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The Little Cacao Co., Toronto, ON (2026)

10/07/2026

“…500+ recipes? …”

Really? Indeed. FIVE HUNDRED 🍫😳

This is one of the soundbites that has gotten the biggest reaction.

I’ve been pitching our 8 new HERO products at CHFA and talking to hundreds of consumers who came through my mom’s room in Saint-Agathe too.

"Tell me more!" I kept hearing, so here goes:

Five years ago, when I started my venture into PURE, bean-to-bar chocolate, I wasn’t trying to make another “chocolate bar.” I was trying to solve a problem.

For 20+ years, I was ADDICTED to milk chocolate. ADDICTED.
In my 20s then 40s, I was training for Ironman, 10–20 hours a week and chocolate was my “cheat.” And if I was going to cheat, it had better be WORTH IT. 😂

Creamy. Melt-in-your-mouth. SWEET. The sweeter, the better. Salted Caramel is my all-time FAV.

Then I started learning just how problematic SUGAR was. Coaches and nutritionists kept saying, “Suzie, cut your sugar!”

I was a lean mean racing machine, burning a gazillion calories, so I could “ingest” sugar and not “see” the impact.
Little did I know, I developed CVD and IBS by age 40.

Yikes. Time to cut sugar.

I did. And got off both prescription meds!

Back to chocolate. I’d already solved a similar puzzle with Love Good Fats: could I make a functional bar with healthy fats and virtually no sugar AND make it taste amazing?

So I became obsessed with a new puzzle: Could I do the same thing with PURE CHOCOLATE?

Not a protein bar dipped in chocolate. Not an energy bar with a chocolate coating.

REAL chocolate. Pure SuperFood Cacao beans, tempered, creamy. Melt-in-your-mouth and healthy.

🙌 No sugar added
🙌 NO sugar alcohols
💪 Protein
🌱 Prebiotic fibre
💊 Vitamins even?

Then I discovered how HEALTHY the SuperFood Cacao bean is 🫘 I got REALLY jazzed!

I looked around the chocolate aisle and couldn’t find anything remotely close.

So I started making it.

Turns out making delicious PURE chocolate without sugar is really freaking hard 😂

No binders! Change the sweetener? Texture changes. Add fibre? Mouthfeel changes. Add protein? Chocolate changes AGAIN.

Then there’s Cacao %, Cacao butter, Conching, Tempering, Temperature: Recipe #87 becomes #88, then #188, then #388., etc

Along the way, I realized I had to buy a little craft chocolate factory in Port Coquitlam, BC. 🇨🇦

Finally, we could make small batches, change ONE thing, taste, learn, change it again and run it through the actual equipment.

And recently it hit me: I accidentally built myself an R&D lab 😂🍫

Five years. 500+ recipes. And now 8 HERO PURE Chocolate SKUs I’m ridiculously proud of.

And we are nowhere near finished.

What do YOU think? Can PURE chocolate actually become a healthy food… or will we always think of chocolate as a guilty pleasure?
Suzie Yorke Ezra Cerezo

🥣 Diabetic Friendly 🥑 Keto-friendly 🙌 Human Friendly 👨‍🌾 Farmer-friendly 🌎 Planet-friendly. 🍫 Made in small batches with love and care 🇨🇦 Made in Canada 👩 Canadian and Women-Owned 🌈 Certified See less

10/06/2026

Own your factory or use a co-man? I’ve been asked this question non-stop for 10+ years.

But first, celebrating the little WINS as we go: we WON our first significant PL bid! 🎉

Our awesome R&D team has put in 100+ hours since April and submitted 28 recipes across two very on-trend spaces: PURE craft-made chocolate and Functional Chocolates. And we nailed it. 🎯

I’ve shared lots here about why I wanted to buy/own our chocolate factory.

Now, nearly seven months later, we can look back at that decision, and we’re starting to see the wins:

⚡ SPEED + CONTROL.
We launched our 8 HERO SKUs in record time, with smashing 4Ps: Product, Positioning, Price/Value and P&L/Unit Economics. That was impossible, full stop, with a co-man. Believe me, I tried.

