NEW YORK - Jessica Spaulding grew up loving the rich creamy taste of chocolate and even attending top chocolate shows, but something was always missing.
"I would taste chocolates from around the world but nothing that ever represented me. So that's how the idea for Harlem Chocolate factory came to be," Spaulding said.
She thought for years about going into business for years. Then after working in marketing and getting laid off in 2014 she decided to act.
"I got off the bus and called one of my best friends from college and I was like 'Sis I got this idea but I need your help," Spaulding said.
Friend Asha Dixon remembers it well.
"We met in her living room a few days later and that was the first Harlem Chocolate Factory meeting," Dixon said.
With Spaulding in the kitchen and Asha Dixon on the business side they sold their first chocolates in 2015. After winning a business plan competition they were able to buy professional equipment and open a factory and shop on Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard last year.
The Harlem-born chocolatier had long thought about her creations celebrating the African American experience.
"These truffles that all represented different experiences I had growing up. banana pudding, red velvet and sweet potato pie. It's like different chocolate renditions of these kind of traditional desserts," Spaulding said.
Challenges for these two working moms include tight margins and making everything as fresh as possible. Spaulding says homemade caramel and dairy from New York State made their turtles best sellers.
Everything is made here on the premises so if you time it right you, could get a cookie straight from the oven.
The work is hard but the rewards are sweet for these two entrepreneurs.
"People say they love the chocolate and that is definitely what makes me smile," Asha said.