Generations of mayan chocolate-making

On the shores of the amazingly picturesque Lake Atitlan, Diego Hernandez has been making and selling chocolate since 1990. He and his family are Tz’utujil (Maya)-speaking people, one of 20+ indigenous groups who live today within the borders of Guatemala. For Diego, as it is for most Mayan people of southern Mexico and Central America, cacao and chocolate are an integral part of life.

The knowledge of roasting, peeling, and grinding the beans - then mixing with various locally grown flavors - has been passed down through countless generations of Tz’utujil families for thousands of years. This is the genesis of Diego’s Chocolate: an ancient tradition adapted to modern times by indigenous artisans and entrepreneurs.

Like many boys and girls Diego learned how to prepare chocolate from his abuela, or grandmother.

Together they would prepare drinking chocolate for special family occasions like Christmas, birthdays, weddings, or to celebrate the birth of a baby. Their chocolate was exclusively made to drink but later as Diego got married and became a father, that would change.

Looking for ways to support his young family, Diego decided to adapt his abuela’s drinking chocolate recipe into one that could be packaged, sold, and eaten. After years of experimenting and refining his recipe, the soft chocolate rolls that we know and love today were born.

For the first two decades of Diego’s Chocolate only visitors to Guatemala were able to enjoy its uniquely soft texture, rich chocolate flavor, and variety of local ingredient inclusions. Now they are available to customers in the USA through retailers and online orders.

Because of hard work and determination in their chocolate business, Diego and Angela were able to send all 7 of their children to school, including college. Their daughters and sons now manage the daily operations of the business and have children of their own, and their children’s educations will be funded by the chocolate as well. Sadly, this opportunity isn’t one that Mayan children typically have.

One of our missions at Diego’s Chocolate is to change that by providing meaningful employment opportunities for our neighbors through chocolate making and packaging.