FAQs
Some answers to our most frequently asked questions are below. If you can't find what you're looking for please contact us and we'll get in touch soon!
Ordering & Shipping
For orders less than 10 boxes, online is best. If you are needing a larger quantity or an invoice, contact us at orders@socolachocolates.com or call us at 415-400-4071.
You can select the truffles that go into a box only by coming into our store.
Our special edition truffle collections (such as the Mid-Autumn, Lunar New Year, and Mother's Day collections) are seasonal and made in small batches. Once they are gone, we retire the collection. However, we're continuously handcrafting new creations all the time. Check out this website and our social media to find the latest collection. (You can find us most active on Facebook and Instagram.)
No, you will need to create a separate order for each address.
We ship Monday through Wednesday nationwide. We process orders placed by 5 p.m. PST the day before. We limit shipping to these days to ensure maximum freshness and quality when they arrive to your doorstep. Please note that during Holiday periods, your orders will likely not ship the next day even if you meet the cutoff and may experience a delay in shipping. We will ship the orders in the order of when they were received.
If you'd like to delay your shipping to a future date, please add a comment in the "note to seller" section while you're checking out, and we'll do our best to accommodate.
You will receive an email on the day your package(s) ships out from our store. This email will contain the tracking number for the package(s) so you will know when your goodies arrive. If there are any changes or delays, we will contact you. The tracking link will display information once the package is picked up.
Orders are shipped via UPS, FedEx, and USPS and generally arrive within 2-3 business days. For large orders (10 boxes or more), we can use your FedEx/UPS account. Email us at orders@socolachocolates.com.
Chocolates don’t love sun. Choose an address where the package will wait for the recipient in a cool, shaded area (business addresses and mailrooms are good, front porches are bad). While we want our customers to be more than satisfied with their Socola experience, we cannot be held liable for any delays in delivery, wrong addresses, and high heat drop off locations.
Yes, we offer rush shipping. You can see your shipping options when you check out. (Please keep in mind that we ship Monday through Wednesday)
We ship with FedEx internationally for an additional fee. To ship internationally, please contact us.
We currently do not offer gift-wrapping, but we do offer gift notes, which you can write during the checkout process.
Currently, we do not.
Yes, please contact us for more information.
Ingredients & Allergens
We use Guittard Chocolate, a family-owned company who locally processes the chocolate in Burlingame, California.
Yes, the chocolate we source from Guittard is Fair Trade Certified and non-GMO.
When possible, we use organic ingredients in our chocolates and confections. The cream and butter we use is from Straus Family Creamery and Clover Sonoma, both family-owned, local companies who make organic dairy products. We source most of our ingredients from family-owned companies within a 100-mile radius of the store.
All products are made on the same equipment and may contain traces of soy, dairy, eggs, gluten and nuts. Most of our chocolate products contain sunflower lecithin, which acts as an emulsifier, preventing the cocoa butter from separating from the cocoa mass.
Our peanut butter and jelly, hazelnut, and kheer truffles contain tree nuts and/or peanuts. Our dark chocolate with toasted nuts bar and kheer white chocolate bars contain nuts. Our dragées are made with almonds. Our Flying Harriets are made with pecans. All of our seasonal brittles contain nuts. All products are made on the same equipment that process nuts and peanuts.
Most of our truffles are made with gluten-free ingredients. The truffles that DO have gluten in them are our Peanut Butter and Jelly Truffle, our Hazelnut Truffle, and our Stout Beer Truffle. However, for those with high sensitivity to gluten, it should be noted that all chocolates are made on shared equipment.
Specify in “Customer Notes” during the shopping cart experience if there are flavors you wish to avoid.
Our dark chocolate bars are vegan. All truffles are made with fresh cream so they are not vegan.
A few of our chocolates contain alcohol of less than 5%: Stout Beer, Cognac, Raspberry Champagne, Fernet, Champagne, and Bourbon.
Since our truffles are (consciously) not made with preservatives, we suggest eating them as soon as possible. Please check our “best by” sticker on the bottom of the package. For truffles, the shelf life is 3 weeks and for other confections they can range from 1-2 months.
Best practice is to store it in a dry, cool place out of sunlight at room temperature. Refrigeration can alter the texture, flavor and integrity of the ganache. It also absorbs flavors from the refrigerator but you make the call!
We make every delicious truffle in micro batches at our San Francisco store by hand. We have an open kitchen if you ever feel like doodling about the art form. Drop by and check out the magic on weekdays.
The ganache is the center of a chocolate trufflem made with chocolate, cream and butter in its simplest form.
Business Gifts, Weddings, & Custom Orders
Yes, we love doing custom orders for client gifts, weddings, galas, bicentennials, annual meetings, and more. You can put artwork, logos, silhouette faces, puns — whatever you can conjure up — on a piece of chocolate. Visit our Business Gifts page or our Weddings page for more information.
Visit our Business Gifts page for more information.
Absolutely, we can curate a basket based on your favorites and budget. Visit our Business Gifts page for more information.
Yes, we can discuss this option. A Rush Fee may be added to turnaround the projects sooner than 4 weeks.
There is a $500 minimum on chocolate. Visit our Business Gifts page or our Weddings page for more information.
Every event and gift recipient is different. Talk to us! We can work together to curate an experience people will love and remember. Visit our Business Gifts page or our Weddings page for more information.
Fun Things
Durian is the King of Fruits — one of the most beautiful and misunderstood fruits in world. Our Durian Truffle is a durian white chocolate ganache encased in a dark chocolate shell. It comes around once in a while, and to get notified right when they’re made, you can join the Durian mailing list.
Socola (sô cô la) is the Vietnamese word for chocolate.
Sisters, Wendy and Susan Lieu, created Socola in 2001.
Wendy is left-handed!
Yes! You can find us in the SoMa neighborhood at 535 Folsom Street in San Francisco.
As of August 2024, we also have a location at SF International Airport (SFO), Terminal 3, Boarding Area E (by Gate E6).
Our logo and mascot is Harriet the Flying Alpaca. We think she's really cute and she has been a symbol of creativity and optimism from the beginnings of Socola. She features prominently in our brand so we never forget why we're passionate about chocolate and chocolate-making.
See our Press page for some highlights of coverage we've gotten.
For us, inspiration comes from everywhere: our travels, our childhood, our friends, our surroundings, our customers, and more.
While we don't think there's any right way to eat chocolate, the next time you taste a Socola truffle, bite a piece off (don’t chew or swallow), smell the mid-section of the chocolate, swirl the chocolate around your mouth, and let the chocolate heat up to body temperature. Move it around. Give it a tour of your mouth. Now start chewing. Savor it. A fun exercise is to experience a bite for 20 seconds (turn on the timer for the challenge!).
Jasmine Tea
Guava!
A chocolate maker processes cacao from bean to bar and the end product is a chocolate bar. Chocolatiers take those chocolate bars as an ingredient to transform them into confections like truffles.