Two Sisters' Love Letter to Vietnam in Chocolate

Can chocolate truffles unlock cultural memories? Sisters Wendy and Susan Lieu, started dabbling in chocolate when they were just teenagers and in 2014, they opened Socola Chocolatier in San Francisco, named after the Vietnamese word for chocolate. Wendy is the chocolatier, while Susan oversees marketing and promotion. Their fine chocolates feature a range of fruits and nuts that flavor their caramels, truffles, and bars. But they recently realized they want to focus on creating products that reflect more of the iconic flavors of their own culture.

Wendy’s latest chocolate creations honor their family's Vietnamese heritage. As an Asian woman chocolatier without a role model, she has always forged her own path. Many of her truffles already incorporated flavors such as matcha tea, coconut, and black sesame. But during the pandemic, when Socola had to rely solely on mail order, she came up with a new idea, a chocolate translation of a "four-course Vietnamese meal” called Little Saigon Box, which has struck a deep chord. She describes the ersatz meal’s progression through truffles, “Start with a fresh brew of Jasmine Tea and Vietnamese Coffee. Slurp with our savory Phở and a side of Sriracha. Break open fresh cut Durian, Passion Fruit, Guava, and Lychee. And then call it a day with Cognac.”

We spoke with Wendy Lieu to learn more about her background in chocolate and how the Little Saigon Box came to be.

How did you get started making chocolate?

Growing up in Santa Rosa, California, every day after school, my sister and I would go to the nail salon my parents owned. It was right across from a See’s Candies Store in the mall. We would each have a chocolate every single day because you walk up to the counter, and you get a free chocolate. I thought it was way too sweet, but I would still eat it because it was free. I saw their drawers full of all these chocolates and I was curious how they made them. I found a recipe for mocha truffles in Gourmet magazine when I was 19. And I realized it didn’t need to be so sweet. So, I tried to figure out how to make something that had flavors I never saw before. And then we sold the chocolates outside my parents’ salon.

Mid Autumn Utimate Moon sharing set — Mid Autumn Ultimate Moon sharing set photo courtesy of Socola Chocolatier

Did you always incorporate flavors from Vietnamese cuisine in chocolate?

Actually no. This is our 21st year in chocolate and in the beginning, I thought that by being broader, we could get a bigger audience of people interested in buying our chocolates, but then we narrowed it down, first doing Asian-inspired flavors, and were one of a few.

Now we are making chocolates inspired by the diverse flavors of Vietnam and the Vietnamese American experience. For example, I drink a lot of Guinness beer and we are one of maybe one or two makers of Guinness flavored truffles. For the Mid-Autumn Festival this year, we made a chocolate version of traditional mooncakes that have a lotus seed filling and a little salted egg yolk in the middle. We also did a Mid-Autumn collection which included truffles flavored with soursop, Sông Cái Floral Gin, and a mango pâte de fruit chocolate that incorporated fish sauce.

What have been the most challenging flavors to master?

That was durian. No one else was doing durian chocolate, so there was no recipe for it. I had to focus on the texture of the ingredient; it can’t have too much water. I wanted to look for a recipe with a similar flavor, just to start with. And the similar ingredient I found was crème fraiche. If you whip up durian really fine and aerate it can achieve that texture. So, I went off that recipe, but it took a long time. (Editor’s note: there are a few other durian chocolate bars, but it remains a pretty rare inclusion)

Another challenge was the phở flavored chocolate. The question was about the 7 spices in the classic broth (star anise, black cardamom, fennel, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, and black peppercorn). How do you create the right spice ratio, so it tastes just like it? And how do you naturally infuse the chocolate without using any oils or extracts? We wanted it to be clean, true flavor. So, we use dried spices.

Socola Little Saigon Box courtesy of Socola Chocolatier

How has the Little Saigon Box been received by customers during the pandemic?

We were just doing mail orders and people often ordered The Little Saigon Box to send to family members. Then an amazing thing happened. Older relatives would taste these chocolates, which would suddenly remind them of the flavors of their childhoods back in Viet Nam. This, in turn, would spur family conversations about the past that had never occurred before.

Food can have an amazing power to unleash memory. It really opened up conversations with people to talk about Saigon back in the day. I got a number of messages saying, 'I am really able to connect with my family over this box of chocolates!' and 'I never thought I would see a truffle with phở, sriracha or durian. You made it for ME!' When we conceived of our Little Saigon Box, we had no idea how immense the response would be. This is one of our bestsellers, and it means so much to us because it's basically a love note to our homeland. The pandemic made us stop and refocus on what matters, and what’s meaningful to us. And this is what I want to create. The feedback has been amazing. It’s like respect in a box.