July Edition

How to Make Our Frozen Hot Chocolate 

Our Hot Chocolate helped put us on the map when we opened our first factory and café on Valencia in 2012, and it remains a favorite. This time of year, many guests opt for our Frozen Hot Chocolate, which has the consistency of an icy milkshake and the unmistakable flavor of a cup of hot chocolate. If there’s a more delicious oxymoron out there, we’ve yet to find it. Stephen has come up with a simplified version of our café recipe. He walks us through it in this video. The trick is to make a concentrated chocolate syrup, which you blend with ice.

Secure Your Seat at Brunch

We still have some tickets remaining for our Chef Durfee & Friends Summer Series Brunches. Join us on July 12^th or August 9^th (both Sundays at 11 a.m.), as we transform our factory into a lively dining space helmed by our own Stephen Durfee and some incredible guest chefs. On July 12^th we’ll host Ryan Seal from the iconic Sea Ranch, Michelin-trained Jade Cunningham from Carabao in Napa, and Heather Hardcastle from the 100 percent gluten-free Flour Craft Bakery. Our August 9^th brunch brings the culinary trifecta of Octavia’s Melissa Perello, Pig in a Pickle’s Damon Stainbrook, and Poppy SF’s Jessica Sullivan. Each dish will include cacao in some form.

A Tropical Gâteau for Summer

For your next picnic, party, or Ocean Beach bonfire, Lisa’s Cacao-Fruit Gâteau Basque is sunshine incarnate. Of all her varieties of gâteau, this one is our favorite during summer months. Like the others, it pairs a crumbly, buttery crust with a creamy filling. The difference is, rather than being made of chocolate, it spotlights the sweet, tart, tropical flavors of cacao fruit, which Lisa cooks down into a jam, and then layers with silky vanilla bean pastry cream. This cake ships well and is made for sharing. If you’re local, you have the option of pre-ordering for pickup at our 16^th Street location. 

A Sneak Peek at Our Advent Calendar

We just completed the photoshoot for our 2026 Advent Calendar. Keep an eye out for details later this month. For now, we’re revealing a sneak peek and are looking forward to announcing this year’s theme. Feel free to share your guesses with us. If you’d like to be among the first to reserve your Advent Calendar, our pre-sale is open.  

FEATURED RECIPE

Nibby Panna Cotta                     

By Lisa Vega, Executive Pastry Chef

Lisa shared her Nibby Panna Cotta in our Making Chocolate: From Bean to Bar to S’more book. It’s a recipe we love making during warmer months, when we can take a ramekin straight from the fridge, top it with berries from the farmers’ market, and dig in. 

This recipe lends itself to any cocoa origin and flavor profile because the cream and milk are such a pure, clean platform for other flavors. The dairy offers the creamy richness that I love in a good milk chocolate, and so I lean toward classic chocolate, nutty, or caramelly nibs here. In the end, it’s pure magic. It looks like vanilla but tastes like chocolate because of the long infusion of nibs. 

– Lisa

July Makers’ Collection Subscription

Our Makers’ Collection subscription brings six single-origin bars — two bars each, of three distinctive varieties — to your door. This month, Ron’s hand-picked selections include a subscriber-exclusive preview of our new Río Samaria, Mexico bar, along with two other bars featuring cocoa from the Americas. For an early taste of our newest bar, place your order by Tuesday, July 14^th. Our July Makers’ set features: