EDGEWATER, Colo. — From colorful bonbons to crispy bites of bark, a small family-ownedColorado business is making chocolate into a local treat.
Patrick Tcheunou and his wife, Mara, came up with the idea when they learned about an impending worldwide cocoa shortage brought on by climate change and the chocolate industry’s problems with slave and child labor.
Patrick grew up in the Central African country of Cameroon, where cacao flourished on his grandparents’ land. So, he and Mara thought, “Why don't we just start our own farm?”
The Tcheunous bought a plot of land in Cameroon, and since 2015, their farm has produced cacao and other crops for their chocolate treats.
“There's a lot of biodiversity on the land,” said Mara. “We grow a lot of plantain trees, and they shade the cacao.”
Their farm relies on rainwater, and they don’t use any chemicals.
“So, it's just very good for the environment,” Mara said.
For Patrick, the farm brings “magical moments” seeing “the resilience of the farms because of the care that our employees give to those plants, to those lands.”
The Tcheunous directly employ their farm teams.
“We pay them good wages and health coverage,” Mara said, which is a rarity in the chocolate industry.
“They can actually take care of themselves, take care of their family, take care of their community,” Patrick said.
Through these ethical and sustainable practices, they hope to prove “you can actually make great chocolate if you do the right thing from the beginning to the end,” Patrick said.
Once they bring the cacao to Colorado, Patrick turns it into treats with a name they’ve also brought from Cameroon: Bibamba.
“Bibamba is 'patch,'” he said. Usually, it means a patch covering a hole in fabric. But “in slang, people will say bibamba to say snack,” he said. A snack to patch your empty stomach.
At their shop in the Edgewater Public Market, you can look straight into their kitchen where Patrick makes all of their chocolate snacks. Out front, a display of samples gives customers a taste of their unique flavor combinations.
Their signature treat is bark, like their Jungle Crunch, which pairs dark chocolate with crisp sweet plantains. They also make everything from chocolate spreads to milk chocolate squares, hot chocolate mix, peanut butter cups and handmade truffles.
“We don't use any emulsifiers or fillers,” Mara said. “Just really pure natural ingredients.”
For the Tcheunous, every customer who walks into their shop means a chance to share delicious food and stories about its journey to get here.
And it means even more this holiday season. It’s their first in a brick-and-mortar shop after years of selling at farmers’ markets.
“We are a small family business looking to grow, and we're just really excited when customers choose to support us,” Mara said.
Denver