http://uproxx.com/life/best-artisanal-chocolate/
An interesting selection of makers here, although the article does confuse chocolate maker (who make chocolate from cocoa beans) and confectioners (aka chocolatiers) – who buy chocolate from industrial chocolate chocolate makers to make their products. Like all such lists, this is incredibly highly subjective and personal and conflates “craft” and “artisanal” which should mean very different things.
The Mast Brothers, Theo, and Rogue (confusingly named chocolatier because the original French meaning of chocolatier is what we now call chocolate maker), all make chocolate from cocoa beans.
The rest of the companies buy the chocolate they use. This is *not* a value judgment. Making chocolate and making confections are very different skills and require very different equipment. Fran (Bigelow), John Kelly, Valerie Confections, Vosges, Jacques Torres, are confectioners, not chocolate makers (though JT has made chocolate in the past and still has the equipment to do so – it’s not a major part of his business).
Sadly, the article also promotes the idea that chocolate is made by mixing cocoa powder with other ingredients and that’s not the case.