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TCHO

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TCHO Ventures, Inc
Company typePrivate
IndustryFood
Founded2005
FounderTimothy Childs & Karl Bittong
HeadquartersPier 17, San Francisco, CA 94111
Key people
Louis Rossetto (CEO), Jane Metcalfe (President)
ProductsChocolate, Drinking chocolate, Cacao nibs
ServicesFlavor assaying
Websitewww.tcho.com

TCHO is a luxury chocolate maker based in San Francisco, California. Its factory and world headquarters are located on Pier 17 along the Embarcadero, in the city’s historic downtown waterfront district. TCHO is a flavor-driven chocolate maker, committed to crafting the most flavorful chocolate from the world's finest beans, obtained through the TCHOSource program. TCHOSource partners directly with farmers and cooperatives to improve growing, fermentation, and drying methods and teach them to create specific flavor profiles in their cacao beans. Factory tours are available to the general public.

History

TCHO was co-founded in December of 2005 by Timothy Childs, a technology and chocolate entrepreneur who once developed vision systems for NASA's Space Shuttle program, and Karl Bittong, a 40-plus year veteran of the chocolate industry. Karl Bittong specializes in the engineering aspect of chocolate production and has worked on factories in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the U.S. Today, its CEO and President are Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe, respectively, co-founders of Wired magazine as well as the first magazine website, Wired.com.

The company sits on a historic pier built in 1912, the third-oldest pier on the San Francisco waterfront. Steel truss and timber frame buildings were built on this and surrounding piers to accommodate the loading and unloading of ships. Historically, the pier has been used for transport, military logistics, and trade, including the trade of cacao beans to San Francisco. Pier 17 also has the last remaining original fog horn. [1]

The well-visited chocolate factory here today was assembled piece by piece by a team of engineers, and is a collaboration of vintage European machines from Wernigerode, Germany and modern refiners, grinders, and Siemens computerized temperature gauges. TCHO as long teamed with Erik Spiekermann of Edenspiekermann for its award-winning design and branding. Its packaging design has won numerous awards and honors, including the Academy of Chocolate Gold Award in February 2009, the Gold European Design Award in May 2009, the iF communication design award in August 2009, as well as nominations for the 2009 Cannes Design Lions and 2011 German Federal Design Award.

Distinctive Approach

TCHO takes a flavor-focused approach to chocolate making, celebrating the diversity of inherent flavors of cacao and chocolate. It positions its chocolate in terms of its primary flavors, rather than leading with “% cacao” or “origin”. Cacao’s flavors derive not only from its genetics and terroir, similar to wine and coffee, but also from the way the cacao beans are fermented and dried. Such flavors can be further developed or “fine-tuned” during the meticulous process of roasting, grinding, and conching to make the final chocolate. The cacao beans for TCHO’s four PureNotes dark chocolates were sourced and formulated to correspond to the dark chocolate flavor wheel.

TCHO's Dark Chocolate Flavor Wheel.
  • “Chocolatey” is a single origin chocolate made from Ghanaian cacao beans. 70% cacao.
Flavor notes: Intensely fudgey; hints of roasted malt and caramel.
  • “Fruity” is a single origin chocolate (organic and fair trade) made from Peruvian cacao beans. 68% cacao. No fruits added.
Flavor notes: Bright berry notes, finishing with traces of cherry.
  • “Nutty” is a single origin chocolate (organic and fair trade) made from Ecuadoran cacao beans. 65% cacao. No nuts added.
Flavor notes: Roasted nuts with hints of coffee and toasted biscuit.
  • “Citrus” is a single origin chocolate (organic) made from Madagascar cacao beans. 67% cacao. No citrus added.
Flavor notes: Subtle citrus notes, ending with a smooth creamy finish.


TCHO’s SeriousMilk chocolates include two milk chocolates with primary flavors that correspond to the milk chocolate flavor wheel, as follows:

  • “Classic” is a creamy rich milk chocolate (organic and fair trade). 39% cacao.
Flavor notes: Rich caramel notes, with hints of butterscotch, honey and vanilla.
  • “Cacao” is a dark milk chocolate (organic and fair trade). 53% cacao.
Flavor notes: Fudgey flavor, with a smooth creamy finish.

The company's flavor wheels are key brand differentiators for TCHO.[2]

Products

In addition to chocolate bars, the company sells drinking chocolate, roasted cacao nibs, chocolate covered nuts/fruit, and a wide selection of gifts with packaging by award-winning graphic designers. TCHO sells its products through various channels:

  • to consumers via its factory store at Pier 17 and its website
  • to distributors
  • to retailers
  • to the hospitality industry
  • to the food service industry (restaurants and bakeries), and confectioners via its TCHOPro line of professional bulk chocolates, nibs and drinking chocolate
  • to private label customers
  • to brewers (nibs)

TCHO’s products are available at select Whole Foods, and many gourmet specialty stores, restaurants, and bakeries throughout the country. TCHO also produces private label chocolate for Starbucks and Starbucks' Evolution Fresh stores nationwide.


