Hello, lovely people!

If you're reading this blog, you’ve been visiting the online shop for JARDÍ chocolates, so first off,

THANK YOU!!

Starting this company has been a crazy, thrilling, wonderful experience for me, and I’m so excited to share my love for chocolate with you!

I hadn’t always wanted to start my own business, for a multitude of reasons - it’s expensive, it’s a lot of work, I don’t know how, what if I fail? - and now that I’m on the other side of that particular mountain I can say that yes, it’s expensive and it’s a freakin’ lot of hard work, and you’re never prepared enough for it, no matter how much you think you prepare. But the fear of failure goes away, (a least a tiny bit). And crazy amounts of excitement take it’s place.

So how did I end up here?

After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in 2011, I knew I wanted to work in restaurants, particularly high-end ones. Restaurants are funny places - you work insane hours and basically never see the sun (for some reason, kitchens never have windows), you spend more time with the people next to you than you do your family, your dog, your significant other and your friends, combined. But there’s also a high that comes with finishing a long service. (I’m told it’s similar to a runner’s high, but cardio isn’t my thing so I can’t confirm or deny that). And I worked with some really awesome people, really did (and still do) inspire me.

But fast-forward a few years, and quite a few moves, to early 2015. I’m getting married in 4 months to the most amazing man, and haven’t had the time or energy to really talk to him in nearly 2 months. And that’s when I realized - working your butt off is great, but doing it to benefit someone else gets old. So Jacob and I decided that when we got back from our honeymoon we’d open our own business.

We’d talked about it a lot, and figured it would be our “retirement plan” … but there’s no time like the present! The first couple drafts of “the business” (or “the baby” as it started to be referred to), ranged all over the place. But the main thing that stayed the same was the one thing that had always been a constant in my professional life:

I want to make people happy. And JARDÍ is the latest way for me to do just that.

So stay tuned, and get your tastebuds ready - we’re hoping to be open by the end of September!