Dan's Chocolates

Dan's Chocolates is a Burlington, Vermont-based chocolate maker, founded in 1999 by Dan Cunningham, whose title is now Chief Chokolada. The company is a chocolatier, and operates both a factory-direct boxed chocolates business as well as a business selling all-natural chocolate bars and truffles via retail grocery stores such as Price Chopper and Whole Foods. The company produces unique combinations of chocolate and inclusions and names its products with tongue-in-cheek names such as Peppy-r-mint, Trail Hound, and The Caffeinator.

Dan's Chocolates makes milk, dark, and white varieties. As is currently fashionable among boutique chocolate makers in the United States, its dark products have 60% to 75% cacao content. The Dan's Chocolates boxed chocolates have a Swiss heritage. As such, the truffles have thin shells and are bite sized. The company historically has offered free shipping from Thanksgiving to Christmas Day.

Dan's Chocolates posts a social responsibility scorecard on its site, which includes measures to reduce energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and waste products in manufacturing. Since its founding day, a percentage of each sale has been given to one of the charities which customers designate at checkout.

The company was founded as a subsidiary of the BlueMountain.com greeting card site and spun off as an independent venture in 2000.

External links

• Dan's Chocolates
• "Chocolate Explosion" by Alex Salkever, Business Week
• "My Yummy Valentine" by Dennie Hughes, USA Today