We started with samples of 62% semisweet dark chocolate.

A plate of 70% bittersweet dark chocolate samples dialed up the bitterness a bit.

Cocoa nibs are over 99% dark chocolate and tasted quite bitter.

Scharffen Berger’s milk chocolate is also dark chocolate. The official definition of dark chocolate in the U.S. is chocolate containing at least 35% cacao. Milk chocolate is only required to have 10% cacao to carry the label. Scharffen Berger crafts 41% milk chocolate.

A table held all the ingredients that go into chocolate, including vanilla, cocoa butter, sugar, and cacao (ranging from pulp to roasted bean to nib). Milk and nuts are later added, but not on site; the Scharffen Berger factory is nut and dairy free, for allergies’ sake. Chocolate gets sent to a Napa facility, where those ingredients are added, if necessary, then packaged.

After beans are cleaned, they feed into a roaster that roasts beans for 45 minutes at 300 degrees max.

The winnower cracks beans between steel rollers, separating the remains into nibs and shell. Shells and dust are vacuumed and jettisoned into a chute. Being Berkeley, a local chicken farmer picks up waste for feed.

The melangeur (French for mixer) crushes roasted nibs 300 pounds at a time. This process transforms nibs into “cocoa mass,” AKA cocoa butter.

The conche contains very dangerous fast-spinning paddles. This machine blends cocoa mass with C&H, a large grain confectioner’s sugar; cocoa butter, the white fat of the bean, which tempers the chocolate; and whole vanilla beans, which cost anywhere from $50 to $700 a pound. The result is smooth, chocolatey liquid.