Looking for the perfect, single-origin, dark-chocolate Easter Bunny? Rainy Day Chocolate has got you covered
Single-origin chocolates and other handmade delights await at this new chocolate shop in Forestville
If you ignore the whole death and resurrection of Jesus, Easter—like Valentine’s Day—is really just an excuse to eat more chocolate than you normally would. There are chocolate eggs and chocolate bunnies—which, let’s be honest, represent a whole different kind of resurrection, a pagan celebration of the re-birth of life in spring.
But sometimes, the quality of the chocolate Easter bunnies available in grocery stores falls a little short of providing the kind of religious experience this holiday requires.
As such, we thought this would be a good time to check in with West County’s newest chocolate purveyor, Rainy Day Chocolate, which this season is offering a Guatemalan single-origin, dark-chocolate Easter bunny that might just make you fall down on your knees.
Rainy Day Chocolate opened in February in that funny, little, elevated mini-mall at the corner of Hwy. 116 and Mirabel in Forestville. Co-owners Chris Sund and Jennifer Daly started Rainy Day Chocolate ten years ago, doing farmers markets, winery events, and festivals like the Renaissance Faire. Chris is the chocolate maker, and Jennifer manages the business. This is their first brick-and-mortar location.
In addition to bunnies, Rainy Day Chocolate sells an array of delectable, hand-made chocolates, including bean-to-bar, handcrafted chocolate bars, truffles and English toffees, as well as dark chocolate-dipped Oreos and dark chocolate-dipped marshmallows. Their chocolate has won Best of Show at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair three times over the last seven years.
Made with organic butter and organic sugar, their English toffees are something of a miracle. They make two types of English Toffee: one with dark chocolate, almond and sea salt, and one with milk chocolate, macadamia nut and toasted coconut.
“We took second place at a national toffee competition, gold for best texture, and also took gold at the San Francisco Chocolate Salon twice and at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair,” Sund said. “We like to say it’s not-a-break-your-teeth toffee. It’s got a good initial crunch, then a little more melt-in-the-mouth effect.”
Sund said owning Rainy Day Chocolate has been a chocoholic’s dream come true.
“I like to say I’m the sweet, my wife’s the savory,” he said. “We knew we wanted to do some sort of food business back when we were first dating, before we got married. So we went through a few different beta ideas, from making bread to Indian samosas. But then one rainy day, I made truffles, and everybody loved them, and it was kind of this aha moment of ‘We could make a business selling chocolate. Let’s do that!’ And that was 10 years ago.”
Early on, they were inspired by the work of Dandelion Chocolate in San Francisco.
“That was our first time having chocolates from different countries that tasted unique and different. That became our mission—to share that with Sonoma County, since it fits right in with the wine region. I like to say that, like wine and coffee, if you grow the same thing over here versus over there, then it tastes different. Chocolate is the same way. It’s been a little bit of a lost art in our society. the last 100 to 200 years have focused on factorization and industrialization and making things faster and more efficient, not focusing on the flavors of chocolate.”
Rainy Day Chocolate currently offers a Belgian-style Milk Chocolate and a Belgian-style Dark Chocolate, as well as single-origin chocolate from Guatemala and Tanzania.
“We have an importer out of the East Bay that has a warehouse that gets seeds from around the world,” Sund said. “That’s where we get the Tanzanian seeds, and we’re about to get some more Belizean seeds. The Tanzanian is very fruity, tart and tangy; the Guatemalan is super earthy, nutty, kind of hazelnut-peanut butter notes, which is great. And the Belizean tastes like raspberries and changes on your palate like three times.”
“Helping people connect with where their chocolate comes from is a big part of what and why we do what we do,” Sund said. “Inside our bars is a map of the world that highlights the growing belt of cacao, 20 degrees from the equator…The single-origin bars from different regions point to where those seeds from your bar came from and then talk a little bit about the farmers that grew those seeds.”
As part of Rainy Day Chocolate’s educational mission, they offer regular classes at their store in Forestville, which has a large classroom area in the middle of the space. They’ve been running Easter Bunny & Egg Decorating classes for the last few weeks. (The last class, which still has some openings, is tomorrow, Saturday, April 4, at 11 am. Sign up here.)
They also offer regular Factory Mini-Tour & Chocolate Tastings and Chocolate Decorating classes, which you can learn about here. Down the road, Sund said they plan to offer a four-hour chocolate-making class that will take people from seed to chocolate bar.
In the meantime, I suggest that you hop right down there because the person who gets these chocolates in their Easter basket this Sunday is going to be a lucky little bunny indeed.
Rainy Day Chocolate is open Wednesday through Saturday, 11 am to 4 pm, at 6492 Mirabel Road, Forestville. They will be closed on Easter Sunday. Find out more about Rainy Day Chocolate at their website.
Really interesting article. I’ll make a point of going for a visit. Maybe even a class! Fun
I appreciate Sebastopol Times.