Feve Artisan Chocolatier

How One Chocolatier Wants to Bring Luxury Cannabis to a Mall Near You | Eater SF

"Founded by Eric Eslao after six years at Apple, Défoncé Chocolatier is attempting to elevate cannabis chocolate to gourmet levels by targeting health-conscious Californians who prefer low-dose edibles to smoking. Eslao—who named the company after the French word for “high”—hired former Apple retail-design head Christopher Peak as a consultant and built a 10,000-square-foot warehouse near the Oakland Coliseum that smells like a new-age Willy Wonka: concrete floors and machinery on the first floor and a test kitchen upstairs where chefs experiment with pistachios, toasted coconut, and rosé Champagne. The company recruited chocolatiers from Mars, Cadbury, and Godiva, sources chocolate from Belgium and France, and uses cannabis extract from organic California farms; Eslao stresses they are “super compliant” and go beyond what regulations require. Défoncé packages bars in sleek boxes with bold colors, molding each bar into 18 pyramids of 5 mg (90 mg total) and selling them at roughly $20; the company has seen an over-800% increase in sales year-over-year, has doubled staff since January, is raising a Series A to fund retail expansion, and aims to normalize gourmet edibles so people might bring a chocolate bar to a dinner party instead of a bottle of wine." - Clara Hogan