Complete Chocolate Lover’s Guide for the San Francisco Bay Area

Dandelion bars

Dandelion Chocolate – Valencia Street

Come here for a hot chocolate splurge, plus a chance to chat with the chocolate makers behind the counter

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Dandelion Chocolate
Highest attention to detail in bean-to-bar making, plus free house-made marshmallows for your hot chocolate.

740 Valencia Street, San Francisco

Mission District DIY Tour

Micro-batch chocolate

Local Chocolatier Factory Store bean to barCafeDandelion Chocolate makes bean-to-bar chocolate but they go beyond small-batch and actually custom roast each bag of beans they import to bring out its unique flavors. They opened this —their first café and open factory kitchen — in December 2012. They have since opened a store in the Ferry Building, a café in Tokyo, 2 additional stores in Japan, a store in Las Vegas, and pop-ups in CA and beyond (currently they have a popup on Fillmore St. in SF). They opened their 34,500-square-foot factory, café and chocolate salon in the Mission in 2019.

Roasting beans by the bag, Dandelion isn’t aiming for consistency but instead to make the best-tasting chocolate each time. Each bar is wrapped in pretty handmade paper with the wrapper signed by its maker. The wrappers include a helpful description of the beans and the process used, and the flavor notes of the particular bar.

At the café, you can watch chocolate-making & ask questions of the chocolate makers while sitting at the bar along the side of the kitchen drinking chocolate & coffee drinks and eating pastries and other baked goods.

In addition to their chocolate bars, you can buy chocolate décor for your home like cacao pods. They also offer chocolate making classes & trips to cacao farms to learn about cacao farming.

CBTB Tip:

They have free house-made marshmallows on the counter for you to add to your chocolate drink.

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Published 21 March, 2014