Today we’d like to introduce you to Carlos Galarza.
Hi Carlos, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We own a cacao farm in Ecuador and around three years ago, we decided to bring the cacao to Texas and make chocolate to sell here. So we bring our cacao over from the farm in the form of nibs and do the whole chocolate-making process here in our store. We have machines that help us make cacao paste and butter, pulverize sugar, refine ingredients, and temper chocolate. We are passionate about the process and are dedicated to providing the community with the best-tasting chocolate. We keep our ingredients simple and responsibly source our cacao from our farm which does not use any pesticides. We offer tours of our factory and of course have the finished product available as well! We sell chocolate bars of different concentrations, barks with different toppings, truffles, chocolate-dipped fruits, and hot chocolate. We are working on introducing new products very soon.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has definitely been a challenge. Starting out, business was slow the first year because we didn’t know that much about chocolate making and we had to make all our investments and set everything up. Then, as sales started to increase, the pandemic hit and almost caused us to close. We had months where we sold what we expect now to sell in a day. It was very scary for us but somehow, we managed to survive with the help of our community. Now, things are looking up as sales increase again and we are ready to move forward and create something amazing.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Our chocolate is not the type you can find at any store. Big manufacturers of chocolate don’t pay attention to the quality of cacao that they use in their chocolates because they just need a lot of it. We only get cacao from our farm, where we can trust that workers are being treated well and the cacao is of high quality, without using any pesticides. We care about the health of our customers. We also only use three ingredients in our chocolate bars: cacao paste, cacao butter, and sugar. We are known for appreciating dark chocolate and educating people about what we do. We’ve connected so much with the community here.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Building community is success.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@theecuadorianchocolate.com
- Website: theecuadorianchocolate.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecuadorianchocolate/?hl=es
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EcuadorianChocolateFactory
