Dandelion Chocolate

Founded: 2010
Home: San Francisco, California
Founders: Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring
Specialty: Single-origin, two-ingredient bean-to-bar chocolate
Known for: Direct cacao sourcing, cocoa-and-sugar bars and factory experiences
Visit Dandelion Chocolates

Exploring Chocolate Through Origin

In San Francisco’s Mission District, Dandelion Chocolate has built its identity around a remarkably simple formula: cocoa beans and sugar.

Founded in 2010, the company produces small-batch, single-origin chocolate designed to highlight the natural differences between cacao harvests. Rather than creating one consistent house flavour, Dandelion treats individual origins as the starting point, allowing the beans themselves to shape the finished chocolate.

From Technology to Chocolate Making

Dandelion Chocolate was founded by Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring, who previously worked together in technology. Their early experiments with chocolate included roasting cacao beans at home before the project developed into a commercial bean-to-bar operation in San Francisco.

The company opened its Valencia Street factory and café in 2012. Dandelion later expanded into a much larger factory on 16th Street, which opened in 2019 inside a century-old former printing building.

Chocolate With Just Two Ingredients

Dandelion’s core chocolate contains cocoa beans and organic cane sugar. It does not add vanilla, lecithin, preservatives, flavourings or additional cocoa butter. That simplicity puts considerable emphasis on cacao quality.

Dandelion sources beans from individual farms, co-operatives or defined growing regions. Each origin is processed separately so its distinctive characteristics remain evident in the finished bar.

New cacao arrivals are evaluated and tested before the chocolate-making team determines how best to process them. Because different beans behave and taste differently, production can be adjusted to suit each origin rather than following one universal recipe.

From Cacao Bean to Finished Bar

At its San Francisco factory, Dandelion carries out the major stages of chocolate production itself. Cacao is roasted before the beans are cracked and winnowed to separate the nibs from their shells. The nibs are then ground, refined and conched before the chocolate is tempered, moulded and packaged.

Working in relatively small batches allows the makers to adjust their approach according to the characteristics of each cacao harvest.

The philosophy resembles the way wine or specialty coffee can be explored by region. Two chocolate bars containing the same percentage of cacao can taste noticeably different when their beans come from different places.

Direct Relationships at Origin

Sourcing is another important part of Dandelion’s approach. The company works directly with cacao producers and says it pays premiums above commodity prices for its beans. Its sourcing programme focuses on long-term relationships, cacao quality and greater transparency throughout the supply chain.

Dandelion also publishes sourcing reports that provide information about its cacao partnerships and supply chain. The reports stretch back for more than a decade, giving readers an unusually detailed look at how the company’s sourcing programme has developed.

Beyond the Chocolate Bar

Although single-origin bars remain central to Dandelion’s identity, the company has expanded the concept into other chocolate experiences. Its San Francisco locations serve hot chocolate, pastries, confections and desserts made with the company’s own single-origin chocolate. The approach allows visitors to experience the same cacao in forms beyond a traditional bar.

The 16th Street location combines production with a café, retail shop and educational experiences, making the factory itself part of the Dandelion story.

Inside the Dandelion Chocolate Factory

Visitors can also see chocolate production firsthand. Guided tours of the 16th Street Factory take guests through the production line while exploring cacao sourcing, chocolate history and the bean-to-bar process. Tastings can range from cacao and roasted beans through to finished single-origin chocolate.

Dandelion also offers hands-on experiences, including chocolate-making, truffle-making and tempering classes. Its chocolate-making programme allows participants to work with cacao nibs and sugar to create their own batch of two-ingredient chocolate.

That educational component makes Dandelion more than a production facility. It provides consumers with an opportunity to understand how much happens between a cacao farm and a finished chocolate bar.

Letting the Cacao Speak

Dandelion Chocolate demonstrates how complicated chocolate can become when the recipe itself remains deliberately simple. With only cocoa beans and sugar in its core bars, there are few places for differences in cacao quality, fermentation, roasting and production to hide.

Instead, those differences become the point.

For chocolate lovers interested in understanding single-origin and bean-to-bar chocolate, Dandelion offers an opportunity to explore how dramatically flavour can change when the cacao — rather than additional ingredients — takes centre stage.