Zak's Chocolate

Craft chocolate is the new thing, and Zak’s is leading the charge here with small-batch, handmade chocolate. Jim and Maureen Elitzak opened this chocolate micro-factory in a small space in a Scottsdale strip mall. There, they produce single-origin organic chocolate bars and confections, doing the whole process themselves, from bean to bar, from roasting to wrapping up the bars in handmade paper. Zak’s buys much of its raw cacao through direct trade with farmers in countries including Peru, Belize, and Madagascar, and the couple uses a modified coffee roaster to roast its cacao. Each bar highlights a different flavor, and profiles each variety of cacao – not unlike coffee and wines. All the bars are 70 percent cacao, and each contains a small amount of cocoa butter. An ever-changing menu of flavors and sizes is available. It just depends on what’s being made here on any given week.