The transition to living a healthier lifestyle doesn’t mean we have to completely give up our favorite sweets. Just ask 2020 BeyGOOD Grant Recipient, Dr. Tabatha Carr.
Dr. Carr, 43, is a naturopathic doctor. Naturopathy is a type of alternative medicine that focuses on providing a holistic approach to treating health problems. Carr is dedicated to helping women transform their lives and maintain good health through her holistic program, LivingAndLovingLife and is the founder of Good Girl Chocolate.
She received an undergraduate degree in science and an MBA in health administration at Oklahoma State University and studied naturopathic medicine at the Trinity School of Natural Health. Her journey to overcoming her own health challenges is the reason she became a holistic practitioner in the first place.
At 16, Dr. Carr was put on her first blood pressure pill. Her issues with weight began in high school when she was a women’s size 20/22.
By the age of 30, she was on three blood pressure pills and was at one point up to 300 pounds. She had diabetes, fibroids, cysts, and hormonal imbalances that threatened her ability to have kids. That moment was her wake-up call to turn her life around and change her relationship with food.
Through natural therapies, exercise, and eating clean, Dr. Carr began to see change, losing 80 pounds.
But what didn’t change for Dr. Carr was her love for chocolate. Her cravings led her to make raw chocolate in the comfort of her home and that’s how Good Girl Chocolate was birthed.
It’s a vegan/plant-based chocolate that supports healthy lifestyles. The brand name stemmed from being able to indulge in chocolate while still being able to say “I’ve been good.”
During an interview with theGrio, Dr. Carr revealed how she began making her chocolate.
“I was on a different diet every single day of my life,” said Dr. Carr. “I was on a different diet every year. It was the Atkins diet or it was the cabbage soup diet or one by the day diet. And one year I went on the raw diet and after eating raw food, I really wanted something sweet to eat. This was over 10 years ago and that’s actually when I started making chocolate.”
“I was falling off every diet and I fell off the wagon, the raw wagon, but I kept making chocolate and I’ve never stopped making chocolate. I decided a couple of years ago to just take a leap of faith and start a chocolate business. And that’s what I did,” Dr. Carr continued.
Good Girl Chocolate started as an e-commerce chocolatier in 2018. In July 2021, Carr opened her first location in Oklahoma City at Oklahoma Penn Square Mall, making it the first Black-owned, permanent mall tenant at that shopping complex.
“To know that I’m the first, It’s a little bit disturbing,” said Dr. Carr. “But at the same time, because it’s taken this long, I have so much joy. And I’m so grateful and I’ve never been the first at something.”
“I hit this milestone in my company to where I’m the first permanently Black-owned business in this mall and I am a double minority. I’m a Black woman as well. And you don’t get that a lot in the chocolate [world],” she added. “We’re a male-dominated field. So here I am, a Black woman chocolatier. And you can probably count us on one hand. I’m just blessed.“
Good Girl Chocolate is 100% plant-based, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and non-GMO. It is fair trade, single-origin, and made with organic ingredients.
“We don’t buy our chocolate,” said Dr. Carr. “You have a lot of chocolate companies that buy chocolate, melt it down and then that’s how they make whatever they’re making. We roast our own beans, we grind our own beans.”
“It takes four days to actually make our chocolate and we control every single ingredient in our chocolate. We don’t use table sugar. We use coconut sugar to make our chocolate. So that’s what really makes it clean chocolate. It is free of hydrogenated oils.”
Oklahoma Mall is the first brick-and-mortar location for the business, but Carr plans to expand in the wholesale and retail space.
“I think we have the best of the best and I think Good Girl Chocolate is delicious. Quality is so important to me. And when you go to GoodGirlChocolate.com and you look at those reviews, you know it’s good. And you know its quality.”
Outside of being a recipient for Beyonce’s BeyGOOD Foundation, Good Girl Chocolate has been featured in the Grammys gifting suite and in select Oscar nominee gift bags.
The entrepreneur was filled with gratitude when she received the grant from the BeyGOOD foundation.
Via her Instagram, she said: “This award is so special to me because it will allow me to buy more equipment and support my community by hiring more employees, which means I can produce more CHOCOLATE.”
Dr. Carr also reflected on that moment she was chosen.
“When I found out, I cried,” she told theGrio. “It’s hard for me to even talk about it now without being teary-eyed because I know that there were thousands of applicants, and to be one of the few, I’m just so thankful to God, I’m so thankful to God that I was one of the chosen. So it just it feels amazing.”
Click here to learn more about Good Girl Chocolate.
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