About us
Our Mission:We make awesome chocolate — sourced with integrity, crafted with intention, and served with gratitude.
Sourced with Integrity
Did you know the flavor of chocolate varies based on the cacao you use? Depending on the cacao origin, genetics, and post-harvest processes of fermentation and drying, chocolate can be nutty, fruity, floral, or chocolatey!
Chocolate is the heart of our business, and we can’t make awesome chocolate without awesome cacao. We nurture meaningful, long-term relationships with fine quality cacao producers, and honor the fruits of their labor by paying well-above commodity prices. We want to connect you to the people and the places at the source of our chocolate.
Our current cacao origins include Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, and Uganda. We are committed to our partnerships with these skilled producers, and to growing their businesses alongside our own.
Crafted with Intention
At our Chocolate Factory in Asheville, NC, our skilled chocolate makers transform fine flavor cacao into delicious bean-to-bar chocolate in a complex, multi-day artisan process. First, we roast the cacao beans to express their unique flavor (yes, it smells amazing here!), then we winnow (separate the seed from husk), mill, refine, temper, and deposit the chocolate into bars or chips. This awesome chocolate becomes the base ingredient for our compendium of confections and desserts, available at our Asheville locations, from our website, or at a shop near you.
Served with Gratitude
Jael and Dan’s passion for chocolate was born in 2003, when they drove a veggie oil-powered school bus to the cacao-rich tropics of Costa Rica and opened a restaurant called Bread & Chocolate. While living there for two years, they visited cacao farms, got to know cacao farmers, and learned about theobroma cacao, the plant from which chocolate is made. Inspired to continue their path in chocolate, they moved to Asheville and founded French Broad Chocolate in 2006.
We are Makers
French Broad Chocolate is a collective of people with a passion for chocolate, and a desire to connect chocolate lovers with the source of their food.
What does awesome chocolate mean to us?
Pure: We thoughtfully source our ingredients, direct from the producer when we can, with an eye towards sustainability, purity, and quality.
Beautiful: Because we eat with our eyes, we curate the entire experience - from luxury sustainable packaging, to glossy tempered chocolate, to beautifully designed bonbons - to give you an exquisite sensory experience.
Delicious: Every bar, every bonbon, every dessert meets our high standards to ensure that we are best expressing the delicious flavors of our simple ingredients, be it direct-sourced cacao, local raspberries, wildflower honey, or organic browned butter.