When Denise Castronovo launched Castronovo Chocolate in 2013 with her husband Jim, she brought with her a PhD in ecology and a passion for rainforest conservation. So to her it was only natural that her company start in an actual forest — with the cocoa beans.
“We’re making a product that we’re able to trace right back to the source and we’re able to help with conservation, and also a lot of our cocoa beans are harvested by indigenous people,” she says.