Started in 2016 by Jeff and Susan Mall, Volo Chocolate is an artisan local chocolate business who’s small scale production site is located in Windsor (Sonoma County) alongside other small artisan and creative businesses.
After spending decades in Sonoma County kitchens, including their own restaurants’ kitchen at Zin Restaurant in Healdsburg for sixteen years, Jeff and Susan spent a few years working at a resort in Mexico. During their time there, they fell in love with the Mexican chocolate that they found there and began to experiment with it, creating their own recipes and, eventually, bars. When they came back to Sonoma County (where they were missed!), they decided to go for it and start their next dream career, as artisan chocolate makers.
Now, experimenting with different beans, the percentage of milk or dark, and different creative flavor combinations (such as milk chocolate fused with Meyer lemon or local fig, hazelnut and almond) Jeff and Susan continue to put their culinary background to good use.
The best thing about making chocolate instead of cooking dinner for a restaurant full of people?
According to Jeff, it’s ‘how amazing we smell at the end of the day now. Instead of smelling of cooked onions, we smell like chocolate!’
A truly ‘bean to bar’ operation, Jeff and Susan roast, grind, conch, blend and temper their carefully selected ‘translucent trade’ cacao beans at their small one-room production facility. Once the chocolate has been set into bar-shaped molds, they wrap and label (with beautiful labels that incorporate Jeff’s mom’s designs) the precious bars and deliver them to local customers, or prepare them for delivery to other customers.
Though they are a small business focused almost exclusively on making chocolates to sell to other businesses, Jeff and Susan enjoy sharing their passion with visitors and are happy to give tours to artisan chocolate lovers, when they are available (Friday afternoons tend to be a good time). During the tour, you will get to see where and how the chocolate is made as well as taste a variety of different Volo chocolates (there is a small fee per person).
To get in touch with Jeff and Susan, send them an email at info@volochocolate.com or call their office at (707) 536-6764
