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Harvest 2025 — Six Estates

Chocolate with a paper trail

We ferment, dry, roast and conche in one room. Every bar is stamped with its estate, its fermentation days and the price we paid the grower.

Shop the bars How we source
Partner estates
6contracts signed direct
Ingredients in a dark bar
2cacao, cane sugar
Average farm-gate premium
2.4×over the board price
Batch size
28 kgone melanger, one week
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On the shelf

Four bars we would open first

Pulled from the current harvest. When a batch runs out it does not come back the same — a new ferment tastes like a new bar, so we number them.

See all twelve

Signature module — the scale

Find your percentage

Percentage is not a quality score, it is a recipe. Drag your eye along the rail: the higher the cacao, the less sugar is left to soften the ferment. Pick a marker to read the bar sitting at that point.

45% Golden Milk 45% 52% Toasted Oat 52% 62% Drinking Chocolate 62% 64% Raspberry Ganache 64% 66% Candied Orange 66% 70% Sea Salt & Nib 70% 72% Rio Verde 72% 78% Alto Mirador 78% 85% Cauca Alta 85% 100% Roasted Cacao Nibs
45%

Golden Milk 45%

Cream caramel, shortbread, honeycomb

Sweetness 85
Bitterness 8
Rio Verde Valley 6 day ferment 65 g
Open the batch record
52%

Toasted Oat 52%

Toasted oat, malted barley, brown butter

Sweetness 74
Bitterness 19
Rio Verde Valley 6 day ferment 65 g
Open the batch record
62%

Drinking Chocolate 62%

Thick cocoa, muscovado, warm spice

Sweetness 59
Bitterness 36
Alto Mirador Ridge 7 day ferment 250 g
Open the batch record
64%

Raspberry Ganache 64%

Raspberry, rose hip, soft ganache centre

Sweetness 56
Bitterness 39
Rio Verde Valley 6 day ferment 90 g
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66%

Candied Orange 66%

Candied orange peel, bitter marmalade, clove

Sweetness 53
Bitterness 42
Alto Mirador Ridge 7 day ferment 75 g
Open the batch record
70%

Sea Salt & Nib 70%

Sea salt, roasted nib crunch, dark cherry

Sweetness 47
Bitterness 49
Cauca Alta Basin 5 day ferment 75 g
Open the batch record
72%

Rio Verde 72%

Red plum, cane molasses, toasted almond

Sweetness 43
Bitterness 52
Rio Verde Valley 6 day ferment 70 g
Open the batch record
78%

Alto Mirador 78%

Jasmine, green banana, black tea tannin

Sweetness 34
Bitterness 62
Alto Mirador Ridge 7 day ferment 70 g
Open the batch record
85%

Cauca Alta 85%

Walnut skin, dried fig, wood smoke

Sweetness 23
Bitterness 73
Cauca Alta Basin 5 day ferment 70 g
Open the batch record
100%

Roasted Cacao Nibs

Roasted nib, espresso crust, dry cocoa

Sweetness 2
Bitterness 97
Cauca Alta Basin 5 day ferment 120 g
Open the batch record

In the workshop

Eleven days from wet bean to wrapped bar

No lecithin, no vanilla, no cocoa butter added back. Two ingredients in the dark bars — cacao and cane sugar — so nothing hides a flat ferment or a scorched roast.

  1. Sort and roast

    Beans are hand-sorted on a light table, then drum roasted to a curve written for that estate — never a house profile applied to everything.

  2. Crack and winnow

    A slow roller cracks the shell, and a column of moving air lifts it away. What is left is nib, and the shell goes back to the farm as mulch.

  3. Grind and conche

    Granite wheels turn nib into liquor over seventy-two hours. The heat is friction, not a jacket, so volatile acids leave at their own pace.

  4. Temper and mould

    Seeded to form V crystals, poured at 31 °C, vibrated, then rested three days before wrapping so the snap holds all the way to you.

A granite melanger turning cacao liquor in the Cacaoform workshop.
72 h Stone conche on every dark batch

Signature module — origin trace

We publish what the grower was paid

The commodity board price is a floor, not a wage. Each origin card below carries the farm-gate figure per dry kilogram, the harvest window and the fermentation protocol we agreed with the estate.

Read the sourcing policy

Finca Rio Verde

Batch GM-2508-031
  • Region Rio Verde Valley
  • Altitude 780 m
  • Variety Trinitario
  • Fermentation 6 days
  • Roast 18 min @ 112 °C
  • Harvest Main crop 2025
  • Farm-gate paid $6.40 / kg dry
Valley section
780 m valley floor ridgeline
Roast curve
112 °C 0 min 18 min
Wet beans were boxed the day they were cut, turned every 24 hours, then sun-dried on raised beds until they held twelve per cent moisture. Nothing in this record is averaged across harvests.

Hacienda Alto Mirador

Batch DC-2508-002
  • Region Alto Mirador Ridge
  • Altitude 1,120 m
  • Variety Nacional
  • Fermentation 7 days
  • Roast 21 min @ 119 °C
  • Harvest Main crop 2025
  • Farm-gate paid $7.10 / kg dry
Valley section
1,120 m valley floor ridgeline
Roast curve
119 °C 0 min 21 min
Wet beans were boxed the day they were cut, turned every 24 hours, then sun-dried on raised beds until they held twelve per cent moisture. Nothing in this record is averaged across harvests.
Ripe cacao pods on a highland estate at golden hour.
Main crop, cut over eleven days. Pods travel no further than the fermentary at the edge of the grove.

Signature module — box builder

Build the box

Four, six or nine bars. The saving grows with the box, the layout diagram fills as you pick, and the total updates as you go.

Step one — choose a box
Step two — fill the slots
  • No bars picked yet.
Bars picked 0 / 6
Subtotal $0.00
Box saving −$0.00
Total $0.00
Take me to the bars

Signature module — pairing

What to drink with it

A high-acid bar will strip a delicate tea and flatter a cask whisky. This is the panel sheet we keep on the counter, printed as it is scored.

Recommended pairings scored from one to five by the tasting panel.
Bar Filter Coffee Cask Whisky Black Tea Aged Cheese
Golden Milk 45% 45% cacao 4 out of 5 2 out of 5 4 out of 5 3 out of 5
Toasted Oat 52% 52% cacao 5 out of 5 2 out of 5 4 out of 5 2 out of 5
Drinking Chocolate 62% 62% cacao 3 out of 5 3 out of 5 4 out of 5 2 out of 5
Raspberry Ganache 64% 64% cacao 3 out of 5 4 out of 5 5 out of 5 1 out of 5
Candied Orange 66% 66% cacao 5 out of 5 3 out of 5 5 out of 5 2 out of 5
Sea Salt & Nib 70% 70% cacao 4 out of 5 4 out of 5 3 out of 5 5 out of 5
Rio Verde 72% 72% cacao 5 out of 5 3 out of 5 4 out of 5 2 out of 5
Alto Mirador 78% 78% cacao 4 out of 5 4 out of 5 5 out of 5 3 out of 5
Cauca Alta 85% 85% cacao 3 out of 5 5 out of 5 2 out of 5 5 out of 5
Roasted Cacao Nibs 100% cacao 5 out of 5 3 out of 5 3 out of 5 4 out of 5

Five dots means the pairing lifts both sides. One dot means they fight — drink it after, not with.

A tasting table set with chocolate squares, slate and ceramic cups.
Panel sittings run Thursday mornings, blind, with water and plain bread between samples.

Batch notes

From the journal

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