The founders of French Broad Chocolate, Dan Rattigan and Jael Skeffington, met at a wedding in 2003. These grad students fell in love and traveled to Costa Rica together. They were so inspired by their experience that they quit grad school, packed up their lives, and moved onto a 40-foot vegetable oil-powered school bus that Dan converted for their unique purpose of driving down to Costa Rica. They settled in the small Caribbean village of Puerto Viejo de Limon, bought an abandoned cacao farm, opened a cafe & dessert shop, and shortly thereafter welcomed their first son to their small apartment above the shop.
After living in Costa Rica for a year they decided to sell the cafe and take the bus back to the States - Asheville, North Carolina, to be exact. They acquired many new fans of their craft chocolate, Jael gave birth to their second son, and the business got so busy that they had to keep expanding to new locations as they’d outgrow their old ones. Finally, in 2018, they moved to their current home - the Ramp Studios near UNC Asheville - which provides 14,000 square feet space and the ability to churn out nearly 50 tons of chocolate each year!