Driving Our Economy Forward: Cocoa Asanta Award

A local chocolate artist and business owner is being honored by the state of Tennessee.

Cocoa Asante is a black and women-owned company that produces chocolates that are almost too pretty to eat.

Tonight, we learn more about Ella Livingston’s success in this week’s Driving Our Economy Forward.

“We are here today to celebrate Cocoa Asante. So this whole month is national black own business month. And we’ve been going around the state recognizing and celebrating black own businesses across the state,” said Stuart McWhorter, Comm. of Economic Development, State of Tennessee.

“I’m Ella”

“We have been you know, meeting and talking to uh uh black own businesses across the state this entire month,” said McWhorter.

“I was completely shocked when I got the email. So they sent an email I think about a month out to let us know we were being recognized. And when I read the other businesses on the list, I was, I was very like, I mean it was I don’t to say I was shocked but I was. I mean were’re on there with Uncle Nearest. I’m a huge fan of Uncle Nearest and they just received a billion dollar valuation. So for Coco Asante to be on the list with Uncle Nearest to be recognized, and other businesses that have been in existence for decades.. it just… I was, I was I was excited, honored, shocked, appreciative, grateful, everything,” said Ella Livingston, Owner of Cocoa Asante.

“What’s great about it is you know all these businesses that, including one, is you know, it was started by somebody or owned by an individual or a family. There’s a lot of Legacy a lot of pride in what they’re doing. Uh small business. As I said, you know small businesses is really the life blood of our economy. Uh and so you what you learn is just all the the challenges they’re facing all the obstacles but all the successes that

they’ve had along the way. It’s just great for us you know. We take a lot of this back to Nashville and our department and talk about what we’re hearing. So that we can turn around and provide better support for to businesses across the state. So it’s really good for us to be able to have those one-on-one conversations as we have here with Ella you know and her team,” said McWhorter.

“In this particular case it’s a great entrepreneurial story. I mean she started testing something you know. She, it goes back to her roots where she’s from. Uh she had a full-time job as a teacher was doing this on the side. All of a sudden it starts to take off. She leaves her teaching job,” said McWhorter.

“I found out she quit her job on social media. I sure did. Yeah! I thought I told him. No she didn’t. I I forgot to tell him. She did not tell me. So. I, I was scrolling through Facebook. I see her face. She was like, “y’all I just quit my job!” I said, I said, I retired. I said it really. Not I said, retired from teaching. Yeah we, we had to talk that night. Yeah, long,” said Ella and Laura Livingston.

“It’s a good family story; good family business story,” said McWhorter.

“We are almost full circle. So when we were at the incubator, uh we were not bean to bar yet. But here

in this, in our own own space, we are bean to bar. So what that means is we process the cocoa beans from the actual bean to the final bar. And we Source our cocoa beans from my home country Ghana. What we would like to do in the next year or two, is to actually source directly from my family’s farm in Ghana. Which is what will complete that circle. Um, as we’ll be the only chocolate company in the continental US that sources from a farm that they own. I feel grateful, I feel grateful, that I’m able to do this fulltime. And that I’m able to own my time and have that freedom in time, and freedom to run the company, and put my 100% into it. Um I feel grateful, absolutely grateful,” said Ella.