Guittard Chocolate Company

Coordinates: 37°35′51″N 122°22′46″W / 37.597452°N 122.379557°W / 37.597452; -122.379557

The Guittard Chocolate Company is an American-based chocolate maker which produces couverture chocolate using original formulas and traditional French methods. The company is headquartered in Burlingame, California. It is the oldest continuously family-owned chocolate company in the United States, family-owned for more than four generations.

The company was started by Étienne Guittard (1838-1899), who emigrated from Lyon, France in the 1850s during the California Gold Rush. He brought French chocolates with him, which he traded for supplies. After trying without success for three years to strike gold in the Sierra, he returned to San Francisco, where shopkeepers with whom he had earlier traded his chocolate convinced him to become a chocolate maker; he returned to Paris, saved money to buy the equipment he needed, then returned to San Francisco and opened for business at 405 Sansome Street on the San Francisco waterfront. Initially, he didn't limit himself to chocolate, also selling "tea, coffee, spices, yeast powder and flavorings."

Horace C. Guittard, Étienne's son, was in charge when the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed the city. In the aftermath of the quake, a new plant was built on Commercial Street. The company expanded in 1921 and 1936 onto property on Main Street south of Market. In 1954, Guittard sold its property to the city so that Embarcadero Freeway could be built. The company relocated to a 75,000-square-foot (7,000 m²) facility at the corner of Guittard and Rollins road in Burlingame, California, where it remains to this day.