Sale price Price $10 Regular price

Maya Mountain

Belize

70 2021

Dandelion Chocolate

Tasting Notes: European drinking chocolate and strawberry coulis

The beans for this bar come from Maya Mountain Cacao, Ltd., a social enterprise that buys freshly harvested, unfermented cacao from indigenous Mayan smallholder farmers in southern Belize, then gathers the beans at a centralized fermentary in Punta Gorda. By fermenting and drying all the beans in one place, Maya Mountain Cacao carefully controls quality and flavor consistency in their cocoa, allowing them to fetch a high price. This in turn empowers them to pay farmers extremely well for their beans.

Trevor was the Origin Lead for our Tokyo factory’s Maya Mountain bars in both 2015 and 2016, and he especially enjoys the fruity flavors in Maya Mountain’s cocoa. While the origin is known for berry notes, Trevor conches this batch at higher temperature, for a bolder chocolate flavor.

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.
Kosher icon

Kosher

Gluten free icon

Gluten
Free

Nut free icon

Nut Free

Vegan icon

Vegan

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Direct
Sourced

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Two
Ingredients

+

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About Maya Mountain, Belize

Maya Mountain Cacao (MMC) is a social enterprise established in order to connect small-scale cacao growers in Belize with the international specialty-cocoa market. Located in Toledo, the least-developed region of Belize, MMC was the first company in the country to buy wet (unfermented) beans from farmers, and to emphasize the importance of quality in both the raw beans, and throughout fermentation and drying.

For their centralized fermentary, MMC purchases from family farms in southern Belize, committing to a consistent price throughout the season. MMC currently buys from over 400 farmers, a majority of whom have been suppliers for more than two years. We have been sourcing beans from MMC since 2013, and while we have witnessed their growth and success, we have also seen obstacles they face. 2017 was a particularly challenging year for MMC, as they experienced competition from seven other buyers in an area that yields an average of fewer than 150 tonnes of cacao per year. Dandelion Chocolate invested in MMC directly to help them with the capital they needed to build their new post-harvest center, which allowed them to expand capacity and improve quality.