Local chocolatier launches online bean-to-bar business

Charlotte Kryska, owner of HAPA Chocolat, sees the world through the eyes of cacao farmers. When she was growing up in San Jose, her family spent every holiday traveling, with frequent trips to Europe, especially to Germany, France and the Czech Republic. And because she is part Japanese, they also visited Japan.

Kryska fancied a culinary career, specifically in pastry, and attended Le Cordon Bleu in London. “I always wanted to live in London,” she says, “and when I shot that idea to my parents, they said, ‘Sure!’”

While at school, she became interested in chocolate, and the fact she had to do a final paper on the topic further piqued her curiosity. The process of farming beans and how they reflect the terroir where they are grown, much like wine does, was endlessly fascinating.

Returning home, she took a job at Alexander’s Patisserie in Mountain View, where she was the assistant chocolatier in a two-person department. After two years, the head chocolatier left for another job, and Kryska stayed on another two years. The idea of having her own bean-to-bar chocolate business began to ferment.

In 2020, she had plans to launch her new business, but that proved ill timed. At the end of 2021, Kryska started working as a baker for Voyager Craft Coffee in San Jose, making four kinds croissants, which have become legendary among Voyager customers.

“I make classic butter, a chocolate croissant with a jacket of chocolate, and then I’ve got a guava and cream cheese croissant. It was a seasonal thing at first, but everyone wanted it, so it’s become a standard now. I also make an egg croissant filled with scrambled eggs. I am very proud of my croissants.”

She’s even prouder of her chocolate bars, which are all made in the kitchen at Voyager, located in San Pedro Square. She felt last year was a good time to revisit her chocolate business idea, and Voyager was happy to let her use the space, as long as she kept baking those croissants.

Kryska makes bars in four flavors: spice cake with cinnamon, ginger and clove and cacao sourced from Ecuador; Cherry On Top from Dominican Republic; toasted almond praline from Colombia; and MBP, with mango, banana and pineapple, and cacao from Uganda.

For three of the four bars, she turns to Dandelion Chocolate, based in San Francisco, for her raw chocolate. “I went to their very first storefront on Valencia Street, really liked what they were doing and followed them,” says Kryska. “I just really liked their business practices, plus they offer wholesale and they only use two ingredients: cacao and sugar. It’s tricky to work with but worth it. They source from 10 different countries, and their buyer, Greg, goes to the farms and meets the people and sees if they are a good fit. Sometimes it’s a one-off, and other times they will become part of the regular supply.”

Her other supplier is Raaka in Brooklyn, a craft chocolate supplier she met while taking a bean-to-bar class in New York City last year. Raaka pride themselves on making their unroasted dark chocolate from scratch, using traceable, high-quality and transparently traded single-origin cacao.

“They don’t roast their beans,” Kryska says. “Roasting impacts the flavor; it brings out caramel and nuts. Unroasted beans give you a brighter and fruitier profile.”

Through Raaka, Kryska found a chocolate from the Dominican Republic that formed the basis for her Cherry On Top bar.

For those who want a learning experience with their sweets, HAPA Chocolat offers a sampler pack for $40 that includes a bar of each flavor and a little board game to take people on a tasting adventure.

“I want people to learn how to taste chocolate, and they can take it seriously or just have fun,” Kryska says.

Individual bars sell for $10 on the HAPA Chocolat website, with free local shipping for orders over $40.

“At first Spice Cake was the most popular, and now the toasted almond praline bar is going really well,” Kryska says. “There are other bars I want to do, especially a salty spicy ginger thing, but I have to find the right chocolate that will be a good foundation for those elements.”

Developing each unique flavor is a labor of love. “For the Cherry On Top, I went to through nine different tests to get the bar exactly where I wanted it,” Kryska says. “The process involves a lot of other palates, including my boyfriend Sam, plus a good friend who is really good at picking out flavors, and my aunt Coline (Le Conte, editor and publisher of Edible:SiliconValley magazine), who helps taste and is a big supporter.”

Eventually, Kryska would like her own brick and mortar shop and would love to be in that coveted class of bean-to-bar makers. Her current kitchen arrangement won’t allow for this, so she is looking for the right spot to come available, mostly likely in the South Bay. For now, visit www.hapachocolat.com.