Costa Esmeraldas

Ecuador

2020
Free shipping on orders over $25.

tasting notes: classic dark chocolate, toasted sourdough, and banana

The beans for this bar come from Freddy Salazar’s estate near the coast of northern Ecuador. Eric, our origin owner for Costa Esmeraldas, has spent time at the farm and was impressed by the close attention Freddy and his team pay to every step of cultivation and production, including pruning trees, managing disease in the field, efficient harvesting practices, and careful loading of the fermentation boxes to ensure a clean facility. Freddy has built one of the most sophisticated processes we’ve seen, and it shows in the flavor of his beans.

While developing flavor notes, Eric enjoyed the test batch so much that he ate an entire bar – powering him to set a personal speed record biking home.

Ingredients & Allergens
All of our single-origin chocolate is made with just cocoa beans and sugar; no added cocoa butter, lecithin, or vanilla. Our chocolate is free of soy, dairy, eggs, and gluten, and it is made in a factory that does not process nuts.
Weight
2 oz (56 g)
Learn More
Learn more about our cocoa beans and sugar — the region, the farms, and the producers.
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Kosher

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Gluten
Free

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Nut Free

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Vegan

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Direct
Sourced

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Two
Ingredients

Dandelion Chocolate COSTA ESMERALDAS, ECUADOR 2020 70% BATCH 2 SINGLE-ORIGIN CHOCOLATE BAR
85% Single-Origin Bar
Costa Esmeraldas, Ecuador
notes of classic dark chocolate, toasted sourdough, and banana
classic dark chocolate, toasted sourdough, banana

About Costa Esmeraldas, Ecuador

Freddy Salazar, the owner of Costa Esmeraldas, produces unique cocoa that we make into one of our best-selling bars. Located in the Esmeraldas Province of Ecuador, Costa Esmeraldas began as a very different farm when the Salazar family acquired it over a decade ago.

Freddy’s father purchased two properties on the northeastern side of the beautiful Esmeraldas coast. On formerly dry pastureland and wild forest inaccessible by any road (and not ideal for growing cacao), he and his family created a 10-hectare (25-acre) plantation and cocoa-processing facility. What began as a passion project for the Salazars has evolved into a thriving farm of over 330 hectares (about 850 acres), approximately a third of which is used for growing cacao.

While most cocoa produced on the farm (and what we buy) is from Neo-Nacional cultivars, the farm also cultivates CCN-51 pods as a cash crop, selling to the local bulk market. In addition, the farm produces bananas and citrus, and 50 hectares (124 acres) of land have been left as virgin forest, creating a thriving habitat for flora and fauna.