“Notorious H.O.G.,” ”It’s Getting Hot in Hia,” ”Give It To Me Guava”— sound like the names of rap songs, but are actually the clever names of chocolate truffle flavors from Socola Chocolatier. Founded by two Vietnamese American sisters, Wendy and Susan Lieu, Socola Chocolatier is the hippest and newest chocolatier in town.
What makes Socola unique from other high-end chocolatiers is that it has more Asian-influenced flavors, such as jasmine tea and lychee flavored truffles, seasonally. The truffles come in a sweetly packaged box, which has won Socola plaudits for presentation and design at the San Francisco International Chocolate Salon, the largest chocolate show on the West Coast. London Financial Times deems them as one of the “hottest” chocolatiers in California and Diablo Magazine awarded them Best Chocolatier of the East Bay. Currently, Socola sells its chocolates online (www.socolachocolates.com) and in various stores including Whole Foods in San Francisco and Oakland.
Chief Chocolatier Wendy, fondly nicknamed “Wendy Wonka” by her college friends, and Sous-Chef Susan, travel the world to find inspiration for their truffle flavors. When Susan traveled to Cuba as a humanitarian aid worker with Wendy, the two fell in love with the guava jelly that locals used on their toast and “Give It To Me Guava,” a truffle made with a guava pate de fruit layered on a dark chocolate ganache, was born.
Each Socola truffle is handmade with only the finest local and organic ingredients, including dairy products from the award-winning Straus Family Creamery. When it comes to ingredients, the sisters are always looking for the best. “We’re such hedonists,” says Wendy. “We use the best butter, we use the best cream. This is definitely the best chocolate you can have.”
Though the business has been quite successful, the story of the Socola sisters has a humble beginning. Wendy and Susan’s parents grew up in Vietnam but fled the country in 1981 to escape communist repression after the fall of Saigon. They were part of the mass exodus of Vietnamese known as the “Vietnamese Boat People,” who left the country on boats to seek a better future. Wendy, the older sister, was born under these auspices at a refugee camp in Malaysia. Fortunately, the family was eventually sponsored to live in America and they started a new life in the East Bay.
As with most immigrants new to America, life was not easy. The family lived in low-income housing in Emeryville. Initially their father delivered newspapers and their mother was a seamstress. Eventually their mother opened her own nail salon after attending cosmetology school while their father started his own gardening business.
Early on the sisters showed the same entrepreneurial zeal. “We always sold things,” recalls Susan. “We sold friendship bracelets, Girl Scout cookies, wrapping paper, magazines.” It was only natural for the sisters to make and sell chocolate as well.
The chocolate making journey began in 2001 when Wendy was a freshman at UC Davis and Susan was attending high school in Santa Rosa. Wendy decided to try her hand at a simple truffle recipe she found in a gourmet foods magazine. The truffles got rave reviews from friends and family. Soon the Socola sisters were featured on a local radio station and were selling their chocolates at the local farmer’s market.
“In our initial years, we were making it up as we went along,” says Susan. The sisters started off making truffles on their kitchen counter at home. However, after being shutdown for not having an environmental health permit, Socola was forced to move. Luckily, a friend offered up his restaurant’s commercial kitchen for the sisters to use.
Part of Socola’s success has been because the sisters complement each other so well. Wendy, a graduate of UC Davis and pastry school, is mature and has a deep passion for chocolates. Susan, a graduate of Harvard, is spunky and extroverted—someone who does not hesitate to sing and dance during an interview to make a point. Susan takes care of the marketing and sales while Wendy focuses on making the best chocolate truffles.
Though each of the sisters have other activities that occupy their time, Wendy as a consultant and Susan as a Coro Fellow in public affairs, they both view making chocolates as a way of spending time with each other. “Socola guarantees me getting 3 hours of Susan’s time every week so we can hang out together and make chocolates,” says Wendy.
“I mean, we get into our sisterly fights—that’s natural,” adds Susan. “But we really love each other and it’s our moment together.”
Wendy and Susan hope to one day open a dessert café. “It’ll be a magical place,” Wendy says excitedly. “Somewhere where you can come and be happy with chocolates and desserts.” Many of us hope that day comes soon.
