Chocolate-making is a lost art, Jim Elitzak says. It's also a messy one. When his wife, Maureen, with whom he co-owns Zak's Chocolate in Scottsdale, announced that she was going to start making her own chocolate, grinding beans by hand and using hair dryers to blow cocoa shells, he balked.

"I said, 'I will never do that. No, thank you,'" he remembers. Jim since has changed his mind: The couple opened Zak's Chocolate in a small Scottsdale storefront last spring. There, they create organic single-origin chocolate bars and sweets made from their own bean-to-bar chocolate. Everything is done by hand: the roasting, the separating, the melting. Even the paper each chocolate bar comes wrapped in is handmade. The business began as a hobby...click here for full article

Click here for accompanying video of our chocolate making process

Just six months into our new venture, we are very excited and proud to have been Named Best Chocolate in Metro-Phoenix 2015 by Phoenix New Times.

Especially exciting is that this was not a popularity contest vote. It was an editor's choice. 

Thanks to Phoenix New Times and Chow Bella Blog for recognizing our craft. .Click here for Story

Imagine if we were led to believe there was only one kind of wine grape. Boring, right? Grab your favorite Zak's Chocolate bar & check out this great video explaining what real #craftchocolate is about.