17 Best Chocolatiers In The US

Valerie Gordon founded her namesake chocolate shop in 2004 with just a few flavors of chocolate-dipped toffee. Since then, the talented chocolatier has expanded her company to include truffles, bars, and more. Considered one of the best artisan confectioners in America, Valerie creates a wide range of treats from her famous coffee crunch cake to mezcal sticky toffee pudding to delicate champagne petit fours. The chocolate, however, is the main draw and is made the traditional way with the best possible ingredients. The specialty at this shop is inventive flavor combinations, and the chocolate caramel and toffee box includes flavors like black sesame, pumpkin, and liquid mezcal.

Valerie confections ships nationwide, and are also available at one of two storefronts in Los Angeles. The Echo Park location also houses a cafe with breakfast and lunch items (as well as dessert, of course). Stop in for a cup of high-quality tea and stay for a plate of luxurious chocolate truffles.

True bean-to-bar, single-origin chocolate can be hard to come by, but Dandelion Chocolate in San Francisco is making some of the best in the country. The brand has a commitment to building relationships with cocoa farmers, and after shipping the cocoa beans to its factory in San Francisco, the master chocolatiers craft small, handmade batches with love and care in every bite. Dandelion's signature offering is chocolate bars which proudly state the specific farm where the beans were grown and which year they were harvested.

Each bar is sourced from a single place of origin, and the master chocolatiers spend weeks (or months) experimenting with the beans to discover the best roasting and processing for each type to ensure the natural flavor is drawn out. In addition to the bars, Dandelion also sells truffles, bonbons, and fleur de sel caramels. Get the full experience by signing up for one of the chocolate tastings or a tour of the factory.

Another exciting chocolatier and patisserie in San Francisco is Craftsman and Wolves, the Instagram-worthy bake shop that is pushing the boundaries of creativity in the culinary world. Menu items are often innovative twists on familiar classics, like the signature pastry, "The Rebel Within," a savory muffin made with cheese, green onions, and sausage and stuffed with a soft boiled egg. While pastries make up the bulk of the menu at this bake shop, the chocolate work is just as divine. 

Highlights include the chocolate shoyu caramel, an umami-laden sweet made with Valrhona 85% couverture chocolate, dark caramel, butter, and white soy sauce. The combination of the delicate, salty flavor of the shoyu brings out the rich notes of the chocolate and tempers the sweetness of the caramel. Another confection not to be missed is the smoked almond brittle, a crunchy, buttery toffee brittle made with smoked California almonds.

The owner of Dallmann Confections, Isabella Knack, has chocolate in her blood. Her grandfather founded Dallman's in Austria in 1954 and eventually Knack opened her own shop in San Diego after working in the family shop as a child. Her retail shop features family recipes that have been updated with modern techniques while still following the family tradition of using only the finest possible ingredients.

The online shop sells over 40 flavors of truffles which you can choose from to fill your own custom box. The website even offers "X-Ray" views of each to see a cross-section of the interior. Most of the flavors are simple but distinctive, like ginger, mocha, pinenut, and lavender. There are a few unique options, like coconut curry, bananas foster, or strawberry balsamic. Vegans are often excluded from many chocolate shop offerings, but not at Dallman. The vegan truffles get the same attention to detail as any of the other confections and flavors including PB&J, coconut and cocoa powder, or cardamom and rosewater ganache.

Sometimes home hobbies ignite a passion that leads to award-winning success and renown. That's what happened to Maureen and Jim Elitzak, the owners of Zak's Chocolate. What started as Maureen's casual interest eventually led to a critically-acclaimed chocolate company that was once featured on the cover of Chocolate Connoisseur Magazine. Their chocolate is made with 100% ethically-sourced single-origin cocoa beans, most of which are certified organic. Each of the chocolate bars is made with beans from a particular place and the flavor reflects the climate and environment of the area.

The factory is located in Scottsdale, Arizona and all the chocolate is available there for pick up or can be shipped nationwide. Other than the signature bars, there is a rotating assortment of chocolate confections, like caramel turtles, peanut butter cups, and other bonbons. Can't decide what to get? The Chocolate Lover's Zak Pak has a little bit of everything, including a tin of drinking chocolate, chocolate creamed honey, cocoa grilling rub, and the iconic cocktail salted cocoa nibs mixer.

One of the oldest candy stores in New York City, Economy Candy is the place to go for all things sweet and sugary. While the shelves stacked ceiling-high with candy from all over the world are what brings most people to this spot, the house chocolates are not to be missed. Hand-dipped and handmade chocolates are sold by the pound, and Economy offers a little bit of everything from milk chocolate balls to chocolate-covered caramel marshmallows. 

Considering the store sells chocolate from every known candy manufacturer imaginable, the house-made chocolates have to be top-tier to compete. It's not exactly bean-to-bar quality chocolate like some of the other retailers on this list, but love and care go into every single confection. Is a trip to New York not exactly in the cards? Economy offers in-store pick up as well as nationwide shipping, with chocolate shipped in cold packaging to deter melting.

Maine is known for its salt-of-the-Earth inhabitants that produce some of the best hand-crafted foods in the country. Ragged Coast Chocolates is no different, and owners Kate and Steve Shaffer create quality chocolates using fair-trade chocolate from Latin America. The brand has partnered with Friends of Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge (FOMCI) to give back to the local environment and conserve the nesting sites of its mascot, the puffin.

Classically-made truffles are made with familiar ingredients popping up in unexpected places, like Ancho chile, golden raisins, orange zest, and lavender. The flagship chocolate caramels are not to be missed, made with Maine sea salt, local honey, and direct-trade 55% Ecuadorian dark chocolate. All the packaging is made of recyclable paperboard and wherever possible, chocolates and confections are made with ingredients made by local producers. Ragged Coast has come a long way from the early days of harvesting backyard blueberries and cranberries to make its desserts, but the passion for quality never changed.

Most cacao is grown in subtropical regions by farmers who are often too poor to have ever even tasted the finished product of what they grow. They're then shipped to Northern countries for final processing into chocolate. This process requires an illogically complicated (and sometimes exploitative) supply chain. Tcho Chocolate sought to change all that and got involved with both farmers and scientists to make investments in the infrastructure that goes into cacao growing and processing, leading to a huge increase in the quality of the beans they could make chocolate from. Tcho founded the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) in 2016 in order to bridge the gap between cacao growers and researchers.

Besides producing excellent-quality base chocolate, Tcho's chocolatiers go one step further to turn that chocolate into tasty bars with flavors that range from Toffee Time to Aww Nuts!, the almond butter and sea salt-filled dark chocolate bar.

Started in a hip Brooklyn loft, Fine & Raw was founded by Daniel Sklaar who sought to make small-batch chocolate for friends. The incredible flavor and quality led to so much hype that he grew the company to eventually be able to sell and ship nationwide. With a focus on a super-transparent supply chain, Fine & Raw believes in fair trade wages and ethical growing practices, both for the farmers and for the land. 

The quality here goes beyond ethics, though. When it comes to the actual chocolate Fine & Raw makes, the flavor really can't be beaten. The Signature Collection includes premium chocolate made with just three ingredients: organic cacao, organic coconut sugar, and organic cacao butter. Other offers range from delectable truffles to spreads (think chocolate hazelnut and "caramel gooeyness"). Some bars are infused with so-called "functional vices," like ashwaganda and holy basil or cordyceps and chaga.