When I first decided to start my own business, I was planning to open a cafe to serve specialty tea and coffee. It took about a year to complete my business and financial plan, apply for a business license, incorporate, and talk with various financial institutions, etc. I was about to sign the lease for a retail space in downtown Calgary. Holding pen in hand I could not convince myself to sign. It was getting real and I realized that it was not exactly what I wanted so I decided to walk away. I needed more time. I was still very interested in specialty coffee, therefore I planned to sign up for a workshop called ACCESS in Austin, Texas. I thought it was a good idea to first fly to San Francisco and spend some time with my little sister who lives there, then go to Austin. During my stay in SF I found out about a chocolate bean-to-bar workshop at Dandelion Chocolate, one of my favourite chocolate makers. I enjoyed every minute of that workshop. I did not know then that I was going to pivot from coffee to chocolate until I did the ACCESS workshop and flew back to Calgary. I took a chocolatier course and became sure that I wanted to be in the chocolate business. It has now been more than a year since Hermana Chocolate was incorporated.

All this to let you know that Monday March 2nd I will be on CTV morning LIVE talking about Hermana Chocolate and its story!