Sustainable Chocolate Made Without Cacao

California Cultured, based in Davis, California, has begun producing chocolate from plant cells. “California Cultured was created to address chocolate’s dark secrets and bring chocolate and cacao farming into the 21st century,” says Alan Perlstein, CEO and founder. In a lab, cacao plant cells are extracted and fed minerals and nutrients. The ones that grow fastest and taste the best are scaled up in tanks, harvested weekly and eventually ground into chocolate. “The process for making chocolate via cell culture is analogous to growing fruit on a farm,” explains Perlstein.