Fresno chocolate business expands its menu

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The smell of sweet chocolate fills the room at Raphio Chocolate Factory Shop.

"I love it more every day," said Elisia Otavi-Makmur of Raphio Chocolate about making chocolate.

Otavi-Makmur and her husband, Yohanes, started the chocolate business in 2016 with a bean-to-bar concept.

Every day, these machines take the beans, process them and then grind them into chocolate.

Here at the Fresno facility, they're able to make up to 500 chocolate bars a day. They sell them at the café and ship them as far away as France and New Zealand.

The business makes six single origins bars and has bars that are infused with olive oil and espresso.

The storefront off First and Bullard was recently remodeled.

Their menu has expanded with drinks mixed and brewed with their chocolate and Kuppa Joy coffee.

"From making chocolate bars, then we expand it to a little café, then we make bonbons and some baked goods and gelato also," Otavi-Makmur said.

All this growth coming after a challenging season as parents and business owners during the pandemic.

"The local support has never stopped from day one. People would email in. They would call," Otavi-Makmur said.

It's that support that helped them get through challenging times. Now they're focusing on their beans and working on a partnership in Indonesia.

"We are trying to work with the Indonesian cocoa farmers there. They are starting to really know the process and how to ferment them and really produce high-quality beans and we want to use those beans now to introduce the new origin and continue our stories," said Yohanes Makmur of Raphio Chocolate.

A sweet story that can be seen in each bar they create.