Chocolate & Ice Cream & Frozen Treats, oh my!
Part II: An exploration into small-batch chocolate and ice cream production
A couple of weeks ago, I had told Danielle Centeno, Co-founder and Co-owner of Escazū Chocolate (est. 2008) in Raleigh, North Carolina that I was gathering perspectives about the craft of artisan ice cream through my scheduled interview with Davina and Rony Utz in Part I. In that first part of the series we explored the desire for people to make ice cream from scratch, work with local dairies and producers, and much like chocolate "own the process." In Part II, we’ll look deeper at the juggling act, the balancing of the two worlds. As well as, the consumer education and creativity angles of the business model. But as we’ll read from her interview, while I was thinking it must be a job of spinning plates, she described it as built firmly into the business’ DNA. Thus, they’ve become a natural fully functioning hybrid!
Like game-day preparation and execution, every :written: interview is different, and in this version, we approached it through a more holistic story concept, rather than direct question and answer, as we saw in yesterday’s post. However, we based the discussion on these themes: 1) Do distinct challenges exist in operating with ice cream and chocolate at the same time? In your geographic location do the two overlap, or is it something done to bring in extra revenue during slower months? 2) Is there a suggestion (or opposing warning) you'd offer to colleagues about why they would want to add frozen desserts or ice cream to their menus? 3) In your case do you need specialized equipment? 4) Storytelling and social media.
:This interview has been slightly edited for clarity.:
Danielle: When I first decided to make ice cream, we were still very small, a 2.5 person operation and making bean to bar chocolate on a micro-scale. As I have a culinary background (she attended the Culinary Institute of America and worked in restaurants for several years before chocolate happened), my brain was always going more places, besides just the chocolate. I love both eating and making ice cream. I went to the mall and bought one of those small Cuisinart ice cream machines; the ones that you have to freeze the bowl before churning. I knew we didn’t have the space and capacity to scoop it at the shop in front of customers, therefore I had to figure out a way to be able to pre-package it. After much looking into, I found push-pop containers.
I started with chocolate ice cream, making it the way I used to make it at the restaurants I worked in. I would make very small batches and would sell a few a week. As time went by we realized it was actually an item we should offer on the regular. I added spicy chocolate and vanilla chocolate chip flavors. I also came up with a dairy free coconut-chocolate. At this point we had moved on to a semi-professional Cuisinart, the kind which you don’t have to freeze the bowl. A couple years later we graduated to a professional 2 quart machine and started making special flavors as time allowed it.
So that I guess brings us to the juggling act of making more than just chocolate. When we first started the business the idea was that it would be just bars for wholesale. But as we looked for a production space, we found a place on a street where if we didn’t offer at least some retail, it would be a waste. Mind you, it was tiny! We never really thought of doing anything on a big scale, and at the time when we started there weren’t many models to follow. That led us to open a small retail store where we sold our bars, our confections, and of course we had to also sell hot chocolate (side note from Lauren: you have to checkout their unique contemporary and historic hot chocolate menu, that was featured here). Through the years we have had some growth, moved out of that small space we started out in, but still remain pretty small. As I am trying to talk about balancing the two—of making chocolate and ice cream—I am thinking that we have always operated as a juggling act I guess, so it seems, normal?
We not only make our chocolate and the bars, but also confections, chocolate drinks, ice cream and manage to squeeze in baked good specials every now and then. I didn’t think about how we manage all of it until I sat down to answer. To me, I think it may not feel like we’re constantly choosing between items per se, because I have always seen Escazū as more than just chocolate. I view it as a place where we can showcase how versatile chocolate is. While we are first and foremost chocolate makers and pride ourselves on that, I have always operated Escazū a little bit more like a restaurant, or a bakery. A place where we let the ingredients, the seasons and ourselves, be the inspiration for what we make with our chocolate.
While our space is small, we have a space dedicated to beans (sorting, roasting winnowing), a grinding room with our grinders, a space for bar making, a multi-use space for wrapping, packaging, and shipping. As well as a space for confectionery production, which is where we also make ice cream and any special items. Sometimes when we are short-staffed, coping with many various ingredients and tasks, gets a little intense. However, one of the pros of the pandemic is that we now have cross-trained most of our staff, making it a bit easier to assign daily productions tasks. As long as we have enough hands, we can make sure we always have enough ice cream push-pops on hand. We now make ice cream sandwiches, half pints and popsicles. It is also great because we can incorporate extra caramels, pâte de fruit, jams, gianduja, marshmallow or cookie scraps—that come from making confections and would otherwise go to waste—into the ice cream making process and recipes. For us it’s a win-win.
We used to be more seasonal with it, especially because as we know, people forget about chocolate in the summer. In the summer we are more intentional about making more varied flavors and specials, to make sure we bring in revenue, but as time goes by and more and more people have become fans of our ice cream or are just now discovering it, we try to keep it year round. That means that as cold weather hits and we get ready for the Holidays, we ramp up ice cream production so we can store it longer term in our freezers and keep it stocked, and then we focus on bar, confections and hot chocolate production for more pressing shelf-life dates.
As far as drawbacks or warnings to doing it both, I really don’t see any. Making ice cream not only brings extra revenue, but also keeps our creative juices flowing and allows us to see our chocolate used in other ways.
Specialized equipment? We don’t really need anything more than the two Musso Lello ice cream machines we have. We use pots, whisks, spatulas and thermometers to make the bases and we already had all of that in use for our confections’ production.
Lauren: Do you find it's easier to tell the story and purpose of your business' mission and ethics through ice cream or chocolate, or chocolate ice cream?!
Danielle: Great question! I feel that maybe ice cream feels a little bit more approachable to the general public. When people order an ice cream and we tell them we make it here with local dairy and our own chocolate, it sparks a conversation. That dialogue may be a little easier than when we have to explain to people where chocolate comes from, and that we make it all here from the bean. But I think that everything we make tells the story and purpose of our business; which is making good, meaningful food, with quality ingredients and integrity.
We try our hardest to showcase everything we make on social media in a manner that will be pretty to look at, enticing and that conveys who we are and what we make. Sometimes, our struggle is having people understand that first and foremost we are chocolate makers. And yes we are all exhausted, running a business like this one and also having to manage social media is not for the faint of heart. Maybe that’s where the true juggling act is, trying to “advertise,” get the point across through social media and also working the production side. But to us, Escazū is a happy chocolate place where you can enjoy it in many forms.
To summarize, I think the reason why we have been able to introduce all of the other things—besides chocolate into our business, without it feeling like it is too much or too hard—may be because of our restaurant background and the need to keep our creative juices flowing. I really don’t think that we compartmentalize the business at all, we only compartmentalize the spaces in our production area where things are made.
Thank you to Danielle for providing this insight into Escazū and its history (14 years and counting!), as well as views on running a “more than chocolate” business. Photo credits and descriptions: (top to bottom) Danielle Centeno (seated on the left) and her business partner Tiana Young (right) photographed by Linda Nguyen, followed by their ‘Baklava Ice Cream Sandwich’, image provided by Escazū Chocolates.
Follow them for more mouthwatering photos on Instagram @escazuchocolates and Facebook @escazuchocolates, as well as ordering from their website.
Connect with writer and host Lauren on Twitter @wkndchocolate and Instagram @laurenonthewknd.