- Great Taste Award - 2014 1 star
- Great Taste Award - 2015 3 stars
- Great Taste Award - 2016 3 stars - selected among the 50 Best Foods
- Great Taste Award - 2017 3 stars - selected among the 50 Best Foods
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Located in the Sambirano Valley, near Ambanja, in the North-West of Madagascar, Bertil Åkesson's estate spreads over about 2000 ha. Since 1920, world-famous aromatic cocoa and spices are produced there and today most of the top chefs and chocolate makers around the world use cocoa from this estate. Besides 300 tons of Trinitario cocoa produced every year, a very limited quantity of Criollo beans - 2 tons per year - is harvested separately to make this chocolate. It has a very expressive cocoa aroma with subtle fruity-sweet tartness and pleasant flavour notes that evoke citrus and red berries. - To Chocolate Naive, the Equator collection concept is to use ingredients that come from a single ecosystem. Because an ecosystem's minerals, water, soil give life to its plants, the elements that thrive together inherently taste good together. Every chocolate bar from this collection is solely composed of ingredients grown the area on region of the earth surrounding the equator with bright and intense flavors symbiotically blended into the house made tropical chocolate. 'Inhale so you can sense the aromas of exotic flowers and plants. Taste. Let the flavors of the jungle help you to understand.' This series consists of 6 bars: Spices, Incan Berry, Super Dark, Tahini, Peanut Butter and Orange Liquorice. The story of the Peanut Butter bar goes as follows. This peanut butter chocolate is made by the devil himself. The chocolate is mixed with the devil's horn and is so tempting that the recipe was included in the list of the biggest sins in the world. For almost four days, the peanut butter is churned and whipped by virgins and on the fifth day Lucifer joins the chocolate making process. The divine tears of virgin girls are mixed together with the flames of inferno and from this act of deflowering the peanut butter chocolate bar is born. So damn good... . Domantas Uzpalis, chocolatier at Chocolate Naive. Ingredients: organic cacao butter, organic sugar, organic cacao, grass-fed milk powder, organic peanuts, sea salt. BB: 2025-12-14
- Adam Dick and Dustin Taylor are co-owners of Dick Taylor Chocolate. The fleur de sel chocolate bar is made using the award winning two ingredient 73% Northerner Blend Chocolate; a blend of Brazilian and Madagascan cacao sweetened with Brazilian cane sugar. Their has been added a sprinkling of hand-harvested Guatemalan sea salt from Bitterman Salt Co. for a subtle and delicate finish. Using the finest cacao, and a modern take on traditional European technique, Dick Taylor Chocolate is able to fully realize the potential of the beans they source. All of their chocolate is carefully crafted from the bean in their small factory in Eureka, Northern California.
- Great Taste Awards: 2 stars 2018
- Academy of Chocolate: Bronze Winner 2018
- Adam Dick and Dustin Taylor are the co-founders of Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate. Beginning with the highest quality cacao from Belize, Adam and Dick set out to create a chocolate bar unlike anything else. They began by aging cocoa nibs in Straight Bourbon Whiskey barrels. Once fully aged they use these delicious nibs to create a 70% Dark Chocolate bar adding only cocoa butter and cane sugar. The resulting bar is amazingly robust and complex with pronounced oak and bourbon flavors. A true one of a kind tasting experience. Using the finest cacao, and a modern take on traditional European technique, Dick Taylor Chocolate is able to fully realize the potential of the beans they source. All of their chocolate is carefully crafted from the bean in their small factory in Eureka, Northern California. Ingredients: organic cacao, organic cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, Bourbon Whiskey BB: 2024-09-15 with lot number
- Locally churned Ronnybrook Farm Dairy browned butter lends deep caramel flavors to their interpretation of a classic milk chocolate. Handcrafted from Oko-Caribe Dominican Cacao. Ingredients: cane sugar*, cocoa butter*, cocoa beans*, nonfat milk powder, butter, whole milk powder, vanilla bean *organic origin BB: 2026-06 with lot number
