What we do...
Locally made, carefully crafted, bean to bar chocolate. We curate cacao beans from Latin America, then process them into dark chocolate bars, confections, ice cream and drinks at our chocolate factory in Raleigh.
On the retail side of our chocolate factory, we provide an immersive chocolate experience. Here you’ll find the broadest selection of our chocolate offerings, as well as goods we’ve sourced from other local and woman-owned makers. Plan your visit and come see us!
If you’re not able to make it to the shop, or if you’d like to ship our chocolate to someone else as a gift, you can shop for almost all of our offerings on our online store!
Where we come from...
Escazú is co-owned and operated by Danielle Centeno and Tiana Young. Danielle co-founded Escazú with her extensive culinary background and training, Venezuelan heritage, and curiosity about bean-to-bar chocolate making. Escazú began during the beginning of the bean to bar chocolate movement in the U.S., and has continued to be informed by her palate, her intuition, and her knowledge of process and ingredients.
Tiana discovered Escazú first as a college student interested in entrepreneurship, and enamored with food. Her patronage evolved into a part-time job, then a full-time job, then part ownership.
Together, they lead a small, diverse team of chocolate-makers. Some of whom have also led careers in food, but many of whom come from academic or creative backgrounds that have become attached to chocolate-making through Escazú.
Escazú is always aiming to impact its community positively. They source cocoa beans ethically and other ingredients locally (whenever possible), they choose sustainable packaging options and limit waste, they don't add any preservatives or artificial flavors to their products.
Escazū in the News
PBS NC: North Carolina Weekend
ABC11: Localish
NCMA: Made in the Americas
Indy Week
News & Observer
Safiya Nygaard
