$10.00
70% Dark Chocolate
Rating: 4.5/5
Ingredients: Cocoa beans and cane sugar
Soy, Dairy and Gluten Free
This week’s bar is the amazing 70% Butuo, Liberia bar from Dandelion Chocolate. I love, love, love this bar, everything from the packaging, to the chocolate, to Dandelion Chocolate themselves is fantastic. So, lets get started!
I have never opened a bar chocolate so carefully before. I opened it up like it was a romantic letter, really slow and unsure what was waiting inside. To open it I grabbed a kitchen knife and ran it slowly under the seal. All of Dandelion Chocolate’s wrapping paper is handmade from a garment factor in India. Each bar has a different pattern with very simple and clean branding that makes their whole product line something to be cherished. Their logo is pressed in luxurious warm gold on a cream colored label. The copy is printed in an autumn brown that compliments the gold so perfectly and to finish it off the type of the bar is printed in a slight magenta red only adding to the warmth of this bar. On the back the wonderful branding continues. The bar has the initials of the chocolatier that made the batch, a lovely touch. It is also wrapped in the nicest foil I have ever seen a chocolate bar in. I’m absolutely serious about this foil. It reminds of tin and of little Christmas ornaments, its sturdy and shiny and I want to save the foil and make a bunch of gold foil cranes with it.
Now onto the chocolate. This two-ingredient bar is delicious, its just cocoa beans and cane sugar but the beans must be some sort of magical beans because I almost ate over half of it in my first tasting. I usually like to try a little bit of the bar, write some notes and then try it again later but with this bar I had difficulties stopping. The bar is a dark brown color and has a great snap when you break off the little pieces. You can hold the chocolate in your hand without worrying its going to melt right away. The chocolate is very smooth in its texture and taste. Its not a bar with fruity undertones, it consists of more butter and caramel tones. It’s so creamy, it’s like having a piece of milk chocolate without all the sweetness and dairy. Each piece melts really slowly in your mouth, don’t rush it, just let it happen. It leaves a clean finish that lingers for a couple minutes till your ready for the next piece. This bar is meant to be enjoyed and I’m all for sharing my chocolate with others because I love seeing others enjoy chocolate, but this one, is mine. It’s entirely mine; I do not want to share it. Dandelion Chocolate takes enormous pride in their meticulous process and it shows in their final product.
This chocolate is delicious but it also makes me feel good. The reason? The beans used in the Butuo, Liberia bar are from the Liberation Cacao co-op. The co-op is a collective that rehabilitates former child soldiers from the Liberian Civil War who are now adults and trains them to be cacao farmer.
From Liberation Cacao’s website:
By 2018, it is our goal to employ full-time, paying living wages, more than 1,500 former child soldiers across
80-plus reconditioned farms in Liberia. Our efforts to rebuild cocoa production in Liberia have begun to attract crucial support and guidance from organizations such as ACDI/VOCA, the Sustainable Agricultural Program (SAP), the Initiative for the Development of Former Child Soldiers, and the Survey, De-traumatization, Rehabilitation, and Reintegration (SDRR) program.
I am really impressed with the whole process of Dandelion Chocolate; their headquarters is located in San Francisco’s Mission District and they have a beautiful factory and café where I can only imagine lives some of the best hot and cold chocolate in the world. They offer tours of their factories, classes on chocolate and offers chocolate trips, yes, trips. I am currently saving up funds for that now. I really wish I lived in San Francisco again (or at least can visit there for a week). If you live in San Francisco please visit them for me and make me wild with envy.
Would I get this bar again? Absolutely! I would get it in preparation of a bad day or for when I want to treat myself. I’ll also probably need to pick up another bar to actually share with other people but yes I would get this bar again many times. I can’t wait to try Dandelion’s other bars. I have links to Dandelion Chocolate as well as the Liberation Cacao Co-op below, be sure to check it out.
Till the next bar,
Mimi
