I have been hearing rumors of a chocolate maker starting up in one of San Francisco’s pier buildings for a few months. Now there is an article in the New York Times on Tcho, a chocolate startup founded by Louis Rossetto, who also started Wired Magazine. In typical Silicon Valley startup fashion, he dove in with both feet. After hearing of a chocolate factory for sale in Germany, he bought the whole works and moved it to San Francisco.
They have taken a very “product management” approach to chocolate making, offering small batches of “beta test” bars for testing, starting with a Ghana single origin. (An unusual choice for a first bar, as most artisan producers start with a Trinitario rather than a Forestero bean.) They are only offering them for pickup at the factory now. Hopefully I’ll be able to track down and interview someone from this interesting new company. Stay tuned…
