Andrea & Cindy Pedraza

2111 South Edgefield Ave, Dallas, TX
214-941-3030
info@cocoandre.com
Visit CocoAndré Chocolatier & Horchatería

Building a Chocolate Business Around Culture and Community

For Andrea Pedraza and her daughter Cindy Pedraza, chocolate is inseparable from family, culture and community. Together, they have built CocoAndré Chocolatier & Horchatería into a distinctive Dallas chocolate business where European confectionery techniques meet flavours and traditions rooted in their Mexican heritage.

Andrea brought decades of professional chocolate experience to the venture. After spending approximately 25 years working in the industry, including as a head chocolatier and production manager, she joined forces with Cindy to establish CocoAndré in 2009. What emerged was more than another artisan chocolate shop: it became an expression of their Mexican-American identity and a celebration of cacao’s deep cultural roots.

A Mother-Daughter Partnership

CocoAndré began during a difficult period for the Pedraza family. When Andrea lost her longtime position in the chocolate industry, she considered leaving chocolate altogether. Cindy saw another possibility.

Mother and daughter combined Andrea’s confectionery experience with Cindy’s creative and entrepreneurial perspective, opening CocoAndré in Dallas’s Oak Cliff neighbourhood. The partnership allowed Andrea to continue practising a craft she had spent decades developing while giving the family an opportunity to build something of its own.

Their complementary roles became part of the company’s identity. Andrea brought extensive knowledge of chocolate production, while Cindy helped shape the brand, customer experience and cultural storytelling surrounding it.

Chocolate Through a Mexican-American Lens

CocoAndré’s approach reflects the Pedraza family’s Mexican heritage without treating tradition as something fixed in the past.

Chocolate truffles and confections sit alongside Mexican-inspired drinks, horchata and other creations influenced by flavours familiar to the family. The result connects contemporary artisan chocolate with the much older relationship between Mexico and cacao.

That connection gives CocoAndré a perspective that differs from many American chocolate boutiques. Instead of borrowing Mexican flavours simply as novelty ingredients, the Pedraza family approaches them as part of its own culinary and cultural history.

Creating a Gathering Place in Oak Cliff

Community has become as important to CocoAndré as the chocolates themselves. Its Oak Cliff roots have helped transform the business from a confectionery shop into a neighbourhood destination where chocolate, drinks, culture and conversation come together.

That story enters another chapter in September 2026. CocoAndré is opening a new approximately 5,000-square-foot location in Oak Cliff, with a grand opening scheduled for September 26, 2026. The larger space represents significant growth for a company that began as a small family business 17 years earlier.

Expansion also gives the Pedraza family more room to develop the experiential side of CocoAndré while keeping its production and cultural identity connected to the Dallas community.

A Different American Chocolate Story

Andrea and Cindy Pedraza represent an important part of contemporary American chocolate: independent makers whose work reflects more than technique alone.

Their story encompasses entrepreneurship, immigration, family, cultural heritage and the determination required to rebuild a career as an independent business. At the same time, CocoAndré demonstrates how artisan chocolate can celebrate cacao’s Mexican origins while participating in today’s American chocolate movement.

More than 15 years after opening CocoAndré, the mother-daughter team continues to evolve the business without losing the cultural perspective that distinguishes it. Their chocolates may be made in Dallas, but the story behind them reaches much further — through generations of family and back to a culture with one of the world’s oldest relationships with cacao.