Grounded in nature, cacao is a clean and natural ingredient, and is the beginning of the chocolate-making process.
Farm to Bar
From Tree to Treat
let’s talk chocolate
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The Cocoa Pod
Did you know that chocolate is actually derived from a fruit?
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Harvesting & fermentation
Harvesting and processing cacao pods takes a lot of labor – but we do it right.
Cocoa pods are harvested manually from the forest in Peru and the Dominican Republic, where we have formed equitable trade relationships with our chocolate farmers.
Once the cocoa seeds are pulled from the pod they are laid out in the sun and covered to start the fermentation process, in which the beans will turn brown in color.
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drying & roasting
A process that’s been around for thousands of years
Once the seeds have completed their fermentation process they need to be laid out in the sun to dry out. This process can take about a week. At this point the dried beans are loaded into sacks and shipped to our chocolate manufacture.
Once received at the manufacturer, our beans will be cleaned and roasted to develop the flavors and colors.
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cracking & winnowing
Delivering top-notch, high quality chocolate
After roasting, the outer brittle shell is removed and the chocolate is broken into pieces called nibs. The nibs are then sorted by size, which is called winnowing.
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refining & conching
A clean process results in healthy chocolate
The cocoa nibs are now refined by grinding. This process generates heat which turns the cocoa nibs into a liquid when the fat melts.
Conching allows for an even distribution of cocoa butter and chocolate, giving the end product and amazing texture and taste.
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tempering
Thoughtful, delicious chocolate
Additional ingredients, like cane sugar, milk, and vanilla, are added to create dark, milk, and white chocolate flavor profiles. Tempering the chocolate gives it a smooth, glossy finish and allows the chocolate to be molded easily.
From Seed to Oil
Let’s talk CBD
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cultivating
Local hemp, sourced from awesome farmers.
We source our hemp from our friends at Hudson Hemp, non-GMO hemp farm located in the Hudson Valley. Hudson Hemp uses bugs that are harmless to their plants to keep more destructive pests at bay. This practice does stress out the plants a bit, but it’s good stress that creates a higher yield, higher quality product.
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Extraction
The full plants potential
Hudson Hemp plants go through on-site cryo-ethanol extraction and then short-path distillation. They use food-grade ethanol that evacuates and transfers an emulsion from stage to stage in a recirculating closed loop with a 90% solvent recovery rate.
The cryo-ethanol extraction method has years of well-developed regulatory guidelines and is classified as GRAS by the FDA.
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Quality
Keeping your safety in mind
Our farmers take pride in their hemp breeding which has made their product more consistent, and their CBD extraction methods are highly regulated. Their CBD is third-party tested to ensure that the potency and purity adhere to New York state standards.
CBD + Chocolate
cbd & chocolate are made for each other
Delivering top-notch mellow moments with chocolate
Chocolate is the ideal pairing with CBD. The cocoa butter content in our chocolates helps to administer and extend the effects of CBD.