MESA, Ariz. — It’s safe to say everyone loves chocolate, but it’s less likely everyone has ever tasted a spicy piece. Lisa Jaimes-Toon would like to change that.
The love for her family, their history and Hispanic culture were the perfect ingredients for her to create Carolina’s Chocolate— silky and sultry spiced treats infused with flavors of her heritage.
“These are the flavors of our culture and I love introducing that to people,” she said.
Carolina is Lisa’s grandmother. She was her biggest influence and motivator behind her successful business of five years.
When Jaimes-Toon was little, she remembers them being together in the kitchen, creating memories.
“She taught me how to cook, my pallet, everything about chili, she’s my mentor,” Jaimes-Toon said. “These recipes I’ve created, but they’re completely based on my memories of being with her in the kitchen and cooking.”
Carolina’s Chocolates come in various flavors inspired by different spices that pay tribute to family members.
Jaimes-Toon created the chocolate Jalisco Jalapeño to honor her grandfather Jesus, who loved green chili. The recipe was inspired by Carolina’s rice pudding.
Flavor Las Abuelas includes a combination of cacao and pasilla negro chili. On the label, there’s a picture of her great-great-grandmother and her grandmother.
“The eldest here is 105, it’s 1963 and the card that she’s holding is from President Kennedy wishing her a happy birthday,” she said.
Jaimes-Toon picked that picture for this flavor and chili because “the pasilla negro chili is so raisiny and pruney, that I had to put the old ladies on there.”
But current family members are also a part of Carolina’s Chocolate. Jaimes-Toon’s husband, children, cousins, and extended family helped bag, sell and organize the spiced product.
“They have just as much energy as I do because this is their family, and I feel like they are happy to represent,” she said fighting back tears. “They’ve been a great help.”
Before Carolina’s Chocolate
Before Jaimes-Toon became a chocolatier, she was a history teacher in Mesa.
After 15 years, she wanted to change careers to a new creative outlet, so she went to culinary school in 2003.
A year later upon graduating, she embarked on a career in catering. Among the food menu she provided, she began experimenting with chocolates and cakes for weddings that had Mexican flavors like cinnamon in them.
Then one day, the idea of making spicy chocolate hit her.
“I saw my nana Carolina’s picture, and I thought ‘that’s it! I’m going to call it Carolina’s Chocolate,’” she recalled.
Playing with flavors and spices came easy to her. After all, she said adding spices to chocolate was something her ancestor had done for years.
“The Mayas and the Aztecs have been using chili in chocolate from the beginning because they didn’t have sugar, the Europeans brought sugar to America when they arrived,” said Jaimes-Toon.
The history of chocolate dates back to around 1700 BC in Meso-America, in the area where Mexico now is. Early civilizations drank chocolate made from ground-up cocoa seeds mixed with several ingredients like water, vanilla, and spice, to add flavor.
“All of these flavors and this business, it really has brought our history to the forefront, and it just makes us very proud,” she proclaimed. “This just helps emphasize the richness in our culture.”
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