Kristen Hard’s passion for culinary creativity began at the tender age of five as she scoured her house for spare sticks to construct homemade lollipops, barely able to peak over the kitchen countertop. That initial curiosity has led to years of rigorous research, which propelled Hard’s success to a level commonly reserved for tenured chocolatiers well beyond her age. Hard, 30, hails from Atlanta and is a true daughter of the South. After traveling the world as a chef, she brings her culinary pride and recognition back to her hometown. It is through her experiences abroad, that the evolution from chef to chocolate maker has taken place.

After working in several restaurants and cafes throughout college, Hard traveled to Italy to explore the world outside her Southern roots. While in Rome, she was hired as a private chef aboard boats crossing the Atlantic and sailing the Caribbean. In the small confines of the boat’s kitchen, Hard experimented with creating chocolate, stopping at local ports to purchase fresh ingredients on a weekly basis. It was at one such port where Hard discovered the alluring cocoa bean and her true love affair began. While watching a group of Caribbean women crush cacao beans with their bare hands, her passion for discovering chocolates’ many aspects ensued. This endeavor served as the basis of her first line of truffles and bars, showcasing a sustainable and deeply satisfying premium dark chocolate infused with an array of organic herbs, spices, teas and fruits.

After returning to Atlanta, Hard began her wholesale company, K Chocolat, in 2004 creating a line of truffles with holistic characteristics informed by her work done with a local herbalist. Just five short years later, she opened her first storefront, Cacao Laboratoire du Chocolat and Boutique, in Atlanta’s Inman Park neighborhood. Each step in Hard’s journey has been a progression of getting closer to the source of chocolate. With the unveiling of her “Love Bar,” made directly from the cocoa bean, Hard’s evolution continues as both the first bean to bar chocolate maker in the Southeast and the first female bean to bar producer in the U.S.

The unveiling of Hard’s bean to bar line truly culminates years of research and development, during which she fully absorbed and manipulated the characteristic depth and complexities of her chocolate. A milestone on a journey of chocolate exploration originating years ago in a Caribbean port, where local cacao merchants sparked Hard’s curiosity for the infamous bean, this “Love Bar” is sure to be just the next step on a lifelong path to impart her refreshing and unique chocolate experience to the world.