For over forty years I have been using Guittard chocolate to make bonbons, truffles, and hand-dipped chocolates at Christmas time. Guittard chocolate is the best! Superb quality!

I knew that the Guittard Chocolate Company was an old California manufacturer of fine chocolate, but I didn’t know how old and how historic. Today, while listening to a podcast from the King Arthur Baking Company, I learned something more about the history of my favorite chocolate, direct from Etienne Guittard’s great-great-great-great granddaughter.

Etienne Guittard founded his business in San Francisco in 1868. He was born in Tournus, France in 1838 and came to California to seek his fortune, probably sometime in the early 1860s. (I can’t find a date anywhere.) He brought with him chocolate from his uncle’s factory to trade for mining supplies, and for three years prospected for gold in the Sierras. He realized that the chocolate that he had brought with him was every bit as desirable as gold, and so returned to France to acquire the knowledge and equipment he needed to go into the chocolate-making business in San Francisco.

In addition to making and selling cocoa and chocolate, M. Guittard also dealt in coffee, tea, and spices, and even yeast and baking soda, all necessary items for a good kitchen.

The business was a great success, and for 31 years Etienne Guittard led his growing company. He died at the age of 61 in 1899, passing the company on to his son Horace C. Guittard. Today Gary Guittard is CEO of the Guittard Chocolate Company, the oldest continuously family-owned chocolate company in the United States.

You can buy chocolate chips made by Guittard in most grocery stores. They cost a little more than other brands, but they are worth it. Their chips and cocoa and couverture “buttons” can also be purchased through their website.

When I first started dipping chocolates many years ago, it was not possible for the home cook to buy directly from the Guittard company. They referred me to a candy company in Southern California (I lived in Bakersfield back then) and that manufacturer has kindly been filling my order for 10-pound bars of chocolate ever since. It’s quite something to see (and smell!) a 10-lb. bar of chocolate.

I have been cutting back on production in the last few years, and now the price of chocolate has doubled or tripled, so I probably won’t do much this year. But the Guittard Chocolate Company carries on, still producing the best chocolate ever.