55% Dark Chocolate with Cranberry (40g)

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₹ 165.00

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Enjoy the perfect balance of rich 55% dark chocolate and tangy cranberries in every bite. Crafted with organic cacao nibs, organic cacao butter, organic khandsari, and cranberries, this bean-to-bar chocolate delivers a smooth texture with a bright fruity finish. Ideal for mindful snacking, gifting, or pairing with coffee, it offers a satisfying dark chocolate experience with a refreshing twist.

Description

How to use

Why choose

Sourcing

EATING IT

Room temperature. Cold chocolate cannot melt, and melting is where the flavour is.

Break it, do not bite it. Let it go on the tongue.

The cranberry arrives late - the chocolate melts first, then the acid comes up behind it. That is the bar working.

PAIRING

Black coffee. The bitterness and the acid have a conversation.

Red wine, if that is your evening.

Curd, plain, with the bar broken over it.

STORAGE

COOL, DRY, DARK, 18-22C. Away from anything with a smell - cocoa butter takes on odours.

NOT THE FRIDGE unless you have no choice. Fridges are humid, and moisture on chocolate causes sugar bloom, the grey dusty film. Cold also blunts the flavour.

IF YOU DO REFRIGERATE IT in a Bangalore summer, let it come back to room temperature BEFORE opening the wrapper, or condensation forms on the surface.

55%, and it is a decision rather than a saving. Cranberry is properly sour, and sour and bitter are allies - put this fruit against 70% and the acid and the bitterness gang up on you. 55% has the sweetness to meet it. That is why the bar tastes bright instead of punishing.

Bean-to-bar. Most chocolate called artisanal in India is bought-in couverture, melted and remoulded. We start at the bean.

The fruit is doing a job, not decorating. Cranberry cuts the fat and stops a dark bar from being one flat heavy note. It is the reason to buy this rather than a plain 55%.

And we will tell you where things come from. The cocoa does not grow in India, and it never will.

Verified from the packaging

55% dark chocolate

Ingredients: Organic cacao nibs, organic cacao butter, organic khandsari, cranberry

Storage: 18°C–20°C, cool and dry place, bring to room temperature before eating

Allergen: Processed in a facility that handles wheat, peanut and other tree nuts

Cocoa origin is NOT mentioned

Bean-to-bar claim is NOT mentioned ✘

Two ingredients, two very different stories, and we would rather tell both.

Karnataka grows cocoa - Dakshina Kannada, Chikmagalur and Hassan- usually intercropped beneath arecanut and coconut, which is one of the quietly good facts about farming in this state. If these are Karnataka beans, bean-to-bar from Karnataka cocoa is a genuinely strong story

THE CRANBERRIES. They are not ours and they are not from anywhere near here.

Cranberries need acid peat bogs and a proper cold dormancy, which is why they grow in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Quebec and southern Chile and nowhere in India. Every cranberry in every Indian product came off a boat.

AND THEY ARRIVE SWEETENED, because there is no other way. A raw cranberry is roughly as acidic as a lemon with almost none of the sugar - you cannot dry one and eat it. So dried cranberries are infused with sugar syrup, typically ending up around two-thirds sugar, and usually given a light coat of oil so they do not clump.

WE SAY THIS BECAUSE THE ALTERNATIVE IS WORSE. Our own title tag currently says "Farm Direct" on a bar whose named ingredient crossed an ocean. Naming which half is ours and which is not is the only thing that makes the first half worth believing - and it is the same principle as our hazelnut bar, where the nuts are Turkish and always will be.

FAQ

Why is this 55% and not 70%?

Because of the cranberry. Cranberry is properly SOUR - not tart like a raisin, genuinely acidic. And SOUR AND BITTER ARE ALLIES, not opposites: put this fruit against a 70% bar and the acid and the bitterness reinforce each other until the fruit stops reading as fruit. At 55% there is enough sweetness to meet the acid halfway, so the cranberry lands as brightness rather than attack. It is a taste decision, not a cheaper one.

Is 55% actually dark chocolate?

Yes, comfortably. Milk chocolate generally runs 25-35%. At 55% you are well past the point where a bar tastes of milk and sugar - it is the accessible end of dark rather than the edge of milk.

Where do the cranberries come from?

Not India, and they never could. Cranberries need acid bogs and a cold winter, so they come from the United States, Canada or Chile - as they do for every cranberry product on every Indian shelf. THE COCOA IS A DIFFERENT STORY [VERIFY AND TELL IT]. We would rather be straight about which ingredient is ours than let the word "farm" do work it cannot do.

What does bean-to-bar mean?

We start with beans - roasting, grinding, conching, tempering. Most chocolate described as artisanal in India is COUVERTURE: industrial chocolate bought in as buttons, melted, mixed with something and set in a new mould. That is an honest business and it is not making chocolate.

Should I keep it in the fridge?

Preferably not. Fridges are humid, and moisture on chocolate causes sugar bloom, the grey dusty film - and cold blunts the flavour. Cool, dry, dark, around 18-22C. If you must in a Bangalore summer, let it come back to room temperature BEFORE unwrapping it, or condensation forms on the surface.

How does it compare to your other bars?

The 55% with almonds is the same chocolate with a nut instead of a fruit - richer, rounder, no acid. The 41% mylk with hazelnut is vegan, made with oat milk, and much gentler. This is the one to reach for if you want something sharp.