In 2014, the sisters took the leap and opened their own storefront and cafe in San Francisco. “We were online in 2003."Īfter UC Davis, now an adult with her own money, Wendy started going to pastry school at night, while still working her day job as a management consultant. And then we would make chocolates and then ship them out,” Susan said. But during the holidays, they continued their side business. Susan went to Harvard and majored in social studies. So she went to University of California, Davis, and got a degree in managerial economics. “My dad told me if I went to a pastry school after high school, he would not support me,” Wendy said.
But when Wendy wanted to make candy full time, her father balked. The two started giving the chocolates away to friends and family, and then graduated to selling them at the nail salon and at the local farmer’s market.
Their first custom flavor: Vietnamese coffee, which they still sell today.
And the fat would rise to the top.” But soon, the siblings perfected how to temper chocolate and how to make their own flavored truffles. “We used a microwave to melt the chocolate. “We didn't know how to temper chocolate,” said Susan. Socola opened its brick-and-mortar store in 2014, but the Lieu sisters have been making chocolate and selling it since they were teenagers.
“I can incorporate all the flavors that we grew up with and celebrate our heritage.” “Why make dark chocolate caramel when you can make Vietnamese coffee, Sriracha and passionfruit?” said Wendy, whose parents immigrated to America from Vietnam. It’s a ganache infused with pho spices (star anise, black cardamom, fennel, black peppercorn, coriander, cloves, cinnamon) and encased in dark chocolate. Recently, she created a chocolate she called, cheekily, “pho #1,” a tribute to the Vietnamese tradition of putting numbers in restaurant names. And just because the store is shut down doesn’t mean Wendy is done creating new flavors. But there’s also some atypical truffles too, like durian or Sriracha. Yes, there’s the requisite caramel and bourbon-infused truffles. Since its inception, Socola (“sô cô la" is the Vietnamese term for chocolate) has set itself apart by offering flavors not normally seen at your typical candy store. The initial batch of chocolate mooncakes sold out in less than a week.
The sisters have seen their online sales increase by 60 percent during the pandemic. “Right now, it’s just like, throw everything against the wall and see what works,” said Lieu’s sister, Susan. For instance, in addition to creating bold, new chocolate flavors, Socola has pivoted to offering online chocolate classes. And even though the double hit of the pandemic and wildfires has kept their San Francisco storefront closed, Socola is still surviving, thanks to its flexibility and inherent creativity. It’s commemorated by Chinese and Vietnamese communities, during which families and friends gather for the harvest season.Īmid the pandemic, Lieu is selling her version of mooncakes online through Socola, the chocolate company that she co-founded with her sister. Eating the holiday goods and celebrating looks a little bit different for this year’s festival, also known as the Moon or Mooncake Festival, which is rooted in the legend of a moon goddess.