🇨🇦 MADE IN CANADA.
Growing support for Canadian manufacturing, both from retailers and government. No grants yet, but we need to DOUBLE DOWN on this so we can scale and scale. Any tips or leads greatly appreciated!

🏃 SMALLER RUNS & Speed again
We can do smaller production runs and innovate faster.

🍫 QUALITY & Pure SuperFood Cacao
We control it ourselves. And our own container of PURE SuperFood Cacao from Peru is on the ocean as we speak! 🚢🍫 Landing in Vancouver in a few weeks.

And that brings me back to our little PL win. It’s a means to an end. Fill capacity, absorb fixed costs, invest more, hire more and get profitable quicker while we scale our brands.

Back to the question: co-man or factory?

With Love Good Fats, co-manufacturing was absolutely the right answer. 30 co-mans turned me down before we found one in Ontario. Then we went from essentially $0 to $47 MILLION in only 24 months. 🙌

Five years later, chocolate was completely different. 🍫

I wanted to create products that really didn’t exist: vitamins in chocolate, functional chocolates, supplemented foods, PURE chocolate with no sugar added, no sugar alcohols, fibre and no binders.

I tried a JV factory in Ecuador. Then co-mans across Ecuador, Peru, North America and Central America.

Four years. 500+ recipes. Hitting a lot of walls. Knocked down. Getting back up. 💪

Meanwhile, cacao prices quadrupled after roughly 20 years of stability. Manufacturers and distributors were under enormous pressure, with bankruptcies, consolidation and much less appetite for start-up innovation.

Eventually it was obvious: to keep innovating, we needed to make it ourselves.

So in January, I bought our factory. And we’re not alone:
• Tara Boschch built a facility in Vancouver.
• Three Farmers Foods moved into their own facility as they scaled.
• Mitsoh Owns their own too.
• And now The Little Cacao Co. 🙌🇨🇦

So after 10+ years, my answer? It depends. But for us, seven months in: absolutely the right decision.
Tell me: co-man or factory? What's your take and why?
Ezra Cerezo Suzie Yorke

10/05/2026

It’s back-to-work Monday morning...

And a lot of you asked to see Mom’s little chocolate “store” after you read about it in my post on Saturday ❤️🍫

Well... here it is: this was the shelf in her hospital room.
The Little Cacao Co.

Actually, FIRST launched at Hôpital de Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts / CHSLD.

Yup, our first “retail” location in Canada in August 😂

Our very first set of consumer eyes and taste buds. And they were a SUPER HIT 🙌🍫

🍫 PURE Chocolate BARS. No sugar added. With Pre-biotic fibre.
🥜 PURE Chocolate Covered NUTS. No sugar added. With Pre-biotic fibre.
🫘 PURE Chocolate BAKING CHIPS. No sugar added. With Pre-biotic fibre.
💪 And of course, PURE Chocolate + PROTEIN bars and Mini Cups. All No sugar added. With Pre-biotic fibre. And 16g of PROTEIN.

I probably pitched The Little Cacao Co. 100+ times from Mom’s room over those eight weeks.

Good practice to refine your brand pitch!

And it gave my mom something to focus on and talk about as new staff rotated in.

I swear, we were meeting 10+ new people every day!
« Ça c’est de ma fille! Les chocolats de ma fille! » “These are my daughter’s! My daughter’s chocolates!” ❤️
« Ils sont bons pour la santé! » “They’re good for you!”

And my favourite:

« Les enfants n’auront plus besoin de se limiter parce que maintenant, le chocolat peut être bon pour la santé. » “Kids won’t have to limit themselves anymore because now chocolate can actually be good for you.”
I kid you not!!

Word for word, she said that, out of the blue, to one of the staff two weeks ago.

"Mom, how did you come up with that?" 😂

As if she was writing my Positioning and Concepts for testing!

