Tours daily - 10am + 2pm
When I discovered that TCHO, a San Francisco based chocolate maker, offered free factory tours (including a free TCHO tasting) I wasted no time signing Alex and I up.
TCHO is a funny name. When I first saw it a few years ago at the Chocolate Show in NY, I even inquired about its meaning. I was told it was “technology chocolate” and nothing more. Confused, I admired their interesting packaging and moved on to eat way too many bananas foster chocolate pods from a nearby, non-Tcho booth.
TCHO began life as TSCHO, an extension of the brand's German-roots. Sometime during the brand's early days it was decided that the “S” wasn’t cutting it, and that TCHO (T is silent) would be best when spreading chocolate goodness across the world. With a name in tact, these German techies began sourcing, roasting, and grinding cacao beans on the coastal waters of Pier 17, just off of the Embarcadero. Like many companies in SF, TCHO is a strong believer in technology. Whether it’s to turn on the chocolate-making machines remotely with an iPhone app, take visitors on a virtual factory tour - pre-tour, or to help the co-ops in cacao-rich communities create efficient, modern (yet sustainable) ways to produce cacao, TCHO embraces the tech – something that makes even more sense when you learn that the CEOs of TCHO also happen to be the founders of Wired Magazine.
But while technology is all good and well, the chocolate is the real star. From chocolatey, fruity, nutty, floral, earthy and citrusy, TCHO claims there are 6 taste experiences to proper chocolate. These distinctions in taste vary based on the bean-type as well as the region in which the cacao plant grows. For a host of production reasons TCHO only offers 4 of the 6 taste profiles – chocolatey, fruity, nutty, and citrusy – all of which were available to sample and compare after the short, non-virtual, factory tour. Likened to wine tasting (something I haven’t ever experienced due to my sulfite allergies) the flavors unfold and reveal themselves over time. After letting the chocolate melt (don’t chew!) it becomes apparent that the 4 varietals available are definitely distinct and fit their titles well – the chocolatey did taste chocolatey and the fruity was sort of fruity (the one I preferred). Sticking to purity, TCHO doesn’t offer “flavored” chocolate and all of their chocolate is dark.
TCHO's factory // no one likes hair in their chocolate!
Lasting about an hour, the tour was rather informative, cost nothing (you even got to keep the hair and beard - yes beard - nets required to keep chocolate making hair-free), and brought insight into a company that is looking to bring the best of chocolate to the world via a host of channels*.
*you can find TCHO in certain WholeFoods, SF-based mom + pop grocers, gourmet markets, and even some Starbucks (this one is masked under Starbucks private label….but be careful, Starbucks uses a host of other manufacturers too, so make sure to check the back of the label for "manufactured by TCHO", if you're looking for that high-quality chocolate experience)
