If you gave a piece of Ghirardelli chocolate to a room full of people and asked each one to say the name of the brand, chances are you'd get half a dozen different answers. We've heard everything from "Gee-ar-delly" (with a hard "g," like in "Gee whiz!") to "gheer-delhi," and it was time to set the record straight—especially after learning we'd been in the dark about the proper Belgian pronunciation of Godiva for the past 90 years.
As it turns out, the San Francisco-based chocolatier has been educating the world on its name since 1852, even going so far as to buy ads to break it down. Let the record show—which has been confirmed by a Ghirardelli spokesperson—that it's geer-ar-delly.
The company's named after its founder, Domingo Ghirardelli, who moved from Italy to the U.S. during the Gold Rush. He opened his first shop in a mining camp in California, but the filled chocolate squares weren't introduced until the late '90s.
Old habits can die hard, so if you're struggling to break yourself from another pronunciation, try thinking of Richard Geere imitating a pirate while buying chocolate from a deli. (Geere-"Arrr!"-deli, get it?! Okay. Maybe not.) Also, take solace in knowing the company's cocoa-infused squares taste just as good no matter what you call them.
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