Click HERE to read our October 30 Newsletter, "Spirits & Chocolate Pairing Event & More"

Click HERE to read our October 8 Newsletter, "Raspberry Rose Fundraiser & 21 Bars of Chocolate"

Click HERE to read our August 16 Newsletter, "Things That Don't Melt, Events & A New School"

Click HERE to sign up and be the first to know what's happening at Zak's.

Join us November 21st for a Local Spirits & Craft Chocolate Pairing Evening with our good friends at 

Adventurous Stills in Tempe. Click HERE for details and to grab your tickets.

Like coffee and wine, each cocoa bean comes from a unique terroir that impacts its flavor. Zak's Chocolate is giving patrons a taste of true chocolate.

We are proud to share this short video of our chocolate story, filmed by James Beard Award Winning videographer, Andrew Gooi. Filmmaker & Creator of Food Talkies

As you may know, especially if you've attended one of our events or engaged us in conversation at our shop, we pride ourselves on using only ethically-sourced cacao to craft our chocolate. 

Ethical sourcing encompasses many things, including certain environmental, economic and social standards relating to the farming activities and the people we buy cocoa beans from and through. 

But basically, ethical sourcing is about knowing where your food (in this case, chocolate) comes from, how it's made, how the land is treated and how all the people involved in the process handle mutual responsibilities.

Our longest-standing trade relationship, and one we are most proud of, is with a small group called Uncommon Cacao, a Certified B Corporation. Each year, Uncommon Cacao publishes a Transparency Report that is full of great insights and information, yet is also a pretty easy read. Here is a link to the 2018 report. We hope you will take some time to check it out. We'd love to hear what you learned and what you think.

We had a blast sharing an overview of what is unique about Zak's Chocolate

with AZ Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame Member, Pat McMahon

Click HERE to see the segment, which also shows some of our local wine &

spirits friends from Pillsbury Wine, Carlson Creek Wine and Adventurous Stills distillery.

We love pairing our chocolates with these amazing Arizona products

We are excited to finally be able to share these two short, behind-the-scenes videos

with you from a Golf Chanel feature that originally aired in the Fall of 2018.

Click Image above to view Part 1                          Click Image above to view Part 2

  We are excited to announce that we took home THREE Awards this year, and that our Belize 70% Dark Chocolate was named a finalist.

 *Silver for our Coffee Break Bar, a dark chocolate bar with milk & locally roasted coffee, blended together for the perfect Coffee Break

 *Silver for our Belize Single-Origin White Chocolate Bar

 *Bronze for our Peru Maranon Single-Origin White Chocolate Bar

  Yes, two different White Chocolates!

  White Chocoolate IS REAL Chocolate AND each origin offers different natural flavor profiles. Our Belize White is slightly fruity and our Peru is mild and soooo creamy

We are proud to represent craft chocolate in Trip Savvy's list of best shopping experiences across the Country. Click HERE to see the full list.

"A good tour guide can unlock your destination by providing context to the scenes before your eyes. The same goes for a shopping experience — watching locals interact at a market, or chat at a bookstore, can tell you more about a place than any guidebook itself. From cooking classes in Italy to London's flower and food markets, here are TripSavvy's favorite tours, classes and shopping experiences for 2018."

Click here to see the online article. IMAGES AZ Magazine captures the uniqueness of Zak's Chocolate

OUR STORY...ON THE COVER of Chocolate Connoisseur Magazine.

When we opened our little craft chocolate shop about 3 years ago, we just wanted to share chocolate, the way we like it, with the hope that others might like it, too. Chocolate is a very personal experience and we are really excited that Chocolate Connoisseur has shared our own personal story, and some of the things that were, & always will be, important to us, from ethically sourced cacao to highlighting Arizona grown & produced ingredients, to collaborations with other local craftspeople, many of whom are mentioned in the article (some are in the part that comes after the online free preview version🧐).

Anyway, this is our story. It’s kinda long, so grab a chocolate bar or two, pair it with your favorite Arizona wine, coffee or spirits, and we hope you enjoy.

Cheers & Chocolate🍫

Maureen & Jim (Hey, wait a minute, who’s Zak? Do you know? Maybe you'll figure it out from reading the article...)

Click here to read the online free preview version (it's about two-thirds of the whole article). Because Chocolate Connoiseur is a subscription-based publication, we were not able to provide a link to the entire article. However, if you want to read the rest of the story (and we hope you do), just click here for a pdf version. It's not a real clean looking version, but just scroll down until you see the picture of our chocolate ice cream.
 

{btw, if you are interested in subscribing to Chocolate Connoisseur Magazine you can use the coupon code ZAKS30 for 30% off either the current issue or an annual subscription}