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We’re Brewing Cacao Nib Coffee at Our SF Valencia Street Café

June 22, 2018 by Jennifer Roy

Jennifer has handled the public relations for Dandelion since 2013, and she’s an avid drinker of coffee in the cafe. For this piece, she spoke with Voga Coffee’s co-founder and CEO Eli Salomon who, along with Josh Avins, CTO and scientist behind the technology, and Jason Sarley, co-founder and Chief Coffee Officer, are the creators of the Ground Control vacuum coffee machine.

Voga Coffee's Cyclops coffee machine in the Dandelion Chocolate cafe

The Ground Control Cyclops coffee brewer behind the counter at the Valencia Street cafe.

If you’ve been in our café on Valencia Street recently, you’ve probably seen a very futuristic-looking machine topped with hand-blown glass bulbs. It’s a new coffee machine called Ground Control® Cyclops from the innovative folks at Oakland-based Voga Coffee. We’re the first café in the world to have this machine, and it just won the Specialty Coffee Association 2018 Best New Product award. We’re thrilled to be serving both brewed coffee and brewed cacao nib coffee with Ritual’s beans.

Why add another machine in our café, and how did we meet the team from Voga? Eli Salomon of Ground Control was testing the machine near our Alabama Street factory, and he asked if he could experiment with brewing some of our cacao nibs. How could we say no? When we finally got to taste our nibs brewed with delicious Ritual coffee, we had an “aha!” moment where we were blown away by the taste. The cacao nib coffee is smooth, nutty, and full-flavored coffee without any kind of bitter aftertaste. Todd, Dandelion’s co-founder and CEO, exclaimed: “How could we not have a machine that brews the most delicious coffee made with our nibs?”

Keep your eye on the Cyclops when you next visit our Valencia café.

Since launching the brewed coffee and the cacao nib brewed coffee at the end of May, 2018, the feedback has been very positive. People love it! Cacao nib coffee makes you less jittery than regular coffee, and it has a more uplifting buzz. Along with the normal caffeine kick, it must be the theobromine from the nibs that helps give your mood a boost.

How does the Cyclops work? Salomon explains, “Traditionally, it’s been impossible to brew cacao nibs, because their high-fat content clogs brewing filters. When we first spoke with Dandelion, our team suggested the possibility of using Ground Control’s high vacuum brewing process to overcome this hurdle that has plagued the chocolate world for hundreds of years. After Voga ran a few brewing experiments, it became clear that our innovative, patented brewing approach was exactly what was needed to coax the delicate, beautiful flavor of Dandelion’s impeccably sourced single-origin cacao. It was through this effort that the world’s first cacao brewer was discovered.”

He adds, “In addition to brewing a delicious cacao-based beverage, Ground Control’s unique multi-stage brewing method extracts multiple layers of flavor from coffee or cacao, resulting in a delicate, multi-dimensional cup. Drinkers of Ground Control brewed beverages have marveled at their smooth, clean cup profile and the significantly pronounced sweetness that soars from the cup. Ground Control’s unique, carefully controlled process not only eliminates harsh bitterness but also presents delicate, nuanced flavors that would otherwise be obscured.”

Currently, we’re offering a Ritual single-origin brewed coffee from Guatemala as well as the cacao nib coffee with our Camino Verde, Ecuador nibs. We look forward to having you come by to try it. Let us know what you think!

Don’t worry; you still get one of our signature shortbread cookies with every cup.

Our Week in NYC

December 2, 2017 by Jennifer Roy

We’re almost at the end of our nine-day pop up in New York City, and…WOW. We are just so humbled.

Day in and day out, our tiny little corner café in Chelsea has been flooded with such warmth and enthusiasm, and we can barely keep the s’mores in stock! Chef Lisa and her team have doubled down in their little commissary kitchen, rolling out impossible numbers of cookies and tarts and brownies and more. We’ve made more hot chocolate this week than we thought we ever could, and we’ve been teaching chocolate making classes to the best and most welcoming crowds.

We have a few more classes and book events before we hit the road back to California on December 3^rd, so come see us before then! The full list of events is here.

