Scharffenberger chocolate factory

srk · Joined: 09 Apr 2005 Posts: 85 Location: Berkeley, CA

Many of you are probably familiar with Scharffenberger - it's a high-end chocolatier that started out making only dark chocolate using old-school European methods and equipment. The chocolate is good, often very fruity. Anyway, the enterprise started out as a small local shop in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a factory in Berkeley that 1) smelled fantastic and 2) gave free tours and tastings. I went at least three or four times in my six years in Berkeley. The company was bought out by Hershey's a few years ago, but for a while things seemed to stay mostly the same in terms of quality, though the company did suddenly add a number of new flavored chocolate bars. Anyway, I just read that Hershey's, despite actually making a profit in 2008, is going to close the Berkeley Scharffenberger factory to cut costs. It just seems sad.

The article about the closing is at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/28/BU2F15I9DV.DTL, for anyone interested.

jenbook · Joined: 14 Dec 2007 Posts: 8

That's so sad but also sort of typical. I think it's pretty indicative that Scharfer Bergen is part of Hershey's "Artisan' subsidiary but will be mass produced just like any of its other more mainstream products.
_________________
http://realgoodtaste.blogspot.com

Jennifer K · Joined: 08 Jan 2008 Posts: 16 Location: Paris

I lived in Berkeley before I moved to France last year, and always meant to take the tour there, but never did. I remember when Scharffenberger chocolate was new, and the resulting buzz in town. So sad.

dory · Joined: 11 Nov 2007 Posts: 235 Location: Madison, WI

I don't live in the Bay area and have associations with different chocolate makers. However, here is my take on Hershey. Right now big corporations are laying off employees like they were expendable, rather than being humans beings and part of the public the corporations need to buy the products they are producing. Who do they expect to buy what they produce, and with what money, if they keep laying people off? Obviously the Scharffenberger people were pretty special, and I hate to to see them go.

Dory

ExpatSteve · Joined: 28 May 2008 Posts: 13 Location: Lerné, France

I'm a native San Franciscan, now living in the Loire Valley. I knew of John Scharffenberger from Mendocino, as he at that time owned and operated a winery making a very good sparkling wine in the French tradition. He sold the company to a French concern, then moved on to conquer the world of high-end chocolate. Maybe he opened Scharffenberger Chocolate Factory with the end game of a sale to a larger entity?

It's not surprising that Hershey would close the Berkeley plant. Making chocolate in an urban setting is not usually a corporate plan, and yes, I'm not sure that quality will be kept up.

At least there's Valrhona!

Erin · Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 11:21 pm Post subject:

Try Theo, their chocolate is wonderful.
_________________
"It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."

"It's hot ham water."

srk · Joined: 09 Apr 2005 Posts: 85 Location: Berkeley, CA

ExpatSteve, the story behind Scharffenberger is that the other partner - Robert Steinberg - was diagnosed with cancer in the mid-90s and told he didn't have long to live. He toured around Europe for a while, didn't die when expected, and finally decided to do something he loved - namely, making European-style, high-quality chocolate. So he and John Scharffenberger started the company. I don't know if they ever had an "endgame" in mind, given the circumstances, but one of their former employees was quoted in the SFGate article as being glad that Steinberg died (last fall) before Hershey's decided to close the Berkeley plant, because it would have upset him so much. But who knows - if you sell a tiny company to a global giant, you can't really be surprised if they radically change the small company.