For five years Leanne Tait has been dreaming of chocolate. But the Yellowknife businesswoman wasn’t fantasizing about eating it – rather, she wanted to sell it. In November, Tait’s dream was realized when she and her business partner, Claudia Richea, opened The Chocolatier – Yellowknife’s only shop making fresh chocolate for residents with a sweet tooth.

Making the dream happen required patience on Tait’s part. She says her initial idea was to open a Bernard Callebaut chocolate store. But he wasn’t interested in establishing a franchise in a small Northern town. After giving up on Callabaut, she turned to London, Ontario-based chocolatier Marc Forrat and worked out a deal to distribute his chocolate truffles.

Tait grew up in Yellowknife but after moving away to attend school, she returned to her hometown 10 years ago to find the complexion of the city had changed. It was no longer a town full of working-class miners but a more cosmopolitan place populated by people with a lot more disposable income. She says that change convinced her that a shop making and selling high-end chocolate products could work here. “Yellowknifers like to have their luxuries,” Tait says. “This was a gap in the market.”