Ingredient & Sourcing Information

 

Hand-Selected Ingredients

Each distinct element is essential to the quality of our chocolates, transforming the ordinary into the truly extraordinary.  

Hand-selecting each of our ingredients is the crucial first step to achieving the extraordinary, and we begin by building lasting and transparent relationships with our growers, producers, and suppliers. We use only premium chocolate made from superior grade cocoa beans for our confections. Many of our products are certified Organic and Fairtrade, and we source local ingredients whenever possible.

Sugar

Our cane sugar is certified Organic and Fairtrade.

Cream

Produced at local, certified organic farms, our fresh cream offers a subtle flavor that adds richness and depth to our confections.

Gray Salt

Harvested off the coast of Brittany, France, sel gris (gray sea salt) is high in mineral content and has a natural, pearlescent shimmer. The distinct flavor uniquely complements our dark chocolate caramels and thins.

Smoked Salt

Smoked over oak, Welsh sea salt develops a reduced salinity that pairs beautifully with our milk chocolate caramels and thins.

Vanilla Bean

The creamy, velvety flavor of our organic Madagascar vanilla bean perfectly complements the taste of rich, premium chocolate.

Coffee

Locally roasted by Olympia Coffee in Olympia, WA, our coffee beans are blended for flavors of sweet chocolate, dense fruit, and a long clean finish.

Single Malt Whiskey

With deep flavor and a remarkably smooth finish, McCarthy's Oregon Single Malt Whiskey from Clear Creek Distillery in Portland, OR is an excellent complement to our dark chocolate.

Tea

Oolong tea grown high in the mountains of Taiwan and blended by Tealeaves in Vancouver, BC creates exceptional flavor when steeped into our premium chocolate.

Peppermint

Locally grown peppermint from Washington's Yakima Valley is infused into our dark chocolate for a delicate balance of flavors.

Sourcing

We are committed to ethical sourcing.  We continually evaluate the integrity and transparency of our sourcing and supplier relationships.  Fran’s Chocolates maintains the highest standards of ethical sourcing, craftsmanship, quality, and food safety.

Certified Organic

We source Organic ingredients whenever possible. In 2016, we partnered with Oregon Tilth and the USDA to achieve Organic certification. Today, our yearly ingredient usage, by volume, consists of 95% certified organic ingredients.

Our organic ingredients include butter, cream, sugar, tapioca syrup, rice syrup, vanilla bean, lemon juice, ginger, almonds, peanuts and peanut butter, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts and hazelnut butter, coconut, and the majority of chocolate that we use.

Many of our products are certified Organic, including our Caramels, Almond GoldBite, Almond and Macadamia Gold Bar, Park Bar, Peanut Butter Cups, Almond Trios, Hazelnut Trios, Tas de Noix, Caramel Hearts, Chocolate Thins, Dessert Sauces, and Drinking Chocolate.

Look for this Organic logo as you browse our catalog and website. Products bearing this seal are certified Organic.

Certified Fairtrade

We have been dedicated to partnering with producers, farms, and suppliers who share our strong ethical, social, and environmental standards since 1982. In 2017, we formalized this commitment by partnering with Fairtrade America and FLO-Cert to achieve Fairtrade certification.

100% of our cane sugar is certified Fairtrade and 95% of our chocolate usage is certified Organic andFairtrade.

Many of our products are certified Fairtrade, including our Caramels, Almond GoldBite, Almond and Macadamia Gold Bar, Park Bar, Peanut Butter Cups, Chocolate Hearts, Dessert Sauces, and Drinking Chocolate.

Look for this Fairtrade logo as you browse our product catalog and website. Products bearing this seal are certified Fairtrade.

Plant-Based

Many of our confections do not contain animal products. Make sure to try our delicious plant-based confections, including dark chocolate-covered fruits, dark chocolate-covered nuts, raspberry sauce, chocolate bars and thins, drinking chocolate, and seasonal items. See our Plant-Based Collection for a full list of our plant-based confections.

Look for this Plant-Based symbol as you browse our product catalog and website. Products bearing this symbol do not contain animal products.

Allergens and Dietary Preferences

We are happy to provide you with ingredient information you and your doctor may need to make an informed decision. We do not want to deprive anyone of our confections unnecessarily. Please call us for a complete ingredient list and answers to any questions you may have regarding allergens.

We process the following allergens in our Seattle production facility: milk, peanuts, tree nuts (almonds, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, coconut, pistachios, cashews, and pecans), and sesame. Please consult our ingredient lists to determine if a confection contains any of these allergens. While we do follow strict cleaning, sanitation, and storage protocols, we do not have a separate facility for the processing of allergens.

Out of extreme caution, and in the spirit of full transparency, it is also our policy to communicate the allergens processed at our suppliers’ facilities to our guests. For example, none of our confections contain wheat or egg, but you may see these allergens listed in our “may contain” statements.

Milk

Our truffles and caramels contain milk in the form of cream or butter. Our milk and white chocolates contain milk.

Look for this Milk symbol as you browse our product catalog and website. Products bearing this symbol contain milk. For non-dairy options, please see above for information about our Plant-Based confections.

We do not process eggs at our Seattle production facility, nor do we source egg-containing ingredients for our confections.

Nuts

We process peanuts, peanut butter, almonds, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, hazelnut butter, coconut, coconut oil, pistachios, cashews, and pecans in our Seattle production facility.

Look for this Tree Nut symbol as you browse our product catalog and website. Products bearing this symbol contain peanuts or tree nuts.

Soy

The majority of our chocolates contain sunflower lecithin. At this time, the Bittersweet Pure Bar is our only product that contains soy lecithin.

Sesame

We process sesame seeds and sesame paste in our Seattle production facility for use in our Sesame Pure Bar.

Wheat

We do not process wheat at our Seattle production facility, nor do we source wheat-containing ingredients for our confections.

Alcohol

Some of our chocolates contain alcohol in the form of rum, whiskey, and brandy.

Caffeine

While all cacao contains a small amount of naturally occurring caffeine, we add additional caffeine in the form of coffee and tea to some of our confections.