Bean to bar chocolate is carefully created in micro batches using cacao that has been fairly traded directly from the growers and farmers.   These are beans that have been harvested from trees that have been carefully cultivated for generations by families who care about the genetics and biodiversity of their homeland.

95 % of the world’s chocolate is produced from trees that have cloned genetics and have been selected for their high yield, resistance to full sun, as well as the ability to tolerate chemicals.  The cacao produced has an inferior flavour and will need extensive processing as well as additional ingredients for it to become palatable.

What are the benefits of investing more when purchasing a bar of chocolate?

  • Investing in the genetics of future cacao trees that thrive in the shade and canopy of the rainforest.
  • Supporting farmers and growers with direct trade so that they and their families can thrive rather than remain in poverty.
  • Traceability of sustainable processes by skilled producers.
  • Controlled fermentation to ensure the development of premium flavour.
  • Unadulterated ingredients NOT over-processed and diluted beans that undertake a heavy industrial process.
  • No shortcuts or cheap fillers such as palm oil or deodorized cacao butter or lecithin.
  • TASTE –  outstanding flavour, mouthfeel created using premium ingredients.

 

How to savour fine chocolate…melt NOT munch.

  • Aroma – indulge in a moment to smell carefully crafted chocolate, it will give you the opportunity to look for typical profile notes and help your senses to prepare for what you are about to eat. There are complex tastes in finely crafted chocolate just as we would expect to find in wine.
  • Tasting – there are five flavour profiles or taste sensations that we recognise. These are sweet, salt, bitter, sour and umami. We also talk of mouthfeel and when enjoying chocolate this includes dryness from tannins and fattiness from cocoa butter.  Other sensations would be heat from spice, powder sensation from calcium, coolness and numbness.

Chocolate Flavour Profiles

Fruity – Notes of cherry, plum, strawberry, blackberry, currant, raspberry, melon and apricot.

Molasses – Notes of raisin, wine, blueberry, prune, rum and molasses.

Chocolate – Notes of vanilla, honey, almond and creamy.

Earthy – Notes of wood, olive, coconut, peanut, hazelnut and walnut.

Spicy – Notes of cardamon, tobacco and cinnamon.