Dandelion – Ambanja

Cameron Ring and Todd Masonis started experimenting with chocolate in a friend’s garage back in 2010. Two years earlier they had sold their successful internet start-up company, Plaxo, and what started as a fun hobby soon became their next passion.While they may be based in San Francisco and have a tech start-up mentality, this is pure chocolate. Dandelion bars are made with beans from one farm or cooperative at a time, and they contain simply cocoa beans and sugar - no extra cocoa butter, lecithin or vanilla are added, so you really taste the unique flavour of each bean. You can learn more about the Dandelion chocolate making process here.Dandelion Chocolate is also one of the few "craft chocolate" companies to have factories in multiple countries. We're super lucky that we've been able to visit both tour their original factory and their new one in Japan. It's hard to pick which was more fun - in San Francisco we got to tour the factory & play with their marga (also know as doing a cut test - it was harder to push through 100 beans than we realised!) - in Tokyo we had to queue up to get inside but everyone was in perfect pairs and it definitely added to the excitement. We can't wait to visit their new factory at Valencia St, San Francisco when we're next allowed to travel. See more