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French Broad Chocolate

Asheville, NCBrand · Retailer · Specialty food shop

Our beginnings have helped to shape every piece of French Broad Chocolate; from a tiny cafe in Costa Rica to internationally celebrated bars and bonbons. The Beginning - Costa Rica When Dan Rattigan and Jael Skeffington met at a wedding in 2003, the course of each of their lives changed. After a trip together to Costa Rica, Jael and Dan realized that life in the Midwest just wouldn’t do. So they dropped out of graduate school, packed their lives into a 40-foot vegetable oil-powered school bus (converted by Dan), and drove south to Costa Rica. There, they bought an abandoned cacao plantation and started on a very chocolatey journey. Destination: Puerto Viejo de Limon, a small Caribbean village filled with fisherman, surfers, and expatriates from around the world. Once parked in Puerto Viejo de Limon, Dan and Jael opened a café and dessert shop, Bread & Chocolate. It was there, in the apartment above the shop that their first son, Sam, was born. It was also there that their interest in cacao became a lifestyle. After a year of studying, playing with chocolate recipes, and serving the good people of Costa Rica, Dan and Jael came to a realization: They are not beach people. But Bread & Chocolate was an overwhelming success, and continues to this day… Coming to Asheville So Bread and Chocolate was sold to Tom Franklin, one of their cooks, originally from Baltimore, and Dan and Jael hopped back in their bus to continue their journey as self-ordained chocolate missionaries. Somewhere along the way, Asheville, North Carolina, became their destination and French Broad Chocolate was soon born (as was their second son, Max). The business began out of their home kitchen, and the chocolates began making the rounds online and at local farmers markets. The demand quickly outgrew the space, and in 2008, the French Broad Chocolate Lounge was opened, giving the people of Asheville a haven for indulgence.