Our organic chocolate business grew naturally out of a love for chocolate, history, and community. Just like the cacao plant started it’s growth in Central America and then shared it’s wonders with the world, so too has our company grown in local markets in Chiapas before heading to the rest of the world.

Elissa Verdillo founded Cacao Cocoon Chocolate after spending 12 years perfecting her chocolate craft. Elissa Verdillo traveled throughout Central America learning the rich history of chocolate and perfecting her ability to handle this powerful ingredient.

Spending that time working with organic dark chocolate taught her many life lessons. Her sustainable POC owned business found a way to combine the traditional ways the Maya prepared their chocolate with modern sensibilities, diets, and tastes in mind.

Our organic dark chocolate is prepared with respect to the culture and history of the Maya. As the original chocolatiers, the Maya set the tone for how we know chocolate today. Cacao is more than just one of today’s most demanded international foods, it’s part of a rich cultural tradition that we are sharing with the world.

Our sustainable POC owned business got its first start in the local markets and celebrations in Palenque, Chiapas. Steeped in that culture, our chocolate was able to blend the history of the Maya with that of local Mexican chocolatiers. After spending years perfecting our chocolate in the seat of Maya culture, we decided to continue our adventure and bring out chocolate to California.

We’ve been distributing our chocolate in the Arcata, CA community for years. It’s in California that we were able to redefine how we approached chocolate and take it from a local product to something we can share with the world. We believe in the history, culture, and taste of our chocolate.

As we move forward, we hope you join us for the adventure. We will be sharing our culinary adventure with the world as we bring the traditional Maya chocolate to the world.​