San Francisco — By Mary Jo Manzanares on February 17, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Filed under: featuredarticle, Food & Beverage, Tours

Rich & Luscious San Francisco

If you want your San Francisco experience to be rich and luscious, you’ll find it in various shapes and sizes in the chocolate shops around the city. From major manufacturers to boutique chocolatiers, the Bay Area is home to some of the greatest chocolate in the world.

San Francisco’s chocolate history can be traced back to the gold strike at Sutter’s Mill when Italian chocolatier Domingo Ghirardelli set off to California to strike it rich. Although the gold thing didn’t pan out for him, he established a factory in Fisherman’s Wharf and found gold in making chocolate. The Ghirardelli factory is one of the city’s historic landmark, and Ghirardelli Square, a shopping and dining area, has been built up around it. and a popular site for visitors who come to watch chocolate being churned and to buy a little piece of their own. Ghirardelli Square is located at 900 North Point Street (map) in the Fisherman’s Wharf area of the city.

Charles See, and his mother Mary, started their chocolate store in the 1920’s. With chocolate now provided by the Guittard Chocolate Company, See’s Candies pioneered the delivery of bulk chocolate in liquid form, having in brought to the factory in tanker trucks. See’s makes more than 100 varieties of premium chocolates and other candies, including a kosher line, and can be found in many cities across the country.

Scharffen Berger Chocolate (map) is a Berkeley-based chocolate maker founded by a sparkling wine maker and doctor. Scharffen Berger is a manufacturer of artisan chocolate, responsible for every step of the process from bean-to-bar. They are primarily known for their dark chocolates, typically in bar form.

Schoggi is San Francisco’s first genuine Swiss confiserie, featuring luxury imported Swiss chocolates, pastries, and pate de fruits. You can also pick up a European-style coffee or a delicious sipping chocolate. Located at 87 Yerba Buena Lane (map).

If you don’t want to sleuth out a chocolate site on your own, consider a chocolate tour. You’ll make several stops at prime chocolate locations, and if you’re walking you can choose to call it exercise. Here are chocolate tours worth considering:

Gourmet Walks – offers both a gourmet chocolate walk and a wine and chocolate walk.
In the Kitchen with Lisa – offers private chocolate tastings for groups large and small.
Cable Car Classic Sightseeing – while not a chocolate-specific tour, the cable car tour does feature a stop for truffle tasting.
Local Tastes of the City – offers food tours that include chocolate samplings as part of its North Beach/Little Italy tour.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Only in San Francisco