Is Scharffenberger still making chocolate?

[Wholemeal Crank]

I have been using Scharffenberger chocolate for my daily hot chocolate and for baking/cooking for 20 years, through the Hershey's buyout and back to private hands, but recently my local grocery ran out of the 99% baking bars, and because I'm homebound after surgery, I can't do what I did when they switched over from larger baking bars (cheaper by the pound) to the smaller (more expensive) versions, and drive from shop to shop in the LA area and grab all the bars I can.

 

So I checked online, and <scharffenberger.com> redirects to Harry and David's, where indeed they offer the bars I use for cooking.

 

I'm wondering:   does this mean Scharffenberger was purchased by Harry and David's?  Or has the company gone out of business entirely, and there will be no more after wholesalers and retailers have exhausted their current stock?

 

I'm seeing zero news articles by googling that suggest a bankruptcy, and they were spun off from Hershey's 4 years ago, but no mention of change of ownership since then.  And their facebook page has no updates since June.

 

Has anyone here heard something about SB going out of business? Where else should I look for updates on what's happened to them?

[DesertTinker]

36 minutes ago, Wholemeal Crank said:

I have been using Scharffenberger chocolate for my daily hot chocolate and for baking/cooking for 20 years, through the Hershey's buyout and back to private hands, but recently my local grocery ran out of the 99% baking bars, and because I'm homebound after surgery, I can't do what I did when they switched over from larger baking bars (cheaper by the pound) to the smaller (more expensive) versions, and drive from shop to shop in the LA area and grab all the bars I can.

 

So I checked online, and <scharffenberger.com> redirects to Harry and David's, where indeed they offer the bars I use for cooking.

 

I'm wondering:   does this mean Scharffenberger was purchased by Harry and David's?  Or has the company gone out of business entirely, and there will be no more after wholesalers and retailers have exhausted their current stock?

 

I'm seeing zero news articles by googling that suggest a bankruptcy, and they were spun off from Hershey's 4 years ago, but no mention of change of ownership since then.  And their facebook page has no updates since June.

 

Has anyone here heard something about SB going out of business? Where else should I look for updates on what's happened to them?

 

Here's what I found after a bit of poking around.

[Wholemeal Crank]

thanks, that helps. It's strongly suggest that the baking bars are going to be the most marginal aspect of the business going forward unless they really change course, and that I should be stocking up on every last one I can afford and have space for because they are not likely to continue much longer if they're not already permanently discontinued.

[pastrygirl]

I saw exactly one mention of the acquisition on social media, kind of surprised me that it wasn't bigger news.  The guys that bought it back from Hershey's seemed near retirement age at the time, so maybe not surprising that they sold.  They had also bought & were operating out of the former Dagoba factory in Southern Oregon.  Super convenient now for Harry & David who is just up the road. 

 

So, no idea what'll happen with them but it's a little vexing to "save" the artisan co from one behemoth & sell to another.

[JeanneCake]

9 hours ago, Wholemeal Crank said:

I can't do what I did when they switched over from larger baking bars (cheaper by the pound) to the smaller (more expensive) versions, and drive from shop to shop in the LA area and grab all the bars I can.

 

 

Did you already try Amazon?  Any luck there?

[Wholemeal Crank]

no offers at all for the 99%

[DesertTinker]

This is on the Simply Chocolate website (another part of the 1800flowers.com family of brands.

Hmmm… it also links thru the Harry & David page.

Edited 22 hours ago by DesertTinker
Added info. (log)

[Wholemeal Crank]

I did just order as much as the budget could afford and then some from Harry and David.

 

What I remember from that very first  Scharffenberger factory tour is that they use the same bean blend with the same fruity flavor profile for the 70% and the 99% cacao bars. They use a different blend that has less fruitiness and a little less bitterness because it is made with milder manor beans for both the 62% and the 82%. And it's that 70% flavor profile that I crave when I use the 99% for Baking.

 

and the baking bars are the same ingredients as the bars to eat out of hand, again if I recall correctly, without alterations in proportion of cocoa butter etc. that you find a lot of other brands of bulk chocolate sold as coverture.  

 

I just never trusted the gigantic blocks they used to break up and sell at Whole Foods after they quit caring the Scharffenberger in bulk. I know at least once or twice I purchased one of those mystery chunks of chocolate and was disappointed, but I don't know if it was Valhrona or Callebaut or something else.