There are some among us for whom the ringing of the eggnog bell does the trick to welcome in the holiday season. For others, it’s hot chocolate. But on another, next level, there are our Peppermint Bark fans. They go simply bananas when they see the iconic red-and-white tins—even when the tin’s debut is in early October!
It’s the 24th year since our bark hit the market, and boy, are you guys smitten. It’s the original, and it remains the best around.
Why? Well, for one, a full million pounds of silky-smooth Guittard chocolate and 65,000 pounds of peppermint candy bits go into the making of these bad boys every year. It took us more than 20 rounds of testing to get the bark exactly right. The peppermint oil we use is triple-distilled, so it adds a bouquet, not an overwhelming minty flavor. And even 24 years after launching the original, we still spend a full 24 hours making each batch.
Special care and attention goes into each batch of Peppermint Bark. Because of the overwhelming demand, we spend a full 12 weeks every year making the bark for the holidays.
Freshly stacked bars of Peppermint Bark
1 million pounds of Guittard Chocolate is used each season making Peppermint Bark.
Guittard Chocolate has been made in northern California since 1868.
The chocolate is slowly melted (tempered) so that it can be smoothed out in thin bars, with both white chocolate and dark chocolate layered on top of each other.
Workers hand-layer the chocolate, with each layer carefully rolled out so that it’s smooth, even, and just the right thickness. And the recipe? It’s a top-secret formula: Only a few lucky folks know it.
Peppermint bits are sprinkled by hand over the sheets of bars.
Workers use a special technique to scatter the peppermint bits onto each sheet, being careful that it is evenly and generously coated.
Once the sheets are cooled, they’re cut into large bars for packaging.
The Peppermint Bark is packaged in our red, white, and black tins and ready to be shipped off to our loyal customers!
But before it goes out the door, we snagged an extra fresh square of Peppermint Bark to enjoy while on tour.
There is truly a bark for everyone. We have advent calendar bark, dog paw bark (!), bark cookies, bark pretzels, salted bark, bark with your name on it and a whole lot more. We have you covered in delicious fashion this holiday season.
