As she looked out at the room of dignitaries, elected officials, nonprofit leaders, family and friends, all of whom came to celebrate her ongoing success as an entrepreneur, businesswoman and luxury chocolatier, Ella Livingston smiled and thought back to the very beginning, years before Cocoa Asante became a superstar brand.

“I started out of my home,” she told the crowd. “It was me, myself and I. Every email I sent that said ‘we’ was really just me.”

Today, the “we” has become a Chattanooga business known globally. Livingston’s Cocoa Asante sells luxury chocolate bonbons with beans ethically sourced from Ghana, her birthplace.

Livingston’s entrepreneurial story became even more memorable with Thursday’s gathering as three dozen people toured Cocoa Asante’s Hixson location. The main guest? Tennessee’s Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) Commissioner Stuart McWhorter, who came to congratulate Livingston and the Cocoa Asante team.

“Thank you for what you do and inspiring others,” he said. “And congratulations on your success.”

McWhorter and the TNECD team are halfway through a nine-stop tour to celebrate August’s National Black Business Month. They’re visiting “unique and interesting” Black-owned businesses in nine different Tennessee regions, from Uncle Nearest in Shelbyville to Citizens Bank in Nashville and Premiere Building Maintenance Corporation in Knoxville.

“Boasting one of the fastest growing economies of all states nationwide, Tennessee has proven to be an ideal business climate for Black businesses with continued steady growth seen over the past few years,” TNECD stated. “In 2023, the Volunteer State was named the second-best state across the U.S. for Black-owned businesses. The study specifically named Tennessee’s low cost of living, high annual income of Black business owners and lack of a state income tax as reasons for the top-tier ranking.

Thursday morning, their tour brought them to Access Road, where some 30 Chattanoogans – including U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, state representatives Bo Watson and Yusuf Hakeem, Hamilton County mayor Weston Wamp and representatives from the governor’s office, local foundations and City Hall – gathered to congratulate Livingston, tour the facility and, best of all, sample some chocolate.

“It’s like art,” someone said from the crowd.

“What if you can’t choose which one you like best?” McWhorter asked with a smile.

Livingston balanced the sweetness of the event with the gravity of the global chocolate industry. Some 70% of cacao beans originate from the Ivory Coast and Ghana where conditions are often ripe for abuse.

“Farmers make less than 6%, less than $1 a day,” she said. “Our mission is to really disrupt [the current industry] … and put more money back into the hands of cocoa farmers.”

Thanks to an accelerator loan from the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga and others, Livingston was able to purchase a processor, which will allow her to soon close the loop: beans grown in Ghana will be imported directly to Chattanooga in a “bean-to-bar” process.

Cocoa Asante will become “the only chocolate company in the continental US that sources from the farm they own,” she said.

Livingston was born in Ghana and raised in the US. After living in Japan, she encountered luxury chocolate, a life-changing experience that left her wondering: Why can’t people in the US have such an experience?

The vision was born.

“I want everyone to be able to experience chocolate fully,” she told Thursday’s crowd.

So, she began baking and experimenting with chocolate inside her home kitchen while working full-time as a high school math teacher; in 2018, a TikTok review went viral. Three days later, she resigned from teaching, dedicating herself to Cocoa Asante’s growth.

Soon, Livingston moved into the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce’s INCubator entrepreneurial ecosystem at the Hamilton County Business Development Center before outgrowing that for a larger kitchen and production facility in Hixson; not long ago, she began offering insurance – “health, vision, dental, life” – to her employees.

Cocoa Asante sells online and in stores throughout the region; Livingston intentionally works with small businesses – especially minority-owned – locally and nationally. With huge customer attention during seasonal months, Cocoa Asante’s sales are not always consistent: “about 40% of our business happens in eight weeks,” she said, which explains her newest idea.

“Subscriptions,” she said.

Thursday, she offered the crowd samples sourced from Peru, Ghana and Tanzania.

McWhorter and his team enjoyed the chocolate, with more stops today and tomorrow on their tour.

“The common denominator,” he said, “is a lot of passion.”

Before the morning ended, Livingston was quick to thank her team – Sarah McCallie and brother Kofi Bonah – and her husband, LaRue, who held the door open for folks as they arrived.

It was symbolic; LaRue was behind-the-scenes supportive from the beginning, holding the door open for his partner’s success. “I’ve seen a lot of sacrifice and dedication she’s put into this,” he said. “We put our head down and did the work. I made sure our home was taken care of so she could focus on this solely. We put the work and sacrifice in. We’re excited for the future and what we can do for the people.”