Conexión Chocolate and Zingerman’s Candy Factory share a commitment to exceptional flavor, craftsmanship, responsible business, and a closer connection to cacao origin. After months of tasting and testing, Zingerman’s Candy is now using Conexión specialty chocolate, crafted at origin in Ecuador, in its confections. The partnership brings together professional performance, traceability, and a shared belief in creating more value where cacao begins.
A partnership bringing together exceptional flavor, professional excellence, responsible business, and a shared commitment to producer sovereignty.
We are proud to welcome Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory, part of the renowned Zingerman’s Community of Businesses in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as the newest professional partner working with Conexión Chocolate.
Since 1982, Zingerman’s has built a distinctive place in American specialty food through an
uncompromising commitment to flavor, craftsmanship, ingredient quality, strong
relationships, and responsible business.
That shared commitment makes this partnership a natural fit.
Before making the transition, the Zingerman’s Candy team spent months tasting and testing Conexión Chocolates, carefully selecting the flavor profiles that would best complement its handcrafted confections.
Today, Zingerman’s Candy is crafting its confections with Conexión specialty chocolate.
Where Quality and Values Meet
For Zingerman’s, exceptional ingredients and responsible business have long gone hand in hand.
Jamie LeBoeuf, Managing Partner of Zingerman’s Candy, has highlighted both the quality of
Conexión’s cacao and the importance of working with people who share Zingerman’s
approach to business. Ari Weinzweig, co-founder of Zingerman’s, has described the transition to Conexión Chocolate as an upgrade in cacao quality.
That intersection of flavor, craftsmanship, quality, and values is where Zingerman’s and
Conexión Chocolate naturally come together.
Two businesses with distinct expertise. One shared conviction: exceptional food and responsible business can move forward together.
From Commodity to Specialty: Breaking the Mold
For generations, cacao-producing countries have supplied the world with one of its most
extraordinary ingredients, while much of the transformation, knowledge, and value of professional chocolate has been built elsewhere.
Conexión Chocolate was born to challenge that model.
Instead of sending cacao into an anonymous commodity chain, we craft professional specialty chocolate at origin — connecting cacao genetics, terroir, post-harvest expertise, chocolate making, and professional performance where cacao begins.
What reaches the professional kitchen is fundamentally different.
Not simply cacao from origin. Chocolate from origin.
Chocolate with identity. Chocolate with traceability. Chocolate designed for chefs, chocolatiers, and confectioners — delivering the flavor, consistency, fluidity, and technical performance expected from professional couverture. And this is where producer sovereignty becomes fundamental.
For Conexión Chocolate, producer sovereignty means moving beyond a system where cacao-producing communities and countries participate primarily as raw-material suppliers. It means creating greater participation at origin in the knowledge, transformation, and value that turn cacao into professional chocolate.
This is what we mean by breaking the commodity mold:
- From commodity to specialty.
- From anonymous sourcing to identity.
- From raw material to value created at origin.
Without asking the professional to compromise.
Because the chocolate must earn its place in the kitchen.
From Ecuador to Michigan
This partnership brings those ideas into practice.
Chocolate crafted by Conexión Chocolate at origin in Ecuador is now part of Zingerman’s celebrated confections in Michigan — creating a direct connection between cacao origin and one of America’s distinctive specialty food communities.
The collaboration also brings together two women-led businesses. Jenny Samaniego, Founder of Conexión Chocolate, and Jamie LeBoeuf, Managing Partner of Zingerman’s Candy, are leading businesses built around craftsmanship, strong relationships, and a belief that how exceptional food is made matters.
For Conexión Chocolate, that leadership carries particular meaning as a woman-founded company building its place in the traditionally male-dominated world of professional chocolate.
But breaking the mold has never been something we do alone.
Zingerman’s joins a growing community of chefs, chocolatiers, confectioners, founders, and food businesses choosing a different path for professional chocolate.
Every professional partner who chooses Conexión becomes part of breaking the
commodity mold — helping move professional chocolate from commodity toward
specialty, while advancing exceptional flavor, technical performance, traceable origin, and producer sovereignty together.
Michigan roots. Ecuadorian soul.
Together, we are breaking the mold.