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American, Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Makers: A Complete List

Hi All,

I have never seen a complete list of American, bean-to-bar chocolate makers. Since most American companies that market chocolate or chocolate products don't actually make it, I thought that it would be interesting to compile a list for everyone to see who really does make it, and who doesn't.

I'll type the first entry, and if everyone could copy it and add to it in each additional post, along with comments and questions, then that would be great.

Complete List:
Guittard

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by cybele on April 23, 2008 at 2:48pm: Wilbur makes "bean-to-bar" or other confections that are available to the public, not just couveture to the trade.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alan McClure on April 23, 2008 at 4:37pm: Hi Cybele,

Good catch. The website isn't clear about that here:
http://www.wilburchocolate.com/

But I did a little checking and found this:
http://www.wilburbuds.com/

Updated List:

Amano Artisan Chocolate
Ambrosia (ADM-owned, bean-to-couverture)
Askinosie Chocolate
Bittersweet Chocolate Cafe (Seneca is doing some micro-batch bars)
Blommer Chocolate Company
Cioccolato (located in Wyoming and Mexico--bean-to-bonbon)
De Vries Chocolate
De Zaan (ADM-owned, bean-to-couverture)
Escazu Chocolates (just starting to release a bean-to-bar line)
Fearless Chocolate Company (raw)
Ghirardelli (Owned by Lindt in Switzerland)
Guittard
Jacques Torres
Kraft (German-owned)
Mars
Mast Brothers
Merkens (ADM-owned, bean-to-couverture)
Nestle (Swiss-owned)
Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory (also grows their beans on American soil)
Patric Chocolate
Peters (Cargill-owned, bean-to-couverture)
Rogue Chocolatier
Sacred Chocolate (raw)
Scharffen Berger
Soma Chocolatemaker (actually in Canada)
Taza
Tcho
Theo
Van Leer (Belgian-owned)
Wilbur (Cargill-owned, bean-to-bar)
World's Finest Chocolate; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Mark Boxshus on August 11, 2008 at 5:55pm: Now..........this list is more like it. Thanks for providing the update.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by cybele on January 26, 2009 at 1:13pm: Hershey's does not roast their own beans any longer, they buy liquor from Callebaut. (Though I believe they're still sourcing their own beans, just outsourcing the process.) Yes, they own Scharffen Berger, but it is its own discrete factory at this time from the rest of the Hershey's production line.

I wasn't aware that TCHO wasn't roasting their own beans. They show a lot of pictures of them playing with beans on their website.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by cm on January 26, 2009 at 5:19pm: TCHO most definitely is bean to bar. They go straight to the farmers to get their beans, and roast their own.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Louis Rossetto on January 26, 2009 at 9:19pm: Jay's post about TCHO is wrong. We at TCHO buy our beans directly from farmers or coops, we personally oversee their roasting to our own proprietary roast protocols and profiles, and then we manufacture beans from the liquor made from the roasts.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alan McClure on January 27, 2009 at 6:14am: Hi Louis,

Good to meet you, if only online!

Do you roast those beans in your San Francisco facility, or are they roasted elsewhere, for example at origin?

Happy New Year,

Alan

Permalink Reply by Clay Gordon on January 27, 2009 at 9:49am: What most people would consider a "true" bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturer would physically do their own roasting and grind liquor from those beans on their own machines - not have someone else do those steps to their specs/protocols.

Permalink Reply by Olorin on April 23, 2008 at 5:27pm: If a chocolate company is NOT bean to bar, but uses couverture what is that kind of company called? I've heard them called "chocolatier", but is that an accurate and widely used label?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Clay Gordon on April 26, 2008 at 4:04pm: One French term is "fondeur" - melter.

I guess it depends on what you think of as a chocolatier. If a shop buys most of its stuff (truffles, bon bons) but makes chocolate-dipped pretzels are they a chocolatier?

In the end, I don't really care where the line is drawn. I will continue to appreciate most those who work to express their own creative visions, not sell someone else's.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Clay Gordon on April 28, 2008 at 11:16am: All:

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.

Thanks in advance,
:: Clay; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Olorin on August 12, 2008 at 1:14pm: QUOTE: "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." /QUOTE

Clay,

Has any more progress been made on updating this database? I seem to recall that you were going to look into other options to make it more usable. For instance, going with the theme of this thread, it would need to be able to produce a report with U.S. bean to bar makers. Other reports needed are 1) a report for each company that lists all of the data collected for that company , 2) Reports by country, 3) A complete list of just the chocolate makers grouped by country.

Ideally, it would be great to have a way to import this data directly into an Access database so that no data re-entry has to be done. At a minimum there has to be a way to print these reports so that we can have it in a hard copy.

I think this is a very useful project, so I hope it will continue to grow and improve.; ▶ Reply to This