Home-based businesswoman Catana Glennen, or ‘The Chocolate Lady,’ as Kamloops locals call her, is famous for her shapes. Her specialty – chocolates featuring innovative customized forms and designs – has garnered much local attention, and in 1998 won her the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce’s Home Based Businessperson of the Year award.

Several years ago, Glennen’s creative talents won the attention of one of the Rocky Mountaineer chefs at a trade show, and she came aboard to create a series of original “thank you” chocolates for the trains, a design featuring a disk with a raised maple leaf. The chocolates were a hit, and are now offered to all Red Leaf and Gold Leaf Service guests at the end of their journey. Additionally, Glennen now creates innovative chocolate dessert molds for the Rocky Mountaineer trains – one in the form of an engine and side car for the Gold Leaf Service, and another shaped like grizzly bear for the Whistler Mountaineer train.

Glennen’s Kamloops location allows her to provide the trains with her delicacies without worrying about spoiling. “Being local is a big advantage,” she says. “It not only ensures freshness, but eliminates a lot of hazards associated with shipping.”

Another plus? Being local allows Glennen to fill special orders requested by impressed Rocky Mountaineer guests – something she finds extremely flattering. “Many people on the trains – particularly Europeans – have requested my chocolates and put in special orders,” she says. “Considering the quality of European chocolate, that’s a big compliment.”