The Lineup
The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company is returning its Peppermint Bark collection to retail shelves for the 2026 holiday season with five SKUs — including two new additions — spanning suggested retail prices from $7.49 to $16.79. The expansion signals the San Leandro-based premium chocolate maker's intent to capture incremental spending across gifting, baking, and in-store foodservice occasions during the year's highest-volume confectionery window.
The core range includes the original Peppermint Bark SQUARES (4.6 oz., $7.99 SRP) and Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark SQUARES (4.5 oz., $7.99 SRP), both individually wrapped for seasonal retail display. A 10.4 oz. assorted bag combining both SQUARES formats with Peppermint Bark Snowmen carries an $16.79 SRP and targets multi-occasion household stocking.
Two New SKUs
The two new entrants address distinct demand pockets. The Peppermint Bark Sweater Gift — a 4.2 oz. branded gift box retailing at $7.99 and sold exclusively on Ghirardelli.com — positions the brand in the premium direct-to-consumer gifting segment, where packaging differentiation can support margin. The second addition, Peppermint Melting Wafers (10 oz., $7.49 SRP), moves Ghirardelli into the at-home holiday baking aisle, a category that saw sustained volume gains in the post-pandemic period as consumer interest in scratch and semi-scratch baking remained elevated. Both introductions extend Ghirardelli's addressable holiday SKU count without cannibalizing the existing squares franchise.
Club and Foodservice Reach
For volume-driven club channels, Ghirardelli is offering a 16.2 oz. Peppermint Bark Collection at Costco and a 16.7 oz. version at Sam's Club — formats that typically carry lower per-unit margins but drive brand exposure among high-spend households. At the retail store level, select Ghirardelli locations will offer limited-time Peppermint Bark Sundaes and Peppermint Hot Cocoa, a tactic that converts the brand's physical footprint into a seasonal marketing vehicle while generating incremental foodservice revenue.
"There's something special about the traditions we look forward to each year, and for so many, Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark has become one of them," said Bobby Oliver, Vice President and Head of Marketing at Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. The company, founded in San Francisco in 1852, operates one of the few vertically integrated chocolate manufacturing processes among large-scale U.S. producers, controlling sourcing through finished product — a supply-chain structure that provides both quality consistency and cost visibility heading into a volatile cocoa-price environment.
Seasonal confectionery remains one of the more resilient subcategories in specialty food retail, with holiday chocolate gifting historically outperforming the broader candy segment in dollar-per-unit metrics. Ghirardelli's multi-channel placement — mass retail, club, DTC, and company-owned stores — reflects a distribution strategy aimed at capturing demand across consumer income tiers. For operators and grocery buyers evaluating seasonal confectionery assortments, the breadth of the Peppermint Bark line provides shelf flexibility from impulse-priced singles to club-format multipacks. Foodservice directors at hotel and hospitality venues may also find the new Melting Wafers SKU relevant for in-house pastry programs seeking a branded chocolate component.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
