We recently connected with Jessica Ramirez and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

We were archaeologists traveling to different sites to save its historical significance. We enjoy the history of chocolate and that is what mainly intrigued us to it, and now we are chocolate makers that travel to source for great beans to create an amazing chocolate while preserving the integrity of cacao and its harvesters.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We are a husband and wife duo creating chocolate from bean to bar. We realized that a lot of chocolate companies even in organic groceries contained a lot of ingredients and junk that shouldn’t belong in chocolate. We wanted to eat clean dark chocolate and so we started creating our very own at home experimenting with pure cacao beans, sugar and if flavored with whole ingredients, such as drying our mint leaves for mint chocolate. We researched how chocolate is made and traveled the world to delve into chocolate. Beginning stages were a lot of trial and error as we learned how to make chocolate with minimal ingredients. It was a process and so we learned why most big chocolate brands add so much to their chocolate; minimal ingredient chocolate is hard to work with and requires a lot of work for a chocolate maker. And yet, after everything, we decided to continue the journey to great chocolate. We are known for our dark chocolates and how we present it. We source our beans sustainably and ethically. Sustainable in that we source our cacao where it tends to grow naturally and the soil where it’s grown is perfect for growing conditions and in the end contributes to the flavoring of chocolate. Ethical in that there is no slave labor involved and farmers get paid a fair and livable wage. There are many places of origin of where cacao grows and a lot of the flavor begins at the farm, and so we believe the main ingredients and flavor should be coming from the cacao itself, which is why we only create two-ingredients chocolate to highlight these flavors based on origin. We want to show the world the many flavors of chocolate with just two-ingredients: cacao and sugar. What sets us apart from other chocolate makers is that we put a lot of thought and care into creating a good chocolate using the best ingredients for every single piece, bar of chocolate, and even for every chocolate drink served at our shop. We wanted the best for ourselves when we started making chocolate and we want our customers and anyone who has our chocolate to have the same experience. We are proud of how far we have come from starting at a very tiny shop in a small town to becoming a popular chocolate destination in this very small town through all the ups and downs, such as fires, floods, road closures and pandemic. We want potential customers to know that we are primarily a dark chocolate manufacturer and we are unapologetically dark in that it is all we create: chocolate with two-ingredients. That is all no emulsifiers, no fillers, no junk. There is a reason why dark chocolate has a lot of great health benefits and that’s because it contains cacao which is an amazing super food. And while we create chocolate the higher the percentage the better it is for you, if it contains minimal ingredients. Our cacao percentages range from 70% to 100% cacao. And if our chocolate looks like milk chocolate it’s not because we are adding milk it is because we are using a different variety of bean which basically gives off such color, however our chocolate will always be dark.

How’d you meet your business partner?

My partner and I met at a job site. Before we started making chocolate we were working together at a big solar project where we both were working for a CRM (cultural resources management) company as contract archaeologists. So basically, we ensured that nothing of historical/archaeological significance would get destroyed during such building projects. I was working for the company for about a year before I was brought into this big project, and my partner at the time had been working for the company for two years, but we never met until I was recruited for this project. And the first day I arrived at the field he was the guy that basically introduced the entire site where the new recruits would be working. That’s how we met, and then we found out we had a lot in common, and the rest is history. Now we travel the world in search for the best cacao to create amazing chocolate for everyone that steps foot at El Buen Cacao.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

A lot of it was mainly being present. We have been in business for 7 years now, and we have always been at our shop. The first two years of being officially open at our shop was always myself and my husband, we dedicated many hours, we had what they call Baker Hours, but we would get up as early as 2 AM to make chocolate in order to meet demand. Not only would we make the chocolate, but also deal with the customer service side of it to sell our chocolates to the general public at our shop. And when we first opened it was a learning experience for us as we realized that people wanted sweets and lots of sugar, and we are a dark chocolate shop with minimal ingredients so we had to tell people our story and what we were about. And there were those that walked out the door as soon as they would hear the words dark chocolate and minimal ingredients. So we really had to hustle to explain and educate where chocolate comes from, and how it’s sourced, and why it’s good for you. And we still up to this day have a spiel where we tell people what we do, and there is still that part of the population that can’t comprehend how chocolate is made or aren’t even interested in the process and they just want their Hershey fix made at the expense of kids that are being trafficked into slave labor. Overall, being present is what eventually got people’s attention, and that word of mouth about how “they make everything in house and their chocolate is pure” and so that and reviews on Yelp and other social apps as well helped with our reputation. And then last year (2022) we were voted by Yelp as number 1 chocolate shop in California. We got accolades from popular blogs, online magazines like Thrillist and then a write-up in the LA Times.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.elbuencacao.co
• Instagram: elbuencacao
• Facebook: Facebook.com/elbuencacao
• Twitter: elbuencacao
• Youtube: The Science of Chocolate
• Yelp: El Buen Cacao