Close-up of textured chocolate spread with grooves on a dark surface.

DANDELION
CHOCOLATE

Chocolate from bean to bar to s'more

What to do after you've devoted yourself to finding the ultimate expression of chocolate and built a wildly successful business that supports the livelihood of hundreds of people in the process? If you're the founders of Dandelion Chocolate, you blow open the factory doors and give away your secrets so others can follow your path. A cookbook is a generous act, but every single copy of this one might as well have come with a Golden Ticket.

Two people riding bicycles on a dusty road at sunset with lush greenery and houses on the sides.

Two workers in blue uniforms handling materials in wooden compartments labeled 3B and 3C inside a rustic workspace.

Open book showing a photo spread of colorful cocoa pods in various colors including yellow, green, red, and brown.

Open book spread showing a page of text titled 'The Truth About Truth' opposite two photos: one of a man in a truck bed holding a hat, and one of a man harvesting pods from a tree in a lush green forest.

Open book showing a photo of a person walking through a cacao farm on the left, and text discussing fair trade versus direct trade on the right.

Open book spread showing text about Kokoa Kamili and four photographs of Tanzanian cocoa farmers working and posing together.

Chocolate from bean to bar to s'more

I started this project with a bag of dried cocoa beans and a written recipe, but the real story begins where the beans are grown (Tanzania pictured here).

Cacao pods growing on the trunk and branches of a cacao tree in a forest setting.

Woman wearing a blue headwrap and colorful patterned clothes walking barefoot on a leaf-covered path through lush green foliage, carrying a sack over her shoulder.

Smiling woman wearing a maroon headscarf and patterned skirt sitting outdoors with blurred green foliage in the background.

Open cacao pod showing white pulp-covered cacao beans inside on a wooden surface.

Person in blue shirt sorting brown cocoa beans in a wooden crate lined with white sacks indoors.

Person in blue coveralls and green boots scooping cocoa beans from a large sack into a red container in a rustic wooden workspace.

Rows of whole and halved dried cacao pods arranged on a dark wooden surface.

Silhouetted workers in a rustic shed carrying wooden trays with drying coffee beans during golden hour light.

People wearing colorful patterned fabric sitting and sorting cocoa beans in large woven trays with piles of beans around them.

Close-up of a hand holding a stencil with letters reading 'Kokoa Kamili Cocoa Beans Product of Tanzania' on a burlap sack.

Person in a blue coat and hat stenciling text onto a burlap sack near a barred window.

Silhouetted tree and bushes at dusk with layered mountains and a partially hidden sun under pink and purple clouds.

Chocolate from bean to bar to s'more

From origin we return to San Francisco where the book illustrates in scientific and luscious detail the hows and whys behind Dandelion's approach to making chocolate.