When Tiffany Rose and her husband Robert Payant first purchased a cacao farm in Ecuador, they had no idea what their chocolate would become. Farmers from Assiniboia, Sask., Rose and Payant are no strangers to the hard work being a producer is, but the chocolate industry is quite new to them. Six years ago, they visited friends who began a cacao farm in Ecuador, learning the traditional ways of growing the plant. “We went down and we spent about three months working on their farm, learning about the industry and learning about caring for cacao trees,” Rose said. “We really loved it; my husband fell in love with it especially. There ended up being some land for sale really close by neighboring them and we decided to purchase that land.” The Saskatchewan residents now split their time between Assiniboia and San Dimas, Ecuador, where their farm is. Rose and her business partner Kristen Krash partnered to co-found ‘Choco Estates’ to export their Ecuadorian chocolate. They source the native cacao from their own farms, as well as neighbouring local farmers who follow the same agroecological farming practices. “We’ve been able to work with those other farms and ours to offer a wide variety of cacao products to chocolate artisans and pastry chefs in Canada, mostly, on a wholesale basis,” Rose explained. “But we also have this artisanal branch of our business, where we make our own chocolate bars.” Awarding-winning chocolate Earlier this year, Choco Estates entered its chocolate into the Craft Chocolat Challenge. “We were looking for critical feedback because we use really unique ingredients,” Rose said. “One of our guiding principles is we use as much locally sourced ingredients as we can; if we can’t find it on our farm, we try to buy it from our neighbours.” Despite only looking for ways to improve their chocolate, Choco Estates’ Dark Vegan Golden Milk impressed judges and brought home the winning bar for the Top Innovation Award. “We were absolutely stunned to win,” Rose said. “We thought, ‘We’re just new; we don’t have a lot of experience.’ But being new to the chocolate world, we didn’t really have any expectations. So it was really a big surprise and we were really delighted they really loved it.” Inspired by ingredients growing abundantly on their farm, the chocolate combines warming spices with high-percentage Ecuadorian dark chocolate. “An unexpected flavour profile that challenges the regional tradition of pairing Ecuadorian cacao with tropical fruit flavours,” says Choco Estates. “We grow our cacao trees in relationship with other trees, herbs and spices,” Rose added. “That helps to enhance the flavour of the cacao.” More than just chocolate Choco Estates prides itself on using a chocolate-making process as close to traditional practices as possible. “We feel it’s really important to do as much production in the country of origin as we can,” Rose said. “We opened a little artisanal production shop in the closest town to our farm. We produce our chocolate bars there; we hire local families to help us with that production. And in doing so, we’re able to train them in some new skills that they might not have.” Rose says supporting the local economy in San Dimas and surrounding area means providing jobs and livable wages for the hard-working farmers in the community. “There’s all these incredible farmers trying to preserve this ancestral strain of cacao that almost was extinct,” she added. “We really felt like we’ve got to work with the connections we have to try and bring more recognition to this really incredible thing happening [there].” “It’s about all of the farmers working really, really hard to earn a living for their families and the recognition they deserve as ancestral cacao growers,” said Rose. Choco Estates also feels support from their home community. In Assiniboia, the crafted Ecuadorian chocolate is available at ‘Silent H Trading Post’ on Centre Street. “Me and our story, my husband and I spending half the year in Ecuador and half the year in Canada; we really saw this as an opportunity to expose this really small community to the global north,” Rose explained. “We’ve had a really overwhelming response of people who, as soon as you say we’re a Saskatchewan-based company but have our farms in Ecuador, are really excited to hear what we’re doing.” Choco Estates hopes to continue innovating their craft chocolate and enter the competition again in the near future. All while supporting the San Dimas economy and the farmers who live there.
