Chocolatier Carley Snider discovered a latent talent for confectionery creation after finding an old chocolate recipe book tucked away at Tall Timber Resort north of Durango.
The resort, which opened in 1972 and had no road access, became Soaring Tree Top Adventures – the longest zipline canopy course in the world.
“There was stuff up there from years of people living there,” Snider said. “The recipe book inspired me to look into chocolate.”
Together, Snider and her husband, Marc, opened Animas Chocolate Company in 2011.
The company’s tagline, “Lose your soul to chocolate,” is a play on El Rio de las Animas Perdidas – The River of Lost Souls.
“We are not just another chocolate shop; we theme everything,” Snider said. “We named the shop for a reason. I found the book near the Animas River.”
Handcrafted truffles, bars and chocolate confections are classed according to the scale of river difficulty.
For example, Class I is a standard milk chocolate and Class V is an absinthe-infused salted caramel truffle.
The couple initially sold chocolate wholesale from a rented corner of The Chip Peddler’s kitchen in Bodo Industrial Park. Snider said the business expanded over the years, outgrowing each space they rented.
Animas Chocolate Company relocated to north Main Avenue in 2013 to have more of a retail presence in town.
The location, 2800 Main Ave., was an old home converted into a commercial business.
“We started off very small because we wanted to test it out before investing a ton of time and money,” Snider said. “We organically grew to the next steps.”
The bean-to-bar chocolate renaissance led the Sniders to abandon their rental on north Main Avenue recently in favor of a larger space at 920 Main Ave., previously occupied by the high-end furniture store Oohs & Aahs.
The space was once Richey Confectionery and Stationary, Durango’s original candy-making business in the late 1800s.
“We felt like we hit our stride at the North Main store, and as a business, our goals were higher than that,” Snider said. “We were looking for a spot that would let us reach our business goals and expand upon them. Our new kitchen is three or four times the size of our old kitchen.”
Craft chocolate, like beer and coffee before it, is becoming more mainstream. Many chocolatiers are grinding cocoa beans on site rather than melting chocolate down from other manufacturers.
“A lot of people are now making batches of chocolate where they take cocoa beans from specific regions, roast and grind them, and make them into chocolate bars at their store,” Snider said. “We did that on a nano scale at our old store. Now, we have the room and bigger equipment to make larger batches.”
She said it is “fun and exciting” to test the flavors of cocoa beans from different regions.
“We use Belizean and Bolivian beans, and the difference in flavor is really distinct,” Snider said.
She said the company plans to capitalize on the new kitchen and equipment with a focus on creating new and creative confections, likely to be unveiled next year.
Additionally, people can now host events at Animas Chocolate Company’s new location, and the business hopes to offer educational classes in the future.
“Having events was one thing we couldn’t pull off at the old store,” Snider said.
“This is just the beginning for us.”
mrupani@durangoherald.com
If you go
Animas Chocolate Company, 920 Main Ave., is open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. The business can be reached at 317-5761.
