How Journey Shannon Inspires Joy With Her Chocolates and Pastries
Journey Shannon at her shop photo courtesy of Journey Shannon
Journey Shannon of Noir d’Ebene became a chocolatier thanks to the power of “yes.” After having success selling cookies to her classmates in junior college, she asked a local cafe, Unicorn Cafe, to carry her cookies. And they agreed. “The first place I went to they said yes. If they had said no, I’d probably be doing something else,” she said.
That would be the pivotal moment that began Shannon’s 26-year-plus journey into the culinary world and eventually, she’d open her own chocolate shop in Evanston, Illinois in 2020.
Chance Meetings in Hawai’i
Vegan Kosher Chocolate Bar photo courtesy of Journey Shannon
After her initial success, she’d later go to Illinois Institute of Art and the French Pastry School.
But thanks to a chance meeting in Hawai’i that changed her future when she learned that she could make chocolate.
She was hanging out with friends when she encountered Madre Chocolate, a bean-to-bar chocolatier in O'ahu, Hawai'i, at a farmer’s market. Shannon recalled, “They were kind and generous enough to say ‘Hey, if you want to learn, come on.’”
Later Shannon also met folks at Manoa Chocolates, another bean-to-bar Hawaiian chocolatier run by Dylan Butterbaugh, who also opened her eyes to the possibilities in chocolate. “In culinary school, they don't teach you that you can make chocolate. They teach you how to work with chocolate but they never said ‘If you want to do this, you too can make chocolate.’ You too can be Willy Wonka,” Shannon explained.
At Manoa, everything was very hands on when she was there. “They had a setup where they had the pedals have a bike connected to a table that you would ride to grind the beans, turn them into a paste,” she recalled. Since then, the Manoa operation has expanded, but that experience in manually making chocolate from the beans, gave Shannon the education that culinary school didn’t.
She concluded: “I think if it would have been something else, I wouldn't be making chocolate now. But they made it seem accessible, like when you're in your grandmother's kitchen or your mother's kitchen.”
A Dream Realized
Journey Shannon making chocolate photo courtesy of Journey Shannon
Shannon held on to the dream of opening her own pastry and chocolate shop for 26 years. And that dream became reality in November 2020. The name Noir d’Ebene translates to “Black of Black” or “Black of Night” and is a nod to her Creole family roots in Louisiana.
Shannon makes her chocolates and pastry goods from scratch with single-origin, fair trade cacao beans from all over the world; right now she explains that she’s been focusing on cocoa beans from Peru, Nicaragua and Cameroon. She also notes that she sends back samples of her work to the farms so “they can experience for themselves the fruits of their labors,” she said on her website.
But she loves playing with a variety of flavors and cocoa beans. “I have some beans that I work with out of India and they tasted like raisins,” she said, “I like being able to experiment and expose the customer to something new.”
Bar photo courtesy of Journey Shannon
Sometimes she’ll incorporate scorpion peppers into her chocolates; now the store carries the peppers (though at the time of writing, the store is sold out), and honey. “I make whatever I feel. Some of the chocolates have spices to them, but not always,” she said.
Of course, having her own chocolate shop hasn’t been easy and the learning continues. Since she opened in 2020, “I learned just because you were there does not mean [the customers are] going to come,” she said, it’s a daily call to action to have something to bring customers in. There are good days and there are bad days, which hurt. But Shannon said, “Be loving, be patient to yourself and to your customers.”
On Chocolate & Happiness
Chocolate Discs photo courtesy of Journey Shannon
The top seller in her shop is what she calls a deconstructed peanut butter cup. It’s made with a “thin disc of chocolate with peanut butter filling and graham cracker,” described Shannon. If she has time, she’ll put caramelized peanuts and pecans on top. Another popular seller is a chocolate cake that is light and fluffy. The most unique creation, Shannon said, is the chocolate bar with goat’s milk. It’s not something that people commonly see.
Brownies photo courtesy of Journey Shannon
Other baked goods include chocolate chip cookies with bourbon, coconut macaroons with chocolate shavings, vegan pralines, and dulce de leche brownies.
Ultimately, Shannon sees her role as the “inspirer of happiness.” Making chocolate is important because “it makes you feel good on a bad day or better on a beautiful day. So that's why it's important, because it's gonna end up making you feel alive and special.” Her desire to bring joy is etched into the chocolate bars themselves with words like “Love” and “Joy.”
On top of that, she believes in the importance of bringing together chocolate and music. “I like things that connect us. We all want to feel special. We all want to believe that we're that different. We're not that different. We all have the same desires and needs. It doesn't mean we're not special but we all want the same thing,” she explained.
Shannon concluded: “I love what I do. I love people. I believe that we can be greater than we are as individuals and as a society. It just starts with someone saying today I choose to be happy. And I choose to be happy. I feel like I can add to that because pastries and chocolate inspire pleasure and happiness.”