Tsokolate

Tsokolatè (Cho-ko-latè) is the Filipino word for chocolate! Born in the states & raised in the Philippines - I grew up with a cacao tree in our backyard & every week my mother would teach me how to make tableya. Tableyas are 100% chocolate disks we use to make sikwati (hot chocolate). They're made by boiling water and dropping a couple of disks in there, they're made to drink just like that for energy throughout the day but you can add sugar too.

Hi! I'm Jan, we may have met at the Columbia Farmer's Market, read about Tsokolate on Feast Magazine, Inside Columbia, Vox Magazine, or from one of our lovingly supportive friends & clients that told you about us. I'm the head chocolatier for Tsokolate. I moved to Columbia from New York City, a couple of weeks before Covid was ever a thing. A blessing in disguise you might call it.

Culturally, I learned how to make pure chocolate about the same time we all learned how to ride a bike. However, it didn't click until I went to culinary school that every chocolate confection is made the same way but now we have machines to help us do it as opposed to how I learned; all by hand. If you're not familiar with how the process goes, a cacao farmer would start a plantation & wait two years for its first harvest before it can consistently grow. The cacao pods are then harvested, opened up with a machete, the fruit: fermented, dried under the sun, roasted, cracked, winnowed, conched, tempered & molded. It's a long process to make chocolate but none of it would matter without great cacao farmers.

Our bonbons go beyond the intricate hand painted confections that you see in the well-packaged box. We built our company by keeping tradition & gratitude in mind. Especially giving credit where credit is due: to the cacao farmers. In the chocolate industry, there are 3 facets: the cacao farmers, the chocolate makers, and us, the chocolatiers. That's what the 3 circles in our logo represent. The line in the middle represents 2 things: 1. the equator where cacao trees grow, 20° north & south along the equator, and 2. Us (Tsokolatè) wanting to bridge the gap between the 3 facets. You see, chocolatiers often get the accolades 90% of the time. However, you rarely hear about the chocolate makers nor do you ever hear about the cacao farmers. If you are anything like us, you care about supporting local farmers. So, I want you to know how we source our chocolate. We use direct trade chocolate & source them from chocolate makers that share their profits with their farmers, do yearly farm visits & start schools right on the farms to have the kids stay in school & get an education. Others grow their own cacao farms & also pay their workers well above a living wage.

We do this as a way to fight against big chocolate. What we have learned over the years is; in the Ivory Coast (in Africa) where most of the cacao beans are sourced, these farms use child trafficking & child labor in their cacao farms. Yes, we hear that everywhere but it gets worse. Those children & farmers have never tasted chocolate in their lives! It gets even worse - they have never seen what chocolate looks like. They slave in cacao farms, in horrible working conditions, they don't get paid and if they do, it's only $0.14 a month... FOURTEEN CENTS a month and they have never seen the end product of what they've been growing in their farms.

We are certain you value the importance of knowing where your food is grown, who grows them & the farmers get paid what they're rightfully worth. Being a farmer is hard work. We often visit our local farmers' farms because it's important to be reminded of how beautiful the Earth operates & what comes out of the hands of farmers who care about the crops they grow.

That's the story behind our chocolates. Because we care & value people, we wanted to create products that reflect that. If you are anything like us, you have food restrictions; gluten-free, dairy-free, egg allergy, etc. and it breaks our heart when we hear people say, "I wish I could but I can't have ____". So, because we care about your health and want to provide you with good treats that are good for you - we came up with vegan superfood bonbons. Where each flavor serves different health benefits that we have also provided desserts that are vegan, dairy-free & gluten-free. You deserve to have something delicious for yourself that is also beneficial to your health!

One more thing, because we are against all forms of human trafficking, a portion of the proceeds we make goes back to human trafficking survivors. For them to have job skills training & can go back to the workforce where they can either work for a company, start their own or work with us at Tsokolatè.

We are grateful for the chance to feed your sweet tooth while doing right by farmers & keeping our community safe from trafficking.

With love & light,
Tsokolatè