What can you find in California? Sunshine, the beach, wine, and chocolate. Chocolate? Yes, California is absolutely a chocolate oasis. When you combine sunshine and chocolate, you end up with some of the best chocolate you will ever eat.
Continue reading to find out some of the best chocolate in California, you need to indulge in.
Dick Taylor Chocolate
Location: Eureka, California
Adam Dick and Dustin Taylor have always loved crafting. With a background in woodworking and boat building, they have always worked with their hands. Craft is a guiding principle in their lives. After hearing about the craft chocolate movement in the late '00s, they saw similarities in woodworking and craft chocolate making. They became fascinated with the idea of the chocolate experience and in 2010 bought their first chocolate-making equipment. Their chocolate captures and highlights the subtle flavor nuances in the cacao they source from around the world, with the goal to make an enjoyable chocolate experience for us.
LetterPress Chocolate
Location: Los Angeleas, California
LetterPress Chocolates' story starts in high school, where founders David and Corey met. Their first experience with cacao was in 2011 when they traveled to St. Lucia on vacation and happened to stop at a cacao plantation where they got to taste the pulp from cacao pods for the first time. Today, LetterPress Chocolate has its very own factory where you can visit and even complete a tour with tastings.
Dandelion Chocolate
Location: San Francisco, California
Dandelion Chocolate is a bean-to-bar chocolate maker in San Francisco's Mission District. For over 10 years, they've been turning cocoa beans and organic sugar into single-origin dark chocolate. They travel and build lasting relationships with cocoa farmers and producers, then craft small batches of chocolate back home in their San Francisco factory. With a minimal approach, they aim to highlight different cocoa beans' distinctive flavor notes
9th & Larkin Chocolate
Location: San Francisco, California
9th & Larkin make bean-to-bar chocolate in small batches. Each batch is handcrafted with the highest quality cacao beans sourced from a single region and uses as few as two ingredients to achieve the purest flavor profile possible. Every one of their sumptuous chocolate bars is handcrafted to perfection. Starting with raw cacao beans, they carefully select, sort, roast, winnow, grind, refine, temper, mold, and wrap each bar by hand.
Chocovivo
Location: Culver City, California
ChocoVivo makes chocolate from bean-to-bar. What makes the chocolate special is the way it is processed and the ingredients used. It’s stone ground which is how the Mayans and Aztecs made chocolate over 2000 years ago grinding chocolate with a tool similar to a mortar and pestle called a mano and metate. It’s not over-processed, thus, the chocolate is not refined through rollers, conched, or tempered.
To get started with craft chocolate, start with our Kekao Box. We search the world for the finest chocolate bars and bring them right to your doorstep monthly. From rich dark Peruvian chocolate bars to new start-up chocolate bars on the come up, you never know what you'll get inside the box! Each month we will curate 4 to 5 premium specialty crafted chocolate bars.
If you want to just try a couple of bars, check out our online chocolate store.
If you have any questions regarding this blog, our Kekao Box, or premium specialty crafted chocolate bars, feel free to contact us! Keep up with us by subscribing to our newsletter or following us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
