"We make chocolate from two ingredients: cacao beans and cane sugar. Nothing else."
📍 740 Valencia St, Mission District, SF🕐 Daily 10am–9pm🏭 Factory + Café open to public📅 Founded 2010
Traced Note
Dandelion is on Traced because of what it makes visible: farm names, harvest dates, and prices paid to farmers are published for every single origin. This is the supply chain transparency that companies like Hershey and the major chocolate conglomerates structurally cannot offer. Dandelion sources direct—no broker, no commodity market, no opacity. Their two-ingredient model makes ingredient substitution (the PGPR/compound coating problem in Reese's) physically impossible: there's nothing to substitute.
Low certification score reflects Dandelion's deliberate self-certification through published sourcing data. Traced considers this a feature—their disclosure exceeds what most certifications require.
Business Background
The story behind the shop
Dandelion Chocolate was founded in 2010 by Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring in San Francisco's Mission District. Both were former tech founders—Masonis had sold a startup to Google—who became obsessed with why craft chocolate tasted so different from commodity chocolate, and whether a two-ingredient model could make that difference legible to consumers.
“We started because we wanted to understand why cacao from one farm tasted so different from another. We've never found a good reason to add anything else.”
— Todd Masonis, Co-founder, Dandelion Chocolate
The founding model has never changed: source directly from small cacao farms, use only two ingredients, publish everything about where the beans came from and what you paid. In 2010 this was unusual. In 2025 it's still unusual at scale. Most “bean-to-bar” producers source through brokers and don't disclose purchase prices. Dandelion publishes both—annually, per origin.
Dandelion has remained privately held and San Francisco-based through over a decade of the broader chocolate category being acquired, consolidated, and reformulated. They expanded to Tokyo in 2016 and a Ferry Building location in 2020—but the ownership structure and production model have not changed. There is no private equity on the cap table. There is no parent company. There is no acquisition risk that Traced can identify.
Why this matters for Traced users: The brands in Traced's chocolate investigation have ownership structures that create direct incentives to substitute ingredients and obscure supply chain details. Dandelion's structure creates the opposite incentive: their entire value proposition depends on verifiable sourcing transparency. You cannot reformulate toward opacity and remain Dandelion.
Sourcing Credentials
The evidence for the claims
Every claim below is sourced to a primary record. This is the Traced standard for vendor listings: not marketing language, but verifiable claims you can check yourself.
✓ Verified — primary source
Farm names + harvest dates published for every origin
Dandelion's sourcing page lists the specific farm, region, farmer name (where available), harvest year, and flavor notes for every origin currently in production. Updated each harvest cycle.
Every production run carries the same two-ingredient label. No lecithin, no cocoa butter, no vanilla, no emulsifiers. Consistent across 14 years, verified by Traced review of 7 current products.
Purchase prices paid to farmers disclosed publicly
Most direct-trade chocolate producers do not disclose what they pay farmers. Dandelion publishes price-per-pound paid for most origins in their annual sourcing reports. Industry-exceptional.
Production happens at 740 Valencia St, the same address as the retail café. You can watch chocolate being made through a glass window while ordering at the counter.
No Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, or organic certification
Dandelion has deliberately not pursued third-party certifications, arguing that published sourcing data is more transparent than what certification audits verify. Traced considers this a legitimate position given the quality of their primary-source disclosure. See our certification methodology →
✓ Verified — public records
Privately held, no PE, no acquisition on record
No public records of institutional investment, private equity involvement, or acquisition. No ownership changes that would create the reformulation incentives documented in our Nestlé, Kellogg's, or General Mills investigations.
Tell Dandelion you found them here — we're piloting coordinated inquiry routing from Traced users
Pilot: Traced → Dandelion direct inquiry — leave your email and we'll forward to Dandelion's team.
Dandelion reviews and responds directly. Traced takes no fee in this pilot.
Coming to Traced Marketplace (v2): Native checkout for direct orders. Currently piloting intent routing — we connect you to the vendor, they handle fulfillment. No transaction fee until v2 launches.
History
Timeline without acquisition
The absence of acquisition events in a vendor's timeline is as significant as their presence. Compare this timeline to the Reese's and Annie's investigation timelines on Traced.
2010
Founded in SF
Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring start in a Mission District space. Two-ingredient rule established from day one. No outside funding.
2011
Valencia St factory opens to public
Production at 740 Valencia with factory-floor visibility. Customers can watch chocolate being made from bean to bar. Still their primary SF location.
2014
First annual sourcing report published
Farm names, harvest data, and prices paid published for every origin. Becomes annual practice. No other US bean-to-bar maker publishes price-per-pound paid to farmers at this time.
2016
Tokyo flagship opens
First international location in Tokyo's Kuramae district. Production model and two-ingredient standard carried over intact. No outside capital raised.
2020
SF Ferry Building location
Second SF location adjacent to Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. No ownership change, no investor event.
2024–25
Still independent — cocoa crisis year
While Hershey CFO confirmed recipe adjustments to investors under cocoa cost pressure, Dandelion continued sourcing direct and publishing prices paid to farmers. No reformulation events on record for any Dandelion origin.