Nov 10, 2008

Sweet StartBy Nadra KareemSFVBJ.com

Why would someone who’s allergic to chocolate start a chocolate company? For Mike Ashamalla, owner of Tifa Chocolate & Gelato in Agoura Hills, it’s because chocolate seems more like a delicacy than a sweet to be consumed mindlessly.

“If I eat too much, I break out in hives. I tolerate it in small amounts,” Ashamalla said of his chocolate allergy. Due to his ailment, Ashamalla said that he savors the exotic chocolates sold at Tifa as they should be.

The chocolate shop and wholesaler on Kanan Road specializes in rare chocolates from countries around the world, including Russia, Madagascar and Belgium. Recently, Tifa began selling drinking chocolate, a popular treat in Europe with origins in the ancient Mayan and Aztec civilizations. Rather than standard chocolate in which cocoa beans are ground into a powder, drinking chocolate involves baking chocolate until it melts. At Tifa, up to 20 spices may be added during the process.

Much of the chocolate Tifa features is dark chocolate, which is all the rage in the Eastern U.S. as well as in Europe, according to Ashamalla. Thanks to reports about the amount of antioxidants found in dark chocolate, the treat is beginning to catch on in the Western U.S. as well, Ashamalla said.

Agoura Hills resident Brian Lee enjoys Tifa precisely because he is a dark chocolate fan. “I guess you could call me a foodie,” Lee said. “Chocolate is always fun.”

Lee has been a patron of Tifa since it expanded from being an online business last year to being a kiosk in Topanga Mall. Since April it has been in its present location in Agoura Hills.

“Agoura needs more places like this,” Lee said. “Everything there, no matter what, explodes in flavor.”

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