Today we’d like to introduce you to Ella Livingston.
Hi Ella, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I am the owner and founder of Cocoa Asante, a luxury brand that handcrafts chocolates almost too pretty to eat.
I was born in Ghana, where the world’s best cocoa beans are grown, and my family has been a part of the cocoa industry for several generations as farmers. Cocoa Asante is my way of extending my family’s legacy including making chocolate products and cultivating the beans used. I was inspired to start the company after I experienced Nama chocolate in Tokyo, Japan. I used to travel two hours by train just to purchase one box. Before then, I had never tasted chocolate so fresh and rich that it melted in my mouth. Each bite was like an out-of-body experience. Because of this experience, I decided to start my own chocolate company. In creating Cocoa Asante, my goal is to bring my customers fresh, exquisite chocolate that will allow them to experience what I did all those years ago.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Building a business from the ground up has been difficult. I have no formal chocolate-making training, so everything I have learned has been through YouTube, pastry chef blogs, my business partner, and plenty of trial and error. I’ve also continued to work as a teacher while managing motherhood. What helps me overcome these struggles is utilizing my support system and prioritizing my family and health. If I am mentally tapped out, I cannot pour into my daughter, my students, and my business. I also expanded my team to include Sarah McCallie, our head chocolatier, and Kofi Bonah, our second chocolatier. I am incredibly grateful to have such talented team members, and I cannot wait to see our growth as a company!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
The cacao used in our chocolate is sourced from our home country Ghana and made in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Our goal is to grow into a bean-to-bar company that sources cacao directly from our family farm in Ghana. We aspire to have a retail location in Chattanooga where customers can tour the facility, see how chocolate is made, become educated about the inequities that exist in the industry, and enjoy our beautiful creations. As I mentioned in an earlier response, one of my goals in starting Cocoa Asante is to bring my customers fresh, exquisite chocolate that will allow them to experience what I did all those years ago.
I am passionate about giving my customers impeccable experiences through chocolate and about Ghana prospering as a self-reliant economy with the infrastructure to process, wholesale and retail one of its most coveted exports. Through Cocoa Asante, I want to address issues of equity, sustainability, and illegal child labor that permeate the industry. Almost seventy percent of the world’s cacao supply comes from two countries, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. Despite this fact, the average cocoa farmer receives less than 6% of all the revenue generated by global chocolate sales. Not only is this unfair, but it isn’t sustainable for the communities dependent on cocoa. I want to change this narrative by first processing the cocoa beans ourselves in Chattanooga. This will allow us to fully understand the bean-to-bar process while working with and investing more of the profits into the cocoa farmers. After that, we will begin processing cacao back in Ghana on a larger scale, allowing us to “add value” to the raw resource before exporting it. If scaled properly, our plan can potentially increase Ghana’s GDP by almost forty percent! Cocoa Asante is so much more than just a small business that sells exquisite chocolate, I have huge aspirations for our future, and I desire to leave the world a better place than I found it.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson that I have learned in my journey is that I can do anything I put my mind to. My various roles as a business owner, mother, and educator, etc. have put me in positions where I was forced to learn countless new skills, adopt new processes, and grow as a person. Having been tested repeatedly has built in me a strong foundation of resilience and confidence.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cocoaasante.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cocoaasante/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cocoaasante
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CocoaAsante?app=desktop
