Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha Brown.
Samantha, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I had been working with chocolate for at least eight years with different companies, and my husband and I had talked on and off about starting our own business. The timing never seemed to be right, though. But in February 2016, we had a serious house fire where we lost nearly everything we owned (fortunately, no one was hurt). This was the catalyst we needed to begin this new adventure.
I earned my Master Chocolatier certification and studied chocolate in France as well as through a school in Canada, took classes in Boston and New Hampshire, and generally learned a lot on the job. So, I had a lot of knowledge and skills to work with.
This wasn’t entirely out of the blue. I’ve always loved chocolate. I was the little girl who had chocolate everything: chocolate-scented markers, chocolate-flavored chapstick, scratch-n-sniff stickers, and a calculator that was shaped like and smelled like a chocolate bar. Over time I developed a more refined taste in chocolate and I’m still fascinated by the variety of flavor profiles that vary from region to region and the natural wonder that is cacao.
Once we decided to move forward with our own business, our friend and his wife were also interested in pursuing this dream with us, so we jumped in feet first.
Has it been a smooth road?
We started off working out of a homestead kitchen, and selling at farmer’s markets, pop-ups, and a little bit online and via wholesale. It was challenging to reach a large demographic, not to mention that the product tends to melt in the summer heat when most farmer’s markets are in full swing. In addition, at some markets we were only scheduled for every other week (not our preference but a space limitation of some markets), so our customers sometimes couldn’t find us. So we had to spend a lot of time developing our recipes and our brand to get it just right, figuring out who we really were and where we wanted to take the business along the way.
And while we were moderately successful in those venues, we needed to travel and coordinate our work and home schedules so that we could make sure to reach all of our customers. But we loved every minute of it. Now that we have a storefront, our customers can find us more easily and we have a home base to grow from.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the La Cascade du Chocolat story. Tell us more about the business.
We are an artisan chocolate company that believes chocolate can be interesting, complicated, and always delicious in all its forms. Our “chocolate house” is equal parts chocolate cafe, chocolate school, and chocolate shop.
The chocolate cafe, where we serve drinks and chocolate-based pastries, has become a popular spot for meeting friends, book clubs, homework, and just enjoying a flight of drinking chocolate. The school (I have my M.Ed. and taught public school for a number of years) teaches chocolate-lovers ages 3 to 93 everything from tasting to truffle-making. We also work with local pastry chefs on recipe development and how to use and incorporate chocolate into their own repertoire. And, of course, the chocolate shop is where we can share our passion for making bonbons, truffles, chocolate bars, and more out of the highest quality ingredients.
We make everything from scratch and by hand. We source our chocolate from all over the world, carefully choosing chocolates based on flavor and sustainable practices. We try to use local and organic ingredients whenever possible, and New England is the perfect place to get to know and work closely with local farmers. No machinery is used at all. We’ve won gold medals for several of our chocolate bars, and we were recently named one of the Best Chocolatiers & Confectioners in America by the International Chocolate Salon.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The slow food and farm-to-table movements continue to encourage people to know where their food is from, and chocolate is no exception. I think we’ll more and more of this. I think it’s going to be critical for chocolate companies like ours to educate their customers and be prepared for more them to be knowledgeable than ever before.
The cost of fine flavor cacao is on the rise, and it can be very susceptible to disease and weather conditions. Fortunately, farmers and plantation owners are learning better practices to keep their crops safe.
We’re also seeing more customers understand the difference between industrial chocolate and fine flavor chocolate. This is a big shift that’s been occurring for several years, similar to the craft beer and craft distilling movement.
I think we’ll also see – and we need to see this happen – more collaboration throughout the industry, between chocolatiers and chocolate makes, with farmers, and with our customer base.
Contact Info:
- Address: 109 Water Street
Exeter, NH 03833 - Website: www.lcdcnh.com
- Phone: 603-777-5177
- Email: contact@lacascadeduchocolat.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lacascadeduchocolat/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lacascadeduchocolat/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/la-cascade-du-chocolat-exeter
Image Credit:
Andrew Brown
Thomas Nash
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
