When discerning palates seek out chocolate, they bypass dime-store sweets (sorry, Hershey’s) and head for artisanal products — and in the San Francisco, that means brands like Recchuiti, Dandelion and Poco Dolce.
The same is true for cannabis edibles, one reason Bay Area patients are snapping up Satori’s dark and milk chocolate products made with Tcho chocolate, displayed right on the label.
“The idea behind it was to attract the foodie customer, the more-aware palate that’s looking to enjoy the product and is more interested in the quality of the chocolate rather than the high,” said Kial Long, vice president of marketing for CannaCraft in Santa Rosa, the umbrella company for Satori.
Tcho, founded in 2005, launched products in 2007, sourcing cacao from Peru, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Ghana, and Madagascar and working directly with farmers and cooperatives in those regions, according to Ari Morimoto, the company’s director of brand marketing. Many of the company’s products are certified fair trade and organic. This week, the Japanese company behind Pocky acquired Tcho.
Morimoto noted Tcho sells chocolate to hundreds of businesses and is not involved in formulating or co-branding Satori’s cannabis edibles.
Long, of CannaCraft, said Tcho’s chocolate was selected over others because it worked best with the company’s blend. “The cannabis oil we use is a distillate oil, so we’ve removed most of the cannabis flavor,” she said. “You’re really getting the strong Tcho flavor coming through.”
That’s good for the new wave of cannabis users, too.
“People who aren’t stoners are going in and looking for things familiar to them,” Long said. “Edibles are easy for them to understand and Tcho chocolate is familiar to people in Northern California. It’s a nice introduction for them.”