We first met Justine Pringle at the Notes on a Party “Eco-Chic” event. What began for her as a sideline hobby has grown quickly into Nunu Chocolates, a growing enterprise with a flagship store on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, a weekly presence at Brooklyn Flea in Clinton Hill, and representation at gourmet stores throughout the city and in San Francisco, Knoxville, Cambridge, and Fairfield, Connecticut. Justine took time away from the sweets to answer a few of our questions.
Base: You recently opened your first store in Brooklyn a few months ago. Is there a certain childlike giddiness that comes with owning your own chocolate store?
Justine Pringle: There definitely is – I still can’t believe that we have a chocolate store! It’s like we are playing house!
B: How did you find yourself in the chocolate business? Is it the culmination of a childhood dream, or a more recent interest?
JP: It’s a recent passion. Andy Laird (my husband and business partner) and I were trying to come up with ideas of what we could sell at his music concerts that wasn’t the standard merch, and chocolate was the one and only thing we thought of. I went back to school and got my diploma from Ecole Chocolat. The chocolate totally took its own path and became a business on its own. We still need to make chocolates for Andy’s shows!
B: Tell me about your time at the Brooklyn Flea. How did it become such a cultural Mecca? Describe what it’s like for someone who hasn’t been.
JP: The Brooklyn Flea is an amazing thing. The flea gave us and many other small business owners the chance to get our product out there. It is a place where we can not only bond with other vendors but interact with customers. It’s a wonderful mix of people, great food, crafts, and furniture. We bought our 12 foot-long farmhouse table that is in our shop at the flea.
B: Now that you have your own store, how has your role changed since producing chocolates for sale at the Brooklyn Flea?
JP: I don’t think my role has changed much. The days are much busier and the position of shopkeeper has been added to the daily tasks. But other than that, not much. It will be changing soon, though. We are going to be starting construction in the store. We will be building a beer and wine bar and a production kitchen so people can come and have a drink and watch chocolate being made.
B: Did you have any reservations about opening a store in December, considering the state of the economy?
JP: Yes, we talked about the pros and cons a lot! We were also doing the Union Square Holiday Market, and we were getting married on New Year’s Eve! So, it wasn’t only the state of the economy but also a question of: Did we have enough hours in the day to achieve it all? It was a crazy time! We actually just got accepted to do the Union Square Holiday Market again at the end of this year.
B: How have you been impacted by the recession so far?
JP: I am not quite sure as our shop wasn’t around last year, so we have nothing to compare it to.
B: You have a fascinating background. Growing up in South Africa, how did you end up in Brooklyn?
JP: Well! In a roundabout kind of way. I did a science degree in Environmental Management & Technology at The University of Sunderland in England. That led to an internship in Brussels, Belgium, where I worked for the European Federation of Environmental Engineers, which in turn led to another internship, at Barton Creek Country Club in Austin, TX. There I set up their waste management program. When that ended I moved to the Northeast to experience NYC…
B: You import all of your cocoa beans from a family-run farm in Colombia. How did you find it?
JP: Firstly, we wanted to find a chocolate that we love the taste of. Secondly, we wanted a chocolate that had traveled the shortest distance to get to us. We get it straight from the plantation.
B: Nunu is often referred to as a “green” business because you use local, organic ingredients and sustainably grown cocoa beans. Did you set out to become a “green” business from the start, or in purchasing ingredients did you realize the best results came from organic sources?
JP: We never thought that it wouldn’t be “green.” That’s just the way it should be.
B: Sustainability and green issues are, of course, big topics. With the recession in full force, do you think there is less interest in sustainability issues?
JP: I do think people find it financially harder to pay for organic/sustainable products. It is affecting their daily choices.
Stay tuned next week for part II of this interview.
For more information on Nunu, click here.
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