Apparently, even in her final days, Mom had decided The Little Cacao Co. needed a niche “retail” launch before taking on all those stores and tweak to the Positioning 😂

Perhaps our smallest “store” yet. Definitely our best salesperson. ❤️
Our 91-year-old mom educating everyone who walked into her room that chocolate CAN be healthy again.

And after an extraordinary eight weeks working out of Mom’s little abode in Val-David, dans les Laurentides, and having my 3 meals with her, my routine will shift a bit now: meals on my own, overlooking La P’tite Rivière du Nord as it flows past the porch ❤️

But THIS is still my view. And I have tons of work to do.

We have literally 100+ follow-ups from CHFA. The Little Cacao Co. is ON FIRE. 🍫🔥

And Mom left me with some pretty clear instructions: Listings, listings, listings. Distribution. Trial. Repeat. 😂🍫 Let’s GO! I’m on it. ❤️

Team LeBeau Excel Sales & Marketingcel Sales & Marketing: we have work to do! 🙌

The Extraordinary Goodness of the SuperFood Cacao Bean ❤️ Made in small batches with love and care 🍫🫘 Made in Canada 🇨🇦 Canadian, LGBT & Women-Owned 🌈
Ezra Cerezo Suzie Yorke

09/29/2026

How do you spot a real TREND in a sea of 1,000+ brands? 👀
And is Canada LEADING food trends right now? Or following the U.S.? 🇨🇦🇺🇸

I LOVE spotting trends. Been at it, walking both Expo West in the U.S. and CHFAs in Canada for 15 years now.

💪 #1 continues to be PROTEIN. EVERYWHERE.
Protein is moving into almost every aisle and every eating occasion. Snacks. Beverages. Treats. Everyday foods.
Seems everyone is trying to increase their protein intake, including me!

And of course GLP-1 has added even more fuel to it.

So yes, even my PURE Chocolate at The Little Cacao Co.has 16g of Protein. And Creamy & Delicious.

And our Canadian rocketship, record-smashing Good Protein was out in full force. The Founder Edward is a super special guy, and we’re all enjoying watching the brand he brought to life.

Our very own Three Farmers Foods showed up with their new Protein Mix innovation. 🇨🇦

And Protein in potato chips! Snackish Another Canadian smashing Innovation with super star Tara Bosch

And of course, my darling Love Good Fats now rebranded to Love Good Protein.

💚 PISTACHIO.
Holy pistachio. Pistachio chocolate. Pistachio snacks. Pistachio this. Pistachio that.

Dubai chocolate certainly helped blow this flavour up.

When I came up with Pistachio as one of our HERO flavours months ago, I didn’t realize how PERFECT our timing would be.

Our The Little Cacao Co. Pistachio flavour was the STAR of the show!

🌱 FIBRE. Finally getting some LOVE.
Fibre used to sit quietly on the Nutrition Facts table. 😂 Not anymore.

Prebiotic fibre. Gut health. Digestive health. Fibre actually becoming part of the product story.
And I think that’s a big shift. Fibre is moving from something consumers know they should get to something brands are actually making desirable.

🍄 MUSHROOMS. Still growing.
Lion’s Mane. Reishi. Cordyceps. Functional mushrooms in drinks, powders, coffees, supplements and foods.

🍬 GUMMIES. And more gummies. And MORE gummies.
We’re putting everything into gummies now. 😂
Vitamins. Creatine. Functional ingredients. Wellness benefits.
Consumers want their wellness to taste GOOD and feel like a “candy treat.”

🧀 And umm, KD POP?!I took a picture. at a Natural show?!? I did NOT try it. 😂

What I find really interesting is how FAST innovation is happening in Canada now.

A trend no longer needs years to cross a border. It can cross overnight.

And Canadian Founders aren’t sitting around waiting to see what happens in the U.S. We’re launching right alongside them. 🇨🇦

So is Canada leading? Following? Or are we now innovating almost at the same time?

