Dandelion Chocolate may source its cacao from Madagascar and Belize, but the brand has found sweet success among Japan's craft-loving culture.

The small-batch, bean-to-bar chocolate company has, in the past two years, opened three Japanese outposts: in Tokyo's hipster enclave of Kuramae; in Kamakura, a seaside city south of Tokyo; and in Ise City, where the shrine of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu O-mikami draws more than seven million visitors each year. A fourth shop is coming to Kyoto, known for its magnificent temples, this spring.

Dandelion's overseas shops share the same aesthetic as those in San Francisco, with all the exposed wood elements and the Japanese-made ceramics, naturally. But while the chocolate makers in Japan use the same cacao beans and methods employed at the factory here in the Mission, SF connoisseurs on a Japanese foodie pilgrimage may note that the chocolate there tastes curiously different.

"All the details matter—roast profile, the time it is refined, ambient temperature, sorting of the beans, the amount of time the chocolate sets prior to tempering, and any of hundreds of other factors," says Dandelion bean sourcer Greg D'alesandre, explaining that the flavor profiles may vary in indeterminable ways. "This is why our chocolate makers are makers and not machine operators."

You can taste the difference by picking up a Japan-roasted bar from either of Dandelion's SF locations (though these bars do tend to sell out quickly). As for the cafe menus in Japan, favorites like the brownie bite trio and spicy Mission mocha hold steady. // dandelionchocolate.com, dandelionchocolate.jp