Our amazing, intern, Demitri, did some “homework” over the past couple weeks and we think you might like to take a peek.

A Series of Haiku about Dandelion Chocolate

By Demitri Hernandez and Pearl Wong

740 of

Valencia Street.  Here stands

A Chocolate factory.

There is a chocolate

Who goes by Dandy Lion,

Fierce, and delicious.

Sweet Madagascar,

Nutty Patanemo and

Yummy Mantuano.

Papau New Guinea:

Honey, smokey barbecue

Draws much attention.

Steaming Guaniamo

Wards off chilly nights ahead—

Winter is coming.

We’re still unpacking it, but our new tempering machine from FBM just showed up.

It has a few features that should  allow us to be a bit more efficient. With the holidays quickly approaching, the timing couldn’t be better!

I’m writing to let you all know that I’m off to new adventures in sunny LA, beginning next week! I’ve been incredibly fortunate to watch Dandelion grow from our days in the garage and at the Mission Community Market.

I’ve grown immensely during my time here, and I’ve found a great family of friends in the Dandelion folks. Over the past three years, I’ve stayed up all night making chocolate, met a lemur, and seen the opening of our space on Valencia Street. It’s been a treat! I’m leaving a great group, and I’m so excited to see how Dandelion evolves.

If you’d like to email someone at Dandelion, and you need a new contact, feel free to reach out to events@dandelionchocolate.com, jobs@dandelionchocolate.com, or info@dandelionchocolate.com. I hope to see you all again soon!

One of the most important things to keep in mind when working at a chocolate factory, or in any other industry that involves dangerous equipment, is safety. At Dandelion Chocolate, we pride ourselves on being extra cautious when it comes to the safety of both our patrons and our employees. I, myself, am very involved in all things concerning safety at the factory, so when the opportunity arose to become certified in First Aid and CPR, I was happier than a slinky on an escalator! My co-worker Maverick was chosen to be my partner in crime, and needless to say we went to class eager to learn how to save lives “Dandelion Style”. For those of you unfamiliar with us wacky chocolate makers, we have an unspoken philosophy that all things Dandelion-related should be fun and lighthearted.

Portrait with “Bob” and the Ambubaby

I have to admit, it was humorously difficult for us to get past the creepy dolls without faces (which were actually stored in equally creepy plastic bags!), but during instruction time we payed super close attention and worked hard to make sure we understood the procedures. As a matter of fact, Maverick was the lucky guy chosen to be the choking victim!

Maverick is Choking and Unconscious!

During the class, we learned all of the ways to identify “breathing emergencies” and how to tell the differences between them. We were shown how to handle the situations based on the victim’s age and body type. We learned how to use an AED machine, give CPR, and about the proper protocols in contacting Emergency Medical Services. We are now skilled in burn treatments, cuts and lacerations, and some really awesome tricks for bandaging wounds!

Preparing “Bob” for CPR

All joking aside, it was awesome to learn how to respond in emergency situations. I am proud to be certified by the Red Cross and I know Maverick is too. We had a great time learning the material and I can’t tell you how good it feels to know that there are people in the factory that are ready and willing to help if the need ever arises. Hopefully, our visitors will feel safer knowing that we are prepared as well!

Me and the Ambubaby

We’ve had an amazing summer hosting weekly pop-ups with our favorite local pastry chefs. It’s been so much fun seeing all the different styles, flavors, and textures that can be made with our chocolate. Now that the summer is winding down, we have some exciting news to announce: we’ve found our new pastry chef!

So meet Lisa Vega, the newest member of our team, most recently the pastry chef at Gary Danko. Here’s a little she wrote about herself:

I was born and raised in Los Angeles and grew up cooking with both my grandmothers. Everyday after school I’d sit at the kitchen pull out cutting board and help anyway I could. I mostly made jello but the romance of a group of people coming together to share a meal and their stories started to define my love for food.  After graduating from Loyola Marymount (with a BA in English Literature) I decided that culinary school would be my next step, I did my externship in Napa and decided to enroll in the CIA’s Greystone Campus and completed the baking and pastry program.  After graduation I worked at Bouchon Bakery in Yountville as a bread baker and still practice the discipline of excellence I learned there as a young cook.

After Bouchon I moved back to Southern California and began working in restaurants as I wanted to learn all aspects of the baking and pastry world. I worked at Craft LA, Providence and Thyme Cafe and Market. I carefully chose these places because of who I’d get to work for, and value the kitchen lessons I learned and apply them in my work everyday.

However,  I was drawn to the thriving food scene in San Francisco and moved back North to work for the Mina Group and most currently I was the pastry chef at Restaurant Gary Danko. I like to see myself as responsible for someone’s experience with desserts like being someone’s fairy godmother, it’s special to create that seamless moment where someone falls in love with a dessert. It makes all the details worth the while.

