The Craft Chocolate Experience (CCE) San Francisco 2024 held over the last weekend of April was a 3-day chocolate festival / marketplace / expo / tradeshow / convention / exhibition / symposium… yeah, I think experience is probably the best sum-up. It was a little bit of everything. And for me it was such a fun party with a lot of interesting people and treats that it took me quite a while to write this longest blog article ever.

Promoted as the first chocolate festival sponsored by a chocolate company, CCE was sponsored by local chocolate maker Dandelion Chocolate. As the sponsor Dandelion had the most chocolate presence in the space including an enclosed popup shop at the front of the venue plus tasting stations around the space where you could get their chocolate drinks, baked goods — even do some wine and chocolate pairings.
The rest of the vendors — chocolate makers and chocolatiers — were clustered in several areas around the cavernous old Exploratorium space at the Palace of Fine Arts. It still had echoes of the Exploratorium — like the 2nd level seating area where they held talks and demos — and some of the spirit of the Exploratorium’s hands-on exhibits with all the tastings vendors were offering.

The important part of the experience to me was the 2-day marketplace open to the public with chocolate and confections from makers from around the world — including LOTS of locals — with the opportunity to taste new chocolate and meet the makers. Cacaopod and I attended the first day of the marketplace and enjoyed the whole vibe. We looked in on some panel discussions and demos happening upstairs, but I didn’t sit in on any of those. I was having too much fun visiting with vendors on the main floor, learning about new chocolate, and getting some gossip.
There was so much chocolate that I couldn’t cover everything — I didn’t even manage to talk to every local vendor that day — but I still have lots of chocolate news to share.
SFBA vendors at the CCE
Look at this list! So many local chocolatiers, chocolate makers, and confectionists at this event. You can skip to any one directly from here:
- 9th & Larkin
- Bisou Chocolate
- Brigadeiro Sprinkles
- The Chaga Company
- Charlotte Truffles
- COBA
- CocoTerra
- Dandelion Chocolate
- David Upchurch Chocolatier
- Feve Artisan Chocolatier
- flying noir
- Formosa Chocolates
- The Good Chocolate
- Guittard Chocolate Company
- J Street Chocolate
- Michael’s Chocolates
- NeoCocoa
- Raphio Chocolate
- Recchiuti
- Socola Chocolatier
- Tiny House of Chocolate Artisans
- Volo Chocolate
- Z. Cioccolato
Plus some non-SFBA chocolate
While we couldn’t cover everyone — it just might seem that way by how long this article is — here are some of the non-local vendors we visited:
Feve Artisan Chocolatier
Immediately inside the entrance were a few out-of-town chocolate makers but the first local vendors I saw upon entering the venue were show sponsor Dandelion Chocolate’s popup shop and Feve Artisan Chocolatier’s booth across from it. We skipped the popup for the moment and beelined it to Feve.

Shawn Williams, Feve Artisan Chocolatier’s founder, sold Feve in 2020. The new chocolatiers at Feve have kept the pretty bonbons in unique flavors like Wild Thing and Dark & Stormy and some other treats while adding new bars and expanding the line of panned nuts.

They were selling bonbon collections and panned almonds and hazelnuts. They were also handing out samples of their panned nuts including the Chai Spiced and new Mango Lime Almonds.
Flavored almonds
The Chai Spiced Almonds were a pretty pinkish beige color. They had a nice crunch and authentic chai spice flavor with a little heat. The Mango Lime went in the opposite direction with the mango lime tasting like a refreshing sorbet but with crunchy almonds added.
I have bought Feve’s bonbons and nuts at Berkeley Bowl and their new bars at Piedmont Grocery. You can also buy their chocolates online, at their factory store in Bayview, and at locations around SFBA and further afield. Check their website for locations.
flying noir
Across the hall was flying noir with their black berets and artistic chocolates. Having just seen them at the Chocolate Salon at the beginning of the month, it felt a little like déjà vu because they had the same samples and boxes, which we had shared with some new tasters to rave reviews. Owner/head chocolatier Karen Urbanek was on break so I didn’t get a chance to talk with her although this would have been a great opportunity because it was not terribly crowded when I stopped by.

flying noir makes unique chocolates — both visually and flavor-wise. Karen is an artist and it shows in the hand painted, hand sculpted pieces and her selection of unusual ingredients and flavor combos. She is especially creative and satisfying in her use of spirits. You can buy flying noir chocolates online and at special events. You can also schedule a pickup at their kitchen. Check their website for details.

9th & Larkin
We did get to talk with the next vendor, Lan Phan, head chocolate maker at 9th & Larkin.
Lan started 9th & Larkin with her husband in 2017. They make bean to bar chocolate in San Francisco. We reviewed some of their single origin bars a couple of years ago and I wanted to see their current lineup and find out what’s new.
Their new Honduras origin bar was so popular it was sold out by the time we arrived. Not to worry — Lan had 2 other single origins and 2 inclusion/infusion bars at the event.
Single origin bars
The 2 single origins were both Vietnamese and Lan told us they were from cacao farms in the Mekong Delta that were only 50km from each other. She said that even though they came from the same area they tasted different.
We shared them with our regular casual chocolate tasters. One worried before we tried them that he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference since they were both from the same area.

We tried the Ben Tre 72% cacao bar first. It had a hard snap and a slow melt. It was very fruity, a little fudgy, with some nutty overtones.
The Tien Giang has a good snap but the texture was a little grainy. It had an initial Chinese medicine taste to a couple of us and what I described as a mint overtone. It tasted sweet but bitter.
Cacaopod and I had tried the Tien Giang before and had a different taste experience. That can happen with single origins — the beans can vary year to year due to weather, fermenting, etc. — and chocolate makers are not mixing beans to get a particular flavor profile, they are bringing out what flavors are in the current batch.
Comparing the 2 bars side by side, the group said the Tien Giang has a stronger dark chocolate flavor and was more savory than the Ben Tre but the Ben Tre was richer, more complex, and not as bitter.
Japanese Yuzu bar
The 2 flavored bars used cacao that we’d tried in single origin bars previously. The new Japanese Yuzu added long slivers of candied Japanese yuzu peel to their 72% Dominican Republic, Zorzal cacao. The sweet/tart citrus was a nice contrast to the cacao’s savory nutty notes. Cutting the peel thin was a good choice because it minimized the yuzu’s bitterness.
The resulting candied peel had a good distinct citrus flavor but I would’ve liked more pieces on the bar. The bar’s mold is broken into small squares and not all squares ended up with peel in them.
When I would get a piece without yuzu on it I could appreciate the single origin’s flavors more — it’s a not sweet, lightly fruity chocolate with a coffee chocolate aftertaste — but I preferred the pieces that had yuzu on them — the thin slivers of candied peel gave bursts of citrus to the chocolate when chewed.

Tea Bar
The other flavored bar did not have the same varying flavor experience because it was infused with mango & bergamot oolong teas. The taste was consistent throughout the bar.
The Tea Bar used their Peru, Ucayali River cacao and A2/A2 organic milk to make a 66% dark milk chocolate. The tea in the name references both mango oolong and Earl Grey (bergamot) oolong infused into the chocolate.

In addition to the infusions this bar also had blue corn flower petals scattered on back. While I wasn’t aware of any flavor from the petals they are traditionally added to tea blends for their visual appeal.
The bar had a hard snap and started bitter — which surprised me since this was a milk chocolate — but the mango/bergamot tropical fruit flavors of the teas took over fairly quickly. I liked this bergamot tea flavored chocolate — plus the mango perked up the fruity flavor and moderated the bitter chocolate. And the corn flower wasn’t just pretty — it gave the bar a ticklish sensation on the roof of my mouth at the end.
I want to mention the mold 9th & Larkin used for these bars. I talked about their clever mold for their larger single origin bars previously. For these flavored bars, they have a different mold with half round indents inside squares. The squares make for easy breaking off pieces and the round indents made melting the chocolate in my mouth more comfortable.

Before we left I asked Lan if the surging cacao prices we keep hearing about were affecting them. “We can see prices going up,” she said. “We don’t know when it’s going to be a problem. Fiji beans were $25/kilogram last time. We don’t know what it’s going to be the next time we purchase.”
Since the surge is primarily an issue with West African cacao — their cacao farms are suffering from a virus that kills the trees and other mostly man-made ills — and 9th & Larkin already pays premium prices for their cacao — worldwide cacao prices are under $4, contrast that to their Fiji beans price — Lan thinks they will be okay but they are concerned.
If you are concerned too, you might want to stock up now before Lan has to buy beans again. You can buy 9th & Larkin bars on their website, at special events, and at some local retailers like Market Hall Foods.
David Upchurch Chocolatier
Across from 9th & Larkin was a new-to-me chocolatier who I was interested in learning about. Luckily for me CCE turned out to be the perfect place to meet and chat with David Upchurch of the eponymous David Upchurch Chocolatier.

