Chip has very early memories of enjoying to cook, and she
fell in love with chocolate from the time her grandma gave her a Hershey bar
when she was maybe four. After working
as a registered nurse, Chip opened a Chubby Chipmunk bakery and chocolate shop
in California for a year, where she and her husband lived at the time. Chip’s husband dreamed of retiring in the
Black Hills, and when he retired, Chip’s dream of being a chocolatier was set
into full motion when she took over the old Sinclair gas station on the edge of
Deadwood and turned it into her one-woman chocolate shop.
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Chubby Chipmunk's mascot, Miss Chubby, in front of the former Sinclair station turned chocolate shop.
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The Chub-o-Matic chocolate vending machine, so customers can get their chocolate fix 24/7!
When making her sweet creations, Chip always “leads with her
heart over her head” to determine recipes.
Over the course of the past ten years, she has received many accolades
from different sources, such as Rachel Ray’s Every Day Magazine and the
Grammy awards. This professional
acknowledgment has led to big-time offers from such companies as Sam’s Club,
Wal-Mart, and Macy’s. However, Chip has
always felt as if she needed to say no to these options. She wanted to stay small and steer away from
large corporate ventures: “It’s not
about making the money, but about making something so good.”
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In this frame of mind, Chip likes to “read” the different
kinds of chocolate she uses to determine what production techniques to incorporate. Just as when a winemaker takes into account
different varieties of grapes and vintages of growth, Chip says different
chocolates have different temperatures at which they temper—a technique where
the chocolate is warmed and cooled to achieve its silky, shiny texture. Her philosophy is “don’t get cocky” with the
chocolate, because that is what leads to a poor finished product. This attitude of respect and reverence for
her creations is especially evident when she is working with the rare Fortunato
No. 4 chocolate from Peru.
As with so many parts of her career as a chocolatier, events
just seemed to fall into place for Chip to harvest and use this special
delicacy. Chip read an article in a
trade magazine about Fortunato No. 4.
She then contacted the magazine, who passed her message on. The next thing Chip realized, she had been
invited to Peru and was harvesting this chocolate—which is considered a
national treasure and guarded by armed men—with a stick, just like the ancient
Aztecs did hundreds and hundreds of years ago. The beans are then roasted and
conched, a process that grinds the beans so fine a liquid is formed, using the
same methods from the 1800s. After she returned home and was working with the
Fortunato No. 4 in her own kitchen at Chubby Chipmunk, she pictured the Aztec
gods watching over her, nodding their heads in agreement with what she was
doing with their chocolate.
After a second trip to harvest Fortunato this coming March, Chip will have the
additional special privilege of using the first crop of the initial Fortunato
No. 4 chocolate; this is chocolate so rare, she will be the only one in the
world selling it. In so many ways, Fortunato
is unlike any chocolate Chip has worked with before. It has a unique flavor and changes with age,
just like wine. Chip equates the
discovery and use of this ancient chocolate to finding a rare grape all the
world’s wine lovers thought was extinct.
Her relationship to and her feelings for this chocolate are hard to
describe, but Chip explains it best when she says it’s all just been “meant to
be.”
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White chocolate creations.
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Dark chocolate creations.
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Chip has many meant-to-be stories like this. From her meeting and on-stage seats to TWO
different Gary Allen concerts—her favorite performer—to her carved mascot, Miss Chubby,
the events that have happened for Chip because of chocolate have been amazing,
and they are equally as amazing to listen to because she is an incredible story
teller. Chip feels so fortunate
where her business has taken her and itself.
Today she employs up to fifteen people, depending on the time of year
and the events happening. Though she has
chosen to stay a small artisanal venture, she tries to make up for the lack of
large corporate benefits to her employees by paying competitive wages and
giving frequent raises. Her appreciation
for her employees and customers is evident the instant one is greeted in the
shop by Chip or a smiling Chipmunk representative…along with the divine smell
of wonderful chocolate! Chip has a huge
heart and soul, and she works every day to show this through her work, her
business, her workers, and her product.
Small producers who seek the soul of a wine during the
production process are craftsmen and artists; they are people who care so much
about their process that they worry less about money and more about the quality
of the product they create. Chip Tautkus
falls into this category. She is not
only a chocolatier, but she is also an artist—whose medium just happens to be
silky, sweet chocolate. No matter what
truffle or chocolate bar, Chip’s sweet touch is evident as she gives consumers
a product that can honestly be called good enough for the gods.
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The Sweet Sommelier and Miss Chubby--chocolate lovers at heart!
Chubby Chipmunk chocolates the Sweet Sommelier--and her
chocolate-loving friends--adore
(in no particular order)
1. Hot Mama Truffle
2. Cheddar
Beer Truffle
3. Cinnabun
Truffle
4. Chipmunk
Treasure Truffle
5. Buttercream
Truffle
6. New
York Cheesecake Truffle
7. Moose
Toffee Truffle
8. Deadwood
Toffee Truffle
9. Crème
Brule Truffle
10. Milk
Caramel Truffle
