About Us
Who are we?
El Gato Chocolates is founded by me, Gabriela; and my business partner, Nataly. We met in Tarapoto, San Martin - Peru a few years ago and immediately bonded over our shared love of chocolate. My desire (Gabriela) to bring awareness to the value and wealth of Peru’s biodiversity was the key to create a branch of the company in USA and share my ideals trough our chocolate, I want to educate the world about the challenges faced by Peru’s ecosystem and ensure its preservation. Since forming, we have spread the message and distributed chocolates in Peru, the United States, and Kuwait.
Why did we choose chocolates?
First and foremost, we love chocolate. But more importantly, chocolate played a critical part in the development of the livelihood of our home city. In the late 80’s and throughout the 90s, drug-traffickers forced the people of San Martin to grow coca leaves. When the military drove the traffickers from the region, those coca workers were left jobless in an economy built on cocaine production. However, the climate was ideal for growing another crop: cocoa beans.
The workers re-purposed their skills to grow cocoa and formed cooperatives to ensure that those people could get back to work for a fair wage and support their families without resorting to child labor. This was a key catalyst in bringing prosperity to the small towns of the region.
We grew up valuing good cacao beans harvested from hard working farmers who opt for fair trade, pesticide-free products, and environmentally sustainable farming practices. This is why we have elected to locally source the cocoa and ingredients in El Gato chocolates from organic farms. All ingredients are grown on farms the San Martín region and are then processed and boxed in our home city of Tarapoto.
Company History
Although we had been friends for a while, and have been casually making chocolates, the business did not formalize until the second half of the 2010s. Nataly began with a solo venture in 2017 and officially joined forces with Gabriela in 2018 when Gabriela provided capital to grow the business. At that time, the two distributed chocolate under the company name of La Dolce Vita. In 2019, while their production facilities would remain shared, they created two brands to separate marketing and distribution in different parts of the globe.
Gabriela handles El Gato Chocolates. She lives in the United States and manages distribution in the United States, and the Middle East. Nataly handles Hilnata Chocolate. She lives in Peru and manages national distribution. Nataly also oversees ingredient sourcing and bar production, while Gabriela is in charge of the flavors formulation, the image, impact and other projects.
Why “El Gato”
Gabriela wanted a name that was easy, would make an impact, and taught people to care about Peru’s biodiversity. This concept was so important because Gabriela grew up in Peru surrounded by flora and fauna, and to learn of the consistent extinctions of animals and plants broke her heart. Because of this, she wanted to choose an animal that could represent all the regions of Peru; that animal was the wildcat.
Although there are many types of wild animals across Peru, she fell in love and drew inspiration for her branding from the wild cats: the Pampas cat, the Andean Cat, the Margay cat and the Oncilla cat. Theses wild cats are native felines to South America, are listed as Near Threatened in the IUCN Red List, and are counted among the most endangered cats in the world. Thus they are a perfect representation of what these women are trying to protect.
The different wildcats and their regions of habitat are the inspiration for the design on each box. We hope people can learn the importance of their conservation and enjoy our thoughtful package designs.
Our Partnerships
As of 2020, we have partnered with two South American organizations whose missions align perfectly with our own: The Andean Cat Alliance and The Peruvian Desert Cat Project.
As of May, 2021, we are happy to announce more allies: Geoffroy’s Cat Working Group (GCWG). Now we can help the Geoffroy cat conservation through our Bitter flavor bar. We have plans to partner with additional organizations in the coming years.