Make Chocolate with Z.Cioccolato

Mike Zwiefelhofer spends his days handcrafting chocolate and delighting customers with rich fudge and gooey caramel sticks. 

Inheriting a passion for retail and a self-professed love of sweets, Mike’s first foray into the candy business taught him that the popularity of fro-yo comes and goes, but there’s one sweet that people never get tired of.

Mike took over Z. Cioccolato in 2015 with the feeling that chocolate had real staying power. His hunch paid off when the challenges of the pandemic forced him to think outside the box to keep his business thriving. In the past two years, Z. Cioccolato has grown from a local shop in San Francisco to a successful online business now offering virtual chocolate making classes for cacao-lovers all over America. 

Loved by a local customer-based that keeps on coming back for more, Mike and his team are passionate about making people happy, one delicious candy at a time.

I’m on a mission to… 

Make sure Z. Cioccolato is a 100 per cent customer-first company. We definitely believe in providing high-quality products but at the end of the day, they are just products. We believe our customers are buying from our company because they love us and our team and the amazing service we give them.   

When I’m working with chocolate I... 

Am able to disappear into another world. Running a business can be very stressful, from customer issues to hiring employees to paying bills. When I start making candies, I can forget about all of that for a couple of hours and just lose myself in the chocolate.

Teaching others has taught me... 

How much enjoyment chocolate can bring to others. My class participants frequently comment on how soothing and therapeutic working with melted chocolate feels. So many of my students have never worked with melted chocolate simply because they didn't know-how. It brings me much joy to help them understand how easy it can be and teach them a skill that they can use again and again. 

This year I’m grateful for… 

My team's ability to pivot these past two years to make sure our business is around another 20 years.