Mayana to be featured on 'Wisconsin Foodie' Thursday

SPOONER — Many people around the state will now hear of “the best chocolate you’ve never heard of” when Mayana Chocolate is featured on the TV show “Wisconsin Foodie.”

The Spooner-based chocolate factory filmed a segment for the show on Nov. 17, 2023, and it will premiere on “Wisconsin Foodie” on Thursday, Feb. 15, at 7:30 p.m. on PBS (viewers can also watch it on the website or YouTube).

Mayana Chocolate was started by husband and wife team Daniel and Tamara Herskovic. Daniel began making chocolate in his Chicago apartment, and they opened the factory in Spooner in 2013 with the help of a loan from Northwest Regional Planning Commission. It was originally on Valley Road in a small building that housed the kitchen, offices and packaging room. They moved into their current location off Highway 63 south in 2019.

“This space is like six times bigger,” Daniel said.

Daniel creates the mixes for the chocolate bars, with many different flavors one wouldn’t even think of putting together. Tamara has an interior architecture and event planning background and fashions the chocolate packaging and makes custom designs. They release new flavors once or twice a year. This past fall, they did a pumpkin spice mini bar with marshmallow, caramel and dark chocolate, and for Valentine’s Day, they created a Mayan spice mini bar, which has spicy dark chocolate ganache, salted caramel and a tortilla-peanut crunch.

Daniel chose the name “Mayana”for his company in 2008.

“It’s the name of a Filipino plant,” he explained, adding that many other companies choose European-sounding names for their brands. “I just like the name.”

Luke Zahm, the host of “Wisconsin Foodie,” learned about Mayana when he was filming a segment at Fortune Favors, formerly Nutkrack, in Madison. The owner is friends with the Herskovics and Mayana uses Fortune Favors’ pecan nuts, “which are fantastic,” Daniel said.

“We make a bar for them with their nuts called Magic Bar,” said Mayana sales director Kristen Luedtke.

When Zahm learned about Mayana, he decided to do a double feature on both companies and the process of how they make the Magic Bar. On the trailer for the episode, he calls it “connection confection … it’ll make you go nuts.”

“The program is pretty well-done,” Luedtke said.

When “Wisconsin Foodie” came in November, Luedtke said they set up all their equipment in the production room and put microphones on all the workers, interviewed Daniel in the office and even traveled around town to get shots of Spooner.

“He (Luke) made nougat with Daniel,” said Luedtke. “The crew had really good energy.”

“It was exciting,” added another worker.

Luedtke said the host kept everything light and Zahm tried everything, hanging out with the Mayana crew.

“It seemed like he liked everything,” she said.

Daniel said the episode begins with Fortune Favors, then goes to Mayana.

“The host of the show is a really great guy,” said Dan. “I showed him how to make things here. I actually put him to work.”

Zahm helped make the pecan nougat and spread it out on the enrober, which is the assembly line that covers the bars with the chocolate, with Mayana employee Jamie Scott. Enrobing means “to cover in something,” Daniel explained, so “our candy bars get enrobed (with chocolate). This is our most important machine.”

The bars are in slab form before they are enrobed and cut with custom-made machines made by a company in Montana specifically for Mayana.

“We do things kind of in a homemade way,” Daniel said.

Zahm then worked with employee Pat Perkins on wrapping the bars with their machine.

“They were here all day,” Daniel said.

Mayana Chocolate is sold throughout Washburn County and beyond in retailers, and people can also visit the factory to buy some from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Dan said that all the candy bars are popular.

“Kitchen Sink is probably the leader by a hair,” he said. “Cloud Nine’s really popular.”

The Space Bar and the Fix are also popular, as well.

Daniel is proud of his team of 25 full- and part-time employees. They have a wide range of ages from high school to an 86-year-old retiree.

“It’s not just about me and my wife, Tamara,” Daniel said. “We definitely had the energy to start it all. I’m really proud of our entire team.”

Daniel said they plan to expand the building soon, as the other business next door is relocating. As far as other plans, however, Dan said it’s his secret!