CHFA peeps, what did YOU see?
What did I miss? Vanessa Toperczer ? Louise McNally? Maryann Scandiffio?

🥣 Diabetic Friendly.🥑 Keto Friendly.🙌 Human Friendly.👨‍🌾 Farmer Friendly.🌎 Planet Friendly. 🫘Fair Trade 🍫 Made in small batches.❤️ With love and care.🇨🇦 Made in Canada.👩 Canadian and Women’s Owned.🌈 CQCC Certified.
Suzie Yorke Ezra Cerezo Ross Chocolates

09/28/2026

I could have “quit” 75+ times.
Probably more, actually. Many, many, even those close to me, said so, too.

For those of you who’ve been following me here for years, you know the last 4 years have been a roller coaster, perhaps the “typical Founder” up-and-down one (so I’m not complaining!).
Yet, a little more of a roller coaster than I thought I was cut out for.

Background: I left a pretty cushy CMO life in 2022 and decided, once again, to jump into the deep end and become a Founder.

And then… well, hang on:
🇪🇨 Started with a Joint Venture in Ecuador
✈️ Traveled back and forth 10x trying to figure out how to make this darn chocolate. Ecuador. Peru. 🇵🇪 Canada. U.S. Mexico.
🔄 Worked with co-mans. Recipes, costings, waiting, delays, new ones, tried again.
🙌 Finally found the right chocolate partner in Vancouver.
🏭 So I bought it (a for-shares deal). “Look, Mom, I bought a chocolate factory!”
🧪 500+ recipes later, we NAILED it.
❤️ Gave life to The Little Cacao Co.
Creamy, delicious PURE chocolate. No sugar added. NO sugar alcohols. Nothing artificial.
Swapped out the sugar for Prebiotic Fibre instead.
💊 And developed and launched the ONLY Health Canada-approved Chocolate Vitamins.

And ohhh… there was a LOT in between. Pivots. Restructuring. Re-raising. Changing plans. Changing them again. Ran out of money, again. No salary of course.

Nearly “died on the table” a bunch of times. But somehow, I didn’t quit.

And this weekend at CHFA reminded me WHY.

GRATEFUL ❤️ Thank you.

As EVERY SINGLE RETAILER AND CONSUMER who came by and tasted our new HERO SKUs had elation, excitement, disbelief, and compliments.

You know the feeling. You pass the tray, there are 10 people around you, you hold your breath.

One after another: the “Wow!” and smiles.
“This tastes like real chocolate!” BOOM.

It took 500+ recipes and buying my own factory, yet nailed these.

Our HERO products have perfect 3P’s.

Now we execute distribution and Awareness & Trial => super velocities.

This morning, I breathe easy. ❤️

Grateful to my natural products and Start-up EcoSystem: my Broker, the Retailers, Founders, Angels, my VC, my Distributors, my team, and consumers already buying from us.

And all of YOU here who have followed along through every twist and turn.

And now I’m jumping in the car with my doggies for the 7-hour drive to beautiful Val-David. 🐾❤️

At the end of this week, my mom will pass. Then, I’ll be spending the next few months in Val-David still, to enjoy the beauty here, the river, the mountains, lots of walks with doggies, and a few flights to my factory in Vancouver and Retailer meetings. And to close a chapter we all have to close at one point. 🙏❤️
Ezra Cerezo Ross Chocolates Suzie Yorke

09/27/2026

Sunday (today) is day 2!! Come over to Enercare CHFA! Booth 4048!!

Suzie Yorke Ezra Cerezo

09/27/2026

Day #1: Who was the SUPERSTAR of the CHFA Show? 🍫🫘

Well, our NEW The Little Cacao Co.

PURE Chocolate Bars & Mini-Cups. 🍫❤️
In particular, shining away: Milk Chocolate Salted Pistachio took all the RAVE ratings!

One after another, after another!

Well, well. I was dead tired (physically & emo) last night, but I sure did sleep like a baby.

