If you love chocolate, you'll love this trip!
We've put together a list of all the top chocolate-bliss-filled spots in California's very own 'Chocolate Capitol', San Francisco, just for you and your group to enjoy!
These spots will show you the finest, most luxurious, and most downright delicious chocolate creations around the city, most companies influencing a lot more than just the California candy industry!
- Dandelion Chocolate
San Francisco’s very own Dandelion Chocolate is a small batch ‘bean to bar’ factory in the Mission District that produces some of the tastiest chocolate bars and brownies are known to the city. Here you can learn all about the art of making chocolate with several different educational courses (such as chocolate 101-301) and factory tours. Taste, Talk and Eat a Treat while here, right after watching the process of roasting, cracking, sorting, winnowing, grinding, and tempering each batch of chocolate carefully. - San Francisco Chocolate Factory
If you want something as classic as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco you need to head over to the San Francisco Chocolate Factory, the delicious Bridge Brands Chocolate store that offers gourmet chocolate for a non-gourmet price. Opened in 1999, this factory collects and uses the finest beans from 3 different continents, balancing perfectly that silky, smooth, buttery depth of flavor good chocolate should always have. Here you can try classic dark, milk, or white chocolate, pick a bar by the content of cocoa in it, or try the popular tea, wine, or coffee lovers chocolates. - Ghirardelli Chocolate Company
Another amazing Bay area classic company that you definitely won’t want to miss out in is the iconic Ghirardelli Chocolate Company, one of the top chocolate producers in the entire country. Here, on Ghirardelli Square, you will find the flagship store for the company, opened here in 1852. You certainly won’t be the only one wanting a taste, the entire square seeing flocking crowds of tourists from around the world daily. If you really want to make this a chocolate lover’s dream trip then make sure to come during the month of September, during the annual festival, the absolute best time to try one of their world-famous Hot Fudge Sundaes!
- See’s Candies
See the finest in candies and lollipops with San Francisco’s own See’s Candies, the premier place in town to find old-fashioned candies, toffees, and brittles. Under the command of Charles See, this business produces really fine chocolates, toffees, lollipops, and specialty items such as peppermints, chocolate chips, and molasses chips. One of the most popular items on the menu is the white, brown, or black Polar Bear Claws, filled with fresh nuts and covered in fine chocolates, as well as the classic chewy lollipops. Fun fact: See’s produces over 47 million pops a year, 500,000 a day, which adds up to 600 per minute!
- Charles Chocolates
Chuck Siegal runs our next top choice for fine San Francisco chocolate, a top award-winning chocolate establishment with some of the highest accolades around town. Enjoy Charles Chocolates popular artisanal creations prepared in an exhibition-style kitchen within the flagship store and cafe. You will be able to enjoy the finest ingredients such as nuts, beans, cream, butter, herbs, and fruit while sitting outside on the patio along scenic Florida Street! - XOX Truffles
If you are in the mood for something a little more exotic then head over to North Beach's XOX Truffles. Opened in 1997, this by-hand-bean and bakery allow you to try over 27 different and unique chocolate varieties. While they won’t get you drunk, the honey vodka, early gray, and spicy cayenne tequila are all among the local favorites, each flavor providing a certain depth and richness of quality not found in many other chocolate establishments. - Chocolate Covered
Last but certainly not least on our chocolatey dream destination list is the locally loved boutique by the name of Chocolate Covered. Here within Noe Valley, on 24th Street to be exact, you can check out varieties of chocolates from all around the world, the entire establishment holding over 350 different bars. Owner Jake Epstein only collects the ‘best and most unique premium chocolates’ to stock San Francisco’s original chocolate boutique, each one containing subtle differences from the cocoa content to the origin, spices to the process made. This store is also very well known for its gifts, custom boxes, and cyanotypes!
