Erin’s Story: Bringing peace through chocolate

In Honolulu, Erin Kanno Uehara strives to “bring peace to [the] world one chocolate at a time,” through Choco Le’a, her thriving chocolate shop, and volunteers with The Salvation Army’s Echelon Board.

But when the COVID-19 pandemic threatened Erin’s business—and her identity as an entrepreneur—Erin found comfort in Christ and recommitted to boldly sharing her faith.

Below is a transcript of the video edited for readability.

Erin: Chocolate is a universal love language. People don’t understand each other, but people understand chocolate.

Back in 2012, I was at a convention with my mom and there was a guy here in Hawai’i giving out samples of free chocolate. My mom recognized his last name and we were related.

So this guy’s my uncle. His dad and my grandma grew up playing on the streets of Maui together. And then the next generation never met because we got separated on Maui and Oahu.

My uncle and his wife, they had been making chocolates in their home for twelve years. They had no children, so nobody to pass this down to, and they wanted to teach their craft to the next generation.

My husband and I decided we would go over to their house every weekend to learn how to make chocolates as a way to just get to know the family. We started making it at home, selling it to friends and family.

I was never planning to be a chocolatier, but I really felt like God was calling me to take a leap of faith and leave my full-time job, that I love, to go and start the business, opening a brick and mortar store.

My uncle came up with the name Choco Le’a. He taught me how to use a blend of European and Hawaiian chocolate. And choco is French for chocolate, and le’a is joy or pleasure in Hawaiian.

Our mission statement is bringing peace to our world one chocolate at a time. And so it was really using chocolate as a way to connect with people and sweeten relationships.

In 2014, we opened the store and hired employees. Hawai’i is the only state in the United States that can grow cacao, because of our location close to the equator. We wanted to be able to support local businesses, local farmers, and use local ingredients.

We’re known for truffles. That’s our specialty. A nice, shiny, tempered outer shell. And then in the center is ganache. And it comes in various shapes. Jewels, hearts, seashells, squares, circles. We can do all different kinds of flavors. Caramel with Hawaiian sea salt. Passion fruit. Kona coffee truffles. Peanut butter and guava jelly. Birthday cake. Rainbow shaved ice.

Our chart has God as the CEO. There’s a boss bigger than me, and we report to him. And so that kind of trickles down, that builds the values and the foundation of the company.

The Salvation Army, they approached me and they asked, “We’re looking to form a young professional group called Echelon.”

It basically was like-minded professionals, young professionals that loved Jesus. They really developed us as young leaders and just really wanted to instill in our own growth. For me, especially from a business perspective, to see a nonprofit that used the funds coming in so well and seeing the work that is done, these are people I want to continue to serve with for years and years and years.

Choco Le’a just kind of kept evolving. We went from retail and wholesale to a lot of hotels in Hawai’i, like Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, doing some shows in Japan, having classes, starting a cafe with chocolate and coffee.

And so we just kept adding. And it was going really, really fast. As the business grew and I got very busy, I did lose my way a little, getting very wrapped up in like, “Oh, my gosh, look what I did. Look how amazing my team is.” Losing a little bit of that reliance on God. And I was honestly getting a little burnt out. But we were on a good trajectory.

And then in 2020 was the pandemic. So that was complete stop.

We were forced to shut down for a while. There was nothing that we could sell. We were losing money. The bills kept coming. It shook my identity. I was known as the small business owner. I was the entrepreneur. I was the girl with the chocolate shop.

And so it was like, “Okay, God, who am I without my business?”

God showed me, “Hey, you don’t need to have this business and this platform to glorify me. I made you my daughter, I made you a wife, I made you a mother, I made you a friend.”

It humbled me to remember that this wasn’t on my own, but this was with him. As I was trying to rebuild the business, the community here has really, really supported us and really kept us alive and I’m super grateful for that. We came out by God’s grace somehow better and stronger.

Now we just find ourselves picking and choosing to make sure that we’re really using chocolate as a way to connect with people and sweeten relationships, which was the foundation of the business. That we don’t lose that in just the grind of trying to grow too fast, too much all at once.

Jesus called us to go into the world and I’m grateful for this partnership with The Salvation Army, helping people who are facing tragedy every day. I love the work that they do and what we’re doing not only locally but internationally based on the gospel. I love The Salvation Army.

Now, I’m a lot bolder in sharing my faith through the business, knowing that it’s God’s.

I was like, “Okay, this is yours. You said you want to continue, so let’s go.”

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