Oklahoma's sweetest secret revealed

By Christian Price, News9.com INsite Team

PAULS VALLEY, Okla. - Oklahoma has tornados, bison and even an NBA team. Now, Oklahoma has its own chocolate factory.

Located right off Interstate 35 in Pauls Valley is a facility that produces high quality chocolate. Niclas Carlsson is the general manager of Bedre' Fine Chocolate.

 "Most people think it's a French name, but it's actually a Norwegian name, and it means ‘better'," Carlsson said.

Bedre' chocolates are popular, which is evident by some of the accounts they maintain.

"Some of our larger accounts are actually in the large department store chains here in the U.S., Neiman Marcus being one of those," Carlsson said. "We also work with Bloomingdales. We work with clients all over the world."

Though Bedre' is sold all over the world, most people in the Midwest don't even know of their existence.

"It's a little bit of a secret for a lot of people that don't know that this facility is here, but in the last couple of years, its become more and more of a thing people do know," Carlsson said. "We do get a lot of traffic from people coming by to enjoy the good chocolate."

Two specific markets have recently gained a lot of momentum and Bedre' hopes to expand these specific fields.

"We've always been in the high end market, but we've seen a growth actually in a lot of niche markets and fundraising happens to be one of them," Carlsson said. "We've seen a tremendous growth in it and it's a market where we see that we can actually help schools and other organizations like that to do fundraisers."

The other market that has grown quickly is that of the sugar-free items.

"Sugar-free has become probably the fastest growing market that we've seen in a long time," Carlsson said. "With so many people being diabetic nowadays, that's become a thing that really sells and we put a lot of emphasis on the creating of a product that has a good taste without the additives."

Bedre' is owned by a group of people, which contributes to setting the company apart from others.

"We're owned and operated by the Chickasaw Nation," Carlsson said. "They purchased the business about 10 years ago."

One of Bedre's products that is becoming popular doesn't even use chocolate.

"One of our hottest items right now is a product that we call a ‘twist', which is a corn rolled product that we actually put some white fudge over, or milk chocolate," Carlsson said. "It's become a huge success for us."

If you want to try Bedre's fine chocolates, they have a store within their facility at Pauls Valley. There is also a store in Ada Okla. If you would like to place an order, just click on Bedre' Fine Chocolate's Web page.