Ghirardelli produces several flavors of chocolate. [2], Several months later, Ghirardelli opened a second store on the corner of Broadway and Battery in San Francisco, which became, in 1850, his first establishment in that city. [11] The suit was settled in 2018. After doing some prospecting, Ghirardelli opened a general store in Stockton, California, offering supplies and confections to fellow miners. [12], American confectioner founded in 1852, subsidiary of Swiss confectioner Lindt & Sprngli, List of bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturers, "The Ghirardelli Story A Rich Heritage", "The Emperor Norton Sundae: Vintage Ghirardelli Menus Edition", "Mars, Hershey and others settle heavy metal chocolate lawsuit", Images of the Ghirardelli factory ca. By 1855, a larger manufacturing facility was needed, and so the factory was moved to the corner of Greenwich and Powell Streets, while the office remained at the previous location. 1919, Hamon Observation Tower at the de Young Museum, National Register of Historic Places listings in San Francisco, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ghirardelli_Chocolate_Company&oldid=1094156071, Companies based in San Leandro, California, Food and drink in the San Francisco Bay Area, Food and drink companies established in 1852, Manufacturing companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area, American subsidiaries of foreign companies, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with self-published sources from July 2020, Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 21 June 2022, at 02:28. The chocolate is sold in bar form or in miniature squares. Soon afterward, Ghirardelli was making enough money to send for his family, who were still living in Peru. 
Further expansion over the years into different buildings allowed the company to expand into new markets and grow financially. The company was founded by and is named after Italian chocolatier Domenico Ghirardelli,[1] who, after working in South America, moved to California. In 1817, Domenico Ghirardelli was born in Rapallo, Italy, to an "exotic foods importer" and his wife. [2], By 1900, Ghirardelli's company was selling only chocolate and mustard, having sold its coffee and spices businesses. [9] In 1992, Quaker Oats sold the Ghirardelli Chocolate division to a private investment group. [7] By 1866, the company was importing 1,000lb (450kg) of cocoa seeds a year. [2], In 1849, Ghirardelli received news of the gold strike at Sutter's Mill and sailed to California. [2], In 1892, Ghirardelli retired as head of the company and was replaced by his three sons. Two years later, on January 17, 1894, Ghirardelli died at age 77 in Rapallo, Italy. [4], A fire on May 3, 1851,[5] destroyed Ghirardelli's San Francisco business, and a few days later, his Stockton store also burned down. Ghirardelli remained and continued to operate his store in Peru. 
Since the 1960s Ghirardelli has also moved to focus on a restaurant division by selling ice cream sundaes, complete with their famous hot fudge chocolate sauce. During this time, the company sold liquor, but dropped their line of alcoholic products sometime after 1871. The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company was incorporated in 1852, and is the third-oldest chocolate company in the US, after Baker's Chocolate and Whitman's. In 1965, San Francisco declared Ghirardelli Square (where many of the Ghirardelli buildings were constructed) an official city landmark. Domenico received his first education in the chocolate trade when he was apprenticed to a local candymaker as a child. 
rejecting up to 40% of the cocoa seeds shipped in order to select what the company calls the "highest quality" seeds. [10] The chocolate is then ground and refined until the particles are 19 micrometers (0.00075in) in size. [8] As of 2019, they featured over 15 different sundaes. 
According to their own website, Ghirardelli is one of the few chocolate companies in the United States to control every aspect of its chocolate manufacturing process,[6][self-published source?] A year later, Ghirardelli moved to Lima, Peru, and opened a confectionery store. He changed the company's name to D. Ghirardelli & Co. and, in 1852, imported 200lb (91kg) of cocoa beans. [2] The company was incorporated in 1852 and has been in continuous operation since. Ghirardelli's tent-based store was one of the first shops set up in the area. [6], The next year, in 1853, the business relocated to the corner of Jackson and Mason Streets. Lindt and Sprngli, from Switzerland, acquired Ghirardelli Chocolate Company in 1998 as a wholly owned subsidiary of its holding company.[2]. Later, in 1986, Quaker Oats bought Golden Grain, and thus Ghirardelli. John J. Anton, from that group, became the president and CEO of the newly independent Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. In one of their earliest menus from the 1960s they featured five "Nob Hill Sundaes" all named after different landmarks, historical aspects, or local figures from San Francisco (Twin Peaks, Golden Gate Banana Split, Strike it Rich, The Rock, and the Emperor Norton). By the time he was 20, Ghirardelli had sailed to Uruguay with his wife to work in a chocolate and coffee business. Two years later, production facilities moved to San Leandro, California (.mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}374240N 1220842W / 37.711N 122.145W / 37.711; -122.145 (Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory)Coordinates: 374240N 1220842W / 37.711N 122.145W / 37.711; -122.145 (Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory)).[2]. The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company is an American confectioner, wholly owned by Swiss confectioner Lindt & Sprngli. In 1847, nine years later, James Lick (Ghirardelli's neighbor) moved to San Francisco, California, with 600lb (270kg) of Ghirardelli's chocolate. Ghirardelli also sells food service items, like chocolate beverages and flavored sauces, to other retailers.[3]. In 2015, an independent laboratory tested over 120 chocolate products for lead and cadmium, and found that 96 of the 127 of them contained lead and/or cadmium above the safety threshold defined by California's Proposition 65. The remains of the store can still be seen in town. Based on these results, As You Sow filed notices with over 20 companies, including Ghirardelli and Trader Joe's, for failing to provide the legally required warning to consumers that their chocolate products contain cadmium, lead, or both. This business venture proved unsuccessful, and Ghirardelli opened a new store, named Ghiardelli & Girard, on the corner of Washington and Kearny Streets in San Francisco. In 1963, Ghirardelli Chocolate Company was bought by the Golden Grain Macaroni Company, maker of Rice-A-Roni. However, in September of the same year, Ghirardelli used his remaining assets to open the Cairo Coffee House in San Francisco. In 1885, the company imported 450,000lb (200,000kg) of cocoa seeds. The company then roasts the cocoa seeds in-house by removing the outer shell on the seed and roasting the inside of the seed, or the nibs. [2][3], Ghirardelli had a general store in Hornitos, California, between 1856 and 1859 where he perfected his chocolate recipes. By that time, the company not only sold chocolate, but also coffee and spices to the United States, China, Japan, and Mexico.
