This Article Was Updated On July 21st, 2021
Handcrafting with products from local farms and purveyors is what defines North Fork Chocolate Company as an artisanal chocolate company located on the East End of Long Island that manufactures their handcrafted centers from locally grown and sourced products on the East End of Long Island. North Fork Chocolate Company was established in 2012 and in January 2013 the company was approved to begin working out of the Stony Brook University Incubator program in Calverton. The Calverton Incubator originally started as an Agricultural Science Center and built on a commercial share kitchen developing a program to aide entrepreneurs in the culinary industry.
In late 2012, the Stony Brook Incubator at Calverton opened its doors to welcome these new entrepreneurs and that is where co-founders, Ann Corley and chocolatier/executive chef, Steven Amaral of North Fork Chocolate began their journey. An approved company must be fully insured and obtain both a license to operate through NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets, and a Suffolk County Food Managers Certificate. Ms. Corley and Chef Amaral began manufacturing an individual gourmet dessert line, and artisanal small batch Belgian chocolates selling wholesale to gourmet markets including Wild by Nature, Taste NY (Long Island Welcome Center and Penn Station), local vineyards, restaurants, and country clubs. They went on to retail their products attending farmers markets, and community events. In the fall of 2013, they opened up the first local brand pop-up in Tanger Outlets, Riverhead. From there they grew into their first brick and mortar shop on the North Fork at 740 Main Road, Aquebogue, which opened to the public in February of 2015.
Local B&B owner Darolyn Augusta of the Harvest Inn in Peconic ordered chocolates for her guests who said, “These aren’t BonBons! They are works of art featuring everything local!”
Today, Mr. Amaral and Ms. Corley continue a new era in growth with their latest process; stone-grinding fair-trade organic cacao beans creating small batch chocolate bars they call Aquabogg Gold. Still using their niche of everything local Chef Amaral has crafted these stone-ground chocolate bars with local products such as; beer from Long Ireland, Coffee from the Hampton Coffee Company, and wines from several local vineyards.