Niche chocolate made from exceptional cocoa beans. The inspiring story of entrepreneurial sisters from Lutsk.

In December 2024, the Ukrainian craft chocolate from Sisters A. Chocolate won a gold medal and five silver awards at the international Academy of Chocolate competition held in London.

The brand was founded by sisters Olena Holodenko and Oleksandra Osipova. They own a small production facility in Lutsk, where they create chocolate from fine cacao beans sourced from South and Central America and Africa.

What makes their chocolate special? Why does it cost three times more than regular chocolate, and how is it produced?

Culinary Kitchen Startup

The story began with experiments in a home kitchen, recalls Osipova. "I started making craft chocolate. I hadn't taken any pastry courses, but this hobby was incredibly engaging," she shares.

In 2020, during the pandemic, she registered as a sole proprietor and opened her first small chocolate workshop. Holodenko was then producing natural cosmetics and had a small shop selling craft products.

"My sister and I often talked about creating a product together. I wanted to lure my sister to join me in making cosmetics, but over time, I grew more and more fond of the chocolate-making process," explains Holodenko.

After a year, she sold her cosmetics workshop and invested the proceeds into renovating the space for chocolate production and acquiring some equipment. Since then, the sisters have been operating under the brand Sisters A. Chocolate.

For almost two years, they worked just the two of them: roasting cacao, molding chocolate bars, and selling them. Soon, they hired their first assistant, who came part-time to help with packaging the chocolate.

Currently, Sisters A. Chocolate has seven employees. In addition to the chocolate production area, the entrepreneurs have a warehouse and a small office.

"My sister and I oversee the processes in the workshop, but we no longer make chocolate. Instead, we focus on marketing, development, conducting tastings, and creating recipes and designs," says Osipova.

Special Cacao Beans

More than 80% of the cacao beans used to make chocolate worldwide are grown in West Africa, primarily in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. This raw material is used for mass chocolate production.

"These cacao beans are very bitter and have an earthy taste, making them unpleasant to eat. To make chocolate from such cacao taste good, a lot of sugar, soy lecithin, fat, powdered milk, and definitely vanillin are added," explains Osipova.

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The sisters use only fino de aroma cacao beans, which the International Cocoa Association classifies as having exceptional taste and aroma. These are fine cacao beans grown by small farmers in the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Peru, Colombia, Madagascar, Tanzania, and Indonesia.

"Terroir cacao has a diverse palette of flavors without excessive bitterness and a variety of aromatic notes: fruits, nuts, flowers – much like wine. For instance, tasting Tanzanian cacao, you'll notice citrus notes, fruits, and hints of quince. Dominican cacao will have a winey, berry aftertaste with raspberry notes," explains Osipova.

The price of such raw material is 2-2.5 times higher than mass-produced cacao. Terroir cacao costs $15 per kg, with some varieties reaching up to $20 per kg, while regular cacao is priced at $6-7.

The sisters produce chocolate following the bean-to-bar principle: from bean to bar. This philosophy involves tracking the origin of all chocolate components. They purchase cacao beans through a Dutch company, usually ordering about half a ton of various types at once.

"We can't buy a container of cacao beans from Tanzania, Madagascar, or Peru, so we buy through a Dutch intermediary. This company has been trading cacao, spices, and coffee for a long time. Its experts travel to plantations in various countries to select and assess the quality of cacao," explains Holodenko.

In the first year of the large-scale war, their cacao supplier in the Netherlands offered special prices to assist Ukrainian manufacturers.

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To produce good chocolate, good raw materials alone are not enough. It is crucial to roast the cacao beans correctly and select the precise proportions of ingredients. In the workshop, raw fermented cacao beans are crushed, cleaned, roasted, and ground on special equipment over several days.

"If you taste raw fermented cacao beans, they won't remind you of chocolate. As soon as you start roasting them, the proteins and sugars inside the beans interact and create many aromatic compounds with a chocolate aroma.

The specifics of the roasting process determine the flavor of the chocolate. We have minute-by-minute roasting protocols for each type of raw material based on the amount of cacao beans, their size, and density," notes Osipova.

What They Produce

Sisters A. Chocolate offers 20 varieties of chocolate. The base line features dark chocolate from a single farm with 72-75% cacao. "It has three ingredients: cacao beans, a bit of cacao butter, and 3-5% cane sugar," says Osipova.

There are variations of dark chocolate with added salt, juniper, chili pepper, or orange. They also have a line of vegan milk chocolate made with plant-based milk substitutes and white chocolate. There is a separate line of alcoholic chocolate.

"We use single malt island whiskey, gin, and Jamaican rum. We soak the roasted and ground cacao beans in these, let them mature, and dry them to evaporate the alcohol. So the chocolate is alcoholic, but it contains no alcohol – the beans absorb the taste and aroma," explains the co-founder of the workshop.

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In addition to chocolate bars, the entrepreneurs produce candies, nut-chocolate pastes, and drinking chocolate. On average, the workshop produces about 300 kg of products each month. Sales peak during the winter season, when production volumes can rise to 500 kg per month.

The main sales channels are their website, social media, small cafes, and stores.

"We enjoy selling through our website. Firstly, it’s the most profitable. Secondly, it allows for direct contact with customers. When a buyer visits the site, they can receive the maximum amount of information from us. That's why we are currently focusing a lot on this, providing targeted advertising," says Osipova.

After the onset of the large war, the entrepreneurs began collaborating with the "Silpo" network. This improved the recognition of their brand. WineTime and "Silpo" together account for as many sales as all cafes combined.

"WineTime placed our product on their shelves when we were still very small. They helped with accounting and provided advice. We are now in almost all of their stores.

We had been negotiating with "Silpo" for about a year before the war. We approached them under various conditions. It was challenging because they are a large retailer, and we are small craft producers. A lot of documentation was needed, and we didn't even have an accountant. At the start of the war, they faced a shortage and simplified conditions for small producers," shares Osipova.

Six Awards in London

For the Academy of Chocolate competition, the chocolatiers submitted ten samples, hoping to receive at least one bronze award. The competition has been held in London since 2005 for producers of niche chocolate made from cacao beans with descriptions of their origin down to the specific farmer.

The sisters won a gold award for their "Madagascar Mava Maliolio 75%" chocolate and five silver awards for "Tanzania 72% Kokoa Kamili," "Dominican Öko-Karibe 100%," "Peru 75% + Canerock Jamaican Spiced Rum," "Peru 75% + Dewar Rattray Cask Islay Whisky," and "55% Peru with specialty coffee."

"Upon receiving the 'gold,' we cried because our chocolate received the highest award in the main nomination of the competition. Thirteen producers among 1,400 samples received gold awards. We believe