farrier (Blacksmith) for twelve years, I learned the art and craft of a generations-old tradition, hand making all the tools of the trade. In 1997, while I was instructing at Oklahoma Horseshoeing School, a friend and student of mine would receive chocolate from his girlfriend in Europe. He began sharing stories of places in Europe where they could only prepare chocolate during the cooler months of the year because of its purity and its quickness to melt.

I had grown accustomed to the chocolate available in North America that is processed and contains unnatural ingredients that dilute cacao’s extraordinary nutrition profile. The vision of the purity of European chocolate stuck with me.

I held this vision for years and then in 2006, after going Raw, that vision became a reality. After the first time I prepared raw chocolate, I knew my life was changed forever. I felt complete happiness, opening of my heart and mind that flowed into laughter and bliss.

During an evening home alone with the sound of musical vibration filling the air, I found myself in the kitchen with cacao powder, cacao butter and a few superfoods. The aroma took me back to a time when cacao was known and used as a powerful medium for access into other dimensions, a supporter of health and vitality, currency and community.

As I melted the cacao butter and started mixing in the cacao powder, the spirit of the plant came to me and began working with me. I found myself being guided by those who prepared it long before me, for the preparation and use of cacao is nothing new it has only taken different forms. Looking down I found myself gazing into a beautiful vortex of swirling Love and Creation, igniting all of my senses, expanding my mind’s eye.

This dance went on for quite some time and before I knew it I had made a few dozen chocolate bars.

At the time I was working with Nature’s First Law (Sunfood Nutrition) I brought all that I had prepared that night before into work the next day to share with our staff of Angels. This is when the real teachings started.

You see chocolate, to me, represents Unconditional Love. Cacao has its own message to give and showed me through the energy I had put into preparing the chocolate I could infuse mine. I had never seen anything like it. It brought pure joy to my heart.

After witnessing this, I would infuse different emotions as well as intentions into each batch to see it shine through all who ate them the next day. Sometimes it was laughter and playfulness, or creativity, always ending with chocolate covered smiles, all Love through different emotions.

After preparing the chocolate I would write messages on the packaging knowing the next day there would be a special chocolate bar calling out for each person.

Soon after Fortina Chocolate was born with the coming together of myself, and Vince and Jinelle Wendling, whom I dearly love and respect. Our intention was to bringing a European-style Raw chocolate bar to all.

The name Fortina (For-Tina) is a dedication to my grandmother Tina. Through our time together, I came to remember that unconditional Love is my truth, my guide, my life’s path, and a sacred way to relate to all things.

Chocolate brings us all together, opening us up in all ways, body, mind, and spirit, dissolving boundaries. Cacao holds space for the remembrance of who we really are, One Love!