I see evidence of Tcho Chocolate‘s goodness all the time around North America: at food markets in different cities, on foodie blogs, and in travel magazines. I like their message, their fair and equal treatment of chocolate producers, their anti-slavery campaign, and their sourcing program. I like that their chocolate isn’t full of the cheap filler that makes people sick; I like being able to tell my daughter to “pick what you want” without worrying about ingredients.
What I didn’t realize is that Tcho is a San Francisco company; and, while looking for Blue Bottle coffee, we stumbled upon the chocolate factory at Pier 17 on the Embarcadero.
A very pleasant surprise!
But it doesn’t end here… Tcho is founded/run by some well-known people in the tech industry: Timothy Childs (the person who developed vision systems for NASA’s Space Shuttle program), Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe (the founders of Wired magazine and Wired.com), and Karl Bittong (a career chocolate engineer and designer known for his work in building factories).
As an added bonus, the chocolate is packaged with an attractive designer/foodie flair; eye-catching but not too flashy. Unique designs that are specific to San Francisco.
We missed the opportunity to take a factory tour; in fact, I think the staff were really overwhelmed with the number of people in the factory on the Saturday that we visited. They barely had time to breathe and simply talk to their customers. They did, however, prepare a pretty spectacular coffee for me.
I went looking for a Blue Bottle coffee and was surprised by Tcho. It’s worth a visit for both the chocolate and the coffee experience.
