FAQs

TCHO is hella proud to be Bay Area born, based today in beautiful Berkeley, California. Want to take a tour, see how we make our award-winning chocolate, and eat some chocolate? Sign up for one of our tours?

We welcome all visitors to the TCHO Chocolate factory and strive to make our experience as accessible as possible. While our Tasting Room is stroller, wheelchair and walker accessible, please note that our factory production floor cannot accommodate strollers, wheelchairs or walkers due to safety regulations. If you have accessibility needs, we’d love to provide a delicious and engaging experience in our Tasting Room with visuals of our process on a big-screen TV. Please reach out to us at info@tcho.com in advance so we can ensure the best visit possible!

As with all good folklore, the origin of TCHO has many stories, however, what TCHO means today is amazing, ethically sourced craft chocolate. 

No truth to the rumor that the T is silent to match the silent T in our Chief Chocolate Maker’s last name (Brad Kintzer). Want to learn more about TCHO's Mindset and the origin story of TCHO?  Come visit us in Berkeley and take a Factory Tour.

We source our cacao beans from 5 main origin countries including Ghana, Ecuador, Peru, Madagascar, and the Dominican Republic.  If you want to see where the cacao in your TCHO bar comes from?  Scan the QR code in your pack, to check out our traceability document.

So is it Cacao or Cocoa?  One version has cacao referring to the tree, pod, fruit - everything before it's roasted.  Once roasted, it becomes cocoa.  Another version has Spanish speaking countries calling the magical plant cacao, while in English speaking countries, it's cocoa.  Because we speak chocolate, we like to use both pronunciations.  

Learn more about how TCHO ethically sources Cacao.

All of our products uses Non-GMO ingredients, made with Fair Trade Certified Ingredients and 100% Plant based.

Most of our chocolate is certified Kosher by Earth Kosher - look for the Earth Kosher certification on each individual product page under the Ingredients section or on the back of packaging.  

Most of TCHO's chocolates are certified organic - look for the USDA seal on each individual product page or packaging.

TCHO's factory in Berkeley is a gluten-free facility, and although we are not gluten free certified, gluten is not inherent in any of the ingredients we are using to make our bars.    

Reducing our reliance on dairy to make chocolate is the quickest way for TCHO to have a positive impact on the environment. As a recently Certified B Corp, we care about people and our planet just as much as we care about profits. For us, plant based opens a whole new world of flavor discovery.  Our new award-winning Choco Latté and Toffee Time bars are a testament to how we can have incredibly delicious milk-like chocolate experiences without using dairy. Plant-based chocolate is chocolate made without using milk and dairy of any kind. Our plant-based chocolates are either dark chocolate or made with our new oat, cashew, and coconut sugar based plant based milk chocolate.

TCHO Source™ is our innovative in house program for partnering with cacao farmers, cooperatives, and research organizations in cacao producing countries to co-create the best cacao beans possible. Through this innovative sourcing program, we obtain high quality, fine flavor cocoa beans while supporting the producers of those beans to earn a better living. TCHO Source™ and TCHO Flavor Labs, are the heartbeat of TCHO and deserve a longer read, so pull up a seat and dive in.

We do not use soy, peanuts, wheat, eggs, milk, sesame, crustaceans or fish products in our facility. However, all TCHO chocolates are made on shared equipment that contains tree nuts. The tree nuts we use in our facility are almond, cashew, hazelnut, and coconut.  Although we have an allergen control program in place, it is possible that trace amount of these ingredients (expressed in parts per million) may be unintentionally present in the product because of potential cross-contact between allergen ingredients.  We participate in the precautionary voluntary allergen labeling of our products to inform and help our consumers make choices regarding any dietary and allergen restrictions.

Additionally, some of the products we sell have been produced in separate facilities that may use soy. However, these goods remain sealed in their packaging within our factory.

Our drinking chocolate, cocoa powder, cacao nibs, dark baking chocolates, and Dark & Salty have a shelf life of 18 months from their manufacture date. Our oat milk chocolates and any chocolate that is filled or has inclusions, have a shelf life of 12 months from their manufacture date. 

All TCHO products have a small white sticker with a 5-digit lot code attached.  

The lot codes use a Julian Calendar, which signifies our manufacturing date.  