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One of Fruition Chocolate Works close friends has spent years combating narco trafficking in Tumaco, Colombia, and updating them on his work. So when they had the opportunity to begin sourcing beans from this area in 2018, they were all pretty excited — especially because these are some of their most delicious, balanced cocoa beans. The farmers make all the difference. For example, Blanca Vivera, a second-generation farmer, grows cacao amid other fruit trees like plantains, and in her free time, she makes chocolate with her own beans from scratch. Blanca and 585 other farmers (and 309 other female farmers) belonging to four cacao cooperatives work with local organization Cacao de Colombia, which buys wet beans from each and then ferments and dries them itself at a central fermentary. Uncommon then finds a home for these beans with chocolate makers looking to pay higher prices for higher-quality beans. These great flavors and consequently higher prices mean that farmers now earn 70 percent more income from cacao than when they were selling dried beans through the commodity market, offering a sustainable alternative to the coca and narco world. Tasting notes: whisky, tobacco, cacao Ingredients: cocoa beans, organic cane sugar BB: 2026-10 with lot number - These special beans from the Sambirano Valley in Madagascar boast a big flavor: bright, acidic fruit like dried cherry and cranberries, guaranteed to surprise you. The intensity comes from the volcanic soil on Bertil Åkesson’s private plantation, called Bejofo Estate, and has become a signature among craft chocolate makers. In the 1970s, Bertil’s family moved to Madagascar from Sweden and purchased several spice plantations, one of which had quite a few untended cacao trees. Since then that 2,300 hectare farm has become the mainstay of Bertil’s operation. The beans are fermented in wooden boxes for six days, then dried in the sun on raised beds and concrete patios. Bertil’s beans have become a hallmark of the bean-to-bar chocolate movement, with almost every maker creating their own version. But Fruition Chocolate Works launched theirs later than most. Every time they’d see Bertil, whom they’ve known since 2013, he’d nudge Bryan. “When are you going to make chocolate with my beans?” Bryan would reply, “I want to do them justice!” Finally, five years after meeting Bertil and tasting his beans, Bryan felt happy with his results. In 2018 they launched their single-origin Madagascar bar and have been delighted by its nuanced fruitiness — a big contrast from many of the roastier, earthier beans they work with that makes it extra special. Ingredients: organic cocoa beans, organic cane sugar BB: 2025-02 with lot number
- The main mission for the Peruvian founders of Maraná, Zulema and Giuseppe is to introduce the world to some of Peru's best cocoa beans. The 100% bar is made with cocoa beans from the Cusco region. In addition, they aim to improve the position of the cooperatives and the farmers and thereby increase the quality of the beans they produce. With their distinctive packaging, Maraná has endeavored to represent the cultural identity and heritage of their country. The packaging for Maraná's Cusco collection is inspired by Sarhua's painted shelves. This was a form of folk art from the Peruvian Andes that the families used to pass on stories about their ancestors to their descendants. Taste notes: rich notes of sweet raisins and molasses with a subtle bourbon-like finish. This bar has a smooth, rather silky texture that perfectly matches its rich, bold overtones. Ingredients: organic cacao mass BB: 2026-01-29
- A sturdy and fruity chocolate made from fine cocoa. Specially selected cocoa from small farms from Bà Rįa province. Probably the most extraordinary chocolate of Marou. All chocolates at Marou are made of exclusively high quality small-scale Vietnamese ingredients in the production premises of Marou in Saïgon. Ingredients: cocoa beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter BB: 2026-01-22 with lot number
- A sturdy and fruity chocolate made from fine cocoa. Specially selected cocoa from small farms from Bà Rįa province. Probably the most extraordinary chocolate of Marou. All chocolates at Marou are made of exclusively high quality small-scale Vietnamese ingredients in the production premises of Marou in Saïgon. Ingredients: cocoa beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter BB: 2026-01-17 with lot number
- An intense and balanced chocolate from the Bên Tre province in the Mekong Delta, where the cocoa grows under the coconut trees. All chocolates from Marou are made of exclusively high quality Vietnamese ingredients in the production location of Marou in Saïgon. Ingredients: cocoa beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter BB: 2026-01-17 with lot number
- This cacao thrives at the foot of lush forested hills in Vietnam's central highlands. Lâm Dông Province's cool mountains yield a mild chocolate, but look alive for traces of prune, raisin and espresso. Ingredients: cocoa beans, cane sugar, cacao butter BB: 2026-01-15 with lot number
