Ingredients
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Nacional Cocoa Beans
Mindo -- Ecuador. Organically-grown, direct trade cacao from the region surrounding Mindo, Ecuador. We currently buy from a single cooperative of farmers with whom we continually work to improve the growing, fermenting and drying processes. We are Bean to Bar Chocolate Makers.
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Organic Evaporated Cane Juice
Because we're only using two ingredients in our pure chocolate, we have to make sure that the quality of our sugar lives up to the quality of our cacao. We use sugar that is less processed than traditional white sugars, the cane juice that we use has a light golden color. It's a beautiful sight to behold along with all the certification stamps on the outside of the bags. It is not washed with bone meal and it is vegan.
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Michigan Blueberries
Tabone Vineyards -- Traverse City, Michigan. It's difficult to find great dried blueberries. We're lucky to have found the Tabones, a great family who has been supplying us with great dried Traverse City blueberries for quite a while now.
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Michigan Cherries
North Star Organics-- Frankfort, Michigan. We love buying local. The dried cherries on our bars come from North Star Organics, a family-owned company that is committed to organic, sustainable methods. They carefully wash, sort, pit, pack and dry the fruit to ensure an extremely high quality product.
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Celtic Sea Salt®
Selina Naturally®. Hand-harvested and Kosher, Celtic Sea Salt® is certified to be free from pesticides, herbicides, and harmful chemicals.
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Candied Orange Peels
We make our candied orange peels in house from organic oranges. Since we’re using the rind of the orange, it’s especially important that we choose oranges that are pesticide and spray-free. We’ve been known to empty the Valencia orange shelves of our local food-cooperative every now and then.
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Hazelnuts
Trufflebert Farms-- Eugene, Oregon. From the moment we first called Trufflebert Farms to ask for a sample of their hazelnuts, we knew we liked them. They had a story similar to ours -- they're people who are passionate about what they do and are never willing to compromise the quality of their products. Since 1983, they've been using natural fertilizers and reworking the fallen leaves back into the soil every year. We liked their story so much that we didn't even bother with the sample - we placed our first order and have been incredibly happy with these huge, delicious hazelnuts ever since.
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Almonds
Baugher Ranch-- Orland, California. We like as unprocessed as possible. That’s why we bought into what Baugher Ranch is doing in Northern California. Due to federal regulations put in place in 2007, all California-grown, commercially sold almonds in the US were required to be pasteurized. Baugher Ranch chose the least intrusive thermal heat pasteurization option in order to preserve the great taste and nutrients in these beauties.
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Espresso
Mindo Chocolate Makers -- Dexter, Michigan. We roast and grind all of the coffee that we use on our coffee toffee bars. Our operation in Ecuador (El Quetzal de Mindo) originally began as a coffee shop; over the years, we've forged a relationship with Olger, an Ecuadorian farmer who supplies us the high-quality Tipica coffee that we roast in Dexter.
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Ginger
Visit our restaurant in Ecuador and you’ll understand how much we love ginger. It grows abundantly on our organic farm and we use it in everything from ginger beer, ginger ale, crystallized ginger, ginger tea, to ginger syrup. Intense flavor and a nice kick of heat.
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Hot Pepper
Grown on our organic farm in Ecuador, the hot peppers that we use in our Macho Rustic bar are a small red pepper that packs quite a punch. After drying it, we chop it up, grind it down and garnish the back of our bars.
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Milk Powder
We use Humboldt’s organic milk powder in our white and milk chocolate. Great quality - yields a very pure and smooth white chocolate.
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Butter
We use local butter from Calder Dairy in our brownies. It makes all the difference in the world in flavor.
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Eggs
Local, free-range, hormone-free, and organic whenever possible