My name is Gabriela Pedreros, and I am a rising sophomore studying marketing with a minor in international business. This summer, I worked at Honeymoon Chocolates: a startup co-founded by Cameron Loyet. The startup specializes in making bean-to-bar craft chocolate sweetened with raw honey. All their cacao is sourced transparently through their partner Uncommon Cacao from places such as Peru, Uganda, Belize, and Haiti. Their raw honey is sourced from local St. Louis beekeepers. In addition, their packaging includes a craft pouch zipper that is 100% compostable.

My experience at this internship involved a lot of multitasking and testing various strategies. In a startup, you cannot focus on only one aspect of the business; the reality is that everyone is doing more than one task. Even though I was supposed to focus on everything related to marketing, such as email marketing, influencer marketing, and advertisement, I had the opportunity to do other things, including helping with the implementation of sales strategies, organizing events, and figuring out how to improve our relationship with wholesalers. It was great to be included in meetings as part of the team and see some of my ideas implemented and how the results affected the business.

While I’ve accomplished many projects through this internship, the one I and the team are most proud of is the packaging redesign. I have been doing graphic design for the past three years, but this internship allowed me to apply my skills in a professional environment. The process was unique and taught me to work as a team player. Through the brainstorming stage, I partnered with Tara, a professional graphic designer to develop amazing ideas, allowing me to continue the process with a vision in mind. My ultimate goal was to form an identity for each bar. The bars can be divided into two categories: Inclusion which includes strawberry milk chocolate and lavender white chocolate, and Single Origin, which includes dark chocolates from Uganda and other countries. I separated the two, giving each collection its layout. From there, the task was to ensure each bar maintained its unique color scheme and identity while showcasing its Honeymoon Chocolates identity and the country its cacao was sourced from. This task involved a lot of trial and error, and I couldn’t have done it without the support of the team at Honeymoon Chocolates and my co-worker/fellow Aisha. I’d also like to mention one special member at Honeymoon Chocolates, Sam, who is Cam’s dog. He would come to the factory/store weekly and greet customers with a big smile.

Overall, I’m grateful to Honeymoon Chocolates for this amazing summer. I look forward to seeing our projects’ long-term impact and working with them on more projects through the upcoming semester.

You can follow Honeymoon Chocolates on Facebook, (@honeymoonchocolates), Instagram (@honeymoonchocolates), and TikTok (@honeymoonchocolates).