After 4 years and 500+ recipes, 10 trips to South America and buying my own factory, we FINALLY cracked it.

Creamy. Delicious. Melt-in-your-mouth PURE chocolate.
🍫 PURE Chocolate
❤️ Creamy & Delicious
🚫 ZERO Sugar Added
🚫 NO Sugar Alcohols
🌱 High in Prebiotic Fibre
💪 +Protein (on some skus)
🫘 SuperFood Cacao from Peru
🍫 Never processed with Alkali (Never Dutch-processed)
❤️ Made in small batches in my craft factory 🇨🇦 Canadian Owned Canada
👩 Canadian and Women’s Owned 🌈 CQCC Certified

And goodness, I LOVE CHFA. ❤️

The Canadian Health Food Association nurtures our incredible Eco-system.
Retailers. Founders. Friends. Supporters. Investors. Distributors. Brokers. Colleagues.

Everyone in ONE place. 🙌

And a BIG thank you to all our partners who help us show up strong through the absolute chaos of show days. Because as every Founder knows… it takes a village. ❤️

Matt LeBeauExcel Sales & Marketing Puresource Natural Products Distributor - A NOW Health Group Company
LCG Foods Distribution Darwynn Ltd EDGE🇨🇦❤️
If you’re at CHFA today, Sunday, COME see me and TASTE IT. 🍫🫘
Booth #4048

Then tell me what you think!!!
🍫 Chocolate and Vitamins Re-Imagined. The Extraordinary Goodness of the SuperFood Cacao Bean. Fair Trade. ❤️ Made in small batches 🍫🫘 With love and care 🇨🇦 Made in Canada. Canadian and Women’s Owned. CQCC Certified 🌈.
Ezra Cerezo Suzie Yorke See less

09/25/2026

Countdown to CHFA East in Toronto 🍫🙌

Booth set-up! Orange vest!

Text me if you want to see me!

#4048 in the LeBeau Excel Sales & Marketing aisle

The Summit was OUTSTANDING. Best-in-Class.
=> PI index - thank you David S. Lahey
=> Eye on the Ball
=> Driving Awareness & Trial : Performance Marketing versus Awareness/Brand via Connect versus Both?
=> Unit Economics!!!!

RESILIENCE, ROLLER-COASTER

And most importantly: Our Community. Rocks. ❤️🍫❤️🍫❤️🍫

The Little Cacao Co and Ross Chocolates !

We're heading to CHFA East with our brand new family of Creamy & Delicious PURE Chocolate, with no sugar added❤️🍫
🍫 High in prebiotic fiber
🍫 NO Fake Stuff
🍫 No sugar alcohols
🍫 NO stevia aftertaste
🍫 Single-Origin Peruvian SuperFood Cacao
🍫 Never processed with Alkali / never Dutch-processed
🍫 Just a few simple, clean ingredients

Real chocolate. Real ingredients. Real Cacao taste. 🧡 🙌

Thousands of SAMPLES: Come and try some real pure chocolate.

Who’s going to CHFA East this week? Drop it below 👇

The Little Cacao Co.🍫 Ross Chocolates The Extraordinary Goodness of the SuperFood Cacao Bean. ❤️ Made in small batches 🍫🫘 With love and care 🇨🇦 Made in Canada. Canadian and Women’s Owned. LGBT Certified 🌈. Ezra Cerezo
See less

09/22/2026

CHFA East .. HUGE Week!!! 🍫🙌
This one feels BIG ... I can "feel it". In my bones!

Four years. 500+ recipes. Pivots. Ten trips to South America. 🍫❤️

And somewhere along the way, I realized the only way I was going to make the chocolate I wanted was to buy my own little craft chocolate factory in BC!

Well… here we are.

The Little Cacao Co. is heading to CHFA East with our brand new family of Creamy & Delicious PURE Chocolate, with zero sugar added. ❤️🍫

And our new Meta campaign starts TODAY too! 👀 Have a peek at our new ads.

