Contact: Tim Neville, Visit Bend Lead Storyteller + Communications Manager: 541-241-6845; tim@visitbend.com

The pitch: In the week leading up to Valentine's Day, Americans will buy roughly 58 to 60 million pounds of chocolate. About 36 million heart-shaped boxes will exchange hands. Valentine's Day isn't just big for chocolate. It's No. 1. Which raises a timely question: In a year of record spending and rising cocoa prices, what are we actually buying?

In Bend, Oregon, a Smithsonian-backed ecologist has a compelling answer.

Dr. Emily Pappo—a real-life “Dr. Chocolate”—owns Seahorse Chocolate, the world's first official bird-friendly chocolate maker. There are only four certified chocolate makers in the world. The first sits in a pint-size workshop in the heart of this Central Oregon city.

Bird-friendly certification has existed for coffee growers for decades, designed by the Smithsonian to protect shade-grown farms that preserve critical habitat for migratory birds. Chocolate, however, has lagged behind. That matters. Since 1970, North America has lost roughly 3 billion birds, with long-distance migrants among the hardest hit. At least 112 species have seen half their populations disappear.

Agriculture is a major driver. Coffee is grown in more than 70 countries across roughly 12 million farms. Cacao now consumes more than a quarter of the land area in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire combined. Climate change is accelerating the shift: by some estimates, half of current coffee-growing lands may become unsuitable by 2050, while cacao—more tolerant of heat and humidity—continues to expand, with global acreage up nearly 40 percent since 2000.

The Smithsonian launched bird-friendly certifications for coffee growers in 2000. Pappo's post-doctoral research studying cacao and biodiversity, helped the Smithsonian extend those certifications to cacao farms in 2021. Pappo's Seahorse Chocolate—a bean-to-bar maker that sources cacao exclusively from organic bird-friendly farms that preserve canopy cover and biodiversity for birds—is the country's first officially licensed bird friendly chocolate maker.

With chocolate on everyone's mind in February, I'm here to help you desk report a quick story about Pappo and her shop, where travelers can step inside a working bean-to-bar "lab," so to speak. They can watch cacao roast in a coveted San Franciscan drum roaster (more common in the specialty coffee world), winnow shells with a custom-built system, taste single-origin bars like a guided wine flight, and make their own tempered bars to take home. It's part Willy Wonka, part educational field station.

The broader piece could blend Valentine's consumer trends with experiential travel and a growing demand for transparency in food production. You can give readers a fresh way to think about that heart-shaped box. And we have loads of professional-quality images. Any writers want to take this on? If you're in Bend or nearby, please reach out!