Making pretty, yummy chocs her passion
To overcome a personal loss in her life last year, Asma Jainulabdeen needed something to distract herself and she knew it had to be something that fostered her love for decorating. That is how her small business Chocopedia began.
“It was my passion, to make things look beautiful. It makes me happy and satisfied,” she shares. As a little girl, Asma had a habit of remelting candies and decorating them to her liking and it quickly evolved into rearranging and decorating the furniture in her house. When going through a difficult period in her life, she decided that it was time to start a small business to have something of her very own.
“When I started Chocopedia I hadn’t come across a single business, shop or person making decorated chocolate bars here in Sri Lanka. When it’s new and looks good, I knew it would be something everyone would be interested in,” she says.
There is no doubt that her artisanal chocolate bars look good, almost too pretty to eat. With the base of the chocolates being traditional flavours of milk, white and dark chocolate, Asma elevates them with different toppings and decorations. From nuts, fruits, cookies, berries and marshmallows to delicately painted and designed chocolate bars, mini chocolates and moulded chocolate; this is a glimpse into her customisable range of chocolates. All her ingredients are locally sourced and she describes the process of making the chocolates as fun as her customers all give her different flavours and toppings to combine and try, which is her favourite part. “Celebrations like Avurudu and Ramadan call for gifts to be exchanged and what better way than saying it with our chocolates,” she says.
Despite being a primary teacher and having a hectic schedule, Asma handles Chocopedia on her own but admits that it has not been easy with the current situation in the country.
“With raised prices and power cuts, every single home-based business is suffering a loss. We have no choice but to raise our prices which most customers fail to understand. I would like to use this platform to pass this message to everyone reading this, support small businesses in every way you can.
It was just in February that Chocopedia celebrated its first anniversary and Asma says that they’ve had both good days and bad days but she is thankful to every single person who bought from them and continues to support them.