Fresno couple's love for chocolate fueling new venture

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The chocolate is churning at new business-- Raphio Chocolate. Elisia Otavi-Makmur and her husband Yohanes are behind Raphio Chocolate, a craft chocolate made with simple ingredients, chocolate and cane sugar.

"For us, this chocolate is not only delicious but has a lot of health benefits-- from antioxidants, the good minerals that we find in the cacao bean is bring preserved," said Yohanes.

For the chocolate makers, it all starts with the beans, which are sourced from different origins such as Peru and Tanzania. The organic beans are roasted and then ground. The chocolate nibs and husks are then separated allowing the organic form to flourish. The pieces are then slowly churned into chocolate butter.

"This is the smell of pure chocolate and I think the best to eat chocolate is at this stage, because it's still liquid and it's warm and it's been ground for three days, it's the best," said Elisia.

After the melting process, Elisia makes molds of the bars of chocolate-- the bars are all made from scratch.

The couple says they are passionate about taking something in its purest form and turning it into goodness.

"Not only do we want to make sure that the chocolate that we produce is what we feed our children, we want to bring it out to the customers as well," said Yohanes.

You can find the chocolate online and locally at Kuppa Joy and Enzo's Table.

Raphio plans to have chocolate tours, workshops, as well as food and drink pairings in the future-- all bringing chocolate full circle and to your palate.