Mom-and-daughter duo behind Oak Cliff's CocoAndré share their recipe for success
FORT WORTH, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) — The sweets at CocoAndré are made from scratch. Cocoa beans are imported from the Mexican state of Chiapas, and brought back to North Texas.
Andrea Pedraza is the owner of the Oak Cliff chocolate shop, which sells truffles filled with café con leche, canelitas, mezcal and tequila.
Pedraza's Mexican heritage inspires the designs and flavors of the sweets in her shop.
Pedraza's daughter, Cindy, remembers when her mom first took a job at a Dallas chocolate company back in 1985, "Oh my god, she always smelled like chocolate, like we would literally just rub up on her and smell her."
Twenty-five years later, when a recession left them both unemployed, they opened CocoAndré together.
"Her dream and her passion have also become mine, I just want to see her succeed," Cindy said.
Neither had any idea they were making history until Pedraza made a particular Google search, "one day I was googling Hispanic or Latina chocolatiers in Texas, and who comes first?"
"Her name! She is the first Latina chocolatier in Dallas and I want to say nationwide. So I'm just so proud of her for that," Cindy said.
The business has grown over the years, adapting during the pandemic to sell a full line of horchata.
"We are the first horchateria in Dallas, for sure. It's rice, cinnamon, and milk...so that's been very, very popular," Cindy said.
Today, the mom-and-daughter duo uses the business to build up others--hosting pop-up events at the shop for new entrepreneurs.
"It's been a blessing to be a role model to young ladies who are starting their own business," Pedraza said.
Chocolate, they say, has the power to bring people joy, and with hard work it's brought them some sweet success.
"If you love what you do, keep going," Pedraza said.
