We are thrilled to announce our fourth annual 12 Nights of Chocolate taking place December 1st through 12th. Each year, we invite chefs to take over our cafe and create a menu that follows two rules: use our chocolate, and don’t hold back. Over the years, we’ve hosted some of the best chefs in the country who have created menus ranging from quail and duck with mole, to the classic Mont Blanc dessert made by a three star Michelin chef. All proceeds go to the SF-Marin Food Bank, for whom last year’s event raised over 60,000 meals. This year, the evenings range from a seven-course tasting menu—both sweet and savory—to a family-style brunch after dark, with cocktails. More information and tickets here.
Why are your bars so expensive?
Rik Barnes
Greenville, North Carolina
KiltedMile@aol.com
Hi there Rik.
Great question! There are a few reasons that our bars are the price they are. Most importantly, we hope that you feel like tasty, well-made food is worth a higher price and that the main reason you’d feel good about buying a bar of our chocolate is that you enjoy it!
As far as the nitty gritty and our own costs go, we make these bars in small batches in a factory in San Francisco. Because we’re using only two ingredients, cocoa beans and organic cane sugar, every new bar we make from a new source of beans (like Ecuador, Madagascar, or the Dominican Republic) requires a great deal of testing and development before we find the right roasting time and flavor profile. The cost of that process, including the time it requires, the high cost of labor here, as well as our overhead, factors into the final price of the bar.
It’s also worth noting the value chain. We buy our cocoa beans directly from farmers around the world, and pay a premium far above the world market price because the beans are exceptionally high quality—thanks to the producers’ investment in growing, fermenting, and drying them carefully and skillfully in order to help us maintain our collective commitment to sharing the best and most distinctive cacao. For the particulars and a breakdown of exactly how much we pay for beans, you can read more in our Sourcing Report and in the “Beans and Sugar” section of our website.
Thanks again for your inquiry, and if you’ve got any more questions please don’t hesitate to reach out again by email (info@dandelionchocolate.com) or call us at 415-349-0942.