Susana is the founder and creative director 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 as an entrepreneur.
In 2013, she returned to Ecuador to found her first chocolate business. In 2017 she flew solo and launched Cárdenas Chocolate, her latest venture, as a result of her studies at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. She is committed to crafting specialty chocolate with precious and heritage cacao that regenerates cacao estates and empowers local communities in Manabí, Ecuador.
Cárdenas' purpose is to transform our region in the Napa Valley of cacao. Cárdenas Chocolate has won 11 awards at the London Academy of Chocolate for four consecutive years from 2018 to 2021.