I’d hoped to be able to meet David at CCE because otherwise the only place I knew he’d be reliably out in public was at the farmers market at Stonestown Galleria on Sunday mornings. That was probably never gonna happen for me — I live in Oakland and traveling all that way across the Bay, then across the city is quite the trek for non-car me.
CCE delivered — not only was David in attendance but the event was not crazy crowded so we could chat quite a bit. I definitely liked this aspect of CCE — it was pretty easy to chat with any of the vendors and even have some in-depth conversations.

I started by asking David what’s unique about his chocolates. He said: “The primary difference is that I use very fine grade chocolate. One of my sources is Conexión [who was at the event] — their chocolate is made in the country of origin. It’s unusual and phenomenal.
“The owner [Jenny Samaniego] was trained by a French chocolate maker. The chocolate is just cacao and cocoa butter. It’s finely conched and extremely well made. She plays with terroir and process — the roasting and fermenting. And she works with the farmers so more money goes to the country of origin instead of middle men.”
In addition David uses Felchlin couvertures. He explained what he likes about the Swiss company: “They are a global chocolate maker that works directly with the cacao farmers in their countries. Then the beans are processed in Switzerland.
“A feature I like is they use wild cacao — Beni [a rare wild cacao from Bolivia] was first used by Felchlin. And they focus on sustainability, technology, and research.
“So I start with really excellent chocolate — and I’m trying to be creative. A lot of European inspiration and being Californian we play a lot: We have a lobster bar and a danish rye bar here.”
Cape Cod lobster bar
A lobster bar? David explained that it was something he worked on with Paul John Kearins of Chocolatasm of Provincetown, MA, who he described as an Anglo-Dutch baker who got his start as a chocolatier in Amsterdam and who works by intuition.
“The bar uses local lobster bouillon freeze dried and added to white chocolate which provides a buttery base,” David said. (In this instance local means Provincetown not SFBA). He described the bar as inspired by lobster bisque and listed the ingredients — lobster, parsley, Cape Cod salt, and citrus in a buttery creamy white chocolate — with the chocolate mimicking the soup base of a lobster bisque.
The bar David had at CCE was his version —the lobster bar 2.0. “Mine is a little more subtle,” he explained. “Elegant, very unctuous, briny, with lobster at the end —it definitely lingers.”

I was interested to see how that would work. The bar was an attractive creamy white color with visible garnishes mixed in. It had a savory smell and a soft break. It tasted mostly salty and lemony with a little parsley and a savory taste that I couldn’t really describe as lobster — but lobster is a really mild flavor. I thought maybe crab would work better if you wanted a distinctly seafood tasting bar. This is more a nice savory creamy white chocolate. It would be a fun gift for your slightly adventurous friends.
Rye and Spice 70% bar

The other unique bar David mentioned — the Rye and Spice 70% bar is made as a collaboration with Kantine, a Scandinavian eatery on Market St. that makes a lot of its goodies from scratch. David explained that he upcycles their leftover rye bread into chocolate bars: “I make crackers out of the stale bread and crumble the cracker into the bar. I add anise so the chocolate has these interesting anise and rye flavors.”
I found the Rye and Spice 70% to be a good savory bar. If you like rye and anise/licorice flavors, this is one to try. It was attractive with the crumbled crackers scattered over the back of the bar and had a strong snap. The crunchy bar had an immediate anise flavor in distinctly dark — not bitter — chocolate with rye as a secondary flavor.
100% single origin bar
Another unique bar David pointed out was his 100% Ecuador single origin bar which in addition to being a no sugar bar is flash roasted, salted, and contains crunchy cacao nibs. I haven’t heard of other chocolate makers flash roasting cacao — it’s kind of like searing tuna so the outside is crisped but the inside is still soft. David said he used the flash roasting technique and the salt to “bring out different aspects of the fruit.”
I tried it because I am always interested to see if someone can make 100% cacao not just palatable but tasty. The bar had visible nibs mixed throughout and a crisp snap. It was a savory, somewhat bitter chocolate — and not satisfyingly chocolaty. To me it was more of an intellectual exercise — interesting but not delicious. The salt and crunchy nibs helped but not enough to win me over.
David did hint at a potential option for the bar that I would be very interested to try. He was talking about the baba in his featured pâte de fruit which he explained was the cacao pulp or mucilage that surrounds the cacao seeds in the pod and is often treated as a waste product. And there’s another “waste product” in the production cycle that could potentially be added to the bar keeping it 100% but improving the flavor profile.
Pâtes de fruit

David said he is interested in capturing waste products and seeing what uses they can be put to — like the upcycled rye crackers in the Rye and Spice bar — so he used baba as the flavor in his pâte de fruit box at CCE. Then he said he was also considering cacao pod flour — which is upcycled from the usually discarded cacao pods — as a sweetener so he could make a 100% cacao bar with some sweetness that would still be all cacao. I hadn’t heard of cacao pod flour before but now I am very curious to try it in chocolate.
As for the baba pâte de fruit David said it’s more feasible now to capture the baba because of several developments in Ecuador (where his supplier Conexión is located): “Technology at the cacao’s origin plus infrastructure, a stable government, and electricity. Now they can stabilize cacao close to where it’s farmed.”
I applaud this development because baba made for a great pâte de fruit. David combined it with a specialty French white wine so it had a nice mix of the distinct tropical fruit taste of the cacao pulp plus a little white wine sourness — the pâte was fruity and tangy and so soft it almost melted as soon as I put it in my mouth.
In addition to the baba special David also had a couple of pâte de fruit in his vegan Spring Pralines collection. These were made with locally grown peaches, mandarins, and cara cara oranges. David said that was another feature of his chocolates — he incorporates local produce as much as possible — “We use local fruit in our pâte de fruit,” he said. “And our figs, oranges, and nuts are all local.”
This is part of why David sells his chocolates at farmers markets. “I chose to do farmers markets to start,” he explained. “It’s economical, viable, and I want to be engaged with local agriculture. I like to bring attention to that part of my confections.”

It’s easier to include local produce when you can see what’s available and meet the growers on a weekly basis, but why the Stonestown market? “I picked that market because it was only one open during the lockdown,” he explained. “They could spread out over the parking lot so they kept operating. Now I have a loyal customer base there of 30-40 people who return weekly and also buy from me online.”
Since then he has expanded to the Noe Valley Farmers Market on Saturdays. And he is planning some popups for the fall plus more tasting events and collaborations. Although he’s been in business since 2017, David said, “I’m just learning the business now. I’m on the cusp where I’m ready to take the next steps.”
Up to now the focus has been on the practice of making chocolate and experimenting. And while he is now ready to tackle the business side of things he will continue to play and create with chocolate.
Spring Pralines collection
For the Spring Pralines he got to play with nuts, so while the pralines were vegan and dairy free, they were not allergen free. I got a box of these because David said he was particularly enjoying creating vegan bonbons.
The collection included a Pecan Praline, an Almond Rocher, a Pistachio Praline, and 2 pâtes de fruit. The Pecan Praline was unusual in that it had a piece of candied lemon inside the milk chocolate shell and pecan butter. It had a subtle pecan flavor, a little crunch, and bitter lemon at the end from chewing the candied lemon.

The Rocher + almond + coffee resembled a small turtle confection on one side with a round dome of chocolate seated on top of chocolate covered candied almond slivers. It had a satisfying crunchy nut texture and a salty roasted almond flavor first with the coffee flavor appearing towards the end.
The Pistachio Praline contained caramelized pieces of pistachio in a green nut butter. It had a crunchy crystalized texture and tasted like pistachio and something citrusy although the ingredients list mentioned spice, sugar, and sea salt, so I’m not sure where I got that flavor from.
The 2 pâtes de fruit were both really good. I couldn’t pick one over the other. The Mandarin smelled like tangerine and tasted like a burst of sweet tart tangerine. The Peach Vanilla smelled like vanilla and tasted of peach first, then added vanilla to the flavor — it was a good combo.

