Chef David Saidat, owner of CocoBon Chocolatier in Anderson and Simpsonville, makes only chocolate he loves. At 500 pieces per day, he’s on track to love as many as 140,000 pieces this year. “Since I make all of them, I love ‘em all,” he says. “That being said, there are some that I like to make better than others.”
It all comes down to the difference between the chocolates and truffles displayed in the stores’ confection cases. While hand-dipped chocolates have a hard coating and non-chocolate filling, truffles have both a chocolate coating and filling. To Saidat, however, the difference is a bit more complicated. Truffles require more steps because there are many different ways to decorate them, while chocolates have fewer steps but are hand-dipped and hand-processed.
“Truffles are cast in molds and more like mass production,” Saidat says. “We love our truffles and put the love into them but at a different level. Hand-dipped handmade pieces require me to be in the zone.” Being in that zone, Saidat feels most productive, with the ultimate satisfaction coming from the customer’s reaction. “What drives me is hearing ‘that’s incredible’ when a customer tastes that piece of chocolate,” he says. “I put my love into that piece.”
His love for chocolate as a customer eventually led to his role as a chocolatier and business owner, a journey that began when his favorite hometown chocolate shop closed. Originally from Chicago, he and his wife started their relocation south by way of Washington, DC, in 2000 and then to Anderson in 2004 to be near his wife’s parents in Atlanta before their passing.
An IT professional, Saidat says he likes to pick up hobbies, some of which stick. He started experimenting with making chocolate at home because he couldn’t get his favorites in a store anymore. “Since I had spent a great deal of time on the Internet, it seemed like the Internet was a great place to get info,” he says.
Through YouTube tutorials, trial and error, and an Internet-based course, Saidat’s skills developed. By 2006, people who tasted his creations told him, “You should do this as a business.” So he did, launching a web-based business in 2007, distributing nationwide by 2014, and opening his Anderson store in a historical building in December of 2015.
The second CocoBon Chocolatier opened in Simpsonville in November of 2021 with the help of small business COVID relief funds. Saidat’s children and grandchildren have also joined the family business as it has grown. “We enjoy doing what we do, and it’s become ingrained in our family,” Saidat says. Today, the family offers more than fifty daily flavors of chocolates and truffles to their customers.
CocoBon
111 N Main St, Anderson; (864) 332-1560
105 SE Main St, Simpsonville; (864) 757-9024
cocobonchocolatier.com
Photos by Jack Robert Photography.
