Wyoming Cowboy Wanted To Buy A Saddle, And Became A World-Class Chocolatier

MEETEETSE — Not all cowboys ride bulls. Some choose other challenges in life, like Meeteetse’s cowboy chocolatier, Tim Kellogg. 

“When you’re rodeoing, you have to pay to play the game,” he told Cowboy State Daily at his shop in Meeteetse on the National Day of the Cowboy last weekend. “There was a cowboy in Louisiana who made hot sauce, and Chris LeDoux sold cassette tapes out of the back of his truck. So, I just happen to make chocolate.”

It’s highly delicious chocolate, too, that draws people from Billings and beyond to Meeteetse, Wyoming, for fresh, handmade and unique finely made chocolates that have no preservatives, which means a very short shelf life.

Kellogg got started making chocolates because he needed a new saddle.

He’d just finished college and was figuring out what to do with his life. But, in the meantime, he wanted a new saddle, so he was making chocolates on the side and taking them to art and craft fairs.

“It kind of worked in my favor, because I was able to figure out what I was doing, and see what people wanted and liked,” he has told Cowboy State Daily priviously. “As opposed to having, like, a brick-and-mortar store right off the bat and having to have a full inventory.”

Chocolate-Buying In Belize

Kellogg’s approach to making chocolates is 100% cowboy. He doesn’t just buy chocolate from a supplier.

He actually goes to cacao farms in Belize in person to buy cacao beans that he will use to make his chocolate from scratch. That way he can alsolearn more about the farm’s processes, and ensure he’s buying not just a unique product, but one that is fresh, high-quality, and organic.

Typically, he makes his chocolate-buying trips in January, after the Christmas rush. The timing makes it a nice respite, not just from the cold Wyoming winter, but also from the crazy hustle and bustle his shop becomes for the entire month of December.

“December is just so crazy,” he said. “After December, it’s kind of nice to be on a farm in the middle of nowhere, and let my brain settle, and kind of become enthusiastic about creating again.”

Kellogg tends to focus on Belize because he loves the “terroir” of their chocolates. 

“You know, it’s like vineyards,” he said. “They all grow grapes, but they’re all doing something wildly different, even within the Cabernets. So, with cacao, it’s really interesting to see how they grow their beans.”

Adding In Costa Rica

This year, Kellogg expanded his chocolate horizon a little bit, venturing to Costa Rica, and dropping by a farm that’s in a volcanic area. That made a huge difference in the taste of cacao beans.

“The mineralogy comes through in the beans,” Kellogg said. “Like, Belize has a piece of my heart when it comes to cacao, that is like the absolute pinnacle for my taste buds. But the Costa Rican (cacao) was just phenomenal, and I was really thrilled.”

The couple running the Costa Rican farm Kellogg visited originally came from Switzerland and have focused on rejuvenating the soil of their farm, as well as making it sustainable and organic.

“Their work ethic and ethos were just an absolute parallel to mine,” he said. “But so, the problem with that is, then I get a little too excited and I end up buying more than I should.”

That meant lugging 40 extra pounds of cacao beans around with him for two weeks in Belize.

“But it was nice, because just, driving down the road,  you see these signs, like small chocolate farms, and you just pull in and get a few tablets,” he said. “So, I had one big bag that was just tablets from all these different farms around Central America for me to snack on and taste.”

Pesky Pastry Problems

The other break that Kellogg takes is typically in the spring. He heads to London and Europe, to see what’s trending on the chocolate scene, as well as take classes in new chocolate and pastry-making techniques. 

This year’s focus included flavorful cherries, as well as a pesky, pastry problem. 

“This drives me nuts, but my croissants are splitting,” Kellogg told Cowboy State Daily, picking up one of the “spoiled” examples from that morning’s baking.

“I can’t even sell these,” Kellogg said, shaking one of them up by his ear. “I guess I know what I’ll be eating for lunch.”

