Our Experimental African Slabs

There’s only one chocolate that tastes better than Honest Raw Chocolate. And that’s Honest Chocolate.

Confused? Let us explain.

Most of you know that our slabs are made from unroasted (raw) cacao beans from Ecuador, which give them their rich, punchy cacao flavour. We love these beans. They are some of the best in the world and it’s what makes our chocolate so special.

But people often ask us why we don’t use African cacao. The answer is simply because we haven’t found an ethically run, small-scale producer of premium beans who can supply us small amounts.

Until now!

A Chain of Positivity

Lucky for us we came into contact with Kokoa Kamili, a small-scale cacao producer in the middle of Tanzania. This is a group of amazing people working together to produce premium organic cacao beans whilst paying farmers 24% more than market rates for their cacao – amongst other good practices.

Sitting here at the tip of Africa we’ve always wanted to use brilliant beans from the continent, and now we can! And what makes us even happier is that it’s much more direct trade than conventional sources, which means we cut out the middlemen and more money goes to the farmers.

This makes us very happy. We get to be part of a chain of positivity that links you to the farmers.

Does it taste better? You tell us. Please.

Getting back to the original question, these beans make      incredible chocolate. We made some experimental slabs  using these beans – all done from the raw bean to the finished  slab, a process known as ‘bean-to-bar’:

    Raw Beans -> Sorted by Hand –> Roasted in a Convection      Oven –> Winnowed (Dehusked by Hand) –> Stone Ground (29 Hours)
–> Hand Tempered –> Moulded

We used simple unrefined brown sugar to make 72% dark chocolate slabs and we were blown away by the results.

This is chocolate on another level. Think rich, deep flavours with notes of raisins and tobacco, slight sour fermented notes, ending with light aniseed, and a long lingering chocolate finish.

Anyway, that’s just what we think. We’d love you to come in to our Woodstock Exchange shop in Cape Town and tell us what you think. We’ve got free samples waiting for you.

[Disclaimer! These chocolates are not yet for sale, we’re just experimenting for now. But keep your eyes (and mouths) open, you might see something soon…]

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