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TCHO is a
chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...
maker based in Berkeley,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
, US that promotes itself as working with cacao bean farmers and cooperatives to improve growing, fermentation and drying methods. The company's factory and headquarters were previously located on Pier 17 along the Embarcadero, in
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
's historic waterfront district, but are now located in the West Berkeley section of Berkeley,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. In February 2018, it was announced that TCHO would be bought by the Japanese confectionery company Ezaki Glico.


History

TCHO was co-founded in December 2005 by Timothy Childs, a technology and chocolate entrepreneur who once developed vision systems for NASA's Space Shuttle program, and Karl Bittong, a 40-plus year veteran of the chocolate industry. In 2006, the company moved to Pier 17, a historic pier built in 1912 and the third-oldest pier on the San Francisco pier. Historically, the pier has been used for transport, military logistics, and trade, including the trade of cacao beans to San Francisco. The TCHO chocolate factory was assembled by a team of engineers using vintage German machines and modern refiners and grinders. In April 2014 TCHO left Pier 17 and moved their offices and factory to Berkeley, California. TCHO teamed with Erik Spiekermann of Edenspiekermann for design and branding. Its packaging design have won awards and honors, including the Academy of Chocolate Gold Award in February 2009, the European Design Gold Award in May 2009, the iF communication design award in August 2009, as well as nominations for the 2009 Cannes Design Lions and 2011 German Federal Design Award.


Products

The company manufacturers two single-origin dark chocolate bars, plant-based chocolate bars, drinking chocolate, cocoa powder, roasted cacao nibs and baking chocolate. It primarily sells its products to United States retailers. They also offer wholesale options and bulk for chocolatiers and makers.


TCHO Source

TCHO promotes its direct investment in partnerships with cacao farmers through its TCHO Source Program, where it aims to provide farmers with the technology and know-how in 'open source' fashion. "Flavor Labs" have been installed at co-ops throughout the world for farmers.


See also

*
List of bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturers A bean-to-bar company produces chocolate by processing cocoa beans into a product in-house, rather than melting chocolate from another manufacturer. They operate on a small scale (generally producing batches of chocolate smaller than ) without lec ...


References


External links

* {{Official website, http://www.tcho.com American companies established in 2005 Food and drink in the San Francisco Bay Area Brand name chocolate 2005 establishments in California Chocolate companies based in California Manufacturing companies based in San Francisco Food and drink companies established in 2005