Cocoa + Sugar =
Heaven (aka Dandelion Chocolate)
Simplicity
really is best.
Dandelion Chocolate combines cocoa
beans and sugar to produce bars of extraordinary character and complexity.
Simple and Pure.

Let’s start with the chocolate.


Just like
wine, if you find a harvest that you love, buy a lot. Unfortunately, the shelf-life of chocolate is
not as long as wine, so you will just have to enjoy it. (Darn.)
Recipe
for success: perseverance
Obviously,
this labor intensive process in difficult and expensive. As such, Dandelion
Chocolate is one of the few bean-to-bar chocolate companies in the Bay
Area. The company was created by two
friends, Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring, who founded and sold Plaxo, a personal
online address book and forerunner to social networking in 2008. Afterwards,
they decided to explore the world of chocolate.
They started by experimenting in a garage and building their own equipment
when off-the-shelf wouldn’t work (so Silicon Valley). A year later, they decided to make a company
out of their experimentation. Growth has
been steady and they have learned a lot along the way. When they opened their café last year, the incredibly fast growth was difficult to manage. The owners did not have experience running a
café. When the WSJ ran an article near
the holidays in 2012, sales skyrocketed.
They had just launched their café and basically sold out.
The
founders now balance economies of scale and their small product line. For instance, large quantities of pre-printed
labels are not feasible since batch sizes vary depending on the raw materials
provided directly from the farmers. Thus,
they buy in bulk when feasible and then move production and finishing in
house. They also try to use sustainable
materials from high quality sources. For
example, Dandelion has the wrappers made in India from recycled shirts! The simple, elegant designs are perfectly
fitting for the products.
A recent
development: the café invites local guest pastry chefs to transform the
chocolate into decadent desserts.
Yum.
Dandelion Chocolate 740 Valencia Street SF CA
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