Family-owned since 2015
Our Story
Hello! We're Ismael and Lindy, and we are happy you are here!
We are the creators of Two Little Monkeys Chocolate and would love to share our story. While one of us grew up loving chocolate without ever knowing its origins, the other grew up with cacao as part of everyday life. Somewhere along the way, our paths crossed, and our curiosity about cacao grew into a shared passion, and eventually, Two Little Monkeys Chocolate.
Read our story and learn how it all happened.
Our Mission
Connecting people with Chocolate
Our mission is to create meaningful, educational experiences that connect people with the origins of chocolate, while crafting premium, ethically sourced chocolate products in small batches using locally grown cacao. Through our chocolate, we invite people to reconnect with a food they have always loved and to discover the story, people, and place behind it.
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Educational
Our chocolate tour and workshop is an opportunity to discover the world of craft chocolate, from bean to bar.
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Premium quality
Cacao processed in small batches from high quality beans, made in our own factory space.
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Clean and ethical
Local, clean and ethically produced ingredients in every product.
Meet Your Hosts.
¡Pura vida! We're Lindy and Ismael, the owners of Two Little Monkeys Chocolate.
Our journey into chocolate began in two very different ways.
Lindy grew up in Wisconsin loving chocolate (like most people do!), but never really thought about where it came from. As a child, her idea of chocolate began and ended with Willy Wonka's factory. That changed when she came to Costa Rica, saw a cacao tree for the first time, and discovered that chocolate actually begins with a fruit! Tasting the sweet pulp surrounding the cacao beans was a revelation and the beginning of a much deeper curiosity about chocolate.
Ismael grew up with cacao, not chocolate, as part of everyday life. His mother made pinolillo, a traditional cacao drink made with ground cacao beans, corn flour, and spices. Store-bought chocolate was a rare treat. Later in life, his interest in cacao grew while working on a university research project focused on cacao trees and the fascinating process that transforms cacao beans into chocolate.
Lindy & Ismael met in 2005, and married in 2009. When Mateo and Lucie (our two little monkeys) were born, Ismael worked as a full-time naturalist tour guide at a local lodge, and Lindy became a stay-at-home mom. It was the first time Lindy had not had a "job," and a little stir-crazy energy, combined with Ismael's cacao studies, sparked an interest in learning how to make chocolate.
So we began exploring cacao together.
We harvested cacao fruits from the tree in our front yard, visited cacao farms throughout Costa Rica, and learned from other local chocolate makers. Along the way, we discovered just how much flavor and character can be found in carefully grown and thoughtfully processed cacao, and it was way more vibrant than any chocolate we'd found on the supermarket shelf!
That journey eventually became Two Little Monkeys Chocolate.
Today, one of our favorite parts of what we do is sharing that journey with you. At our cacao farm and chocolate tour, we invite visitors to discover where chocolate really comes from, to reconnect with an everyday food in a new way. Our tour is more than a chocolate tasting. It's an interactive opportunity to connect with cacao, learn about Costa Rica's chocolate-making traditions, and experience the craft behind every bite.
Come curious, leave with a new appreciation for chocolate, and hopefully a little taste of Costa Rica to remember us by.
Where it all began
A few photos from the early days of Two Little Monkeys.
Come visit us. We welcome daily tours at 10:00am and 2:00pm and we can't wait to meet you!