Tag Archives: San Francisco chocolate factory

Dandelion Chocolates’ 12 Nights of Chocolate

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Chocolate braised lamb pierogies by Sarah Rich at "12 Nights of Chocolate.''
Chocolate braised lamb pierogies by Sarah Rich at “12 Nights of Chocolate.”

Could there be a more wonderful way to spend an evening than indulging in chocolate, chocolate, and more artisan chocolate?

That’s just what Dandelion Chocolates’ annual “12 Nights of Chocolate” is all about. The San Francisco bean-to-bar chocolate factory celebrates everything chocolate in its 9th year of this festive event that benefits the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank.

I had the opportunity to experience night #3 when Dandelion’s pastry chef, Stephen Durfee, kindly invited me as his guest.

From the moment you open the door of the 16th Street factory, you are enveloped in the hedonistic aroma of chocolate everywhere. If only my house could smell this way all the time.

The setting for the evening.
The setting for the evening.

The factory’s loading dock was transformed into a wonderland for the event with chandeliers hanging over three long tables set with a line of illuminated candles. A piano player provided welcoming cheer next to decorated holiday trees.

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Dandelion Chocolate’s Bloom Is A Beaut

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The makings of an artisan root beer float at Bloom cafe inside Dandelion Chocolate factory in San Francisco.

The makings of an artisan root beer float at Bloom cafe inside Dandelion Chocolate factory in San Francisco.

 

There are ladies who lunch.

And then there are ladies who chocolate.

Count me in the latter category. And from the looks of a recent weekday afternoon at Bloom Chocolate Salon, I am hardly alone.

The spectacular chocolate salon by San Francisco’s Dandelion Chocolate certainly provides plenty of eye candy. Melding industrial with a chic European aesthetic, it is a chocoholic’s Shangri-la come to sweet life.

Established in 2010 by techies Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring co-founded Plaxo, San Francisco’s only bean-to-bar chocolate factory expanded big-time in April — spending five years on construction to turn a 107-year-old mattress and printing factory into a chocolate factory, retail store, and chic dessert salon.

The historic warehouse.

The historic warehouse.

Customers filing in for coffee and pastries.

Customers filing in for coffee and pastries.

Enter the brick building, as I did recently when I was invited in as a guest of the cafe, and on your right is a store with shelves loaded with pottery, books, and Dandelion chocolate bars (with sample cups holding broken bar bits to try).

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New TCHO Chocolates

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The Artisan Confections collection from TCHO.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, San Francisco’s TCHO chocolate factory has come up with some goodies sure to make any chocoholic swoon.

The company, which sources, roasts and makes its own chocolate, is famous for its distinctive bars that highlight various flavor notes inherent in chocolate: “Fruity,” “Nutty,” “Citrus” and “Chocolatey,” for instance.

But TCHO also makes chocolate confections. Its Artisan Confections are chocolate bonbons that come packaged in boxes of four ($12.95), 16 ($44.95) and 25 ($64.95) pieces.

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From High-Tech to Chocolate

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Shortbread cookies by Kika's Treats that are enrobed in Dandelion chocolate.

After Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring co-founded Plaxo, the online social address book, then sold it for a gazillion bucks, what was left for them to do?

Travel the world?

Catch up on lost sleep?

Compete in triathlons?

How about start a chocolate factory?

Yup, they did exactly the latter in 2010 when they founded Dandelion Chocolate, which moved its factory only last year to San Francisco’s Mission District.

A true bean-to-bar endeavor, it had its beginnings in a Silicon Valley garage, appropriately enough, before moving to its present location, a much larger garage on Valencia Street, the former Excellent Automotive Service and Repair.

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