Casa de Chocolates Uses Delicious Ingredients to Make Business Successful

Amelia Gonzalez and Arcelia Gallardo figured out how to combine the legacies of their Mesoamerican ancestors with a passion for Latino culture, arts and business. Using their experience from careers in corporate America, the two friends came together to create an artisan chocolate shop called Casa de Chocolates (www.casadechocolates.com).

The shop features flavor combinations using ingredients found in traditional Latin American culture — chipotle, Oaxacan mescal, chile mange and tamarindo. When mixed into traditional chocolates and desserts, they create unique and one of a kind tastes that customers enjoy.

Gonzalez and Gallardo opened Casa de Chocolates’ first retail location Â in Berkeley, California, this past year.Â They’ve received rave reviews from Travel & Leisure Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, Latina Magazine and others.

Their store is part of a growing trend of Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States. According to the Census Bureau’s finding, the number of Â Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States increased by 43.7 percent to 2.3 million, more than twice the national rate of 18.0 percent between 2002 and 2007. Hispanic-owned businesses generated $345.2 billion in sales in 2007, up 55.5 percent compared with 2002 and the number of Hispanic-owned businesses with receipts of $1 million or more increased 51.6 percent between 2002 and 2007.