Oro de Cacao

Bio and Fairtrade certified, Oro de Cacao is real chocolate – using a manufacturing process that carefully extracts the actual flavour of the bean. Many traditional chocolate makers roast the bean to high temperatures, therefore eliminating natural flavour meaning additional carriers such sugar and vanilla need to be added. Employing the use of science, Oro de Cacao do things a little differently in a pioneering method to ‘unchain cocoa’. Using an extraction process, the cacao beans are separated into four elements – including the 100% natural cacao flavours which are then used to create the dark, milk and white chocolate, without a hint of bitterness.

With a commitment to single-origin chocolate, the cacao is carefully sourced from the Dominican Republic, Ghana and Peru, showcasing a small but perfectly formed selection of five chocolate bars. With up to 30% less sugar than big-name brands, choose between milk (60% cacao solids), dark (up to 80% cacao solids) or white (42% cacao solids). If you really can’t decide, and we don’t blame you, opt for the ‘chocolate library’ a delicious set of all five bars. One for sharing (or not).

Remember that eighties track by Yello which paired synth beats overlaid with ‘Oh Yeah’ on repeat – famously soundtracked in Ferris Buellers Day Off? Well, Yello’s bearded frontman Dieter Meier has now turned his hand to chocolate-making. On his way through from eighties electronica, he’s also delved into conceptual art, acting and became a landowner in Argentina, a productive agricultural venture that saw him export wine, nuts and meat products to his store in Zurich, where he lives with his wife.

Chocolate seems to be a somewhat side-hustle within the scale of his operations, but one that he seems very proud of, and is likely to disrupt the entrenched method of traditional chocolate production. Alongside a determination for ethical sourcing, the emphasis on natural flavour is the driving change – to break the cycle of taste we’ve become accustomed to which is now so processed and far-removed from the original cacao bean. Welcome to a new era of chocolate!