Consumer

PureNotes Dark Chocolate (58g and 8g bars)

File:Various TCHO consumer products.tiff
Various TCHO Consumer Products
  • “Chocolatey” (70% cacao)
  • “Fruity” (68% cacao)
  • “Nutty” (65% cacao)
  • “Citrus” (67% cacao)

SeriousMilk Chocolate (58g and 8g bars)

  • “Classic” (39% Cacao)
  • “Cacao” (53% Cacao)

TCHO-A-Day (30-day, 60-day, and 90-day supply of PureNotes dark chocolate 8g bars)

Panned Goods (small and large tins; TCHO-2-Go pouches)

  • Chocolate-Covered Honey Roasted Cashews
  • Chocolate-Covered Mango
  • Chocolate-Covered Cacao Nibs

Drinking Chocolate (medium tins; 1 kg bags)
Roasted Nibs (tins; 1 kg bags)

TCHOPro (A professional line of bulk products)

  • 60.5% dark blend
  • 66% organic/fair trade dark blend
  • 68% dark blend
  • 99% unsweetened dark blend (organic and fair trade)
  • 39% “Classic” milk chocolate (organic and fair trade)
  • Roasted Cacao Nibs (organic and fair trade)
  • Drinking Chocolate
  • 70% “Chocolatey”
  • 68% “Fruity” (organic and fair trade)
  • 65% “Nutty” (organic and fair trade)
  • 67% “Citrus” (organic)

Innovation and Outreach

TCHO Beta Testing

Innovation is a focus of TCHO in each step of the chocolate making process, from growth, to fermentation and drying, and finally to roasting and making the chocolate couverture. In each phase of the chocolate making process, TCHO has infused new, industry-leading technologies to improve the quality and flavor of the final product.

TCHOSource

Through its TCHOSource Program, TCHO directly invests in partnerships with cacao farmers, providing them the technology and know-how to improve their livelihoods and their craft. Most cacao farmers have never tasted chocolate made from their own beans. TCHOSource has installed TCHO "Flavor Labs" at our co-ops throughout the world for farmers to identify and control the unique flavor profile of their beans. As a result, the farmers provide superior beans with enhanced flavor in specific flavor profiles. Says Louis Rossetto, “The beauty of this is that we can affordably transfer this technology directly to the growers. We have a partnership with our growers; we want them to go from being commodity producers to premium producers."[3] TCHO believes this win-win approach — farmers earn a higher income while providing TCHO with top quality cacao — is the basis of sustainable development and long-term growth. TCHOSource is partially funded by a five-year, multimillion dollar grant from USAID to strengthen cacao cooperatives by helping them improve cacao quality, productivity, and capitalization. This goes beyond certification, by operating with direct involvement and making direct investments.

Rossetto explains, "We have a higher purpose — to take business to another level. That incentive is what makes us a 21st-century company: We want to make the world a better place while making the best possible chocolate.”[4]

Beta Testing

TCHO is an R&D driven company. A mobile app was developed to control the flavor lab remotely, allowing for R&D activity to be conducted 24/7. Borrowing from the tech industry, TCHO often engages in "beta testing".[5] TCHO typically launches products after engaging its customers in an interactive beta R&D process. Early users of test or "beta" chocolate are invited to punch in the batch numbers on an online feedback form to share their opinions. The R&D team reviews these comments and adjusts their formulations appropriately until they arrive at the most favorable chocolate for release.

Critical Praise

References

  1. ^ Dackman, Lisa; Patterson, Leslie, Pier 15 Facts of Interest
  2. ^ "Chocolate.com: A start-up innovates in an unexpected field", The Economist, April 17 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  3. ^ Crooks, Peter (April), "Louis and the Chocolate Factory", Diablo Magazine {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  4. ^ Crooks, Peter (April), "Louis and the Chocolate Factory", Diablo Magazine {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  5. ^ Hafner, Katie (December 10), "Chocolate in Beta Testing, Offered by a Wired Founder", The New York Times {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)

Entrepreneur’s Edge: TCHO. Reuters video segment.
Chocolate Maker TCHO Uses Technology to Boost Quality, Bloomberg video. (Oct 19, 2011)
Hoping Chefs will Melt for TCHO Chocolate, The New York Times. (Nov 2, 2010).
TCHO's Design and Branding Strategy Video
Boing Boing TV:

Sweet! High End Chocolate Business Booming Associated Press. (Aug 27, 2008).
US Chocolatier Develops Virtual Factory World Confectionery News. (Feb 7, 2011)
Best of the Bay Discovers TCHO. Best of the Bay. KRON-4.
From Wired to Willy Wonka: TCHO uses Technology and Ethical Sourcing to Make Great Chocolate 7x7 Magazine. (Dec 23, 2010)
Raising the Bar Hemispheres Magazine.
San Francisco Company Launches Chocolate 2.0 Washington Post Blog. (June 20, 2009)
Chocolate Company Brings High Tech Factory to Remote Cocoa Farms CNET (Jan 18, 2010)
Official website

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