Chocolate Covered Cherries

Description

We start with organic dried tart cherries, then cover them with our bean to bar Costa Esmeraldas 65% dark chocolate. The natural fruitiness of this chocolate pairs perfectly with the tart sweetness of the cherries, creating one of the most irresistible antioxidant-rich superfoods you can find! These are a favorite with our customers, and for good reason. Now packed with with 40% more for the same price to give you the best value we can offer!

We love our Costa Esmeraldas 65% dark chocolate and use it on most of our dark chocolate toffees, along with many of our other favorite confections. We buy raw cacao beans from the famed Costa Esmeraldas cacao farm right that sits in the forest right off the coast of Esmeraldas, Ecuador. This 100 hectare estate, owned and operated by the Salazar family, formerly existed as cattle-grazing land, but has been transformed into a biodiverse regenerative farm that produces some of the best cacao in the world. Their efforts and stewardship of the land has earned them the well deserved Cacao of Excellence award for cacao liquor tasting in 2019, and international recognition as one of the premier farms in a country well-known for quality cacao. The beans are grown without herbicides or pesticides, carefully fermented in tiered wooden boxes, dried, and hand-sorted before they head our way for turning into chocolate.

After hand sorting ourselves, we roast the cacao beans to bring out the best flavor notes, then crack and winnow the beans to remove the shells and husks, leaving us with pure cacao nibs. We grind the nibs into chocolate with large granite wheels, allowing nothing but pressure, friction, and heat that forms as a result to release the cocoa butter and aromatic compounds in the nibs while refining them into a smooth, flowing liquid. We then add nothing but organic sugar and sometimes cocoa butter to create a sweet, smooth, fruity chocolate with a rich complexity that is adored by all.