Most people experience chocolate in the silky, smooth, enticingly delicious finished product, but this dark, attractive delicacy begins as a polar opposite - a lumpy, unattractive bean. From the bean to the bar, chocolate making is a delicate, meticulous process that BYU alumnus Art Pollard has mastered.

Pollard loves being a professional chocolatier because every day is different. Pollard is Utah's first-ever chocolate manufacturer to start the chocolate making process with the raw bean.

"There's a whole world [of chocolate] out there," Pollard said.

He said he always enjoyed chocolate but his true love for the sweet confection developed when he came across some phenomenal chocolate in Europe that can't be purchased in the United States.

Pollard worked in the physics department at BYU for seven years. He grew up near the Los Alamos National Laboratory and that sparked his interest in science.

"You pretty much have to be interested in science to live in Los Alamos," Pollard said.

He always planned to go into physics. Becoming a chocolatier evolved as a side hobby.

"It was the last thing my high school counselor suggested," he said. "But in the end it [physics] all carries down through designing machinery, modifying and refurbishing."

Manufacturing chocolate is a mechanical and chemical process, Pollard said. He said a chocolatier also needs to understand the botany and horticulture of the cacao bean to effectively develop the flavor of the chocolate.

Pollard said he always thought it would be interesting to make chocolate, but everyone said he couldn't do it. "The challenge [of making chocolate] made it all the better," he said. It took a few years, but Pollard designed and built his own chocolate refiner.

Clark Goble, Pollard's business partner, said he tasted some of Pollard's chocolate and said he thought that if it was that good on homemade equipment it would be even better with professional equipment. He suggested that they try it.

"Art is one of those really technical persons," Goble said. "He doesn't just have casual hobbies. Whatever he does he tries to be the best at."

Pollard studied under a chocolatier in Germany and opened his Amano Chocolate Factory with Goble in Orem.

"He's one of the most informed people on the subject," said Melanie Henderson, director of the Utah Chocolate Show.

Pollard's factory hasn't started producing chocolate yet, but he plans to be distributing his chocolate in the Salt Lake and local area the first couple weeks of December.

"All our chocolate initially will be 70 percent dark chocolate," Pollard said. Seventy percent of the chocolate is directly from the cacao bean and the rest is generally sugar and vanilla. "You can taste the chocolate a lot more," he said. A lot of companies just add more sugar to compensate for poor chocolate flavor, Pollard said.

Henderson said Pollard's chocolate is promising for people who like dark chocolate. "His dark chocolate I like because it doesn't have that sharp aftertaste," she said. "It's definitely dark chocolate but not bitter." She said she thinks people will like the finish on Pollard's chocolate.

Pollard described his first experience making chocolate as incredibly frustrating. "The first few batches were gritty, but [had a] good flavor to it," he said.

Pollard knew the flavor he wanted for his chocolate from his previous experience with high-end chocolate. In addition to tasting other high quality chocolates, he studied rare chocolate manufacturing books from the turn of the century to help him develop his flavor. Developing the perfect flavor is a tricky process, he said.

"If you're testing by taste, you not only have to consider how it tastes then but how it will taste 30 or 60 days down the road," he said. The flavor of chocolate is constantly changing, but the most rapid change takes place in the initial 30 days. After a point, the peak flavor diminishes. The peak flavor point depends on the type of chocolate bar and bean it comes from.

Pollard purchases a lot of his cacao beans from a farmer in Mexico who grows a rare variety. He said the amount of high-grade cacao beans available can't meet the demand of the entire chocolate industry. There are few artisan chocolate makers, and they all fight for the same beans, Pollard said.

"If you don't start out with good ingredients, you're going to end up with a poor quality product," he said.

Pollard said the flavor of his chocolate has more of a fruit flavor than other chocolate. "The fruit flavor can range from kind of raisiny to even a deep plum flavor," he said. "It has a depth of flavor."

Pollard said he hopes Amano becomes a family tradition. He said his 4-year-old son always talks about chocolate. "My kids love the dark chocolate even though their friends tend to like the sugary sweet stuff," he said.