This was already a lot but there was still more at this booth. On one side there was a multi-level display of vintage chocolate molds along with molded chocolate made with some of them.
David explained, “I like to play with traditional and contemporary cultures. I like doing these cool figurines for the seasons and the holidays — like the Easter bunnies. Those are a couple of 1925 Dresden molds.”
With so many options — bars, bonbons, molded chocolates, pâtes de fruit — I wanted to know what was most popular. Surprisingly, David said, “Peanut butter treats are my best sellers. It’s what people are into.”
Like me! Peanut butter and chocolate are probably my favorite combination. David’s twist? “I make the peanut butter like gianduja — chocolate and peanuts only — no sugar, no butter.”
Peanut butter love

Of course I had to try them. At CCE David had chocolate covered peanut butter gianduja hearts. They were so cute arranged in a circular cluster in the package — adorable gift for your peanut butter loving friends.
The hearts smelled like peanut butter without cutting or biting into them first. Inside the well made dark chocolate shell was the gianduja — a mixture of peanut butter, milk chocolate, and salt. I think it was a dark milk chocolate because it was almost as dark as the shell and not as sweet as a straight milk chocolate.
The piece had an initial peanut butter flavor and texture but chocolate quickly became the more dominant flavor —peanut was more subtle and the salt was there for support, it wasn’t salty tasting. This is a sophisticated peanut butter treat made with good strong chocolate. I thought it was excellent.
You can buy David Upchurch Chocolatier confections online and at the farmers markets mentioned. Check his website for updates.
Bisou Chocolate
A couple of tables further inside the space was East Bay chocolate maker Bisou Chocolate who we first discovered when they did a popup at our local cheese shop about 10 years ago. Bisou has since greatly expanded their product line from single origin bars to chocolate coated fruits and nuts, truffles, and other confections. Their chocolates are vegan and dairy free.

Even bigger news is that they opened their own storefront last year. Eli Curtis, Bisou’s co-founder, told us they are open limited hours — Wednesday to Friday, noon to 6 — because they are still a small operation and are doing production the other days (and selling at farmers markets). Tracey Britten, Bisou’s other co-founder explained, “We still hand dip everything. We hand wrap all the bars. It’s an all day affair.”
Tracey and Eli listed for us what they make now. It’s so much I probably didn’t catch it all but here goes:
Chocolate drinks: Hot cocoa using their 76% chocolate. Cold brewed cacao. Dairy free bubbly boba. New drinks coming: cacao kombucha and boba in a bottle. I look forward to trying some of these at their factory store sometime.
Dipped/enrobed chocolates: Thompson raisins in 78%. Orange peel in Ugandan 76%. Bing cherries in 86%. Hazelnuts in coconut milk chocolate. Almonds in 78% and coated with powdered dragon fruit. Almonds in 86%. Almonds and dates in 100%.
Truffles: white, vegan milk, and dark chocolate. Flavors vary. At CCE they had coffee, pineapple, and matcha sesame truffles. Plus Nutty Bunnies — their vegan twist on peanut butter cups.
Of course single origin bars. And a coconut chocolate bar. And Tahitian Blond: coconut, white chocolate, and Tahitian vanilla — Eli told us that they were doing a GoFundMe to buy their own cocoa press so they could extract cocoa butter themselves plus make their own natural cocoa powder. He said that with the rise in cacao prices cocoa butter is increasingly scarce to find but with their own press they would be able to better ensure they can keep making chocolate.
Dragonfruit dragrées

We got a few of their new offerings to try — we’ve only had their bars previously so I was curious about some of the new items. I asked Tracey for recs.
Maybe the first thing she mentioned was their Dragonfruit dragrées. She told us she roasts marcona almonds in extra virgin olive oil and sea salt, then candies them and coats them in 78% chocolate. Finally she dusts them with powdered dragonfruit. That certainly sounded interesting — I had to get some to try.
The dragonfruit powder gave the dragées subtle pops of magenta over the dark chocolate surface and the flavor was subtle too. Instead it was the almonds and chocolate that were the stars.
Marcona almonds are big tasty almonds and these were dipped in Bisou’s popular Silk 78% chocolate sourced from Ecuador. Starting with these quality ingredients, roasting and caramelizing the almonds made the dragées even more almond forward with a satisfying crunch.
They were not very sweet but the chocolate wasn’t bitter either. They had a little tangy overtone from the dragonfruit powder. If you like chocolate covered almonds these are dangerously addictive.
Hazelnuts & coffee
Bisou’s chocolate covered hazelnuts were yummy. They had a distinct hazelnut flavor and mild chocolate taste. They were a big hit with my tasters:
“So nice, just right amount of sugar.”
“At last someone understands what I mean by hazelnut.”
“They’re not too sweet, and I like the nutty taste.”
The Coffee bonbon was good too. It had a smooth dark shell and ganache that started off very chocolaty then added in coffee and coconut flavors (organic coconut is the first ingredient) as it melted ending with chocolate and coconut. I thought it was an excellent light coffee bonbon.
Almond Nutty Bunnies

And I loved the Almond Nutty Bunnies. Like the bonbons they come 2 to a pack but these were adorable little molded bunnies instead of hand enrobed pieces. Inside the dark chocolate shell there was a layer of caramel on top of almond nut butter below.
It started with good chocolate and nutty flavors — and the chewy caramel just took it over the top. So it was mostly chocolate, almond, and caramel flavors. Coconut appeared toward the end as the other flavors faded.
If you can’t make it to Berkeley during their limited hours, they are also online, in some retail locations, and at several farmers markets: SF Ferry Plaza Market and Diablo Valley Market every Saturday, Mountain View every Sunday, and Fort Mason every other Sunday.
Mirzam Chocolate Makers
At this point we entered the main area which included picnic tables and several rows of vendors in the middle of the huge space plus more vendors lining the sides of the space. We meandered past Mirzam Chocolate Makers, UAE, who Jack Epstein of Chocolate Covered introduced us to a few years back and whose coffee & cardamom bar we love and recommend. They had their flavored bars and were featuring their sampler packs which looked like blue & white tiles and included all of their different flavored milk chocolates — including a camel’s milk one.

Volo Chocolate
The first local maker we spotted on the main floor was Volo Chocolate, Windsor, who we’d just seen a couple of weeks ago at the Salon and whose pack of bars we’d gotten and shared.

I asked Jeff Mall, Volo’s co-founder, about one of his cacao sources because I noticed in the pack of bars that most of them used cacao sourced from Haiti and all the news about Haiti recently has been pretty scary with gangs basically laying siege to the capitol and the main airport closed.
Jeff explained to me: “Where our cacao is grown is kind of isolated. Haiti has never been stable but other than hurricanes or earthquakes not much affects the cacao farms. So even though around the capitol thing are unsettled, things are looking good for sourcing our cacao — but you never know. We work with Emily Stone of Uncommon Cocoa — she’s been in really close contact with them. So we are very concerned but reassured that for now that things are looking good.”
That would be good news because we liked how the Haitian cacao was a good base for their flavored bars. Jeff told me, “We like the Haitian cacao because it doesn’t have the same acidity or brightness as the Guatemalan [the other cacao they use]. It’s a good blank canvas for inclusions. It’s inclusive, they don’t fight.”
If you want to try Volo Chocolate Haitian and Guatamalan sourced bars or other chocolate treats, they are available online, at special events, and at local markets. They also offer subscriptions.
Z. Cioccolato
Next to Volo Chocolate was another local chocolate vendor who we had just seen and talked with at the Salon.

We made a point to stop by the Z. Cioccolato Fudge booth because we had loved the peanut butter with caramel and chocolate fudge we’d gotten at the Salon — in fact we had managed between the 2 of us to finish it off in the 3 weeks since and were looking to restock.
Unfortunately while they had a range of fudge they didn’t have the one we were looking for. Mike offered us their famous 7-layer peanut butter pie fudge but that one is over the top for me. I prefer their simpler but still extravagant Black Panther peanut butter fudge with 2 kinds of chocolate and caramel. If you are interested in decadent fudges you can buy the Black Panther or other Z. Cioccolato flavors online, at special events, and at their North Beach store.
Recchiuti

Next to Z. Cioccolato was an old favorite: Recchiuti celebrated 25 years in business with a new logo and new packaging that they unveiled last June. And in this new quarter-century they appeared at a special event — something I don’t remember seeing them do before unless it was an event they hosted.

They were handing out samples of their dragées, salted caramels, and bonbons with a few new flavors: Banana Caramel, Rosemary Olive Oil, and Framboise Strata (raspberry jelly & dark chocolate ganache). And it looked like they had their complete line of new packaging including their new simpler bar line: Bittersweet, Semisweet, and Dark Milk plus Burnt Caramel Almond in semisweet chocolate. I really like the new more substantial packaging that look like mini archival storage boxes and tubes for fine artwork. Even the bars are in sturdy looking boxes. And the new logo is fun too.
You can buy Recchiuti chocolates and other confections online, at their shop in the Ferry Building, at special events, and at some local retail locations.
Formosa Chocolates

In the back of the venue next to the wine tasting bar, the Formosa Chocolates booth was hopping. Formosa makes beautiful delicious bonbons that have earned them nationwide coverage. We are always happy to see a Formosa booth at these events and discover what unique flavors Formosa’s founder and head chocolatier Kimberly Yang has cooked up.
They have also expanded their product line to include bars and enrobed and dipped chocolates. They had a bit of everything at their booth and lots of samples.

