Name: The Craft Chocolate Movement: A retrospective.
Start: 2026-10-03T13:00:00-0700
End: 2026-10-03T14:00:00-0700

The Craft Chocolate Movement: A retrospective.

Saturday October 3, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT

Main Stage

Many would argue that the two earliest brands that helped nudge many small American makers to try their hand at small batch quality chocolate were Scharffen Berger Chocolate (1996) and Dagoba Organic Chocolate (2001). In this retrospective, we will take a look at the earliest craft chocolate makers who took inspiration from these two makers, and reflect on what their hopes were, consider how they set about to make the best chocolate, discuss the rules that were established to qualify as bean to bar craft chocolate, and how this has all evolved in the past 20 years. What was the early ethos and vision for craft chocolate? Did it succeed? Was it realistic to hope for a new way of relating with the global south, as global north producers? Are we will making progress or has the craft chocolate industry morphed into business as usual?

Speakers

Sunita de Tourreil

Founder and Owner, The Chocolate Garage & Happy Chocolate Experiences

For over 20 years Sunita has been curious about how chocolate can be a vehicle to increase empathy, engage customers around global supply chains, find business models that implicitly are a win-win for every member of the cacao-to-chocolate supply chain and HAVE FUN while doing it... Read More →

Saturday October 3, 2026 1:00pm - 2:00pm PDT
Main Stage

Room #403

The Northwest Chocolate Festival 2026

Sunita de Tourreil

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The Northwest Chocolate Festival 2026

Sunita de Tourreil

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