Chocolate Shops We Love: Chocolat Uzma

Chocolate with Southeast Asian Flavors

Uzma Sharif has been bringing the flavors of Pakistan and the rest of Southeast Asia to the world of chocolate at her shop Chocolat Uzma in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen since 2012.

Sharif didn’t expect to go into the food business even if her grandfather and his 7 daughters were pastry chefs and bakers. But she started to get a taste for the professional cooking world when she started working in a kitchen at the age of 18 for a friend’s catering company. She seemed to have a knack for it and decided on a few stops and starts, she decided to attend culinary school after spending time in Colorado.

When she came back to Chicago, she studied at the French Pastry School and eventually found herself working as a pastry chef for former Wolfgang Puck at the Museum of Contemporary Art. “It was there when I started experimenting, because I think every chef wants their own space,” Sharif says, but “we don't know the business aspect, which is I think [that is where] we make a lot of mistakes.” She wanted to create products, “infusing my colorful culture and things that are staples in my pantry into chocolate and pastries.” She wanted to carve out a niche for herself.

That niche became chocolate. Depending on the product, she’ll use chocolate brands like Valrhona, Weiss, and some Cacao Barry. She tries to stick to fair trade chocolates that are high quality. Then she’ll add flavors from Southeast Asia; some familiar while others less so. 

She introduces flavors to non-Southeast Asian audiences as well as serves the South Asian market that she feels no one is targeting. Sharif explains, “We grew up with certain things in our home and sometimes we get a little nostalgic. We miss it and we want to try something that has those flavors because those really flavors are very bold and fascinating.”

For instance, people may be familiar with cumin in savory dishes, but she added cumin to chocolate and it “opens up a new flavor,” she says. Or make caramels infused with black salt from the Himalayas that has “a very distinct type of sulfur type of flavor. It’s amazing. We eat it with eggs. It’s our salt.” 

When considering new flavor combinations, she thinks about herbs, spice, florals, and figures out what might be good to complement them. She recently combined cumin and honey as well as a yogurt and pomegranate chocolate, noting that yogurt is a staple condiment in Pakistani dishes.

The Store

At the current location you’ll find baked goods like cookies, brownies, and sipping chocolate in addition to chocolates. However, she’s had to pivot a bit because of the pandemic, so Chocolat Uzma is projected to be moving to a larger production kitchen at the end of 2022. As for a new retail location, Sharif is currently in talks to open a retail space close to her current location. Despite the changes in location, her chocolates are available online to ship.

Top Selling Confections

Signature Bon Bons and Truffles

Sharif said that the bonbons and truffles are the most popular items they carry. “We can kind of be more creative with those profiles.” Typically there’s about 16 different flavors with a variety of ingredients traditional to Pakistan and the US. Right now, there’s the Kala Namak, which is the black salt caramel; Dahi, the pomegranate and yogurt; and Khajoor, Kashmiri Chai, Earl Gray tea and cardamom, as well as Latte, made with Italian coffee.

She also does seasonal boxes for major holidays; right now there’s an autumn box filled with fall flavors like caramel apple, pumpkin spice, cinnamon and salted peanut butter.

Sipping Chocolate

Just like the signature bonbons, Chocolat Uzma has a variety of sipping chocolate flavors, using dark Belgium chocolates and single Origin chocolates from Mexico. The chocolate is sold in tins and is dairy free. There’s regular and Kashmiri chili, which has a kick to it. There’s also seasonal sipping chocolates such as pumpkin spice for the fall.

Chocolate Bars

They are working on launching ten flavors that they are experimenting with. Right now there’s a “Coffee and Cardamom” bar with dark chocolate, local coffee and cardamom. Another one is a Madagascar 64% bar that is single origin chocolate. Sharif also mentioned the Medjool Date bar that has dark chocolate, medjool dates from a family-owned Arizona farm, and salt. She said that medjool dates are commonly eaten in Pakistan, generally as well as during Ramadan.

Also Look For

Chocolat Uzma also offers Himalayan Turtles that include black salt caramel, Texas pecans, with a choice of dark or milk chocolate. She said that while they are very time intensive to make, they fly off the shelves quickly.