How Oso Cacao Turned Tradition Into a Modern CPG Brand

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When you taste a chocolate bar from Oso Cacao, you’re not just tasting chocolate, you’re tasting culture, tradition, and a founder’s deeply personal connection to his Mexican roots. 🇲🇽 

Rigoberto Flores, the creator behind Oso Cacao, shares how his upbringing, culinary background, and family stories led him to build one of the most unique emerging chocolate brands today.

Rigoberto is a classically trained chocolatier and pastry chef, based in NYC. Rigoberto grew up as a first-generation Mexican American, balancing two cultures and two languages.

Oso Cacao is a hand-crafted chocolate brand inspired by his childhood. Oso Cacao begins with the tradition of Mexican-style chocolate-making passed down by Rigoberto’s mother.

“I use my culinary and personal background experiences to create the flavors for Oso Cacao. I went to culinary school, and just had a passion for chocolate,” Rigoberto says. “I didn't really know what direction I wanted to go in with chocolate after graduating from culinary school. I then noticed a strong interest in quality bean-to-bar and dairy-free products. At that time, I was just experimenting, making my own chocolate.”

Family Influence and Chocolate Memories

Chocolate is tied to Rigoberto’s childhood memories, especially with his mother, who loved chocolate but had trouble finding options in the U.S. that matched the flavors she grew up with in Mexico.

“My mom really loved chocolate,” Rigoberto says. “She had a difficult time finding something that resonated with her or felt familiar. She would share stories about when she was young and how they would make chocolate, from bean to bar, with a molcajete and doing it all by hand.”

Rigoberto recounts stories of his mother and aunts making chocolate by hand, using cacao beans, cracking them open, removing the husks, and grinding them into chocolate.

The contrast between handmade tradition and today’s machines is still labor-intensive, but very different from the past. These family stories inspired Rigoberto to put his own modern interpretation on a deeply cultural craft.

Launching Oso Cacao

Oso Cacao launched about three years ago. Rigoberto started small by making chocolate for friends and family to gather feedback. Eventually, he moved into an incubator kitchen, which helped him network, scale, and gain access to more opportunities.

From there, Oso Cacoa launched pop-ups and in-person events, then launched DTC, and, within the past year, expanded into wholesale and retailers. Oso Cacao is now Rigoberto’s full-time focus, a transition he describes as both exciting and scary.

🍫 Oso Cacao works directly with small Mexican farms to bring the best quality chocolate to its consumers.

“All the cacao used for chocolates is sourced from Mexico, from the southern region,” Rigoberto explains. “I work directly with small farms and co-ops, and I'm just trying to highlight the cacao they grow. I’m trying to showcase the deep-rooted connection that Mexico has with cacao.”

“I want to show the connection between Mexico and chocolate, and help U.S. consumers realize that gourmet chocolate doesn't always have to come from Eurocentric brands.”

Rigoberto brings in unique flavors like sweet potato and amaranth, cocoa-nib-infused Mezcal, and mango-chili-lime.

Difficulties in Growing a CPG Brand

Currently, retail makes up about 30–35% of Oso Cacao’s sales. While the majority still comes from in-person events, wholesale and retailers are steadily growing as part of the business.

The most significant early challenge was moving beyond the friends-and-family audience. “The hardest part was developing multiple personas of the clientele,” Rigoberto explains. “Not everyone is going to understand the product.”

Rigoberto relies heavily on in-person events and continued business education to refine those personas, learn who engages with the brand, and understand which markets and events are worth the effort.

“It’s important to know when to step back, reassess, and redirect. As a startup, you want to do everything, but sometimes it’s time to move on and focus resources on areas that actually grow the brand.”

Advice for Emerging CPG Founders

Rigoberto stresses the importance of tapping into any free resources available to entrepreneurs and founders, including organizations, educational programs, and community networks designed to help small businesses thrive.

“Using these resources as a stepping stone, you never know who you're going to meet that could help your brand go to the next level,” Rigoberto says.

Rigoberto credits these resources for helping him grow Oso Cacao.

A Modern CPG Brand Built on Tradition

Oso Cacao’s story is proof that a brand’s strongest differentiator is its authenticity. This isn’t just chocolate made in a kitchen, it’s chocolate shaped by lineage, storytelling, and the evolution of a craft practiced for generations.

For Rigoberto, it’s simple, “I’ve just made it my own and put my own twist on it.”

Check out Oso Cacao at a market near you in NYC, or shop online. 🍫 

Brand Inspo from Mexican water brand Aguas de Lourdes 🚰 

Agua de Lourdes is a sparkling water brand based in Mexico. Their creative campaign from September is a standout campaign in adapting a beloved game (Lotería) into a campaign for their water and merch.

Could be a great source of inspo for brands looking to tap into a beloved, nostalgic piece of Mexican tradition.

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We’re back next week with an interview with the founders of Cassavida, a Bolivian 🇧🇴 snack brand, for insights on building a business with deep ties to Bolivia, how they launched in Sprouts, and their overall mission.