{"id":97303,"date":"2025-12-16T21:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T21:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/97303\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T21:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T21:45:07","slug":"casa-de-chocolates-honors-latin-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/97303\/","title":{"rendered":"Casa de Chocolates honors Latin America"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the risk of sounding like a Stepford-eyed influencer, the green gift boxes at Casa de Chocolates are, like, omg super cute! Tied up with red, yellow or green ribbons, they\u2019re the color of Christmas trees for a reason. Located on Ashby Avenue since 2012, the Berkeley chocolate store with Oaxacan and Michoac\u00e1n roots just opened a second location on Park Boulevard. After catching co-owner Linda Sanchez right before the new store\u2019s grand opening, I drove up to Glenview to take a look inside.<\/p>\n

The shelves are lined with the aforementioned gift boxes and candy bars, which are also smartly wrapped for the season of giving. The front counter is a line of demarcation between the retail and manufacturing spaces. One baker, or maker, was on a break from fabrication while I visited but a lot of pristine machinery sat quietly resting. At the register, Linda\u2019s sister Rosa managed the store. She\u2019d chopped an Inca crunch candy bar into bite-sized sample pieces. The quinoa crunch summoned up another famous, puffed-rice \u201ccrunch\u201d bar that I associate with my adolescent snack routines.<\/p>\n

I also purchased a bonbon in the shape of a Dungeons & Dragons\u2019 die filled with creamy peanut butter. All of Casa de Chocolates\u2019 available bonbons are displayed up front on a bright white plate. There\u2019s quite a range. Memorably, the Mexican vanilla is decorated with snowflakes, the coconut is perfectly round with an ombr\u00e9 effect and the hibiscus is made to look like a milky-pink heart.<\/p>\n

Sanchez told me one of her roles is to support recipe development while her business partner, Jesus Chavez, minds the financials. \u201cHe\u2019s the person telling me we have a very thin budget, or he\u2019ll tell me what is possible,\u201d she said. Chavez has also answered the phone every time I\u2019ve called the store.<\/p>\n

The two took over Casa de Chocolates from the company\u2019s founders, Amelia Garcia and Arcelia Gallardo. Once in charge, Sanchez felt like she didn\u2019t need to spend time adjusting the original recipes. \u201cAll of our stuff is really delicious,\u201d she said. \u201cNow that we have a second location, our line of production and offerings are going to expand.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Casa de Chocolates currently features the major fruits of Latin America, such as passion fruit, mango, guava and tamarind. Sanchez said, \u201cWe don\u2019t need to develop those things. So I think, \u2018OK, is there something new?\u2019\u201d One item she\u2019s developing is a gluten-free chocolate cake recipe with amaranth. At the start of the production process, Sanchez asks herself the question, \u201cHow can we remake and reintroduce different crops and fruits that are traditional to Latino America, and give them a twist?\u201d<\/p>\n

To celebrate the Park Boulevard opening, she created a vegan truffle that combines two flavors, a cinnamon ganache with a goat\u2019s milk caramel filling. \u201cIt\u2019s just an incredible bonbon, between the cinnamon and the caramel and the gaminess of the goat\u2019s milk,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cIt\u2019s getting creative with what we already have in-house and making new profiles that customers will really enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/a>Casa de Chocolates currently features the major fruits of Latin America, such as passion fruit, mango, guava and tamarind.(Photo by J.S. Edalatpour)<\/p>\n

Casa de Chocolates\u2019 mission, Sanchez noted, \u201cis to uplift Latino America but specifically the Indigenous Mesoamerican influence on cacao, which dates back to the Olmecs.\u201d She said that, according to research about the region, the Olmecs were the first people to have processed and consumed cacao.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use European techniques, the bonbons, but all of our ganaches, caramels and flavors are of Latino America,\u201d she said. She cited the mole bonbons made with spices and chilies, tequila and Mezcal ganaches, and the fruit flavors from parts of Mexico and Central America. \u201cOur specialty has always been and will continue to be dark chocolate because dairy is not really something that was part of how we thought about chocolate in Latino America,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Initially, Casa de Chocolates used Guittard chocolate. But a year and half ago it transitioned exclusively to sources from Brazil, Ecuador and parts of Mexico. Sanchez considers that transition to be a major milestone for the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our new chocolatiers went to Ecuador to visit folks who were working with the cacao where our chocolate was coming from,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the past few years, we have been really intentional to source our cacao specifically from Latino America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casa de Chocolates, 2629 Ashby Ave., Berkeley, and 4228 Park Blvd., Oakland. Open Mon noon to 5pm; Wed-Sun 11am to 7pm. 510.859.7221. casadechocolates.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the risk of sounding like a Stepford-eyed influencer, the green gift boxes at Casa de Chocolates are,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[16190,53280,53281,143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-97303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-chocolate","9":"tag-chocolatiers","10":"tag-local-shop","11":"tag-oakland","12":"tag-oakland-headlines","13":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}