New bars included the eye-catching Asian “Twix” and Kalamansi Cheesecake Bar. The bars were half round filled batons. The Twix bars were shiny red with a “cord and tassel” decoration on one end made of dark chocolate and gold leaf. The Kalamasi bars were a shimmery lime green accented with gold luster dust. They came 2 in a pack — just like the real Twix but way more elegant looking.
Asian ‘Twix’ bar
We tried the Twix bar which had miso caramel layered on black sesame shortbread in a dark chocolate shell. This is a savory treat — definitely miso and chocolate tasting with a little sesame crunch.
It was a well made bar with a consistent thickness to the shell which was a fruity chocolate with citrus notes. The miso caramel was smooth but the flavor was so much stronger than the sesame that I couldn’t taste sesame. Cacaopod said he caught a hint of it but we both agreed it needed more sesame. The bar had a small crunch but nowhere near a Twix bar’s crunchiness. It was more a black sesame paste than a shortbread.
It’s an interesting tasty bar and I look forward to trying the Kalamansi Cheesecake Bar next time which was described as a calamansi pâte de fruit jelly, cheesecake ganache, and almond graham cracker crust in a dark chocolate shell.

Bopomofo bar
The other bar that intrigued me was the Bopomofo. The big flat dark chocolate bar was decorated with gold phonetic Chinese characters — the bo-po-mo-fo of the name that Taiwanese kids learn so they can pronounce Chinese correctly. I love how chocolate isn’t just a taste experience, it can be educational too!
The front of the bar was super smooth and the back was textured with visible bits of puffed rice. The bar had a good snap which revealed that it had 2 layers — a solid chocolate one over a crunchy one. The 65% couverture used was a good fudgy tasting slightly bitter dark chocolate and the bar had a small crunch from the crushed crispy puffed rice. This might be a fun gift for your friends who had to spend Sunday afternoons in Chinese school as kids — or for anyone who liked Nestles’ Crunch Bars and is looking for a glow up version.
Kintsugi Collection

Of course the thing Formosa is known for is their bonbons so we got some of the new ones to try. They had a box of 3 cute coffee cup shaped pieces with a hot drink theme that was called the Kintsugi Collection. Each of the cups had decorative veins of gold painted on them to mimic kintsugi, the Japanese practice of repairing broken ceramics with gold or silver.
The flavors were Hojicha, Nantou oolong, and Formosa coffee. The Hojicha in the celadon colored cup was a roasted green tea ganache in a dark chocolate shell. It was smooth and lightly flavored with a roasted slightly bitter green tasting tea in tasty dark chocolate.
The dark brown cup was Nantou oolong tea ganache in dark chocolate.
My immediate response was “really good!” It was a little sweeter than the Hojicha with a more complex flavor — a deeper tea flavor that was a little nutty with a black tea ascerbic sensation.
The white cup was a little sip of Formosa coffee. The ganache was almost black and had a strong coffee aroma which translated to a strong coffee flavor. The piece wasn’t bitter and the coffee/dark chocolate mix was delicious. It reminded me of the to-go cups of coffee we used to get in NYC in the 80s — the ones with the Greek key pattern around the top — strong but not bitter sustenance.
Pineapple Cake bonbon

Formosa’s featured bonbon at CCE was Pineapple Cake but they had already run out of samples and boxes to purchase. Kimberly said she planned to make more overnight for the Sunday marketplace. Wow, this was already day 2 of a packed weekend plus all the prep beforehand to get ready. If I was her I would probably collapse when I got home but she was planning to stay up making bonbons.
And these were not simple pieces to make — with a layer of caramelized pineapple over almond praline in a dark chocolate mold shaped like pineapple and hand painted.
I wasn’t planning on coming the next day but I lucked out — she have a 2-piece sampler pack that included the Pineapple Cake bonbon with a black sesame piece. I might have gotten the last of those too — but as of this writing she has the bonbons available on their website.
This is a not too sweet pineapple and dark chocolate piece with interesting textures. The pineapple was like a layer of jam over the “cake” layer which was a slightly crunchy roasted almond praline/shortbread mashup. The light pineapple and dark chocolate flavors were a delicious match.

The bonbon that was paired with the Pineapple Cake piece was a mystery to us at first. It was a square piece with a flower molded on top and scalloped sides all around — it reminded me of a moon cake.
The interior was a darker color than the exterior and as soon as we tasted it we knew it was black sesame paste — it had that little crunch and not too sweet light sesame flavor like the black sesame treats we get at the Asian markets around here. I’m not sure the cacao percentage of the dark chocolate shell but it wasn’t very dark tasting. It was another nice Formosa combo.
Formosa Chocolates are available online and at special events.
The Good Chocolate

The Good Chocolate had their usual lineup of sugar free vegan chocolate bars including the new Ethiopian Coffee Dark & Milk Chocolate bars we first saw at the International Chocolate Salon a few weeks prior. They also had their Coco Jungles snacks — which I can recommend — and chocolate dipped strawberries at $2 a piece — so you could have something low sugar to munch on while wandering the floor.
You can find The Good Chocolate online, at special events, and at some local grocery stores, such as Hudson Greens & Goods.
Guittard Chocolate Company

It was nice to see local chocolate pioneer Guittard Chocolate Company at this event. Still family owned for more than 150 years, they are the local brand used by a lot of SFBA chocolatiers including some at the CCE. Maybe because of that they had big bags of their couvertures there that looked like a Costco version of the bags of coffee beans you see at a coffee shop. They also had cocoa powder — sweetened, unsweetened, and organic — and baking chocolate.
They didn’t have any bars for enjoying on their own. They stopped making their single origin bars last year and are now focused on professional couvertures and baking chocolates.
You can buy Guittard Chocolate products online and some products like their baking chocolate at grocery stores nationwide. And who knows? If you’re indulging in some SFBA chocolates you might already be eating Guittard couvertures.
Brigadeiro Sprinkles
When we saw Zeila Schappelle of Brigadeiro Sprinkles at the Chocolate Salon a few weeks earlier, we got her latest brigadeiros and her new very yummy Pão de Mel — square pieces of chocolate honey cake completely enrobed in dark chocolate. We had already polished those off before the CCE so I was hoping to get some more.

We had to wait a bit because Zeila had changed things up. In addition to pre-packaged sets of brigadeiros you could now choose which flavors you wanted in a box — and she was filling 4 of her largest boxes — 25 brigadeiros each — for the customer before us.
After that big transaction, I asked Zeila about the change. “Yes, you can ‘build your own box’ now,” Zeila explained. “You can pick your flavors. Some people only want dark chocolate, others want traditional or something else. It’s very hard for me to decide so I give you the choice.”
She still had prepackaged boxes of brigadeiro sets — plus some smaller boxes. “I saw everybody else buys little boxes,” Zeila said. “So now I have a box of 4 brigadeiros and a box of 2.”

This is a good option for those of us who can’t get through a bigger box in the recommended 7–15 days. But Zeila gave us a tip that’s even better: “You can freeze brigadeiros, then thaw them for 15 minutes,” she said. “It’s better than the fridge because it will stop the crystallization that naturally occurs.”
That’s a tip that I will remember.
Zeila had some new items at CCE: A Dulce de Leche cream, “It’s not a chocolate [Zeila knows what I’m looking for] but this tastes amazing on its own,” a cupuaçu filled chocolate bar, and a Mother’s Day special box containing an assortment of brigadeiro goodies. What? No honey cake?!
Zeila told us she had sold out of the honey cakes that morning — but all was not lost, she broke up one of the Mother’s Day packs to give us the honey cakes inside. Score!
Cupuaçu Brigadeiro Candy Bar
We also got the Cupuaçu Brigadeiro Candy Bar. It was a filled bar with white cupuaçu brigadeiro cream in a hand painted 54% cacao shell. The filling had a sugary texture — I hadn’t frozen it immediately so I guess it was starting to crystalize before I sampled it — and it didn’t have that pronounced tropical fruit flavor like the cupuaçu brigadeiro we’d had from her Spring collection — again I should’ve frozen it when I got home — it was more a sweet and tangy taste. Next time I get one I plan to either sample it immediately or freeze it first.
I had no such problem with the honey cakes — they went right into the freezer to save for Cacaopod’s birthday (shhh, don’t tell him). UPDATE: We enjoyed the honey cakes at the birthday celebration. I took them out before dinner and they were thawed and delicious when it came time for dessert.

Zeila told us she was so happy that her booth was next to a famous Brazilian chocolate maker, Balaní Chocolates, whom she hopes to do a collaboration with and use their chocolate for some brigadeiros. She strongly encouraged us to check them out. Since Zeila has never steered us wrong with her recommendations, we visited them next.
You can buy Brigadeiro Sprinkles confections online and at special events.
Baianí Chocolates

I didn’t know Baianí Chocolates, a tree to bar chocolate maker in São Paulo, Brazil, before CCE and I’m so glad for Zeila’s recommendation to check them out because I found a new favorite snack at their booth. But first I had to look over their wide range of bars.

