Malena Lopez-Maggi

Founder and creative director of The Xocolate Bar, an award-winning Berkeley artisan chocolate company. Twenty years of experience bringing original chocolate concepts from idea to market, combining flavor development, visual design, sourcing, packaging, brand storytelling, and customer education.

Professional experience

The Xocolate Bar · Berkeley, California
Founder & Creative Director | 2006–2026

• Developed hundreds of original recipes and product designs using natural ingredients and organic, fair-trade chocolate.
• Directed product development, recipe creation, sourcing, packaging, visual identity, marketing, and client relationships.
• Developed the brand’s distinctive voice and stories across product names, flavor descriptions, packaging, promotional materials, and customer communications.
• Oversaw chocolate production, staff training, customer education, and custom commissions.
• Expanded wholesale distribution to nearly 400 boutiques nationwide.
• Created custom chocolate projects and public programming for museums, universities, corporations, and cultural organizations.

Selected collaborations and commissions

Asian Art Museum of San Francisco · KQED · American Craft Council · Chabot Space & Science Center · Mills College Art Museum · Meta · Maker's Mark · Sandra Cisneros book-launch collaboration

Chocolate education and curriculum

Tamalpais Community Education — Developed and taught The Chocolate Snob's Guide to Tasting, Single-Origin Chocolate, and An Edible History of Chocolate.

• Chabot Space & Science Center: Chocolate-based flavor and color perception programming.
• American Craft Council: Food-safe moldmaking and chocolate process demonstration.
• Mills College Art Museum: Centennial chocolate buffet and participatory food/art programming.

Selected original curricula & educational programs

Developed original chocolate education spanning sensory evaluation, food science, cultural history, craft, design, and interdisciplinary art. Programs below distinguish delivered instruction from proposed course designs.

• Chocolate tasting & sensory evaluation (taught): The Chocolate Snob’s Guide to Tasting, Single-Origin Chocolate, and An Edible History of Chocolate — Tamalpais Community Education.
• Flavor & color perception (developed): An experimental chocolate-based program exploring how visual cues shape taste perception — Chabot Space & Science Center.
• Food-safe moldmaking (taught): Techniques for casting edible materials — American Craft Council.
• Edible Milagros: The Poetry of Chocolate (workshop design): A five-session interdisciplinary experience combining guided tasting, reflective writing, drawing, metalwork, chocolate tempering, casting, and a closing sipping-chocolate ritual.
• All About Chocolate (community education proposal): Five-course sequence covering Tasting & Sourcing, Tempering & Molding, All About Flavor, Making Bonbons, and Packaging & Presentation, including hands-on demonstrations and sensory evaluation.
• Mills College Art Museum: Centennial chocolate buffet and participatory food/art programming.

Brand storytelling & creative direction

• Developed a recognizable brand identity by bringing together unexpected flavors, humor, poetry, visual design, and culturally informed product narratives.
• Created product and packaging concepts that told a story through flavor, materials, naming, and presentation.
• Led brand communications and promotional storytelling for retail, wholesale, museum, and custom-commission audiences.

Selected work

Chocolate and packaging concepts →  ·  Selected commissions and collaborators →  ·  Customer stories →

Additional curriculum and branding samples are available by request.

Education and professional training

• MFA, Studio Art — Mills College, 2015, summa cum laude
• BA, Studio Art — Mills College, 2013
• UC Davis — Food Science short course
• Melissa Coppel Chocolate & Pastry School — Professional chocolate production training

Selected recognition

• 2007 — San Francisco International Chocolate Salon, Best in Show
• 2020 — Good Food Award, Cacao Fruit Jam
• 2023 — San Francisco International Chocolate Salon, Best New Product (Faux Brie / Chocuterie)
• 2025 — USA TODAY 10Best Readers' Choice, #7 Best Chocolate Shop in the U.S.

For chocolate consulting inquiries: founders@xocobar.com