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Chocolate factory finally set to open its doors in May 

Any day now, John Scharffenberger promises, the chocolate factory will open.  

Really. 

And when it does, Berkeley will be home to one of the country’s premier chocolate manufacturers. Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, established in 1996, is moving its production from South San Francisco to a 25,000-square-foot brick factory on Heinz and Seventh streets. The turn-of-the-century building was originally a sulfur factory. It has adapted to several industrial uses over the years and most recently served as the home of the now defunct Kona Kai Coffee. 

(Kona Kai’s owner was recently convicted of fraudulently substituting other coffee beans for Kona beans.) 

The new facility will allow the public to get up close and personal with the “bean to bar” chocolate-making process. It will offer free behind-the-scenes tours, a store that sells the gourmet dark chocolate. Eventually, a cafe will open, but not until the fall. 

Perfection takes time. Scharffen Berger originally hoped to open its new quarters in fall 2000. Then it was going to be February, then March. Now they are confident of opening in May. Scharffenberger said updates can be found at the Web site www.scharffen-berger.com. 

Whenever opening day arrives, Scharffenberger said it won’t be one minute before his demanding standards and that of his business partner, Robert Steinberg, are satisfied.  

Right now, the large brick factory building in southwest Berkeley is abuzz with the grinding of gears and machinery, as the chocolate makers test out the various equipment, using second-rate cacao beans for test runs. There is definitely a hint of Willy Wonka at the Scharffen Berger plant, with its enormous machines connected by tubes and pipes. A red pot-bellied roaster stands next to a postwar “bean cleaner” from Germany, which glows with colored lights and dials, looking like a contraption from Jules Verne. Most of the equipment is vintage chocolate-making machinery from Europe, dating back a half-century or more. “We’re on a shoestring budget,” Scharffenberger explains. 

That may come as a surprise to consumers, who can expect to pay nearly $4 for a single 3-ounce chocolate bar. Scharffen Berger turns out only a tiny fraction of the millions of pounds of chocolate produced annually by such industry giants as Hershey, Nestle or Mars. Each batch is individually produced from beans imported and hand-selected for quality, and bars are hand-wrapped on the premises. It’s a highly labor-intensive process, meaning that consumers can expect to pay more than for mass-produced Hershey bars. 

Still, if you look at it a certain way, you’re getting more bang for your buck – or more taste per bite – with gourmet chocolate, Scharffenberger says. Without the additives and sweeteners found in many cheaper confections, Scharffen Berger has a rich, intense, concentrated flavor. Many chocolate-lovers find that a smaller portion satisfies their craving. “You get a lot more chocolate in our bar than in others,” says Scharffenberger.  

A winemaker by trade, Scharffenberger was brought into the chocolate business by his friend Steinberg, who loved European chocolate and dreamed of creating an American product that could stand up to the best that France and Belgium had to offer. The pair approach chocolate making with the same criteria used to judge fine Zinfandel. Aroma, flavor, balance and overtones are all important.  

There is also great importance placed on climate and growing conditions of the cacao bean. Scharffen Berger is one of fewer than a dozen American chocolate makers operating today who actually create their own product from beans – and it is the first new manufacturer to open in the United States in the past 50 years. The company gets its supply from some 20 small plantations found near the equator, including Venezuela, Madagascar, Trinidad, Ghana and Papua New Guinea. Fair trade, or paying the growers a living wage, is very important to Scharffenberger, a self-described hippie who created his own major in biogeography at UC Berkeley about 30 years ago. 

As with Scharffenberger’s earlier ventures, including the Scharffenberger Cellars winery (sold in the mid-’90s to LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton), the chocolate business has been a runaway success. Julia Child pronounced the chocolate superb, and chefs around the country have been inspired to create desserts using the sweet dark confection, Scharffenberger says. The local company expanded quickly, and Scharffen Berger is now available in all 50 states and several countries, sold mostly through gourmet food suppliers and stores. Company sales totalled $3 million in 1999, which was up 300 percent from the previous year. At this pace, Scharffenberger said he has simply outgrown his 5,000-square-foot San Francisco facility. 

Scharffenberger predicts that in Berkeley, the company will be able easily to triple its annual production and expand its products into other chocolate goodies. The small staff of 22 is expected to grow, and the company has added a third partner, John Wais, who oversees operations at the new factory. Wais formerly ran a family-owned steel company in Pinole. Scharffenberger describes him as a “foodie guy, with a great palate.” 

Meanwhile, as they tinker with the equipment in Berkeley, the South San Francisco factory continues production of the acclaimed dark chocolate Scharffenberger says one professional chef describes as “pure unequalled bliss.” 

Once the machines are running smoothly, they will have to see how the chocolate turns out. Even with top-quality ingredients, it takes a few runs to work the kinks out. “The first couple of batches – you can’t eat them,” Scharffenberger says. “Then the next few, we’ll give to the food banks.” Only when he’s satisfied that everything’s running smoothly and he’s producing the rich, fruity dark chocolate he says his customers have come to love will he shift production entirely to the new factory. 

Scharffenberger still has a hand in the wine business, as co-owner of Lonetree Winery in Philo. But his enthusiasm for chocolate knows no bounds. “It’s a blast,” he says. “In the champagne business, there’s a kind of culture of exclusivity. I’m not into that. I mean, I went to Berkeley. I’m a hippie.”