Baianí makes inclusion bars, infused bars, regular and vegan dairy bars, plus plain bars of different cacao percentages. They have a collection of bars of different percentages infused with different coffees, and two 70% bars they roast at different intensities for their own flavor profiles. It was a lot to take in.
Baianí’s owners Juliana and Tuta Aquino were manning the booth. Their families have farmed cacao in Brazil for several generations experiencing the booms and busts along the way — somehow managing to hold on even when witches’ broom destroyed the cacao growing industry in Brazil. Juliana decided about 10 years ago to expand the business to making chocolate along with growing it. Their farm is in the state of Bahai and their factory is in São Paulo.
While I wanted to try everything — this happens to me most of the time with new vendors — I tried to focus. Tuta recommended some bars but then I spotted their sampler packs of 8 tiles. Bingo! It doesn’t contain all of their flavors but it’s a great way to get oriented and I can go to Chocolate Covered later to buy full size bars. I will cover the sampler pack in a separate article, now I’m excited to share my snack find.
Nibs with Tapioca & Coco
In addition to bars, Baianí makes chocolate baking chips, chocolate covered fruit confections using local fruit like cupuaçu and bananas, and nibby snacks. I admit I wouldn’t have given the snacks a try because at a glance they gave me granola vibes and I hate granola periodt

But Juliana was very enthusiastic about their Tapioca & Coco mix, explaining that it was good mixed with fruit, as a topping for ice cream or yogurt, and that she even liked to snack on it by itself. As the name says it contains roasted cacao nibs, dried tapioca, and toasted coconut. They also make a version that is just straight up roasted cacao nibs that works the same way.
Juliana got me intrigued enough that I bought a pack. Cacaopod and I tried it straight up and in plain yogurt and cherry yogurt — trying to combine the fruit and yogurt suggestions. With both yogurts we covered them with a solid scattering of topping and stirred it in.
I am pleased to say that Baianí Cacao Nibs with Tapioca & Coconut is not like granola — it’s more like muesli — it’s a crunchy non-cooked, unsweetened mixture. If you like granola you might like it too — I can’t begin to fathom how your tastebuds work.

We liked the mixture best in plain yogurt. It was crunchy, chocolatey, and coconutty. The coconut is caramelized so it was crunchy along with the nibs. It worked well with the tangy yogurt. It was okay with the cherry yogurt but I thought it was better without the competing fruit flavor.
As for the dried tapioca, I didn’t taste anything, it was just a texture. I confess I don’t know what tapioca is supposed to taste like. It looked like little pieces of styrofoam and when we sampled the mix dry it was a soft crunchy/chewy texture. In the yogurt it was not noticeable. Visually it adds a bright white contrast to the brown nibs and tan coconut shreds and taste-wise it’s not objectionable so I don’t mind it in the mix. And the nibs/coconut combo is tasty and satisfying.
You can buy some Baianí Chocolates products locally at Chocolate Covered. Check their website for other locations across the U.S. and Canada.
Tiny House of Chocolate Artisans

Sticking with the Brazilian theme while also bringing it back to our home turf we visited the Tiny House of Chocolate Artisans booth-share. Tiny House split their booth with Casa Lasevicius, a Brazilian bean to bar maker that makes a wide range of bars in different percentages, some with inclusions native to Brazil like jabuticaba — a muscadine like fruit — and baru nuts — which are considered a super food.
You could say Tiny House is the offspring of Casa Lasevicius — Tiny House cofounder and chocolate maker Maiana Lasevicius is the daughter of Casa Lasevicius’s founder Bruno Lasevicius, one of the first bean to bar makers in Brazil. Based in Santa Cruz, Tiny House makes single origin bars with beans from several regions in Brazil — but also from different growers around the world including the famous Kokoa Kamili Cooperative in Tanzania. And they make inclusion bars — some with Brazilian inclusions like cupuaçu — and other cacao based items.
Tiny House’s co-founder Gustavo Hilsdorf was manning the booth and introduced us to their chocolate. He explained that all of their bars are vegan, the inclusion bars are all dark chocolate, and the white chocolate bars add coconut milk to the organic cacao and cane sugar.
Gustavo knows the producers of the cacao he buys and has a direct relationship with the producers, especially of the cacao from Bahai and other regions of Brazil. He and Maiana make the bars in Santa Cruz.

Besides bars, Tiny House also makes Cacao Tea — AKA the Fountain of Youth, a chocolate hazelnut spread — their riff on Nutella, and Cacao Nectar. Gustavo explained that the nectar is reduced baba — we heard that word a lot that day — and it can be used like jam.
We got the nectar plus a few inclusion bars which also netted us a cute little branded bag to carry them in. Gustavo and Maiana worked in advertising previously so their branding is on point.
Since Zeila of Brigadeiro Sprinkles introduced us to cupaçu this year we have been interested in trying other interpretations of this tropical fruit. Tiny House makes a Cupaçu 70% Cacao bar with beans from Camino Verde, Ecuador. We shared this bar with several tasters.

Cupaçu 70% Cacao
One of the tasters was impressed with the Tiny House custom logo: “It looks like tooled leather with that embossed logo,” he said.
The bar had visible pieces of candied cupaçu on the back and a hard snap. It was a savory chocolate with a tart tropical fruit taste from the chewy candied fruit.
The only complaint was that there were not enough pieces of candied fruit in the bar so some people didn’t get a taste of it the first time. But we kept passing it around until it was gone and the consensus was that it’s a good bar. “The more I try it, the more I like it,” one of the initially disappointed tasters said.

Sarsaparilla Root 68% Cacao
When Cacaopod saw the Sarsaparilla Root 68% Cacao bar he had to get it. He has memories of digging up sarsaparilla root as a child and keeping it in his bedroom because he liked the smell so this bar had his name on it.
The bar smelled mostly chocolatey with hints of root beer and something herbal. It had a good snap and a smooth texture with a slow melt.
The cacao used in this bar was from the Dominican Republic and was a little nutty and not bitter. The sarsaparilla infusion tasted more like licorice or anise than root beer and reminded me of chai flavored chocolate a bit — it had those herbal notes. The flavor became more root beery in the aftertaste. We both liked this bar a lot and recommend it if you like root beer, sarsaparilla, and anise flavors.
Arabica Coffee 68% Cacao
The 3rd bar we tried was the Arabica Coffee 68% Cacao made with beans from the Dominican Republic. It had an alluring coffee aroma and immediate coffee flavor. It was a very good combo with the chocolate.
Like the other bars it was very well made with a good snap and smooth texture. I liked that it had a distinct and specific coffee flavor — strong and a little sour that mellowed as the chocolate melted and chocolate became the more prominent flavor.

Cacao Nectar
Tiny House’s Cacao Nectar is not a jam exactly — it doesn’t contain sugar or pectin. It’s one ingredient: reduced cacao pulp.
Instead of a solid jelly, it’s a thick brown liquid. When I opened the jar, the nectar had a sour aroma like a fruity vinegar — one of its recommended uses is as a vinaigrette salad dressing or drizzled on fruits, veggies, cheese, meats — I guess you can use it on everything.
We drizzled it on buttered poppy seed bagels and a prosciutto, brie, and apple pizza. We liked its tangy fruity taste. It’s not chocolate tasting — it doesn’t include anything from cacao beans just the surrounding pulp. It’s a good but different cacao treat.
Carried by some local markets and retailers like Bi-Rite, Chocolate Covered, and The Xocolate Bar, Tiny House Chocolate products are also available on their website, at special events, and at other stores around California and the US. Check their website for locations.
NeoCocoa
Down a few booths was NeoCocoa, a veteran SFBA chocolatier that made their name with their “naked truffles” — ganache squares dusted with cocoa powder, no hard shells. Over the years — they started in 2008 — they have expanded their product line and distribution. Chances are you’ve seen their barks, brittles, marshmallows, or honeycomb in a local shop such as Chocolate Covered or Dandelion.

I had NeoCocoa’s Toffee Nib Brittle —their OG toffee brittle — when it was a new product and their Black Sesame Seed Toffee Brittle when it was still an experiment but I haven’t kept up with all of NeoCocoa’s new products so it was exciting to see their booth full of a plethora of chocolate treats. And I saw that they have expanded their line of toffee brittles so much that they now offer as many — if not more — flavors of brittles as their truffles.
Milk Tea Toffee Brittle

NeoCocoa’s toffee brittles are extremely thin brittles coated in chocolate — hence the hybrid name. Christine Doerr, NeoCocoa’s founder and master chocolatier, wasn’t at the booth when we stopped by so I asked the staff for their recommendations. They steered me toward the Milk Tea made with Earl Grey tea likening it to boba tea.
The 1/8″ thick toffee brittle was very smooth — both taste and texture wise — with a distinct Earl Grey flavor. It was unusual to me that it didn’t have any crunchy bits in it — no nuts, seeds, or nibs — the only crunch was the caramelized sugar making up the brittle. No matter, it was delicious and the best Earl Grey flavored chocolate I ever tasted. If you like Earl Grey tea you must try this brittle!
Other toffee brittles that sounded interesting were the Warm Ginger Root —made with chopped fresh ginger — and the Smoky Mocha — their 2nd collaboration with Ritual Coffee Roasters which uses Ethiopian coffee and smoked sea salt — which I look forward to trying but first I wanted to try some of their other new to me treats.

