Meet Liane Pensack-Rinehart | Chocolatier

We had the good fortune of connecting with Liane Pensack-Rinehart and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Liane, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
You might have never tried a bonbon before, but I feel like people’s perspective on chocolate is changing, and Colorado Cocoa Pod is glad to be a company that supports fair wages for cocoa farmers by using Fair Trade and sustainable chocolate providers. When I, Liane PR started Colorado Cocoa Pod in 2019, there were only a handful of well known artisan chocolate shops here in the US and not many people knew what a bonbon was, much less seeing Asian flavors in bonbons, with the exception of a couple of shops. When I started my own chocolate company, I wanted to make bonbons with flavors that I grew up with, that were also packed with flavor, well balanced, and not overly sweet.

Surprisingly, so many different flavors go well with chocolate, and in 2020, after extensive R&D of recipe testing, I was ready to go beyond selling to family and friends. Of course we all know what happened that year, and while it was unexpected, the silver lining of the pandemic brought about the forming of an ever expanding chocolate community online. People were learning more about chocolate and many people who dabbled in it, turned it from a hobby into a full blown career. During this time, I temporarily put my business on hold and decided to support other chocolate shops that already had brick and mortars. As we all struggled with the uncertainty of our future, I reached out to a few chocolate friends and started Chocolate Chats, where I went on Instagram live and talked to other chocolate shop owners to spread the word about their businesses and struggles they faced. During this time I was able to grow my small IG platform from a few hundred followers to over 10k! I did a chat almost every month, reaching out to so many small chocolate businesses, sharing their experiences, and building connections and friendships along the way.

I have since stopped doing those Chocolate Chats regularly, but even now I still get messages from aspiring chocolatiers who told me they used to watch my chats and were inspired. I also am friends with most of the people I talked to, and there are other chocolatiers who have taken over Chocolate Chats, making it their own, building the chocolate community, and helping people around the world learn more about this amazing community.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
When people see my chocolate bonbon displays, I get a few reactions: 1) Is that edible? 2) It looks too pretty to be edible! 3) I thought they were marbles! Most people don’t believe my chocolates and confections are edible and sometimes they tell me that it looks like works of art that they would feel bad about eating. But I believe since we eat with our eyes first, food should be beautiful as well as delicious. I love telling people that they deserve to eat beautiful, delicious, but never too pretty to eat chocolates, especially when that chocolate also tastes as good, if not better than it looks. Life is too short, and educating the public on Fair Trade / Sustainable chocolate that actually tastes good without sugar and wax fillers is one of my goals for my business.

What sets my chocolate apart from others, is that I make a lot of bonbons with Asian dessert flavors such as pandan, matcha green tea, black sesame, ube, and lychee. Sometimes I combine these flavors with more traditional chocolate like caramel, vanilla, and sea salt, without making it too sweet. Growing up eating a lot of desserts and in an Asian family, I preferred eating my desserts with fruit being the sweetest part of it, not sugar. So my goal is to make my bonbons and chocolate confection well balanced in flavor. I want you to eat it and know what the flavor is without it being over the top tasting like soap (we’re looking at you lavender), or underwhelming where they all taste like milk chocolate.

My Signature Zodiac Animal Bonbon Collection is what I am most proud of creating. This 12pc box of chocolates was influenced by the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals in both design and flavor. I wanted to make a collection that represented my culture (Chinese and Japanese), and background. The flavors of this collection include classics like Sea Salt Caramel, Cookies ‘n Cream, and Toasted Coconut, but also introduces flavors like Milk Tea, Lychee, and Passion Fruit Vanilla. Each one is hand painted to look like characteristics of the animal as well as the flavor. This collection I carry in my shop all year around, and have improved the flavors since starting in 2019.

I started Colorado Cocoa Pod in the Spring of 2019 after graduating from pastry school and working for a small chocolate shop that was closing. I’ve been able to grow and hone my craft through a global pandemic, and continue to expand my range of chocolate offerings from bonbons, to bars, lollipops, and chocolate covered confections. It hasn’t been easy, I lost my mom in 2020, I was limited to what I could produce out of my kitchen space, and it was difficult to start with limited funds and supplies. But each time I made a sale, that money would go back into building my business. I started off using stock boxes and stickers for my packaging, researching for the cheapest bags I could find on Amazon. Now I’m happy to say all that hard work and penny pinching has paid off. Colorado Cocoa Pod has custom boxes and will have custom bags for our products soon!

I’ve learned that everyone has their own journey and that social media only portrays the ‘best’. It’s hard not to get jealous or feeling like you’re behind everyone else, so I try to share the downsides of being a small business owner with my customers and followers to let them know they aren’t alone in their journey’s and by supporting a small business, you’re supporting someone’s dream, and it is much appreciated!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love the Fall and Winter here in Colorado. If you come during the Fall, I would recommend doing a drive up to the mountains and possibly a short hike to see the leaves change colors. That was the first thing I noticed when I moved here from California was that Colorado actually has different seasons. A few of my favorite restaurants I would take my friend to would be Cherry Hills Sushi Co for their simple, yet delicious hand rolls. Ohana Hawaiian makes really yummy poke bowls, and Dang Tea is one of my new favorite places for boba.

I’m not much of a beer drinker, but Jade Mountain Brewery is one of my favorite places with their fruity beers, hard teas, and they sometimes have local market pop-ups and events! Colorado Sake Co also puts on fun events, and I have sometimes done Sake & Bonbon pairings with them which have made for a great evening.

If my friend came during the Winter, I would definitely take them up to the mountains to go snowboarding. Copper and Winter Park are a few of my favorite mountains, and even if they didn’t snowboard, it would be fun to stay in the mountains for a few days.

There are a lot of markets and pop-ups going on in Colorado, so I would definitely take them someplace where they could find some local Colorado vendors and support small businesses.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to dedicate this shoutout to my amazing husband Nathan. Without him, I probably wouldn’t have pursued pastry school or had the courage to start my own business. He is the one who supported us when I wanted to go to pastry school on the weekends and work part-time as I transitioned from being a software engineer to working in different bakeries and restaurants. When I decided to go full-time into chocolate, Nathan helped me find equipment, sort out taxes, setup my legal business names, and website. He even helped me with dishes, test tasting, and promoting my chocolates to his friends. I couldn’t have gotten to where I am today without his amazing support and encouragement.

Website: https://coloradococoapod.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coloradococoapod/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColoradoCocoaPod/

Other: https://goo.gl/maps/Te73yMEuksf3Y84AA

Image Credits
Headshot – Kendra V Photography https://www.instagram.com/kendravphoto/ Chocolate Images – Chocolatier Liane Pensack-Rinehart