Lisa is hard at work on a new menu, so you will still get to try a few more awesome pop-ups for the next two weeks: Sweet Pistachio this week and Bicyclette next week.

It took a lot of editing, but here are the top five reasons this is our favorite chocolate chip cookie ever to have emerged from the Dandelion Chocolate pastry kitchen.

1. It has an internal hazelnut-chocolate reservoir.
2. This single cookie is actually two, separate cookies smooshed together.
3. The casually sprinkled salty flakes.
4. It has an inspiring balance of chocolate and cake-y goodness.
5. Did we mention the homemade nutella?

This cookie is made by our one and only Meredyth Haas and will only be available from now until Sunday, August 11^th.

Samantha & Maya

This is part four of the chronicles of Greg’s and my trip to Venezuela.  Here is part one, part two, and part three.

Kickass Lady Cooperative in Mantuano

Beatriz, Aurelia, and her sister-in-law run quite the co-op in Mantuano.  They are eager students of all things cacao and it was fun to see them pepper Patrick with questions as soon as we got out of the car.  They keep precise records of the beans going through each step of fermentation/drying and are very concerned with quality.  These ladies are business savvy and boss all their husbands and brothers around to run their co-op on a tight ship, laughing all the while.

They had recently been having some problems with some beans that were blackened on the husk.  We talked the problem through and thought of some solutions, but the mystery was revealed when Rodrigo, a farmer from another valley, came by and discovered that not enough of the liquid could drain off the beans during fermentation.

These inspiring ladies are always looking for the next opportunity.  They have taken advantage of cooperative funding to set up a space at the front of their fermentary to make and sell chocolate and bon bons.  Below is their roaster, cracker, winnower set up and Greg and I were very curious to see how it worked. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see it in action, but it was crazy to see one machine that combines these steps compared to our three machines.  They are hopeful about their new business venture into making chocolate and talked about us coming back to do a knowledge exchange.

Mr. Katao and his Vino Loco

Trincheras is unusual because unlike most cacao-growing places in Venezuela which are towns surrounded by farmland, it has cacao trees scattered all throughout town.  Jose, the head of the cooperative there, told us his biggest pest problem is the village children who like to eat the sweet sticky pulp found inside the pod.  Clearly, he hasn’t come down on them too harshly because they all fondly refer to him as Señor Katao (unable to say cacao).  We heard from Patrick, he always has a new idea brewing and makes cacao punch (think chocolate milk rum drink), cacao wine from the cobb part of the pod, chocolates, and ganache/pudding cups.  I imagine he is pretty popular in Trincheras.

While we were at the collection center (place where beans are communally fermented and dried) in Trincheras, we were lucky enough to come across three local farmers.  We got to share our chocolate with them and see the harvesting tools they use.

Photo credit: Diego Mata Martinez

They received a grant from an international aid organization to build a fermentary.  By creating a fermentation center, beans are taken from many different farms but all fermented in the same way so that they can achieve better and more consistent fermentation.  To ferment cacao, beans are taken from the fresh cacao pods, heaped into a wooden box, and then covered with banana leaves.  The naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria in the pulp/air start to digest the sugar in the cacao pulp and turn the sugars into alcohol.  The second step is the alcohol is digested by other bacteria and turned into acetic acid.  This penetrates the shell of the bean and creates flavor precursors.  A well fermented bean has lots of fissures in it that make it look kind of like a brain.  After fermentation (which takes 5-6 days), the beans are dried for 3 days and then are ready to ship to be made into chocolate!

Patanemo, The Peaceful Valley and the Farmer’s Wife

Bright and early, we hiked up the steep drive to get to the house of Donaldo.. We were ushered in by Marisol who said her husband was up the mountain dealing with some cattle.  I was surprised to learn their cacao trees were much further up the very steep hillside.  Marisol told us that her husband harvests the cacao and carries it down by hand (each cacao sack weighs around 60 kilos!).  Marisol showed us around the house starting with the tiniest, cutest, duckling who lost its mother to a fox the night before.

Patrick told us about how Donaldo was an incredible craftsman and had built the house himself.  Every angle was perfect, and built with care.  Marisol took us up to the cement roof which serves as their fermentation area and drying bed (at least until their son wants to move in),  This keeps the beans safe from the numerous farm animals they have on their property.  The most breath-taking part of the tour was the view of the entire Patanemo valley spreading out below us.  Patanemo was named by run-away slaves who originally settled there and came from “paz tenemos” meaning we have peace or peace at last.  I could almost feel my heart rate slowing down and the road weariness melting away.

Greg in awe of the view standing on the top of Donaldo and Marisol’s house that doubles as a drying bed

After the tour, we sat down to chat and have Marisol try the chocolate bar.  She shyly said she liked it because it was so chocolate-y and we knew it was true because as we talked she took another square to nibble and another.  She told us how she runs a co-op to make cacao products such as cacao punch (kind of like chocolate milk with rum), cacao vinegar, hair balm, and soaps.  In Venezuela, if you form a co-op, the government will give you seed money to start your operation.  In some cases, this system is abused because there is little oversight or follow-up and seems to be no penalty if you do not actually do what you set out to do.  Marisol has found the co-op frustrating because she is very industrious and makes/sell tons of products whereas the other members make less but they all share the profit equally.

