Sat 12 Jun
Small Stories: Chow Cacao.
Husband and wife team Trudy and Wil are the chocolate masters behind Chow Cacao. For five years, they have put their heart and soul into a small business that makes real, healthy chocolate that is good for you and the planet – bringing happiness to a lot of people.
Starting from scratch.
Six years ago in the beach town of Byron Bay, Trudy Cockroft was making a lot of food at home entirely from scratch. ‘I was making anything and everything!’, she laughs. ‘Then one day, I decided to try chocolate.’ And so began the Chow Cacao story.
Trudy quickly fell in love with the process, and the art and science behind making chocolate. Seeing how much her family and friends loved her creations, she knew she was onto something special.
While Trudy was discovering a passion for chocolate making, around the corner Wil Heringer, hailing from Germany, had begun making coconut milk in a commercial kitchen. The way they met is as sweet as their delightful concoctions. ‘Trudy brought me one of her chocolate bars. I remember that it was a Crunchy Mint bar, and we still have it in our range today,’ Wil says. ‘I fell in love with the chocolate, and I fell in love with her.’
Together, the pair created Chow Cacao; a boutique chocolatery that creates vegan, organic and sustainable confectionary brilliance. It’s healthy and delicious, and full of wonderful flavours and a touch of nostalgia.
‘I had no idea that I’d be here today, making real chocolate that makes a lot of people happy. That’s our goal, that’s why we do what we do.’
Flavour town.
‘We’re all about childhood flavours,’ says Wil. ‘We love the classics, but make them healthier for you.’ That’s a quality of their business that the pair pride themselves on. ‘Instead of taking the sugar out, we replace it with healthier sugar,’ explains Trudy. ‘We make the chocolate from scratch, so you get all the nutrients, but it’s also fun for us to make!’
Their range of flavours includes Rocky Road, Coconut Rough and Peanut Butter Slab. And when it comes to customer favourites, they can answer that with confidence: ‘It used to be the Peanut Butter Slab, but that has recently been overtaken by our new Rocky Road Cluster.’
The pair are self-taught chocolatiers, and they continuously strive to master the skill and art of chocolate making. ‘It’s important for us to evolve; we have taught ourselves everything to do with chocolate from day one,’ says Trudy. ‘Delivering a consistent, great-quality product is really important to us.’
Loving the locals.
There’s something beautiful about the way small businesses operate in Byron Bay. The pair agree that it has been the perfect location to start Chow Cacao. ‘The community here is awesome,’ says Wil. ‘It’s a system of collaboration instead of competition. We help each other out, even if you’re in the same industry. It’s really empowering to see a lot of small businesses supporting each other.’
The value of a community that encourages and supports the growth of so many small businesses is immeasurable. And it’s not lost on the pair. ‘The world needs small businesses,’ says Trudy. ‘They are the foundations of economies. It’s important for us, as the creators and directors of our small business, to help support locals. And it all adds up; as we grow, we can offer more job opportunities in the area. Small business and community go hand-in-hand. It’s a beautiful network of like-minded people supporting each other.’
Their love of community goes beyond the people; Wil and Trudy are extremely focused on sustainability. ‘We’re always working on reducing our carbon footprint,’ explains Trudy. ‘We strive to make every part of the business greener. We use organic and sustainable ingredients, fairly traded raw cacao from Peru, and raw coconut sugar from Indonesia.’ They have developed planet-friendly packaging too, to bring sustainability through the whole process.
‘It’s so important for us to tread lightly, to leave a small ecological footprint on the earth. We’re not perfect, but we’re improving every week.’
Thinking about the future.
The success of Chow Cacao is due to the passion and respect Wil and Trudy have for each other and their craft, as well as a lot of hard work and determination. ‘We’ve always got goals, and when we reach them, we move on to the next one,’ explains Trudy. ‘We taught ourselves everything, and if we keep mastering our skills, we’ll keep improving and continue to make people happy.’
The pair are excited about what’s to come. They’re looking forward to flexing their flavour muscles to stay fresh. ‘We have so many ideas up our sleeve,’ says Wil.
Trudy and Wil’s quickfire questions:
- What’s your favourite flavour?
Wil - Hazelnut Butter Crunch.
Trudy - 80% Dark.
- Which ingredient would you love to experiment with?
Wil - Yuzu.
Trudy - Licorice.
- What flavour combos would you like to try?
Wil - Pecan Coffee Toffee.
Trudy - Strawberry Cookies & Cream.
- How do you balance running a business together with your personal lives?
To be honest, they intertwine a lot so we make sure we have quality family time in the mornings before the workday begins. Our weekends are golden, and we love spending them with family and close friends.
- Where’s your favourite place to unwind in Byron Bay?
Wategos Beach.
- Where can you buy your product?
Online on our website and at independent grocers and health food stores all around Australia. Check out our website for more information.
- Will you expand outside of Australia?
We have amazing stockists all around Australia and a few in Singapore. But we would love to have our products available in New Zealand and Japan soon.
- What do you love about working together?
Sharing creativity and making ideas come to life. It still amazes us to hold a new delicious product in our hands and look back to when it all started as an idea over a glass of wine.
- What’s your advice for running a family business?
Did we mention wine?! Always remember why you started in the first place and treat everyone like family. Happy people, happy business!
