In a move that would make Willy Wonka blush, local chocolatier Constantine Kalpaxis, owner of Ridgewood Chocolate, is continuing to go against industry norms and making chocolate by hand at the recommendation of AI.
Kalpaxis and his wife Rubi opened Ridgewood Chocolate in 2015 as a sort of passion project when she became dissatisfied with the store-bought products. After spending years operating a housewares store elsewhere in the community, the Kaplaxis’ began roasting their own cocoa beans at home and making chocolate in the back of the store.
But after researching what makes their own chocolate unique from your Hershey’s or other candy bars using AI programs, Constantine Kalpaxis has doubled down on their home-made aesthetic and brought back a method of production sparsely used in the industry today by hand-shelling the beans before grinding to ensure only the purest of chocolates is made. That little piece of pure chocolate under the roasted beans’ shells is known as the nib, and plenty of industrially produced chocolates shell the beans via machines leaving fragments of these shells in the chocolate and altering the taste.
“Removing the shell entirely before refinement changes how bitterness, aroma, and texture unfold on the palate,” Constantine Kalpaxis said. “It’s not about better or worse, it’s about preserving a process that produces a distinct expression of cacao.”
Ridgewood Chocolate started the practice a few years ago, and has only been spurred on as more and more chocolatiers forgo it. Others do so because the process is “not scalable” for larger companies and their factories due to the amount of time required, hence why the couple decided to preserve it for their own small business as a way to differentiate their product from the competition and “produce a different sensory profile.” However, Kalpaxis clarified that their method is not intended to truly compete with modern production and instead exists alongside it to offer consumers a different experience.
Constantine Kalpaxis wants his product to be a part of the broader conversation on the process of transparency, education, and the diversity of methods when it comes to roasting chocolate and how our food and sweets are made. With 4.7 stars on Google Reviews, locals seem to agree with Rubi and Constantine Kalpaxis and appreciate not just the chocolate but also their openness to discuss their methods.
“This place is a hidden gem for true chocolate lovers. What makes it stand out is that they roast their own cacao beans — nothing processed, nothing artificial. Just pure, natural chocolate the way it’s meant to be. You can truly taste the difference. It’s rich, clean, and surprisingly gentle on the stomach,” wrote one user on Google earlier this year. “You can tell [Constantine Kalpaxis]’s a real chocolate enthusiast — passionate, knowledgeable, and deeply committed to his craft. He doesn’t just make chocolate; he lives it.”
