When I first began working at Dandelion in 2019, we were asked on Orientation Day what our first memories of chocolate were. Having grown up on a cacao farm in the village of San Pedro Columbia in southern Belize, there was one memory that stuck out more than others…
Globally, cocoa prices are reaching record levels. Maybe you’ve seen headlines pointing to a worldwide shortage of cocoa beans. Extreme weather, crop disease, and market volatility are all at play. The upside is our cocoa producing partners are able to earn better...
Since production at our Valencia location shut down in 2020, we have missed the hum of melangers, our banter with chocolate makers, and of course, the irresistible scent of chocolate being made. After thinking long and hard about how to reintroduce production at...
I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on how we can make Dandelion a more inclusive and welcoming company. We’ve always tried to do right, whether it be with the farms we work with, or in our community, or with our staff. We’ve always cared deeply and believed that trust...
Update: This certification has been updated as of 2025. Leah has been our Culinary Liaison since 2017. She introduces our cocoa ingredients to professional chefs, bakers, baristas, and brewers across the country. This is her first post for the blog, and she’s going to...
This year marks our seventh hosting the 12 Nights of Chocolate, bringing together chefs from the Bay Area and beyond to take over the chocolate factory with a dinner series for charity. We lay down one rule: use our chocolate in any application on the plate. That’s...
I'm excited to say that we have finished our fourth annual(ish) Sourcing Report! These were huge years of growth for us and the industry at large, but also years when we learned some tough lessons. The first lesson was that it takes a lot longer to write a...
Kayoko Akabori is one of the founders of Umami Mart, an Oakland importer and retailer of Japanese food, barware, and household goods, and an online blog of food and drink. Brandon, our staff accountant, is a huge fan of the store, and he noticed that they expanded...
Hi! It’s me, Karen S., and I’m the content manager and the editor of the blog. I’ve been in love with Hello Kitty since 1976, I lived in Japan in the late 1990’s and I’ve returned to visit a couple of times, I studied taiko drumming for several years under Seiichi...