The Story Behind the Bar
Before the storefront. Before the café. Before the logo was sketched or the first bar was molded, there was a spark.
Not the kind you see — but the kind you feel. A question whispered between friends. A risk taken around a cacao fire in Belize. A quiet, insistent belief that chocolate could be more. Makenu didn’t begin with a business plan. It began with truffles, toffee, and two people chasing something deeper.
Jess came back to Jacksonville looking for space — personally, professionally, emotionally. She found herself behind the espresso bar at Bold Bean, reconnecting with her love of chocolate and launching a side hustle called Deep Dyed. Truffles, dipped fruits, tiny batches made from scratch in a borrowed kitchen.
Meanwhile, Tucker was slinging his mom’s toffee recipe at farmers markets under the name Topsy Toffee. It wasn’t the most glamorous setup — but it taught him resilience, craft, and what it meant to build something from scratch.
Their paths crossed over conversations about cacao. Origins. Flavor. Integrity. They were both in transition. Restless. Hungry for more.
A maker’s trip to Belize sealed it. Surrounded by growers, roasters, and makers from around the world, they talked about what it really meant to leap — to leave the known behind and commit to a vision that felt equal parts thrilling and terrifying.
That trip gave Makenu its heartbeat. That fire lit the fuse.
They came back and signed a lease. The space was raw. The world didn’t know what was coming. It was late 2019.
When the pandemic hit, everything shook. But they had already committed — financially, emotionally, spiritually. So they kept going.
They made batch after batch. Tried, failed, adjusted. Learned the rhythm of the melanger.
Refined the roast curve. Started slow. And then they opened the doors.
From day one, Makenu was never just about chocolate.
It was about connection — to flavor, to place, to self.
It was about ritual — that moment when someone walks in needing quiet, or warmth, or just a little beauty.
It was about respect — for the farmers, the ingredients, and the stories behind every single bar.
Today, when you walk into the shop, you're stepping into a living thing. A place born from
memory, movement, and momentum. A place that still carries the spark from that cacao fire in
Belize — and passes it on, one bar at a time.
Ready to experience where it all began?
Come visit the café, explore the collection, or just linger a while.
