Can you tell us a little bit about who you are and your business?

I am the owner and founder of Sueños Heirloom Chocolate, and a scientist-turned-chocolatier.

I import cacao directly from independent family farmers in Esmeraldas, Ecuador. These farmers exclusively cultivate Ecuador’s extraordinary fine flavor heirloom ‘Nacional’ varieties of cacao under the shade canopy of beautiful rainforest trees. In Watertown, I use this cacao to make vegan dark chocolate.

What inspired you to start your business?

‘Sueños’ translates to ‘dreams’ – an aspirational dream, in this case. Our dream is to build a direct trade model that supports independent farmers, conserves rare heirloom cacao and sustainable agro-forestry systems, and provides consumers with a superior product.

I took a long route to become a chocolatier. In 2006, I received a travel fellowship from the University of Georgia in support of a certificate in international agriculture. As part of that fellowship, I lived on a diversified heirloom ‘Nacional’ cacao farm in Ecuador. From the producers, I learned that cacao is native to the upper Amazon (including Ecuador), where small scale farmers have been growing fine flavor trees with sustainable agroforestry methods for millennia.

In the past several decades, hybrid cacao varieties that are disease resistant and high yielding – but have terrible flavor characteristics – have been widely adopted. These hybrids were bred to be grown in intensive, clear-cut monocultures (monoculture: growing a single crop species over a large area). These poor tasting hybrids grown in environmentally destructive monocultures threaten the economic viability of farmers committed to growing fine flavor cacao within sustainable, diversified forests.

Through almost 15 years in academic research, I kept in touch with the cacao producers I had met in Ecuador. I realized that they had a more sophisticated understanding of sustainable agroecology and tropical conservation than the scientists I met in academics and industry. They were already practicing the methods I heard preached about from seminar podiums at environmental conferences, but commodity cacao prices were so ruinously low that growing fine flavor cacao with sustainable methods wasn’t economically viable.

In 2020, tired of the exhausting search for funding, I walked away from the lab bench and back into the chocolate forest. The producers and I were able to figure out how to export cacao directly from their farms to me, with no middlemen skimming profits. The growers have the satisfaction of knowing their skill and effort are highly valued, and my customers know that the cacao in the chocolate they are eating is traceable back to individual farms, and is not produced with any of the environmental or human exploitation that is endemic in this industry.

Are there any businesses, brands, or mentors that inspired you in the creation of your business?

Sueños chocolate was founded to meet an unmet need. I knew farmers in Ecuador growing fine flavor cacao with sustainable agroforestry. These farmers were being paid ruinously low prices determined by the capriciousness of global commodity markets, and not the quality of their cacao.

Certification schemes (such as organic and Fairtrade) are too expensive for any but the biggest corporations, and an estimated 99% of the value from these labels is captured by the company that packages the product and not the people that actually produce it.

I knew there was demand for ethically produced cacao, so I founded Sueños to be the direct link between organic producers and conscientious consumers.

If you could give one piece of advice to new entrepreneurs, what would that be?

Don’t be afraid to do things your own way! Because I was never officially trained in the culinary industry, I never learned the ‘expected’ way to make chocolate. The resulting uniqueness is what many people find most interesting about the bars I make.

Are there any moments, milestones, or victories related to your business that you are particularly proud of?

The arrival of the first international cargo shipment of cacao in November 2020 was very exciting. We had launched in March 2020, and for many months the only cacao I had was the 70 kilos I had managed to bring home in my suitcase when I returned from Ecuador.

Successfully navigating federal bureaucracies in both Ecuador and the US at the height of the chaos in the covid pandemic to be able to export cacao directly to me felt like a huge success, and that what we were trying to build would be logistically possible.

Why did you choose to work with The Trustees?

The Trustees were one of my first wholesale partners. I am immensely grateful for the consistent support they have provided to me over the years we have worked together. I love seeing my chocolate in their farm stores, which are thoughtfully curated with local, sustainable and unique products.

Editor’s Note: This Interview has been modified for length and clarity.