Introduction to Craft Chocolate: Dark Box

About the box

If you’re new to craft chocolate, this box is a great place to start.

Cocoa Runners have put together an introductory collection with some dark craft chocolate classics. We have two bars from Standout Chocolate, a Swedish maker, both at the same percentage and made exactly in the same way, just with beans from two different origins. Try both and see the difference in the tasting notes, noticing whether one tastes fruitier, more floral, or more like caramel.

Then, we’ve got a 63% dark bar from Madagascan maker Menakao which has the inclusion of cocoa nibs and sea salt. Look out for the crunchiness in the texture and see how it compares to the Standouts.

Finally, we’ve got a stoneground dark bar from Taza, who use traditional Mexican stone grinding techniques to create a more grainy texture.

Included in this box:

Standout – Sambirano Valley, Madagascar, Dark 70%

This Academy of Chocolate 2022 Gold award-winning 70% dark chocolate has a crisp citrus acidity with notes of pineapple and grape. It’s creamy in mouthfeel and Fredrik crafts his chocolate to have an amazing cooling melt.

Standout – Idukki, India Dark 70%

On taste, this dark chocolate bursts with rich sultana and dried fruit notes, with quite the “Madagascar” quality within the bar. The melt and texture is smooth, with a nutty finish.

Menakao – Dark Chocolate 63% with Cocoa Nibs & Sea Salt

This Menakao bar is an example of chocolate with inclusions done right. The chocolate is full of the typical pronounced berry notes of Madagascan cacao. The added cocoa nibs (the purest form of chocolate, pieces of dried and fermented cacao beans) give a powerful crunch, bursting with fruit and tannins, combining deep flavour with added texture. The hint of sea salt serves a double purpose. It opens the palate, helping you to get the full flavour of the berries and red fruits. At the same time, the salt cuts through some of the nibs’ intensity, revealing their roasted fruit and raisin notes while reducing the bitterness and prolonging the finish. It’s the natural purity of the salt that makes this combination so complementary, imparting a delicate flavour, perfect for really bringing out the cacao’s fruitiness without overpowering the chocolate. It’s a purity derived from the simplicity of its production process; Fleur de sel forms naturally on the surface of clay basins as sea water evaporates, and is then hand-picked with a rake.

Taza Chocolate – Mexican-style Cacao Puro, Dark 70%

These disks are made of 70% single origin Dominican dark chocolate, bursting with bold, wine-like flavour, accompanied by Taza’s signature gritty texture. Taza tell us that this is the “purest expression” of their proudly unrefined chocolate. We enjoyed the delicious, fruity notes. This is an unusual chocolate that is very easy to munch!

No nutritional information available for this product.

*Allergen advice: We directly import, and purchase, all products from independent makers and have these shipped by our partner warehouse (which is not certified allergen-free), and so we cannot guarantee that any product will be allergen-free. Even where an allergen is not listed, products may have been produced, shipped, or stored in facilities which handle allergens.

If you would like further information about a specific product, please contact us on [email protected] or contact the maker directly.