Dan's Chocolates
Dan's Chocolates is a Burlington, Vermont chocolate maker.
History
It was founded in 1999 by Dan Cunningham, whose title is now Chief Chokolada.[1] It was established as a subsidiary of the BlueMountain.com greeting card site and spun off as an independent venture in 2000.[2]
The company 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. It 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 comprises 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.
References
- ↑ "Chocolate Explosion". Business Week. July 31, 2000. Retrieved 2015-02-02.
The twentysomething Vermont native's title is chief chokolada (no joke), and he's the founder of online gourmet chocolate purveyor Dan's Chocolates.
- ↑ "Homemade Apps Make Life Sweet". InfoWorld. February 12, 2001. p. 40. Retrieved 2015-02-02.
When Dan Cunningham, CEO of Dan's Chocolates, launched the online gourmet chocolate e-tail site, he made technology decisions based on the fact that the online business was part of a larger company