Like honeycomb! NeoCocoa had 3 flavors of honeycomb — classic, coffee, and their newest one — Orange Creamsicle Wildflower Honeycomb. Made with orange oil, vanilla bean, and California wildflower honey dipped in bittersweet chocolate, the crunchy honeycomb was very orange forward yet tempered with chocolate and vanilla.
Familia Montano Coffee Wildflower Honeycomb

I like the creamsicle honeycomb but I liked the coffee honeycomb even more. The Familia Montano Coffee Wildflower Honeycomb was made with a Columbian coffee from Ritual and dipped in Dandelion’s 70% Camino Verde chocolate. It was a crispy crunchy honeycomb with a light coffee flavor dipped in good chocolate. Neither the coffee nor the chocolate was bitter. There were coffee grounds at end but they didn’t bother me.

Pistachio Bark
We also got NeoCocoa’s Pistachio Bark to try. It was a bittersweet chocolate loaded with chopped nuts. It had a good snap and a soft crunch.
There were little hits of salt in the strong not bitter dark chocolate, and pistachio was a subtle nutty flavor — a little like sweet almond. I thought it was yummy.
The NeoCocoa booth was full of so many interesting possibilities — and I didn’t even get to their truffles or their double chocolate marshmallows — the marshmallows are made with cocoa powder then dipped in chocolate — totally addictive. I have put the Double Chocolate Grapefruit Marshmallows — flavored with essential grapefruit oil — on my list of future treats to try.
You can buy NeoCocoa chocolates and confections online, at special events, and at many local retail establishments. Their collaborations with Dandelion Chocolate are available at Dandelion locations. Check their website for current locations.
COBA

When we stopped by the COBA booth nobody was home. As we were deciding to come back later, Tyler showed up to talk about their coffee bars — which are really tiles but coffee bar is funnier. As he was explaining and sharing samples other people stopped by to try them and share opinions.
COBA makes a set of 4 bars infused with caffeinated ingredients: coffee or tea. Tyler told us that COBA uses a white chocolate base and a fine grind of coffee or tea for their bars.
We tried their bars earlier this year and I wanted to give some feedback on their espresso bar. I’d like to see different origins and roasts because I think their current bar is too bitter. Tyler agreed with me — maybe he will report back to the company or maybe he was just being nice — but I will be looking to see if they expand their coffee bar line.
They do have 3 different tea bars: Chai — which was my favorite, Matcha, and Hojicha — which I didn’t like. But taste is so subjective — another person who was sampling at the same time said the Hojicha was their favorite and they didn’t care for the Chai.
Tyler told us the Chai had a new spice mix with more kick. It’s still my favorite of their bars, tiles, squares, or whatever you want to call them. Your fav may differ but they are a handy way to carry some caffeine along when you might be far from home or a coffee shop.
You can buy COBA chocolates online and at special events.

At the back of the huge event space they had set up a cacao themed backdrop of 3-D cacao pods and leaves — along with big bean bags for lounging, napping, and generally recovering from all the chocolate stimuli. We however persevered because there was still so. much. chocolate.
Public Chocolatory

In South Korea Public Chocolatory is a bean to bar maker and chocolate café about an hour outside of Seoul. We were first introduced to them by Jack Epstein of Chocolate Covered when he had just received an order hand delivered by Public Chocolatory’s founder and head chocolate maker Hanbin Paek. We enjoyed their bars so I was looking forward to visiting their booth at CCE, meeting Hanbin, and seeing what more they had to offer.

They had the 4 bars we had tried from Chocolate Covered plus 3 more — a single origin made with beans from Kokoa Kamili in Tanzania, a vegan oat milk chocolate bar, and a limited edition coffee infused milk chocolate bar.
Haebin told us the vegan bar was new. It’s their first vegan milk bar. Called Korean Oats, it uses organic oats from a southern S. Korean farm and the Kokoa Kamili single origin cacao for a 55% dark “milk” chocolate bar.
The limited edition bar — Nano-Batch #01–2 Coffee 50% Milk Chocolate was a regular milk chocolate made with beans from Madagascar and Brazilian coffee roasted by Mesh, an artisan coffee roastery in Seoul. It wasn’t a strongly coffee flavored bar — the coffee seemed to be there to make the chocolate more intense. It was a fruity chocolate with cherry and tart berry notes.
Hanbin also had baked goods from their café — madeleines, brownies, and cookies — all made with the Kokoa Kamili chocolate. She told us that Public Chocolatory uses the Tanzanian chocolate in all of the desserts at their factory café. There was also a hot chocolate mix for sale in regular and Korean chili versions plus blank cards printed with some of the art that appears on their bar wrappers.
You cannot buy Public Chocolatory bars online currently but Chocolate Covered carries them. If you can’t get it to Chocolate Covered, they offer shipping of these and any other bars that interest you.
The Chaga Company
If your energy is flagging and chocolate samples are not enough, The Chaga Company has got you covered. Gavin Escolar, Chaga Company’s founder and guiding light, had the party music playing as he always does and was handing out samples and educating attendees about chaga and his super food products.
We had just seen him at the Chocolate Salon a few weeks before where Cacaopod had picked up his cold brew coffee and chaga mix — Cacaopod likes to add it to hot chocolate for a deep mocha beverage. Gavin remembered us — was it the purple hair? — and gave us each a handful of samples of his chaga chocolate.
70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate ingots

We also got a bag to go because the samples were not going to make it very far — these little nuggets of savory dark chocolate infused with chaga mushrooms are a real treat. Gavin uses a delicious non-bitter 70% chocolate that has a creamy texture and savory undertone from the chaga mushroom infusion. It has a kind of dark chocolate ice cream taste.
The infusion is subtle — if you didn’t know there was mushroom in this you would never guess what the savoriness was. And that is not because chaga has no taste — if you see Gavin he will give you a sample of his chaga salt to taste as a comparison and it is a full shot of mushroom flavor in a few grains of salt. Wisely Gavin uses a more restrained hand in adding the mushrooms to these bite size chocolate cubes.
The Chaga Company has an online store and Gavin sells at a lot of special events. Follow their Instagram to see where Gavin might be next — or just follow the party music at the next event you attend in the Bay Area to the Chaga Company booth.
J Street Chocolate

J Street Chocolate, vegan chocolate maker and upcycler extraordinaire, was sharing a booth with CocoTerra Company the makers of all-in-one DIY chocolate making machines for home use. While I am never going to be making chocolate myself — there are so many amazing chocolate makers and chocolatiers I don’t have to be a pioneer — it might be your idea of fun. They aren’t shipping yet but you can pre-order one on their website.
We stopped by because we heard at the last minute that J Street Chocolate was going to be there and we wanted to see what Julia Street AKA our Chocolate Professor was making these days.
She had new packaging, new single origins, and new inclusion bars. Busy busy busy! We got to taste the Tropicali, a white chocolate bar made with foraged makrut lime leaves, coconut, oats, and strawberry/elderflower pâte de fruit bits from local maker Yami Yami. The taste reminded me of Thai food with a strong citrusy, tart/sweet vibe. Unfortunately this might be J Street’s last white chocolate bar for a while because of the high cocoa butter prices — something that was a recurring topic at CCE.
We missed out on the other new inclusion bar, the 55% What About Babka? It had been so popular it was already sold out — not even any samples left. I was able to get it on their website after the CCE and will review it in a separate article.
For this bar Julia told us she upcycled babka from a local bakery in Camino Verde cacao. It’s a poppy seed and walnut babka bread, and you get the texture as well as the taste of the babka in the chocolate. Sounds fun!

