When Cocoa Costs Climb, Santa Barbara Chocolate Makers Don’t Melt Down
Patricia Martellotti
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – Chocolate lovers, brace yourselves — your favorite treat is feeling the heat.
Think chocolate’s a sweet gig?
Try crafting it while cocoa prices explode.
Inside Menchaca Chocolates, a hidden factory hums in Santa Barbara’s heart—where liquid gold turns into pure craving.
“We are bean-to-bar… we source beans from Ecuador… and Guatemala,” said chocolate maker Pete Menchaca of Menchaca Chocolates in Santa Barbara.
This is chocolate the slow way — roasted, ground, and tempered to perfection.
Dark chocolate–dipped mango, finished with a spicy twist to warm winter hearts.
“Dipped in 60% cacao dark,” said Menchaca.
“Well chocolate brings people together because there’s not a lot of people in the world that doesn’t like chocolate, you know,” said chocolate maker LeAnne Iverson of Menchaca Chocolates in Santa Barbara.
“That’s what it takes to make chocolate you gotta feel the chocolate and connect with it,” said Menchaca.
But lately, these chocolate makers are racing the clock.
Worldwide cocoa shortages have sent prices soaring, driven by climate change, droughts, and supply disruptions.
“Cacao butter is the real thing that’s gone up … like 400 percent,” said Menchaca.
“ I would buy 50 pound block of cacao butter that was maybe $378 and the next time I bought it it was over $1,000,” said Iverson.
And even as prices jump, demand keeps climbing.
So Iverson came up with something new — an art chocolate workshop that turns customers into chocolatiers.
The workshops bring in extra income and a bit of relief, easing the strain of rising costs.
From tempering to the final shine, this is chocolate as art.
And somewhere between bliss and sugar shock, everyone seems to have an opinion on just how much chocolate is too much.
“I could eat nine pounds a day,” said one Menchaca customer.
While cocoa prices rise and fall, this tiny factory keeps melting beans into memories.
Because some treasures taste sweeter — when you make them your own.