Marisol talking about the cooperative and holding cacao vinegar (the pink one will age to look like the more clear one).  She hand sorts through all the beans after they are dried and before they are shipped out.

Canoabo, A Scientific Farmer Revives a Nearly Forgotten Variety

Our final stop was in Canoabo to visit Rodrigo’s farm.  He, unlike most Venezuelan cocoa farmers, did not grow up cocoa farming.  Rodrigo went to university in Valencia when he realized he didn’t like the noise, crime, and traffic of city life so he and his father searched for an ideal place to have a cocoa farm.  They landed on Canoabo valley, which used to be part of one big hacienda, but is now divided up among farmers.  He loves to challenge the old timer cacao farming knowledge in the area, by implementing new cultivation methods he gleans from the many books he reads.  He says they just laugh at him, but he has had a lot of success using techniques like grafting to propagate the canoabo variety which is specific to the region and was nearly lost.  It is characterized by larger beans with a pleasant, chocolatey flavor.  Even the raw beans tasted pretty good…which is rare!  Most beans need to be fermented, dried, and roasted before I want them anywhere near my taste buds.

Rodrigo had the neatest bean drying patio I’ve ever seen.

These are cut tests done on raw beans (fresh from the pod).  Lighter colored beans, like the one in the center of my hand, tend to indicate more criollo genetics.

All in all, it was an amazing trip and I feel so lucky to have been able to learn from these farmers and share our part of the process with them.  Thanks for following the chronicles of our trip and hopefully, the suspense didn’t kill you.  Over and out until the next trip!

We’ve had a great run this summer with our guest pastry chefs. From Kika’s s’mores to Jenn’s amazing cheesecake bars and the Babes’ pies, it’s been so much fun hosting such talented chefs. As the summer begins to wind down, we’ve started thinking about what comes next and we are looking for a permanent pastry chef to join our team.

Our ideal candidate would have a passion for chocolate and desserts, have significant restaurant pastry experience, and be extremely nice, communicative, and flexible. If you know of someone who fits this description, please send him or her our way. We will start reviewing resumes next Tuesday, so please send us a note before then.

You can find the full job description here: http://dande.li/PastryChefJob

We’ve been on a roll, Michael and I, teaming up to combine our respective loves of bourbon and chocolate. Upstairs in Hi Lo‘s loft, a quick turn ’round the block from Dandelion’s factory, we recently hosted our fourth event, tasting attendees through a lineup of 3 single-origin chocolates, first on their own and then paired with whiskey.

I get to share my love of the bean-to-bar chocolate making process and Michael Lazaar, the bar manager at Hog & Rocks, regales the crowd with the history of bourbon and the science of distillation. We’re hoping to make Chocolate Plus Bourbon a monthly tasting event that highlights the role of craft producers and explores pairings between each of our work-related passions.

I met Michael while perched at his bar in Hog & Rocks and our introduction quickly led to an impromptu chocolate and bourbon tasting. Once I reached into my purse for a foiled, broken bar, he reached up to the top shelf and taught me how to use a water dropper, a handy tool indeed. We found playing with the unique flavor combinations so much fun, we knew we had to recreate the experience for the public. We figured if we loved chocolate and bourbon, other people must, too.

We’ve had some great support from friends like Star St Germain, who designed a tasting mat and tasting notes to help refine the experience and took these pretty photos, and from Dandelion’s exec team. I have to thank them, and Michael and his expertise, for helping me share something I love with a wider audience and put a twist on it.

While every tasting’s been a little different, we’ve accumulated some crowd favorites. I think our Patanemo from Venezuela is a natural choice with classically caramel-tasting bourbons, such as Willett’s Family Reserve Wheated Whiskey, which brings out notes of maple in the otherwise nutty-tasting Patanemo.

We’ve found that Buffalo Trace Antique amplifies smoky flavors and we’ve had fun pairing it with Cumboto, another Venezuelan origin, and Papua New Guinea, made with naturally fire-dried beans. Madagascar, our fruitest-tasting chocolate, is a natural choice with Four Roses OSBO, a recipe that uses a high concentration of fruity-tasting yeast along with a high-rye mashbill to bring out complimentary citrus and spice flavors.

It’s easy to find interesting pairings  when Michael sources the best single-barrel bourbons through the Hog & Rocks “Barrel to Bottle” program and I’m lucky enough to make extraordinary chocolate, sourced straight from farms and using only cacao and sugar. All in the same neighborhood.

Chocolate Plus Bourbon is tentatively scheduled for the second Saturday of every month, with the next event slated for August 10th. Tickets here.