J Street’s new single origin bars were a 75% Huila Columbia, a 72% Camino Verde Ecuador, and a 72% Bejofo Estate Madagascar. Julia said she wasn’t sure if it’s the final roasting of the Huila but it’s still available on their website.
Huila Columbia 75%
We tried the Huila Columbia first. It had a medium hard snap and a slight texture as it melted. It was initially savory with notes of tobacco. It wasn’t bitter and had a slightly sour note — a tangy undefinable tropical fruit taste. It was a little drying at end and the most unusual tasting of the 3 bars.
Bejofo Estate Madagascar 72%
Like the Huila Columbia the Madagascar bar had a medium hard snap and a slight texture as it melted. This one had a little berry sweetness contrasted with some duskiness. Flavor notes on the packaging mentioned cherry and I definitely tasted that. A nice bar.
Camino Verde Ecuador 72%
J Street’s 3rd single origin bar used the popular Camino Verde cacao from Ecuador. It had a medium hard snap and slight texture. This was a full flavored very chocolatey tasting bar. A real winner.
J. Street Chocolate is available online, at some local retailers like Chocolate Covered and Oaktown Spice Shop (check the website for current locations), popups and events around SFBA (sign up for emails on their site or follow on Instagram), and for pickup in Bayview.
Michael’s Chocolates

Cacaopod and I ran into Michael Benner of Michael’s Chocolates before we even got into the venue as he was taking a break. He was super excited about CCE because his mentor, Melissa Coppel, had a booth — and he said she never does these kinds of things. I guess that was our first clue that this wasn’t going to be a typical chocolate affair.
He was also excited that his collaboration with Dandelion was in the Dandelion popup at the front of the venue. But when we got to his booth he was still stoked about his mentor’s presence and talking about her way more than the Dandelion collab.
Actually when we showed up he was hiding the sample packs because: “The Red Vines one [Michael’s makes enrobed Red Vines] is labeled ‘licorice’ and that confuses people,“ he explained. “It’s licorice but not black licorice. I love salty black licorice but when people say, ‘This is not licorice,’ I have to keep explaining it’s meant as a joke.”
Eagle-eyed customers can be so picky. Even though the Red Vines started as a joke, they are here to stay. “I have a customer who comes in every week for a handful,” Michael told us. “She had cancer and decided to try natural and alternative methods for dealing with it. One way was eating our Dark Chocolate Covered Ginger and now she’s cancer free. Now I’m not saying my chocolate covered ginger cures cancer but now she comes back to get the Red Vines instead.”
So if someone gives you a hard time for eating chocolate, you can tell them Michael’s story.
We had seen Michael at the Salon just a few weeks prior so we knew the lineup at his booth — in addition to the Red Vines and ginger, he had chocolate covered Oreos and orange peels, his current bonbon collections, salted caramels, his smaller bars, and his bite-size mendiants. Instead CCE had a more relaxed vibe so we could chat. While we were at it Christine Doerr, NeoCocoa’s founder, came over so we got to listen to some industry gossip too. Our lips are sealed.
You can buy the full line of Michael’s Chocolates at their factory store in Oakland. Your second chance to find the most options is at special events. You can also buy some of their most popular items online and at some local shops.
Charlotte Truffles

Next to Michael’s booth was Charlotte Truffles, makers of beautiful bonbons and bars with interesting flavor profiles. Like Michael we had just seen Charlotte Walter, Charlotte Truffles’ founder and head chocolatier, at the Salon where she had teased us with news of upcoming pandan and ube bars.
She had both bars at CCE!
Pandan Delight
Charlotte told us that the pandan bar is basically the Pandan and Palm Sugar bonbon from the AAPI collection that she had at the Salon as a bar. She said it was “easier and snackable.”

Charlotte explained the combination in the bar: “Pandan is always paired with something else. If you use it on its own, people say, ‘Oh that’s matcha.’ Even I was confused when I was tasting it.”
Charlotte Truffles’ Pandan Delight had only 3 ingredients: white chocolate, pandan, and palm sugar. It was a bright green bar with a savory vaguely nutty smell.
Initially it did taste like matcha — but it became more complex with nutty, coconutty, and buttery notes, and a sweet grassy matcha aftertaste.
It was a little grainy from the palm sugar crystals but not unpleasantly so, and the sugar gave it a caramel taste. I thought it was an excellent bar. Because it has such a simple ingredient list I think this is a good introduction to pandan if you are curious as to what it tastes like.

Ubelicious Bar
As for the eye catching purple Ubelicious Bar Charlotte said, “The first iteration of the ube bar I was taken aback by how much the color came through. I thought I used too much — that people would say, ‘You just tinted a white chocolate’.”
Charlotte told us that with this bar, “The texture comes through more than anything —that starchy feeling — and it coats your mouth.”
Before we tried it we had to admire it. It was so pretty — the ube added to white chocolate made it a standout purple color. And this bar had only 2 ingredients: white chocolate and ube. Very Instagram worthy.
Beyond being eye candy the Ubelicious Bar had a good snap and a starchy slightly grainy texture. It was full of the distinct and sweet flavor of ube — if ya know ya know. The white chocolate didn’t get in the way. Another excellent bar.
Charlotte Truffles chocolates are available online, at the Menlo Park Farmers Market, special events, and a few select other locations.
Lonohana Chocolate

While Lonohana Chocolate isn’t local the Hawaiian tree to bar chocolate maker has strong local ties — its founder Seneca Klassen was an early SFBA chocolate influencer. He was co-founder of the original Bittersweet Café which was a chocolate café that also sold artisan chocolate. That got him interested in making his own craft chocolate and from there he went on to starting a cacao farm on Oahu and eventually a chocolate factory in Honolulu.
I wanted to find out more about what makes Lonohana Chocolate unique and how Seneca got from selling chocolate to growing and manufacturing estate chocolate. CCE was the perfect venue for our conversation.
Seneca first gave me an overview of what Lonohana does, then a history of both himself and his chocolate company. “Our chocolate is grown and made on Oahu,” he explained. “Our factory is in town [Honolulu].”

“We have 2 brands: Lonohana and Onomea. It’s the same company and production but 2 different farms. Lonohana is higher cacao percentages and finer packaging. Onomea is sweeter and smaller bars,” Seneca said. “The cacao is a little different but close.”
Seneca told us about Lonohana’s beginnings and the 2 different cacaos: “In the late 90s Dole planted the cacao that we use for Onomea. We started Lonohana in 2009 almost across the street.”
Cacao trees take a while to grow — 5 years to start bearing fruit and a few more years before peak productivity. “There were no trees on the land in 2009. It had been sugar cane land — part of the Waipahu sugar plantation [owned by the Oahu Sugar Company]. It was phased out in 1986. They just tilled in the sugar cane and left it. It was basically grass land when I got there — the kind that leads to wildfires. It wasn’t meant to be corrective.
“Our goal was regenerative agroforestry and what the site told us to do was build a forest. It had been deforested originally to farm sugar and pineapples. In 1990s Dole started to diversify with coffee, cacao, and mangoes. They are still growing coffee and cacao — mangoes didn’t work out. But there’s no real plan, so we have a purchasing agreement for the cacao.”
How Seneca got into cacao farming he described as an “evolution of my own interests”: “I used to run Bittersweet. At Bittersweet I was curating a bunch of bars starting in 2005-2006 and I got to meet the guys making them. I started doing cacao origin trips with them.
“Mott Green of Grenada Chocolate Company was very influential. He stressed the importance of in-country manufacturing. It was so much more interesting to me. I sold Bittersweet and spent a lot of time in Hawaii.”
I think he made a good choice. Bittersweet is still going strong as The Chocolate Dragon Cafe with its eclectic collection of craft chocolate. Hawaii has a good steward of the land where Lonohana is located. And we all get more good chocolate to enjoy.

Hawaiian Dark 70% bar
I asked Seneca for his recommendations to get an idea of the 2 brands. From the higher end Lonohana line we tried the plain 70% dark first. There are only 2 ingredients in the bar — Hawaiian grown cacao and organic cane sugar — so it really highlighted the cacao flavor.
It was a hard temper with a good snap that took a while to melt. It had a smooth texture and a light chocolatey slightly fruity flavor with raisin undertones. It was a flavor winner with all 7 people who tried it —they finished off the large bar in one tasting.
Another aspect we liked about the bar was the packaging. It’s beautiful with a die cut closure of overlapping leaves printed in low contrast to the cream colored paper. It would make a super elegant gift.

Dark Milk
We also liked the Lonohana 50% dark milk bar. This one had organic whole milk powder and cocoa butter added to the main ingredients. It had a hard snap for a milk chocolate and the same smooth texture as the dark bar.
The hardness made for a slow taste release, We liked that it was not too sweet with a fudgy milk chocolate flavor. People described it as a “gentle chocolate” and a “good after dinner chocolate.”
Salted Coconut Milk
The 3rd Lonohana recommendation was a vegan bar. The Salted Coconut Milk bar added dehydrated coconut, cocoa butter, and Hawaiian sea salt to the main ingredients. This bar had the visual appeal of fine salt glittering on its back side. It had a soft break and smooth texture. It was very coconut milk tasting and a little bland. It’s a nice choice if you want vegan milk chocolate but we all preferred the regular bars.

