Chocolate Facts

Philosophy >  CHOCOLATE FACTS

What Is a Chocolate "Vintage" or "de Cru"?

Raw dark chocolate has to be pure and unprocessed. The bean paste is pristine.

There are three main species of the cacao tree:

Forastero, Crillo and Trinitario. Several varieties exist within each of these three. Much like wine, raw dark chocolate reflects the flavors of the region where raw cocoa beans are grown, and how they are dried and fermented. The "Cru" designation signifies that the raw beans come from a certain country or region. It is therefore traceable and easy to confirm its genuineness.

Our raw dark chocolate is produced using single origin cacao and is further qualified as "de cru" or "Vintage" by being from a single region in the Dominican Republic.

We chose our raw cacao from the Dominican Republic because, after trying most other available raw beans, we found their Criollo, Forastero and Trinitario raw cacao trees to be of the highest quality and featuring dense flavors and characteristics of intense green/grassy, fine fruity and mild tobacco.

We only use the Hispaniola raw cacao mass which is fermented in small batches (for 8 days).

We were also looking for a raw cacao that follows strict sustainable, organic farming regulations and does not use any pesticides or chemical fertilizers.

In the Dominican Republic (since the 1980's) cacao production and raw cacao production have been exclusively organic and a sustainable source of income for its farmers.

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