BYU has plenty of merchandise — hoodies, hats and more — but two BYU chocolate bars, made in collaboration with Taste Artisan Chocolate, were recently added to this addition.
Royal Blue Crunch is a caramelized white chocolate bar with blueberries and candied pecans, and Light the Y is a dark chocolate bar with toasted coconut, yuzu and mint, according to Grant Fry, taste general manager and head chocolate maker. The chocolate bars feature custom artwork depicting views of campus.
Kevin Wilson, director of BYU University Relations, said the partnership created the chocolate bars to be part of the university’s Presidential Gift Collection.
“We have faculty and staff traveling around the world throughout the year and we are regularly hosting international guests, dignitaries and VIPs. We hope the chocolates will be a fun and memorable gift for our campus guests and for those representing BYU wherever they travel,” Wilson said.
Paul Cayton, Director of Project Management at Taste and current BYU student, coordinated the project between BYU, Taste and their designer to help synthesize efforts into a final product.
Fry described the project as very collaborative, and said University Relations and Taste employees both came with ideas for flavors and worked together to find the perfect balance.
“Some of the inspiration came from Taste’s expertise while other ideas came from us wanting to include ingredients and flavors that captured BYU’s culture,” Wilson said.
According to Cayton, the team wanted to avoid doing something that’s already been done.
“We didn’t want to do exactly the Cougar Tail or we didn’t want to do a mint brownie or something like that, but we wanted to do things that would pay homage to that but also stand alone as their own BYU Taste bar,” Cayton said.
The team went through many iterations before settling on the final flavors for the two bars. Fry said “Royal Blue Crunch” included blueberries to tie in BYU’s colors, and “Light The Y” includes tropical notes as a nod to the Polynesian culture that exists within many of BYU’s sports programs.
According to Fry, who is a BYU alumni, working with BYU was fun because they didn’t want to play it safe and create flavors that would appeal to everyone.
“They were like, no, we want something groundbreaking. We want something really fun and interesting, and that’s always a good project to be working on,” Fry said.
Wilson said the names for the bars came naturally once they developed the flavors and picked the artwork.
“We hope recipients will have a memorable sensory experience with the chocolate. Good chocolate was/is priority number one,” Wilson said.
Fry said that since the flavors are so interesting and strong, the bars might do well even in places that don’t know what BYU is, and give people a chance to get to know the school.
Cayton hopes the bars will shed some light on artisan chocolate and expand the market in Provo.
“Also for me, it’s a point of pride because … I’m planning on graduating from BYU and it’s a way to leave my mark on the university a little bit,” Cayton said.
BYU and Taste intend to create a third chocolate bar together, although the specific plans are still pending. “Royal Blue Crunch” and “Light the Y” are available for purchase at Taste.
