ABOUT FRESCO
ABOUT OUR FOUNDERS
Amy and Rob Anderson - We both were born and raised in Southern California. We have such a normal ‘How We Met’ story. When we were 15 and 16 years old, Rob asked Amy to dance at a church Valentine’s dance. He asked for her phone number! We dated off and on until our early 20’s when we realized it was time to move our relationship further and we got married.
Life happens and over the years 4 children joined our family. Rob’s career as a computer engineer propelled us to make the 1,200+ mile move to Washington State. If you had told us that our careers as an engineer and bookkeeper would lead us to learning how to make chocolate, we would have told you that was CRAZY! We are self-taught chocolate makers.
One of the fun parts of having a family business is that each one of our children have worked for us. Some have been our bean sorters, dish washers and bar wrappers. All our kids and their spouses have helped at chocolate shows behind the table helping customers. It’s fun and sometimes challenging to have your kids work for you, as a parent, especially as teenagers. It’s not often we’ve had to pull out the official “boss hat”, thank goodness. Working together as a family requires communication. It’s been a learning and loving experience for all of us and one we would never change.
We have the philosophy that we need to have fun while making delicious chocolate, otherwise, what’s the point?
ABOUT FRESCO
We are self-taught chocolate makers. How did FRESCO CHOCOLATE get started? In 2002, Rob was on a business trip in San Francisco. During some downtime he visited a chocolate factory known as Scharffen Berger and signed up for the factory tour. The smell of roasting cocoa beans was intoxicating. Being the engineer he is, Rob thought “I can give this a try and make my own equipment”. Amy thought “woohoo, Rob has a hobby”. Who knew where this was going to lead us?
Our chocolate making began in 2003 with one, 140-pound bag of cocoa beans from Venezuela, a “hamster wheel” rotisserie roaster, hand winnowing, a tabletop Indian spice grinder and LOTS of experiments on a worktable in the garage.
Moving from the garage worktable to building a licensed commercial kitchen at our home, our first bars were sold at the Northwest Chocolate Festival in 2010.
Today, Fresco Chocolate has received over 50 National and International awards for our dark, single origin chocolate bars.
We have a love for education and teaching others about the chocolate making process and the farmers who grow and process cocoa.
What makes us unique? Click HERE to find out!
Want to know how chocolate is made? Click HERE to fine out!
Amy, Rob and their team, make every bar in small batches at their small chocolate kitchen in Lynden, WA.