Dear friends,
It’s never lost on me what a privilege it is to be part of the joyful moments in people’s lives throughout the year, whether it be a treat for yourself after a long hike, a box of truffles for a birthday gift, attending a chocolate class with your family, or lingering over a hot chocolate with a loved one. My heartfelt thanks for continuing to choose GDC to treat yourself and your loved ones.
We kicked-off 2025 with a full staff retreat late last January, where we took time to reflect on and refine GDC’s values. Our team quickly agreed two things are at the heart of our business: the incredible community and staff that orbits GDC and our unwavering commitment to quality. As I review our year and the many, many decisions - securing funding for staff training, sourcing of ingredients and packaging, selecting the non-profits/organizations we support, offering new benefits for our team, planning for 2026 and beyond - I can confidently say that our values have been at the heart of our decisions throughout the year, something I’m most proud of.
2025 was fraught with unanticipated challenges for many small businesses, including ours. Tariffs and rising costs continue to drive up prices of our ingredients, packaging, utilities and technology. In response, we’ve doubled-down on what we do best, making the most delicious treats with the tastiest ingredients and ethically sourced chocolate we can find. It was a year of investing in the long-term of GDC and fortifying our team in the small ways we can. (See more on this in the highlights!)
Thank you for supporting our values-driven chocolate business, many of you for all 21 of our years. I hope your holiday season and 2026 is chock full of joyful moments!
— Jody
A few of our favorite things from 2025...
1. Continued Ed
Many of the GDC staff completed the International Institute of Chocolate and Cacao Tasting’s Level 1 and Level 2 training, deepening our understanding of the entire cocoa industry and honing our chocolate tasting skills! Production and retail staff attended gelato university and Zingerman’s trainings, as well.
2. Cultural Exchange
Over the summer we welcomed back Daisy from China and hosted two new J1 exchange students/workers, Kelli from China and Lili from Colombia, in the gelato shop. The entire gelato team did a fantastic job and made life long friendships spanning the globe.
3. Adriana's Kitchen pop-up
Adriana’s Kitchen pop-up was a huge success! One of the highlights of our year was getting to know Adriana, her husband and daughters, and enjoying their tacos. Clearly Empire was hungry for her great Mexican food. Stay tuned for plans for summer 2026. And make sure to get tickets for January’s Farm to Table dinner at the LivelyNeighborFood market where Adriana is the guest chef!
4. Our Joyous Production team!
The regular, contagious laughter and singing coming from our intrepid production crew! Gabi, Connor, Matthew and Elaine are the wizards behind our chocolate and, by hand, they made a whopping 114,000+ truffles, caramels and pb pucks last year, not including bars and bark and the many other things they make. And they’re still singing and laughing, thankfully! Did you try all of Gabi’s seasonal truffles in 2025? Don’t miss the Valentine’s Day 2026 collection coming soon and featuring our friends Iron Fish Distillery. They’re unbelievably tasty (and fun!).
5. A New Cacao Partner
In October we visited our newest cacao partner, the Kallari Co-op, in the Amazon region of Ecuador. They’ve been friends for many years and we’ve visited them in the past on our chocolate tours to learn about their pioneering indigenous farmer ownership model and chakra farming system, an ancient regenerative farming practice. It’s wonderful to be able to work with them more formally and you’ll find their cacao in our 45% milk chocolate.
6. Compostable Packaging
We’re rolling out new packaging and I’m so excited to see it come to life. Max, Sam, and OB and Co. knocked it out of the park! It’s colorful and delightful, featuring Brianne Farley’s original character art, resealable and compostable. Let us know what you think!
