Kasama Chocolate is moving to Granville Island

BIG NEWS! Kasama Chocolate is moving to Granville Island where we will be opening a bean-to-bar chocolate workshop and retail space!

This has been in the works since last fall, but we’ve had to keep it hush-hush until the lease was officially signed.

After a lengthy application and interview process, we’re very honoured to have been chosen as the new tenants at #2-1244 Cartwright Street, the former home of Feathercraft, whose owners recently retired.

As we are building the space out from scratch, it will take some time, but we’re hoping to move in before the end of the year.

Since we started this craft chocolate journey almost 5 years ago, it has always been a dream to have our own little chocolate workshop. Yet, the high cost of rent in Vancouver, and the huge amount of work involved in making chocolate straight from the bean, has often made that dream seem like a distant reality. It’s been a long road.

For more than a year we ran our stone grinders at the house Dom and Stefan were renting in East Van, essentially turning their living space into a mini chocolate factory. We then moved to another house where we had a little more room for our equipment (thanks Yoshi!). Then came the move to a commercial kitchen (thanks Nathalie!), and now, we are beyond excited to soon have a space of our own, where we can welcome you all to enjoy the sights, smells and sounds of artisanal chocolate being made directly from the bean!

When COVID struck, it sent our long-term plans into a tailspin, and we had serious doubts about whether to make this next step. Thank you all so much for your support over these last few months. It has been truly moving, and has given us the encouragement to take this leap forward.

We’re beyond excited to be joining the amazing craft community on Granville Island and to build a home there for Kasama. Granville Island has long been known in Vancouver as a cultural hub for artists and makers. As a small-scale maker of an artisan product, there is no place we’d rather be. We acknowledge that Granville Island is located on the unceded territories of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples, who have lived on these lands for thousands of years before colonization by European settlers. We aim to be respectful of Granville Island’s mission statement and to create a space that is inclusive and welcoming to all who visit. We can’t wait to open our doors and have you over!