Chosen By Chocolate

Aura Fajardo Brings a Taste of Venezuelan Cacao to Rhode Island

Aura Fajardo had no idea that she’d be so drawn to the chocolate- making process when she began the baking and pastry arts program at Johnson & Wales University (JWU) in Providence. She had planned to become a professional cake decorator but apparently chocolate had other ideas.

“Not everyone has the ‘chocolate ability,’” she said during a recent visit to her kitchen at Aura’s Chocolate Bar in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood, adding that there’s very little room for error when working with chocolate. “I knew I loved chocolate because it would knock me down time after time but I’d still want to get back up and keep going. I really think chocolate chose me. I felt very empowered by it.”

To make her bars, truffles and cake toppers, Aura (pronounced OUR-rah) uses only the highest-quality organic, fair-trade chocolate from her homeland, Venezuela. Unlike the waxiness of cheaper varieties, her chocolate melts in your mouth.

The ingredients are simple: cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin (a refined oil emulsifier that helps with texture), sugar, vanilla and then milk solids for milk and white chocolate. Each of her products starts with a base of milk chocolate, dark chocolate or white chocolate in coin form. She melts the coins using small tempering machines that bring the chocolate to the right temperature with the correct balance of cocoa butter crystals for a good snap, shine and texture. She adds or infuses with ingredients such as lavender, matcha, bee pollen, chili, honey, Earl Grey tea, sea salt or coffee to create products like her matcha macadamia and spicy mocha bars and her honey roasted peanut bonbons. It might sound simple, but chocolate can be a tricky partner.

Working with chocolate is like chemistry, said Aura. If you don’t have the right temperature or the correct ratio of cocoa butter crystals, the batch won’t turn out. But when you know what you’re doing, the chocolates practically fall out of the mold.

Prior to moving to the United States in 2004, at her sister’s suggestion, Aura was a trained graphic designer looking for a career change. “I was in the mommy role for two years when I started feeling like I wanted to do something different,” she said. “I love being a mother but there’s so much more in me than just that. I wanted my daughter to see that I was doing something important and that I was working hard at something I loved.”

The continuing education baking and pastry arts program at JWU was not easy. Aura was in the classroom every Saturday and in the kitchen every Sunday, for “labs,” from 7 am to 7 pm. She began the program in 2011 and finished 2013. (During the week she was busy being a mom and worked part-time as a graphic designer.)

Aura started her first JWU internship at Hebert Candies in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, around Easter time in 2013. She turned out thousands of chocolate bunnies and, despite the monotony, she was hooked.

“I could see bunnies when I closed my eyes,” she said, with a laugh. “But as challenging as it was, I couldn’t get enough. I needed to ‘get’ this—needed to master it.”

After receiving her associate’s degree, she became the chocolatier at Pastry Art in Walpole, Massachusetts. About four years into the position, she realized she wanted to have more creative freedom. (During this same time, Aura was in the process of earning her bachelor’s degree at JWU.)

“It was that desire for freedom that pushed me to open my own business. I’m so thankful that I got that push,” she said.

To get started, she needed access to a health- department- certified kitchen so she decided to take the business boot camp and cohort at the food business incubator Hope & Main in Warren in the summer of 2017.

She got the proper licenses, and figured out what equipment she’d need. There was no question where she’d source her chocolate: the award-winning Chocolates el Rey in Venezuela.

“Using Venezuelan chocolate as a base of my creations was very important to me because I wanted to incorporate single-origin chocolate from my native country,” she said. “Venezuelan chocolate is made out of all super local, simple ingredients; nothing is coming from anywhere weird. I wish I appreciated it when I lived there. Now I wish I could go back and visit the farms, sniff the beans and see the process. But for now, I can envision it every time I cast my chocolate.”

At the time she was putting out her first chocolate bars in September 2017, Aura’s pockets were empty and she was in the final months before receiving her degree. She was a divorced, single mom with just a few thousand dollars left from her tax returns, but she decided to put it all into her startup. In the first two months of business, she sold more than 1,000 bars, which convinced her parents that this new venture had potential.

“When my dad saw that the chocolate was moving and that I was serious and passionate about this, he and my mom decided to help me out financially,” she said. “I remember he said: ‘Not to put this on your shoulders, but this is all my money.’ It meant a lot because it was a sign of his trust in me.”

Her graphic design skills and artistic training have saved her money since she is able to design everything from the packaging to the labels and logos. For her flavor combinations, Aura draws inspiration from her own Venezuelan background and from her friends’ various geographic and cultural backgrounds in an effort to showcase different flavors and spices. She also incorporates local ingredients when possible.

Aura opens her doors for retail sales on what she calls the chocolate holidays (Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, etc.). Her products can also be found at Craftland, Stock Culinary Goods, Grapes & Grains and other stores around Rhode Island.

In the future, she hopes to move to a space where there’s more walk-in traffic and better parking but for now her Olneyville location will do. Aura’s other dream is to become the first bean-to-bar chocolatier in Rhode Island, which would allow her to produce chocolate free of common allergens like soy and dairy, using beans from Venezuela, of course.

“I have so many ideas but such a tight budget right now,” she said. “We’re small but I need to be realistic about the fact that I’ll need to find investors in the future to grow. It’s going to take time, but it’s coming and it’s incredibly exciting.”

For more information, follow @AurasChocolateBar on Instagram or visit AurasChocolateBar.com.