Today we’d like to introduce you to Shalini Latour.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started making chocolates because a friend wanted to open a chocolate lounge. He asked me if I could produce the chocolates for it. So, I started experimenting with making filled chocolates in my home kitchen. He never opened his lounge, but I got a good response and enjoyed working with chocolate, so I kept going. I had been a pastry chef, made wedding cakes, and had written a cake decorating book. I was familiar with food production but found that I needed a refresher, specifically in chocolate, so I went for a short professional chocolatier class in the Eastern Townships of Quebec in Canada. It gave me a chance to stay with my mom since I am originally from Montreal. When I came back my chocolate had the better shine and snap of properly tempered chocolate. I discovered colored cocoa butter during that class. Decorating my chocolates with colored cocoa butter has become one of my joys and a hallmark of my chocolates. In the early days, I continued to work from home, often late into the night, after working by day as a yoga teacher. I sold my chocolates at farmers’ markets and to friends. I slowly started to sell wholesale to a few locations and rented a commercial kitchen a few days a week. Then in 2015, I was looking for a permanent commercial space and retail location. My friend Jan, with whom I shared a table at one of my farmers’ markets, had a space for rent. It was a little overwhelming for me to take on by myself, and I was not sure It would work financially. Jan suggested I call Sam of Bee Haven Honey because she also wanted a store for her business. We talked on the phone about five minutes before it was settled! That’s how The Chocolate Bee came to be. Sam and I share the retails space and I have my “chocolaterie” there as well. I started in my home kitchen ordering ten pounds of chocolate a time, tempering chocolate on a marble slab reclaimed from a rehabbed building in Over The Rhine building. Now I have sweet little shop, a tempering machine, hundreds of molds, and order chocolate five hundred pounds at a time.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
For me, it has been a smooth road. I started very small and grew organically. I think one of the main struggles I experienced was figuring out what I wanted my business to be and be comfortable with that. I took a couple business classes to help me manage the administrative side of owning a business. Those classes were so valuable and without them, I would not be where I am today. One of the things I kept coming across was making “big” plans, being counselled to expand as much as possible. Seeing other small business owners moving forward and expanding. However, what I love about having my own business is actually making the chocolates. I am a chocolatier first and a business owner second. Once I realized it was fine to stay small and make all the chocolate myself the struggle and comparisons faded away. I love being small and spending most of my time creating delicious, beautiful chocolates.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At Chocolats Latour, I make hand-crafted chocolates, including chocolate bars, hand-painted filled chocolates, and seasonal offerings like easter bunnies for Easter, dark chocolate tulips for Mother’s Day, peanut butter zombies for Halloween. I am known for fun adventurous flavors and artistic decorations. Each hand-painted chocolate is like a little jewel packed with familiar yet unexpected flavors. I like using local ingredients when possible, and the flavors of local herbs, spices, and fruits make their way into my chocolates seasonally. I am a chocolatier, it means that I use couverture chocolate to start my process; I blend, mold, temper, flavor, and decorate it to make my many confections. The chocolate I use currently is from Columbia, made in the country of origin. There are many problems in the chocolate supply chain. The biggest is that cocoa farmers are paid a pittance for their hard work. I started by using fair-trade chocolate, but unfortunately, the fair-trade initiative has not proved to make a difference in the lives of cocoa farmers. So, I switched to chocolate made in country of origin so more of the proceeds stay in traditionally poorer countries who grow cocoa beans.
I make everything from scratch. I candy my own grapefruit before dipping it in rich dark chocolate and dry local herbs in the summer to use in winter. In spring you see pansies growing in shop window; I dry the flowers and use them to decorate my chocolates. I offer around 15 different kinds of chocolate bars. My filled chocolate selection is forever changing to suit the ingredients, flavors, and colors inspiring me. They are made with all-natural ingredients.
What do you think about luck?
Luck as been with me in both my life and business. It was lucky that my friend talked about starting a chocolate lounge right when I had had a foot injury that made yoga teaching and carrying wedding cakes more challenging. I needed a new direction professionally, and it opened an unexpected new path. It was also lucky that the space for my shop became available just when my husband and his two kids were moving in with me, and I needed to move my business out of the house. Also, luck or timing brought Sam and I together to make The Chocolate Bee a lovely place.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.chocolatslatour.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chocolatslatour/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chocolatslatour
Image Credits
Drue O’Neal
Julie Kramer