It was true the croissant had a huge split down the center. But it still looked beautiful and flaky to this reporter. Fit to devour immediately — which this reporter dutifully verified later, by eating the poor, hapless croissant. 

“I’ve worked with like, a pastry chef in Paris, and I have been harassing her relentlessly, but I don’t understand what’s going on,” he said. “They just keep splitting.”

Perseverance Serves A Cowboy Well

Part of the problem, Kellogg discovered, was wrapping the croissants too tightly, and not putting enough moisture in them. The dough was also a little too cold. 

Practice also makes a difference. When he was making them every day, the croissants turned out perfect every time.

“So, for three or four weeks in a row, I had spectacular pastries,” Kellogg said. “And then, oddly enough, today of all days, the butter croissants all split. But, the really weird thing is, the ones with prosciutto and Gruyère did not. And it’s the exact same dough.”

That’s a mystery Kellogg will continue to work on. Because cowboys don’t give up on something just because it’s a little bit difficult. 

Call it stubbornness or call it perseverance. It’s something he learned growing up on a ranch, working with cattle. And they are values that have served him well as the owner of Meeteetse Chocolatier.

“When I get frustrated, like, there’s no way I’m going to give up,” he said. “Like, I’m not going to give up. I’m just going to keep going.”

Bringing The Spice Markets Of Istanbul To Wyoming

Usually, Kellogg’s European trip is focused around the vibrant London, and sometimes French, chocolate scenes. That’s where he picks up brand-new trends he can bring to Wyoming an entire year, and sometimes two years, before they show up in America. 

New techniques and new experiences are how he keeps chocolate interesting not just for others, but also for himself, as a cowboy who pours himself into making the very best chocolates he can make. For him, it’s never about getting a bigger business. He just wants to become a better chocolatier. 

This year, Kellogg’s European trip included a brand-new side jaunt, one that’s likely to become a regular thing — a trip to Istanbul’s spice markets. That has already inspired some new flavors in the Meeteetse Chocolatier’s shop.

“Istanbul is just this incredibly historic city,” Kellogg said. “Like long before America was even a dream,  by like hundreds of years, if not thousands. So that was really cool.”

Among the spice markets Kellogg visited was one that was established in 1597. Almost 500 years ago. 

“There were just these racks and racks and racks of spices and teas,” he said. “And the funny thing was, everywhere you went, they serve you tea, Turkish tea, and it’s fantastic.”

Kellogg joked with his Turkish guide that he was actually drinking a lot more tea in Turkey than he had the entire three weeks he spent in London.

Saffron Chocolates Are A Thing

While exploring, Kellogg bumped into a French chocolatier in Istanbul, where he tasted a beautiful saffron chocolate. It was an explosion of earth and honey in his mouth. 

It was so remarkable, it inspired him to try chocolate and saffron again, with a truffle this time. It didn’t hurt that he found saffron threads in the market that were far, far cheaper than any he could buy in the United States. 

“Saffron is the most expensive seasoning herb in the world,” Kellogg said. “And it’s shockingly inexpensive there. But the problem is, everywhere you go there, they haggle, and I hate haggling. I kept trying to get them to just tell me how much the saffron is.”

Kellogg’s guide told him he’d overpaid for his saffron. 

“I was like, ‘You don’t understand, what I got for $20 U.S. here would be like $80-plus at home,’” he said. “So, like, I should have bought more. It’s all relative.”

Saffron wasn’t the only new flavor inspired by Kellogg’s Istanbul trip. There’s also a new mango habanero truffle as well, now featured in his case of summer chocolate delights in Meeteetse. 

“They put mango habanero on everything,” Kellogg said with a smile, remembering his epic trip. “And so that’s in the case now.”

If You Go

The Meeteetse Chocolatier, 1943 State St., isn’t open on a regular 9-to-5 basis. The shop posts its hours each week on Facebook, but it also closes when the chocolates run out. For best results, arrive early, because the favorites do sell out very quickly, sometimes within minutes.  

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.