Thank you New York. We really do love you.

(And we hope we’ll be back!)

Thank you Gennaro Pecchia for the photos!

12 Nights of Chocolate 2017

November 13, 2017 by Jennifer Roy

12 Nights of Chocolate is an annual fundraising event where we invite the best chefs in the city (and beyond) to take over our space and create an experience, and there’s only one rule: use our chocolate, and run with it.

This is our fifth year and we couldn’t be more excited to announce the amazing line-up of chefs – 15 Michelin stars – not that we’re counting! Every evening is so unique, creative and different from the next: State Bird Provisions will be cooking from their just-released book; the ultimate ice-cream social with Salt & Straw, Revival and Smitten; Manresa Bread, Neighbor Bakehouse and Jane The Bakery are teaming up for “Bakery Night”; Toothache Magazine celebrate their forthcoming issue with Nick Muncy, Shawn Gawle, Kim Alter (Nightbird), Val Cantu (Californios), Rupert & Carrie Blease (Lord Stanley) – an all-star line-up.

The dates are December 4th through 15th and most evenings will take place in a beautiful loft space on the second floor of our upcoming chocolate factory on 16th and Alabama, and others at our Valencia cafe. As in years past, all proceeds will go to the SF-Marin Food Bank, for whom last year’s event raised over 65,000 meals.

A donation bin will be located inside our cafe for the duration of the event. Stop by to drop off cans and non-perishable food anytime during the holiday series.

For tickets and more information, click here.

The 12 Nights of Chocolate are Here!

November 9, 2016 by Jennifer Roy

chefs_2016_jpeg_lr

We are thrilled to announce our fourth annual 12 Nights of Chocolate taking place December 1st through 12th. Each year, we invite chefs to take over our cafe and create a menu that follows two rules: use our chocolate, and don’t hold back. Over the years, we’ve hosted some of the best chefs in the country who have created menus ranging from quail and duck with mole, to the classic Mont Blanc dessert made by a three star Michelin chef. All proceeds go to the SF-Marin Food Bank, for whom last year’s event raised over 60,000 meals. This year, the evenings range from a seven-course tasting menu—both sweet and savory—to a family-style brunch after dark, with cocktails. More information and tickets here.

The Bar That Broke The Mold

November 24, 2014 by Jennifer Roy

When Josh and Evan, the discerning founders of Cool Hunting, sat down with me in the café at Dandelion to talk about a “collaboration,” I was intrigued. Their concept was to create a chocolate bar like no other, and when they brought in the boundary-breaking design firm Snarkitecture to design the bar and packaging, I knew we were onto something.

Despite the fact that Dandelion production is so very oversubscribed at the moment, we were up for the project for a few reasons. To begin, it’s a labor of love. Secondly, all of the profits will go to support Southern Exposure, a local non-profit organization.

It’s been a year, and we’ve finally arrived at the finish line. The result is a unique edible artwork in the form of a delicious chocolate topographical landscape.

The bar, once unwrapped from its silver foil, reveals a continuous fracture around the perimeter. Along this uneven edge, the bar splits into two pieces, revealing two perfectly opposite textured landscapes.

While the Break Bar looks simple, it was quite a challenge to develop. Creating the mold took several remakes. The first turned out to be too hard to temper, and the subsequent tries left a trail of broken bars which, to confess, we enjoyed immensely. Finally, we got it right.

When it came to actually making the bars, the production team was up for the challenge. Little did they know what they were in for. There’s three times more chocolate in a Break Bar than our regular bar, so getting the air bubbles out is no easy task. And to get the sharp edges we were looking for, each bar needed the tender attention of a hand-held hairdryer.

Erica drying

Even wrapping the bars is difficult. The foil is much thicker than what we regularly use, and the paper is difficult to handle.

In the end, for the sake of art, community, and chocolate, it’s all been worth it. To purchase the Break Bar, find it here.

PS — We’re producing a limited edition of 500 bars. One out of every hundred will include a “White Ticket,” which rewards the purchaser with a non-edible Snakitecture sculpture in the same form as the Break Bar.