North Shore Dark bar
We also tried a couple of Lonohana’s Onomea line made with cacao from the Dole plantation. These are smaller bars with eye catching colorful packaging that would make fun souvenirs.
The North Shore Dark had a good sharp snap like the premiere bars and a fairly smooth texture. It listed 3 ingredients: cacao, cane sugar, and cocoa butter. It didn’t list a cacao percentage but it wasn’t bitter or too sweet. A little savory, a little fudgy, a little fruity, just a basically chocolatey chocolate. It had a long melt with a good mouthfeel and delicious aftertaste.
Caramel Sea Salt
The Caramel Sea Salt also didn’t list a percentage but it was a milk chocolate bar with Hawaiian sea salt and vanilla added. It smelled sweet and had visible salt sprinkled on the back with a medium snap.
It had a silky texture and strong caramel flavor with hits of salt but not too much. Overall it was too sweet for me and seemed designed to be a mass appeal chocolate — something to give the kids or to fans of more traditionally American chocolate.
Socola Chocolatier

I walked past Socola Chocolatier ’s booth twice and didn’t see anyone there so I kept going. Turns out I didn’t look hard enough. Wendy Lieu was there — I just didn’t see her behind that massive display of chocolate! Luckily Cacaopod stopped and got the news and new products for us to try.
We’d gotten updated at the Salon so I thought it would be okay if we didn’t get anything Socola this time but no! Wendy had a new limited edition bar and a new bonbon collection. So glad Cacaopod is like a foot taller than me so he saw Wendy when all I saw was chocolate.
Turon Crunch bar

The new Socola bar, Turon Crunch, was inspired by its namesake — the Southeast Asian dessert of caramelized tropical fruit wrapped in spring roll wrappers and deep fried. Banana turon is most common but other tropical fruits like jackfruit are used too.
This limited edition bar was a dark milk chocolate bar decorated with a slice of dried banana and a puffy piece of yellow freeze dried jackfruit — plus tiny white sesame seeds sprinkled all over. Mixed inside the bar were crushed feuilletine bits and more pieces of fruit.
If you like bananas and chocolate, this might be your new fav. It had a good banana chocolate flavor with an extra tropical note from the light sweet jackfruit. The banana slice has a satisfying chewy texture and the freeze dried jackfruit tasted a bit like mango. The feuilletine and sesame seeds gave it a nice crunch. Another winner from Socola.
Xuân Special Edition bonbons
The box of bonbons, Xuân, was also a special edition with 4 new flavors (L to R): Pineapple Mint, Banana Caramel, Hojicha Longhan, and Tiên Giang. They were all delicious.

The Pineapple Mint had 2 layers — pineapple pâte de fruit on a white chocolate mint ganache — in a dark chocolate shell decorated with freeze dried pineapple. Pineapple was the first taste then mint which grew as it melted. The dark chocolate was the third flavor which combined with the other flavors to become a refreshing mint chocolate with a little fruitiness.
The Banana Caramel was liquid caramel with banana purée in a dark shell.
The first impression was caramel and chocolate then banana appeared and expanded. This was so good — like caramelized banana covered in dark chocolate.
The Hojicha Longhan was a pâte de fruit of longhan fruit infused with hojicha tea. It had a sweet, lightly fruity, and roasted tea taste. I liked this rendition of hojicha and it got me thinking I’d like to try more tea and coffee based pâte de fruit — they could be called pâte de leaf and pâte de bean.
The 4th flavor, Tiên Giang, was made with 70% Tiên Giang single origin chocolate from 9th & Larkin. In this piece the cacao had an unusual distinctive fruity flavor like tamarind or dried fruit like fig with nutty overtones. It had a smooth texture with a powdery mouthfeel.
I recommend signing up for Socola’s newsletter so you can be alerted when Wendy drops something new. Socola chocolates are available at their factory store, online, at special events, and at their new SFO location which opened in August.
Raphio Chocolate
One of our furthest flung SFBA chocolate makers Raphio Chocolate made good on their promise at the Salon that since their kids were old enough now they would be at more events. They brought their full array of chocolate bars to CCE including a white chocolate bar I hadn’t tried before.
Jasmine Matcha White Chocolate bar

The Jasmine Matcha White Chocolate bar was 42% cacao with a simple ingredients list — cacao butter, whole milk powder, cane sugar, jasmine tea, matcha powder. Everything was marked organic except the milk powder.
It was a pretty green color with a cocoa butter, grassy, and slightly floral aroma. It had a medium break and smooth texture.
The chocolate had a milky flavor — as opposed to a milk chocolate flavor — that became more matcha as it melted. The jasmine was too subtle for me — me!? who usually doesn’t like floral — it seemed to be there to temper the bitter matcha notes but I thought it wasn’t distinct enough. This is definitely a matcha lovers bar with its mostly matcha flavor and bitter matcha aftertaste.

We also got some Raphio single origin bars.
Trinidad 72%
The Trinidad had a hard snap and while it had savory notes it was a sweeter tasting than expected 72% with a melted chocolate ice cream taste. Tasting notes on the package said molasses, wine, and herbal which I didn’t get specifically — taste is individual — but I think my sweet and savory sensations mapped to their molasses and herbal descriptors.
Indonesia Papua 72%
The Indonesia Papua had a medium hard snap and a slight texture as it melted. Tasting notes were red wine and brown spice — for me it was a fruity bar with tobacco overtones that were pleasant in combination with the fruitiness.
India 72%
The India was the most interesting to me. Like the Indonesia it had a medium hard snap and slight texture. Tasting notes were black tea and blood orange. What struck me first was a fermented sensation — it really did have a black tea taste as marked. I didn’t get blood orange per se but it was a tangy bar. It had a good mouth feel with a fudge and tea aftertaste.
I confess to having been biased against Indian cacao — I’ve had a lot of subpar chocolate made from Indian cacao so I wasn’t expecting to like this bar. Raphio changed my mind —I loved this bar.
Raphio Chocolate is available online and at their shop in Fresno, some SFBA stores, and special events. Check their website for more info.
Dandelion Chocolate
Our last stop was the enclosed Dandelion Chocolate popup shop at the front of the venue. It was very elegant with a large mirrored arch entrance, floral arrangements, and orderly displays of their own and other local chocolatiers’ wares made with Dandelion couvertures.


Even with a bunch of attendees inside it had a bit of a zen vibe. A nice way to end the experience, it toned down the overwhelm of the event.
Immediately inside the door was a display of the 2023 Advent Calendar with a QR code displayed for preordering the 2024 calendar. Dandelion’s Advent Calendars are a big deal — they feature bonbons from a variety of impeccable chocolatiers who create pieces for the calendar using Dandelion couvertures and they sell out every year.

Around the rest of the space were shelves full of different Dandelion chocolate items including their collaborations with artisan chocolatiers. I saw Michael’s Chocolates, NeoCocoa, and Feve collaborations on the shelves.
We didn’t get any of the collabs instead concentrating on bars. We have tried Dandelion’s beautifully wrapped single origin bars before — if you go to their stores or cafés you can sample them. They make good gifts for your chocolate geek friends or anyone interested in trying single origins. This time we tried a new to us bar made with cacao from the Dominican Republic.
The 70% Zorzal Communitario, D.R. had a medium snap and slight texture that made for a satisfying mouthfeel. Cacaopod and I both felt that while this was a nice tasting chocolate there was nothing distinct about it. It had a slight tang and was a little bitter with a drying after sensation — not enough to be unpleasant. We thought it was a safe choice for a single origin bar.
You can buy Dandelion Chocolate at one of their SF locations, their shops in Las Vegas and Japan, online, at special events, and at other retailers across the country. Check their website for locations.
More chocolate!
So much chocolate! CCE was overwhelming. Next time I will try to pace myself better. I did see all the local chocolate vendors there and some non-SFBA vendors — but there were still so many more. The remaining vendors that I didn’t stop by included some non-SFBA makers we have covered on CBTB previously:
- Argencove Fine Artisan Chocolate: Nicaragua
- Mission Chocolate: Brazil
- Chocolate Naive: Lithuania
- NearyNógs: Ireland
- Soma Chocolatemaker: Canada
And look at all of these I didn’t get a chance to meet or sample! That could be a whole ’nother round-the-world-in-chocolate article:
- 20/20 Chocolates: Venezuela
- AWKI: Ecuador
- Bon-fiction: India
- Cárdenas Chocolate: Ecuador
- Conexión Chocolate: Ecuador
- Bocao Panama: Panama
- Inaru: Dominican Republic
- Likkle More Chocolate: Jamaica
- Noble Cacao: Mexico
- Siamaya Chocolate: Thailand
- Somos Cacao: Columbia
Wrap it up
For me the whole experience was more like a party than any of the more serious descriptors I used earlier to describe the CCE. It wasn’t too crowded when I was there and so many of the makers were in attendance — if not at their booths then walking around the floor checking out the other vendors — that it was an amazing opportunity to talk to the creators.
I find chocolate makers and chocolatiers interesting: They have this mix of artist and scientist, and they are usually hella creative. I love coming to these events to see what new deliciousness has been concocted — and CCE made it extra special by giving me the opportunity to talk to so many of these creative interesting people. Some conversations were brief, others took up some serious time, but it was all like a good dinner party — if all we’re eating is chocolate and playing a bit of musical chairs while chatting the evening away.
The next CCE is scheduled to take place May 2–4, 2025 at the Palace of Fine Arts again. Mark your calendars now!