With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it feels like the whole world is suddenly thinking about chocolate. We all have our cheap chocolate favorites, but you cannot deny the glorious indulgence that is fine, quality chocolate - chocolate to enjoy with a glass of wine, or a sweet sunset, or a close friend at the end of a long day. Cloudforest’s chocolate is that second kind –the exquisite and nuanced kind.

Sebastian Cisneros is the man behind it all, a Portland chocolatier with South American roots. His offerings include varieties of small-batch chocolate bars, cookies, macaroons, and his hazelnut “Magic Spread,” meant to be enjoyed as one might use Nutella. When asked what drew him to this work, his answer is simple, precise. “My heart is in chocolate.”

For Cisneros, his passion for fine chocolate begins in Ecuador, the country where he grew up. Cisneros’s product has its roots in a part of the country known as the “cloud forest,” so named for its unique combination of a warm, humid climate and steep, mountainous terrain.

“We [source] raw materials from this region, this natural environment, that is a transition between higher altitudes and tropical lowlands. [It is] a really fertile region which allows for amazing foods – cacao beans, vanilla, and coffee to grow. We’ve added vanilla and coffee to our offering because they’re so connected to that place.”

The importance of this region cannot be understated with Cisneros and his chocolate company. The name, “Cloudforest,” is in reference to the land his ingredients come from. “What got me into [chocolate making] was to retain a bridge to the place where I grew up. I feel a lot of identity behind it.”

Cisneros began his career in chocolate at a time when the only quality goods were imported, primarily from Europe. He was working for a retailer, not a manufacturer. “But they knew the literature and language of how fine chocolate is made. I learned from there. Through trial and error, I started to make my own chocolate at home. It took me a long time to feel like I had something good to sell.”

As Cisneros was honing his craft, the atmosphere around him was changing too. “I was interested in chocolate culture, back in 2005, 2006. The narrative that you find now with fine chocolate, here in the US, didn’t exist, didn’t have that big of an audience back then,” he explains. “I launched the first line in 2009, in 2014 was when I took a lot more ownership into the process – sourcing the cocoa beans, roasting them, tempering them.” A lot has changed since Cisneros began. “Now it’s being treated more like a fine food, less of a commodity. There [are] more people now who appreciate this level of chocolate.”

It’s remarkable to think of the leaps he has made as well, on his own. In 2022, Cloudforest opened their own brick and mortar chocolate shop, on Hawthorne Blvd. “There is no better place to explain what we do, then having our own shop. It allows us to sell our work directly, to share what we know. And to discover new ways of thinking of what we do. That exchange is the coolest part [of having a shop]. The exchange of community, thought, ideas.”

Cisneros will continue to sell his goods at the Hillsdale Farmers’ Market but he encourages SW Portlanders to come to the shop as well. “We share the space with Mattino’s, a wine shop, and it’s a really good energy. It makes the environment more food-focused. It’s a good complement to our chocolate offerings.”

This Valentine’s Day, consider shopping local and making a trip to the eastside of Portland. Cisneros has a suggestion for those February chocolate shoppers. An offering he made from the heart, so to speak. “We have a chocolate bar called Valentina, that is named after my daughter. It’s pink. Sweetened with maple and cocoa beans. The beans are from Ecuador, the maple is from Canada.” He pauses, shyly. “Her mom is Canadian.” I laugh at this, delighted. A valentine for Valentina, so clearly made with love. I ask if we can expect a new chocolate bar soon, named for his young son, Emilio. He laughs too. “I have to. I’ve gotten myself into that dance, haven’t I?”