More than a chocolate bar: The story behind Choco Estates’ winning innovation

Somewhere in Ecuador’s cloud forest, chocolate begins long before it reaches a wrapper or its Saskatchewan maker.

It starts with cacao trees growing among fruit, spices and timber, with farmers working by hand and a landscape that was once barren cattle pasture now bursting with life.

For Choco Estates’ co-founder, Tiffany Rose, that transformation is at the heart of the company’s story.

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Rose, a resident of Assiniboia, Sask., said winning a top innovation award at a chocolate competition was an unexpected milestone for a company in its first year.

“We weren’t expecting to win,” she said. “To win for innovation, which is something that we really pride ourselves on, and to be recognized for that was really validating.”

The company took part in the Craft Chocolat Challenge – which began in 2022 – and is an international competition for chocolate makers that looks to provide feedback and support to smaller companies while still allowing any company to participate in the bean-to-bar competition.

The winning product was Choco Estates’ vegan golden milk chocolate, an 85 per cent Ecuadorian dark chocolate, featuring the warm, peppery flavours of golden milk alongside a dark cacao with floral notes.

Tiffany Rose, co-founder of Choco Estates, holds up a medal. Her company’s vegan golden milk chocolate took home top prize in the 2026 Craft Chocolate Challenge for top innovation. (Tiffany Rose/Submitted)

“I think it was our play on the golden milk latte,” Rose said, noting that the unusual combination helped the chocolate stand apart from more familiar fruit-forward flavours often associated with Ecuadorian cacao.

“The combination of flavours and also, how well they work together,” is what Rose believes caught the judges’ attention.

Rose said the recipe was developed by her business partner and fellow co-founder, Kristen Krash, after she noticed the popularity of golden milk lattes.

“She felt like it was something that we could produce because so much of the ingredients in the golden milk latte grow on our farm,” Rose said.

Turmeric, cardamom and coconut are among those ingredients that can be grown on the farm, giving the recipe a connection to the land where the cacao is produced. Rose said Krash developed the recipe while she served as the taste tester, with the two working together to refine the bar until it was ready for customers.

But the story behind Choco Estates stretches far beyond chocolate.

Choco Estates’ dark vegan chocolate bar. (Tiffany Rose/Submitted)

Rose said they had been friends for years when Krash and her partner moved to Ecuador, and said they arrived on barren cattle land and began restoring it.

“They went down, and all they had was a tent and some hand tools,” Rose said.

The result was a diverse cloud forest filled with cacao, fruit, timber trees, herbs and spices. After visiting the property, Rose said she and her husband purchased neighbouring land and began restoring it, as well.

Rose said the experience inspired the pair to create Choco Estates not only to market their own cacao, but to connect with other small-scale Ecuadorian farmers using similar agroecology practices.

“We can create a network where we can offer cacao to people in North America who are producing incredible craft chocolate,” Rose said.

Their company is also trying to challenge the traditional cacao supply chain by keeping their operations in South America.

“We really want to do as much of the production in Ecuador so that the jobs stay there, the skills stay there and the people who are actually growing the cacao are getting the most value out of it,” Rose explained.

However, that approach, Rose said, has brought its share of challenges – from navigating regulations to questioning whether the market would support a different model.

“Can we actually do this? Is this something that the market is going to support?” Rose recalled asking. She said persistence has kept the company moving.

“We don’t give up very easily,” she said.

For Choco Estates, the cacao itself is another unique aspect of their product. Rose describes the beans as an ancestral strain with roots stretching back thousands of years. Unlike commercial cacao varieties bred for consistent yields, the beans the company works with can differ and is not straightforward.

“The flavour profile can be different depending on what region it’s grown in,” Rose described. That variability is something the company embraces, giving craft chocolate makers the opportunity to select cacao based on its individual characteristics.

Rose said the award has also given her and Krash confidence to keep experimenting, and said customers have already expressed interest in an even darker bar, with the company potentially moving beyond its current 85 per cent cacao chocolate.

“We’ve even had some requests for, like, 100 per cent dark chocolate bars,” she said.

Rose said business partner Kristen Krash (far left) developed the recipe while she served as the taste tester, with the two working together to refine the bar until it was ready for customers. (Tiffany Rose/Submitted)

Whatever comes next, Rose said the company wants to stay close to the land and its ingredients.

“We really love to work as locally as we can,” she said.

For customers tasting their chocolate for the first time, Rose hopes the experience is about more than simply eating a chocolate bar.

“Take a little piece of it, let it melt on your tongue,” she advised. “Are they noticing a flavour right up front? And what is that flavour? And then, once it’s been in your mouth for a while, is there another flavour that’s coming through?

Rose said that slow approach to tasting is central to how their company wants people to experience its chocolate, as something to savour rather than simply consume.

“Is there an overall impression that the chocolate’s giving you? Because there’s so much subtlety in this chocolate,” she said. “And it’s such an incredible flavour experience. It’s not like you know a candy bar that you would just you know eat and consume in, like, two minutes.”

For Rose, the chocolate is ultimately a way to tell a much bigger story – one about restored land, ancient cacao, local ingredients and the farmers behind every bean.

“We really wanted to be able to provide more opportunities to farmers there (in Ecuador) than they have access to,” she said.

After an award-winning first year, Rose sees the recognition as a reason to keep going.

“It just is sort of like a nod that we’re on the right path and that we’re doing the right thing,” she said.