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Better Than Fairtrade

Using Fairtrade certification as a filter for buying chocolate cancels out over 90% of the best chocolate in the world.

Fairtrade is not synonymous with quality. Most Fairtrade chocolate is made with the same bulk cacao as your mainstream industrial chocolate brands. The small-scale chocolate makers (represented here) and the smallholder farmers they purchase cacao from cannot afford Fairtrade certification. So they go the route of being open and transparent about sources and in many cases pricing.

Also keep in mind that Fairtrade, although great in theory, does not do what you believe it does in the real world. Bars sold here are made with cacao that is purchased ABOVE Fairtrade standards. Many makers buy direct from farmers or co-ops, and some makers on the bean-to-bar app are also becoming tree-to-bar, where they grow or have direct access to the cacao themselves!

Authentic Flavour

Whenever you see the term "natural flavour" on a food product, know that it is not actually natural or authentic. It is still a chemical synthesized in a lab from sources that usually have nothing to do with ingredients in that product. Chocolate sold here is made with fine cacao that is naturally aromatic. It does not contain natural flavourings, because it does not need it.

For instance, the unflavoured single-origin bars here contain aromas and flavours natural to the cocoa bean which was used to create it. If you're tasting cherry and honey in your single-origin dark chocolate, know that you are tasting the authentic flavour of the beans themselves! No flavourings were added. Similar to fine wine, cheeses, coffee, and beers.

Pure & Nutritious Ingredients

The ingredients in the products sold here are few, simple, real, and easy to interpret. You don't have to worry about hydrogenated palm kernel oils and other low quality fats or ingredients in these bars.

All the health benefits you read about in regards to dark chocolate are found in the chocolate bars sold here. Period. In particular, the dark chocolate bars (which have the highest concentration of minerals and polyphenols).

Chocolate does NOT have to taste bitter or medicinal in order to be healthy. There is nothing magical about health food store chocolate bars. In fact, most of these health food store chocolate bars are made with the same bulk industrial cacao beans that your Lindt or Hershey bar is made from.

Cacao by nature is nutritionally dense with some of the highest levels of flavanols (antioxidants) than any other food, and packed with minerals as well. Whether it is bulk cacao used for a dark Lindt bar, or fine cacao used for dark chocolate bars sold here, they all contain the health benefits that come from the cacao.

The difference here is that not only are the cacao beans packed with minerals and antioxidants, but they are also of higher quality and better flavour. As well, more care is taken in regards to how cocoa beans are cured, roasted, and turned into chocolate. Much of the bulk chocolate is made with cacao that is often over roasted or dutched (alkalyzed), both of which greatly diminish antioxidant levels.

Well Crafted

The chocolate made here is created by small-scale chocolate entrepreneurs. In order for the chocolate here to taste as incredible as it does, there needs to be a great deal of attention and care put forth at each step of the process. From the farm to the kitchen, it's a collaboration of people with a desire to preserve quality. This is something industrial chocolate brands are not able or willing to do. Quality craftsmanship is what makes this chocolate what it is, and the people preserving and growing the craft are to be admired for their labour of love.

The makers here represent small businesses run by either 1 person, a couple, a few people, or perhaps a couple dozen employees. These are the people at the forefront of growing the bean-to-bar world. Watch these interviews and learn about how valuable these people are to the world of bean-to-bar chocolate.