Yoga teacher trainer, aromatherapist, pro cyclist, inline skater, spa director, business coach, songwriter and raw foods chef — Debbie Williamson has had many careers but none have brought her as much joy as her current one: chocolate maker. She is the owner and founder of Wild Kauai Chocolate, which opened in Kapaa last May.

Williamson traces her fascination with chocolate making to a friend, Daniel Aaron, who lived in Bali for many years. “Daniel never enters a room without a tin of his homemade chocolate — some of the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted,” Williamson said. “I saw him several times a year from 2009 to 2014 when I was leading yoga retreats in Bali, and I started asking him more and more questions about chocolate making.”

Enthralled by his answers, she began to read everything she could about the process, the health benefits of chocolate and how to flavor it. She took online classes and attended workshops and met chocolate makers across the country to learn as much as she could.

What began as a hobby led to a full-time business with education as its mission. “I love eating chocolate, but even more than that, I love sharing the alchemy of making chocolate with others,” said Williamson, who’s now a certified chocolate maker.

“I knew the time was right for a life and career change when I realized chocolate making was part of all of my conversations. It’s a science as well as an art. It takes time and effort to make chocolate, and once people find out about that, it gives them a much greater appreciation for it.”

Even before launching Wild Kauai Chocolate, Williamson had forged a strong connection with Kauai. She and her husband, Mark Willliamson, had honeymooned there in 1990 and drawn to the island’s beauty, serenity and low-key vibe, they had visited many times subsequently.

The couple moved to Kauai from Kohler, Wis., in 2015, and started Wild Kauai Chocolate two years later, with partner Kellie Lin Knott, another certified chocolate maker. The company sources organic dried and fermented cacao beans from Bali and Ecuador.

Hawaii is the only state with the right climate to grow cacao, and while cultivation is increasing, it’s still a young industry. Cacao trees take three to six years to mature and can be finicky to grow. For now, Kauai’s cacao farmers are using their relatively small harvests for their own purposes.

“There’s tremendous potential for Hawaii’s cacao industry to grow,” Williamson said. “We’re excited about supporting that and hope to eventually get all of our cacao from local sources.”

Every day, Williamson and Knott are busy with some aspect of chocolate making in their cozy 270-square-foot shop. The labor-intensive process begins with sorting and roasting cacao beans, cracking them, removing the husks and grinding the nibs with organic sugar to form a paste.

After aging for three weeks to allow the tannins and flavors to mature (much like wine), the chocolate is melted, tempered and molded into bars. From start to finish, the process takes a month, but students in Wild Kauai Chocolate’s hands-on Build a Bar Workshop learn every step in about two hours.

The trickiest part is tempering, which involves heating and cooling the liquid chocolate to specific temperature points — 118, 90 and 84 degrees. This creates even crystallization, which gives the chocolate its sheen, snap, smooth texture and longer shelf life and makes it less likely to melt quickly.

Participants then flavor their bar with combinations of some 40 fruits, herbs, spices, essential oils and dry ingredients. Options include garlic, Chex mix, smoked paprika, graham crackers, crushed candy canes and sea salt potato chips.

Most people select at least two add-ins for their “signature bar.” Some ask if they can bring their own ingredients; for example, crispy bacon was a winner for one participant’s bar. There’s enough chocolate left for a few extra bars that the group flavors and tastes together at the end of the workshop.

“Our main product is not the chocolate itself but education,” Williamson said. “Chocolate making requires focus, patience and precision — and it’s fun! Guests bond because every step requires teamwork.

“They attend the class to learn, taste, compare different types of chocolate, develop new skills and have a great time while making something delicious from scratch themselves. That’s why Wild Kauai Chocolate’s tagline is ‘It’s not just chocolate, it’s an experience.’”

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.