Chocolate Tofino Shares the Local Love in the West Coast Surf Town and Beyond

It was a big learning curve for Cam and Kim Shaw to become chocolatiers after working in graphic design and marketing, respectively. In 2010, the couple uprooted from Saskatchewan and moved to the West Coast, taking over Chocolate Tofino that same year. The coastal surf town has become a more popular destination in the last 15 years—and so has Chocolate Tofino.

Still, the Shaws are committed to making everything in-house, by hand—whether it’s juicing berries, churning ice cream, making chocolate, baking waffle cones or pouring out slabs of caramel. Here are some of their Tofino favourites and what inspires their work.

Tell me a bit about your business philosophy. What guides you day-to-day?

Cam: We always tell our staff that we’re so much more than chocolate and ice cream. We’re also creating experiences for our guests as well as for our staff. A lot of our staff are young, so we really put a lot of time and effort into helping them grow and figure out this transitional time in their lives. I always feel like our team is very tight, and that’s the same energy we put towards guests that come in.

Kim: When I train new people, and we talk about the culture of the shop, I emphasize that kindness and generosity are really important to us. It’s ok if you have to give away some chocolates or some ice cream to make something right, or if it’s somebody’s birthday or anniversary, or someone’s having a really hard day. We always joke with our staff that we’re never going to go bankrupt over giving away a chocolate or an ice cream cone.

What would you say is the coolest part of your job?

Cam: The coolest part of our job is being able to share new experiences with people that they haven’t had before. That’s everything from a child coming in and having their first ice cream cone—which happens a lot, and that’s pretty special—to sourcing chocolates from rare and unusual sources around the world and then introducing people to them.

Everybody has had store-bought ice cream. Everybody has had gas station chocolate. But not everybody has had fresh, handmade products. As that becomes more available, I think we’re still at the cutting edge of introducing people to what chocolate could be if it were made fresh, and what ice cream is like when it’s made with great ingredients.

What is your favourite gelato flavour that you make?

Kim: My favourite gelato flavour is the white chocolate raspberry. We juice all the raspberries in-house, but we strain the seeds out with cheesecloth, so you just get the good part of the raspberry and none of the seeds. My second favourite would be the lavender honey, just because it’s something I’ve never had anywhere else that’s quite so good. We use lavender florets from Happy Valley Lavender Farms just outside of Victoria, and we also use Babe’s Honey, local to Vancouver Island.

Cam: My favourite is probably Stracciatella. It’s sweet cream and dark chocolate. I put a lot of extra love and thought into preparing that one. I chose one of my favourite dark chocolates, a single origin from Colombia, and it’s really special. We’re chocolatiers, but we’re also gelato makers. So, for me, that flavour really marries those two worlds. My second-favourite flavour is the Midnight Marauder—it’s the most serious chocolate ice cream you’ll ever have in your life.

Are there specific chocolate flavours or products that you would recommend people try from your shop?

Cam: We’ve been doing some bean-to-bar chocolate bars recently. That involves sourcing the beans, roasting them, cracking them and then grinding them and making chocolate from scratch. We’ve had a lot of success with that. It’s pretty special.

Kim: I love all the filled little chocolates and truffles. My favourite one is the blackberry buttercream. (Obviously, I am really into fruit flavours.) The blackberries are largely picked from right around the area here by a local First Nations family, which is really cool. Our salted caramels are also really, really addictive.

Do you have a favourite local restaurant where you like to dine out?

Kim: My treat restaurant, so for a birthday or anniversary, I go to the Schooner. I think it’s one of the oldest restaurants in Tofino. They’re like a steak and seafood place, but they have this cedar plank salmon that just melts in your mouth.

Cam: They do things that you already know—except a thousand times better than you’ve ever had it before. I think that’s what really makes them shine. Their steak menu is unbelievable.

Do you have a favourite beach in Tofino?

Cam: We really appreciate Long Beach. We roll up in our VW van and pop the top. When you park an Incinerator Rock, you can see the waves right from the van, and you make a day of it. You literally just hang out in the parking lot, on the beach, go for a surf or read a book. It’s pretty amazing down there.

How about a favourite coffee shop or cafe?

Kim: Well, ironically, neither of us actually drinks coffee. In our same building, there’s a coffee shop called the Tofitian—our building is the Yin and Yang of coffee and ice cream. So I’ll often pop around there and get a London fog in the morning if I need a little pick-me-up.

But if you want locally roasted beans, we use beans from Rhino Coffee House. And they also do donuts, which is a big plus.

If you’re shopping to buy somebody a gift, do you have a shop you like to go to or even maybe a local brand?

Kim: One of my go-tos is called The Factory. And there are three different makers. So one of them is Lisa Fletcher Jewellery, and she is a woman-owned, metalworker/jewellery-maker. She does all kinds of beautiful gold and silver jewellery. And then there’s also Market Leather and Kyler Vos Photography. That’s all in one place, called The Factory, which is a really cute little store.

I would also love to shout out Habit Clothing. It’s a woman-owned business with really cute clothing. It’s dangerous to go in there.

Cam: I really support the surf shops locally. I don’t have a favourite one, they’re all favourites for me.

What about someplace for surf items or beach brands?

Kim: There is a surf shop in our parking lot called Live to Surf, and they always have a really great selection of beach towels, beachwear and cute bags and stuff like that.

I’d also shout out Surf Sister, another woman-owned, local business. They do surf lessons, but they also have cute swimsuits, wetsuits and cover-ups. They also do lessons that are all taught by women, which is cool. I took my first surf lesson from them.

Any other places you’d like to mention?

Cam: I think one of the best experiences in Tofino is a scenic flight with Atleo Air. They’ve got a helicopter and a couple of float planes. On a sunny day, there is no money you could spend better than going on a scenic flight. It gives you an appreciation of the mountains, the beaches and the remoteness of the community. You often see whales from the air, and you can see the glaciers and the mountains. It’s a beautiful experience. That’s something that most people miss, but it’s definitely a highlight of Tofino.