Bean to bar chocolate makers

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Permalink Reply by Sacred Steve on June 16, 2009 at 6:12am

Sacred Chocolate is a TRUE BEAN TO BAR MAKER in SAN RAFAEL, CA, USA. I know first hand because I built the machines and the whole factory for that matter.
Hearts!
Sacred Steve
PS. Scharffenberger Plant recently closed, so you may want to remove them from the list...

Permalink Reply by Alan McClure on June 16, 2009 at 8:25am

Scharffen Berger's production has been relocated to Illinois by Hershey, who has owned them since 2005 iirc. That doesn't mean that they are no longer bean-to-bar.

Permalink Reply by Sacred Steve on June 16, 2009 at 8:27am

Oh, ok! I suppose it is really Hershey who is doing the bean to bar then...?

Permalink Reply by Clay Gordon on June 16, 2009 at 8:35am

I think the jury is out until we have more information. For at least the last couple of years, Hershey has outsourced all liquor production in their Hershey, PA facility.

Will they get (or are they already/still) back in the bean roasting and grinding business?

Does anyone know for sure one way or another?

Permalink Reply by Alan McClure on June 16, 2009 at 9:48am

Let me add that I also don't have proof that they are still bean-to-bar. i don't know one way or the other. I was just pointing out that despite the Berkeley facility being closed, Scharffen Berger is still being made, just in Illinois.

Permalink Reply by david castellan on July 18, 2009 at 3:06pm

i heard that they have duplicated all the processes in Illinois, including a new Barth Tornado roaster (very cool!) and a much bigger melangeur made in Russia etc
i bought some of their equipment from the Berkeley location - one of the roasters and the bean cleaner. if i ever find the appropriate location, it will be set up again along with an old winnower from a Lindt factory in Northern Italy and some other vintage goodies. Maybe that will move me up from microbatch to small batch:)

Celebrating 6 years of microbatch chocolate making ....

Permalink Reply by Lowe on August 13, 2009 at 9:00am

Are these companies b2b?
Cote d’Or
Equal Exchange
Rapunzel

Permalink Reply by Lowe on August 14, 2009 at 8:38am

Clay,

You said on 4/28/08-- "I have created a simple database that will enable us to track these companies more easily. It is located here.

PLEASE DO NOT ADD ANY MORE COMPANY NAMES HERE. Please add them in the database. If you have added a company to this list, please consider making an entry in the database for it."

Is this database still on TCL? The link you provided doesn't go anywhere, and I can't find anything else to get to the database.

Permalink Reply by Clay Gordon on August 14, 2009 at 8:51am

The data are still available but I haven't found a good way to present it and make it both usable and useful. Still working on it.

Permalink Reply by Lowe on August 17, 2009 at 3:41pm

Does anyone know if any of these companies are bean to bar?
-Cote d’Or
-Equal Exchange
-Rapunzel

Permalink Reply by Masur on August 17, 2009 at 5:18pm

Cote d’Or is owned by Kraft Food and not a bean to bar company. I've never seen bars from Equal Exchange and Rapunzel. A Check at their websites convinced me they are not bean to bar companies.

Permalink Reply by Sacred Steve on August 17, 2009 at 5:59pm

Being a micro-batch bean to bar company ourselves, i can vouch for the difficulty in doing HIGH QUALITY bean to bar in the USA without cutting corners while bringing to market a retail price point below $4 which is most of these companies. I don't blame them for not being bean to bar. It seems most grinding is being done offshore these days except for some of the hugely automated stateside comanies with massive infrastructure investment.

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