The Northwest Chocolate Festival 2026

Susana Cárdenas A. is the founder and curator of Cárdenas Chocolate. She comes from Manabí Province in Ecuador, a cacao-growing region with a longstanding history of Nacional cacao cultivation. Susana has been a journalist for many years, writing for Spanish and Latin-American publications such as El Pais (Spain) and El Universo (Ecuador). Over the last years, based in London, she worked in the chocolate and cacao industry, as a journalist, a chocolate taster and an entrepreneur. Cárdenas Chocolate, her second chocolate venture, as a result of her studies at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. She is committed to crafting speciality chocolate with precious and heritage cacao that regenerates cacao estates and empowers local communities in Manabí, Ecuador. Cárdenas Chocolate has won 11 awards at the London Academy of Chocolate for four consecutive years from 2018 to 2021 and currently available in Spain, France, Switzerland and the UK.