Our whole idea is pretty simple:

The Little Cacao Co. tastes like CHOCOLATE. Creamy, melt-in-your-mouth, delicious because it is actually PURE Chocolate (not "style" not "chocolatey").

Creamy & Delicious. Zero Sugar Added.
🍫 NO Fake Stuff
🍫 No sugar alcohols
🍫 NO stevia aftertaste
🍫 High in prebiotic fiber
🍫 Single-Origin Peruvian SuperFood Cacao
🍫 Never processed with Alkali / never Dutch-processed
🍫 Just a few simple, clean ingredients

Real chocolate. Real ingredients. Real Cacao taste. 🧡

And most importantly?

If you’re coming to CHFA East September 25 to 27, come find us at Booth #4048 with our fantastic partners LeBeau Excel Sales & Marketing 🙌

Come and try some real pure chocolate.

Who’s going to CHFA East this week? Drop it below 👇
The Little Cacao Co.🍫 Ross Chocolates The Extraordinary Goodness of the SuperFood Cacao Bean. ❤️ Made in small batches 🍫🫘 With love and care 🇨🇦 Made in Canada. Canadian and Women’s Owned. LGBT Certified 🌈. Ezra Cerezo Suzie Yorke
See less

09/17/2026

When the entire hospital staff becomes your first customers…I think we found our sales team. 🍫❤️

On the business/Start-up side, I’m really “excited” deep inside.

That giddy feeling when you know you’ve nailed it and want to shout it to the world, but you’re still nervously “waiting” for all the “real” proof points that will come in.

I remember this feeling in the Fall of 2017 and then it became nutso!

Back to today:

As many of you know, I’ve spent the last 5 weeks by my mom’s side at the hospital/CHSLD here in the beautiful Laurentians in Quebec, within the health system, to make sure her needs are met.

It’s been quite a juxtaposition, such an emotional time and life phase.

I hadn’t been back home for more than two days at a time in 36 years. And I hadn’t spent more than a few hours with my mom each time. And I certainly haven't spoken this much Quebec French!

Now I’m staying in her beautiful little apartment, full of memories, her abode facing La Petite Rivière du Nord. And seeing our mommy-deer and her twins coming to visit, crossing the street.

Right in the middle of all of this, I launched our 8 HERO SKUs of The Little Cacao Co. PURE Chocolate, nationally. 🍫❤️

The timing is almost surreal: my mom fell one week before our first production run.
Production went smoothly, and my awesome team shipped them UPS from our factory in Port Coquitlam to me here in Val-David. I immediately brought them to her room.

Wel, well well: they have become the stars of the show. 😂

My mom, who still has all her business wits about her, has become possibly the BEST salesperson for The Little Cacao Co.

Word started spreading amongst the staff.

Dozens of people started popping into her room to try these new healthy, creamy chocolates they’d heard about. Sampling and lots of "ohhs" and "ahhs"

Comme une vraie Québécoise : j’ai une p’tite cash business dans la chambre de ma mère 😂🍫

I keep having to order MORE from the factory. And my mom? She LOVES it. ❤️

It has brought this unexpected burst of fun and energy into a time that is otherwise about someone we love being in the last phase of her life.

And maybe that’s why I’m feeling this launch so deeply.

Next week I’m putting my doggies in the car and driving back to Toronto for 5 days for the LeBeau Excel Sales & Marketing Annual Summit and then Canadian Health Food Association. It will be an exciting time for lots of feedback.

Early results from our FIRST little focus group? Well, according to our 91-year-old Québécoise best salesperson and a whole bunch of hospital/CHSLD staff: PHENOMENAL!

We have a hit, my friends.😂❤️🍫

Grateful for what life sends my way. And THANK YOU to everyone who has ordered in the last 6 days ❤️🍫

We just launched on Amazon and our Shopify website, and I deeply appreciate every order.

=> Try some & tell your friends ❤️🍫

❤️ Made in small batches with love and care 🇨🇦 Made in Canada 🌈

The Little Cacao Co.

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