CocoVaa Chocolatier

“If I'm going to ingest sugar into my body, it should be something really special and meaningful, artisanal,” she says. “The artistic part for me is just me bringing out the wonder of this thing.”

Edari’s award-winning desserts highlight the creative possibilities of chocolate making. She says that while it might sound cliché, we do eat with our eyes, and her distinctive flavors delight the senses. From decadent bonbons to rich, delicate cakes, each confection in her Madison shop is as elegant as a Renoir, as unexpected as a Dali, and crafted with the passion of a Pollack.

The story of Edari’s journey is as unique as the chocolates she painstakingly creates. While she has always loved cooking desserts, Edari didn’t envision becoming a chocolatier. First, she was a lawyer.

“I've always been involved in social justice issues, it’s kind of part of our family tradition,” she says. “So I became a public defender right out of law school.”

Low pay and high-stress cases compelled her to look for an outlet. For Edari, who was also a single mom at the time, that outlet was dessert. As her career progressed, so did her passion for chocolate making. Pretty soon, she was bringing her creations to work.

“I would pack my briefcase full of chocolate that I would make, and I'd go to court when I had cases in Milwaukee,” she remembers. “Sometimes judges would stop, take a recess so everybody could buy chocolate. It was like a briefcase pop-up shop.”

As demand for her chocolates grew, so did her business. From briefcase bonbons to training in France to opening her first storefront in 2018, Edari has invested thousands of dollars and countless hours into her art.

While the art of chocolate making calms Edari, the business side has proved to be chaotic. Managing both the business and creative sides of CocoVaa is challenging, leading her to work late into the night.

“That’s the only time where I just have peace,” she says. “Everybody's sleeping. The world is still. There's no pressure to check my emails or send out invoices or reminders to pay their invoice. The business side of things is asleep.”

Because chocolate making requires long stretches of uninterrupted time, her store is only open a few days a week so that Edari can focus on creating her art.

Edari has big plans to ease some of that stress so she can focus more energy on chocolate making. Right now, she’s managing the construction of a brand-new facility that will give her space to hire and train more staff. She hopes to inspire new chocolatiers to fall in love with fine chocolate making and promoting the industry’s growth.

“We want to see the industry rise up,” she says.

Edari’s background influences her unique flavor profiles and designs. Whether it’s her award-winning Persian saffron chocolate inspired by her stepfather’s saffron chicken-and-rice recipe or the Russian chocolate her mother would bring back from the former Soviet Union, her flavors tell personal stories.

“It could literally be anything, from a feeling I have about something to a color that I see that moves me in a certain moment,” she says. “It could be just a memory of something.”

Edari says she can capture full desserts in a single piece of chocolate. She can even create everyday items: she designs high-heeled shoes and playful origami animals, and each winter, she produces chocolate Nutcracker bars in collaboration with the ballet.

“Every year, I do something a little new,” Edari says.

Despite challenges, Edari remains dedicated to her craft and will continue creating unique desserts for her customers, because she believes everyone deserves moments of joy.

“I think the biggest payoff is the gratitude of your customers.”

CocoVaa will remain at 815 E. Washington Ave until Christmas, with plans to close there and open a new site on the west side of Madison by mid to late January.