The first digit corresponds to Plant Internal Code (ex. 1)

The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th digits correspond with a day of the year (001-365).  

The last digit corresponds with the year itself (2024 would be signified with "4"). 

Hint, hint, TCHO’s next Birthday is 13404 in case you were wondering.

Want to save even money on chocolate?  Sign up for our newsletter below and be notified of all of our promotions, sales and new releases - and we’ll take a bite out of your first order.  

Unfortunately, we don't have a formal coupon program, but our retail partners run promotions from time to time- so keep your eyes peeled! For the latest discounts and special to #treatTCHOself, please follow TCHO on social media at @tchochocolate and subscribe to our newsletter below.

We package our new bars in fully recyclable paper cartons and wrap our new bars in a sustainable material made with layers of post-consumer waste paper and compostable film. Since the wrapper contains already-recycled materials which cannot recycle again, the best way to discard them is to throw them in the trash.  

We are working towards better solutions for our baking products in terms of packaging that is both recyclable or compostable as well as food-safe to maintain the high-quality standards we have at TCHO. Our new retail-baking bags are recycle-ready, which means they can be dropped off at a participating store that understands how to recycle each component. Yet, unfortunately, our 3kg bulk baking bags are not recyclable or compostable. We strive for better, and will update you on progress we make. 

We get it, because in our spare time we #BakeLikeWeGiveADamn.  Ready for a deep dive into recipes from TCHO Pros, determine why to use non-alkalized Cocoa Powder, or want to learn whether our Ecuadorian Cacao Nibs float for brewing?   Now you're ready to create with our single origin cacao from Ghana or Peru, or discover which flavor profile is the best to Finish What We Started.

Of course we want to make the whole sale. Fill out our wholesale interest form, which has some questions that will give us a better idea on how we can potentially work together.

Nothing speaks for you like TCHO Chocolate.  Check out our available gift sets.  Because you aren't the only one who wants to say "I Love You", be sure to subscribe to our newsletter so you're alerted to the latest offerings.   

Otherwise, you might need TCHO Chocolate to say "I'm Sorry!" Trying to get the elusive employee of the month recognition?  

Contact our team for customizable corporate options.

Besides in your mouth!  If you aren't devouring it, TCHO Chocolate is best stored between 50 and 70 degrees in a cool, dry place. 

Please don't put TCHO baby in the corner of the fridge or freezer.  Chocolate is highly susceptible to moisture, which is prevalent in refrigerators and freezers. When exposed to moisture, chocolate can take on a whitish cloudy hue called “sugar bloom” that is the result of sugar being pulled to the surface.  It won't affect the taste, but it won't look as visually appealing.

Our lineup of 70g bars are available online here. You can also purchase our bars at Nothern California retail locations like Whole Foods Market and Erewhon in SoCal.

Our Chief Chocolate Maker and team love creating new deliciousness and sometimes we have to make some room on the shelf for you to find a new favorite.   

Want to #treatTCHOself to your new favorite chocolate?  Sign up for our newsletter below and be notified of all of our promotions, sales and new releases. Sharing is caring, so we'll take a bite out of your first order - with a discount code.

We have chosen the difficult decision of moving on from our old bars (Mokaccino, Toffee + Sea Salt, Mint Chip Gelato, etc.) as we have developed an entirely new line of 100% plant based bars that further reflect our TCHO values. Our new website will be 100% committed to our new direction, yet we are making the last of our old chocolate bars available for a limited time here.

TCHO was founded over a decade ago with the spirit of introducing people to the incredible nuances of the cacao bean.  We were one of the first to really create bars that were nutty, fruity, citrusy, and highlight single-origin in this way to open minds and tastebuds to more cacao flavors than the typical chocolatey (West African cacao) most of us know. We wanted to celebrate this heritage of ours by going back to being more cacao-forward overall, and our three dark bars, Holy Fudge, Born Fruity, and Dark Duo certainly showcase cacao in all its glory. We then look to reinvent Mokaccino, Toffee + Sea Salt, and Almond + Sea Salt with our new direction. So, fun ingredients aren't completely going away, as we have even more in store for the coming years!  

From costs to timing, mistakes to missing packages, International to P.O. Box, you can find all your Shipping & Order related answers here.