Cacao ClubWhat we like

What we like

Dark bars from makers who start with the bean, name the place and keep the list short. Mostly 70 to 85 percent, with a soft spot for fruit.

A bar earns a spot here when the maker tells us where the cacao grew and who fermented it, the ingredient list fits on one line, and we would happily hand it to a friend. Every link goes to the maker, so you buy straight from them.

The percentage is mostly a sugar number

Where each band sits, and how much sugar comes with it.

  1. 65 to 70%30 to 35 g sugar / 100 gRound, fruity, easiest to share
  2. 72 to 78%22 to 28 g sugar / 100 gThe sweet spot for origin character
  3. 80 to 90%10 to 20 g sugar / 100 gBold, drier, more bitter and acidic
  4. 100%0 g sugar / 100 gPure cacao. A great one is fruity, a poor one is harsh

From our guide How to read a dark chocolate wrapper.

The styles we like

  1. Source label: cacao criollo porcelana, Slow Food, La Guajira, Colombia. A pile of harvested green and purple-brown pods in shade.
    01

    Two-ingredient single origin

    Cacao and sugar from one place, with nothing between you and the bean. It is the clearest way to taste what a farm, a fermentary and a maker each did.

    Best for Learning what origin tastes like

    Look for
    • single origin
    • cacao, sugar
    • a country and a region
    • harvest year

    Skip A long ingredient list on a bar that calls itself single origin

    3 we like
  2. Source label: Trinitario (one of the three pod groups after Lachenaud 2014). A ridged pink-orange pod on the trunk. Only 820x1154 px, below the size target; kept because it is the only variety-labelled Trinitario found.
    02

    Single estate and named fermentaries

    The wrapper names the farm, co-op or fermentary, so you know whose work you are tasting. Fermentation sets most of a bean's flavor, and these bars show it.

    Best for Side-by-side tastings and gifts with a story

    Look for
    • estate
    • co-op or association name
    • fermentary name
    • cocoa butter pressed in-house
    3 we like
  3. A heap of ripe yellow and orange cocoa pods, smooth and rounded, at a cocoa farm in Ghana (World Cocoa Foundation African Cocoa Initiative), the Forastero/Amelonado type that dominates West Africa.
    03

    High percentage, 80 to 100

    With little or no sugar, the bean has nowhere to hide. A great one tastes of dark fruit and roasted nuts, with bitterness in the background.

    Best for Slow tasting, small squares, strong coffee

    Look for
    • 80%, 85%, 100%
    • single origin
    • fruity tasting notes

    Skip High-percentage bars that only promise intensity and never say where the beans grew

    3 we like
  4. Pickers with long-poled knives gathering cacao pods in Ecuador, c.1907, when Ecuador's crop was the native Nacional (Arriba) cacao. One half of a stereo card, black and white.
    04

    Heirloom cacao

    The Heirloom Cacao Preservation Fund checks the flavor with a tasting panel and the genetics in a lab before it designates an origin. That is a lot of care before the maker even starts.

    Best for Tasting rare cacao with a known background

    Look for
    • Heirloom Cacao Preservation Fund
    • HCP designation number
    • estate name
    2 we like
  5. A single red, deeply ridged CCN-51 (Colección Castro Naranjal 51) cacao pod on a pale background, Muséum de Toulouse specimen.
    05

    Bright, fruity origins

    Madagascar and Tanzania grow cacao that tastes like a fruit bowl: red berries, citrus, tropical fruit. These bars change minds about dark chocolate.

    Best for Anyone who thinks dark chocolate is just bitter

    Look for
    • Sambirano
    • Kokoa Kamili
    • Mababu
    • light roast
    3 we like
  6. A fresh cocoa bean cracked between fingers to show the purple cotyledon inside (photo by Irene Scott for AusAID).
    06

    Nibs and salt, with restraint

    Nibs and flake salt are the two additions that make a dark bar better without hiding it. You should still taste the chocolate first.

    Best for Texture, sharing, an everyday bar

    Look for
    • cacao nibs
    • flake salt
    • a named origin under the inclusion

    Skip Bars where the add-in is the headline and the chocolate is just the delivery system

    2 we like

The bars we like

Links go to the chocolate maker's own shop. Prices are as listed when we read them.

  1. Two-ingredient single origin

    Zorzal Comunitario, Dominican Republic 70% Single-Origin Chocolate Bar

    Dandelion Chocolate

    Cacao and sugar from farms around a bird sanctuary in the Dominican Republic, and nothing else. Dandelion tastes chocolate cake, yogurt and tamarind in it. A gentle place to start, with enough fruit to keep you interested.

    Best for A first craft bar, or anyone who says dark chocolate is too bitter

    $13.00 (70 g) on the maker's site, read 2026-11-12

    See it at Dandelion Chocolate
  2. Two-ingredient single origin

    Dominican Nacional Dark 77%

    Fruition Chocolate Works

    Nacional cacao, Ecuador's old floral variety, grown in the Dominican Republic and made into a two-ingredient 77%. The maker's notes are walnut, tobacco and fudge. Deep and grown-up without any harshness.

    Best for After dinner, with a coffee

    $14.00 (60 g) on the maker's site, read 2026-11-12

    See it at Fruition Chocolate Works
  3. Two-ingredient single origin

    78% Vanuatu, Malekula Island

    Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate

    Two organic ingredients from a South Pacific island, made in a Eureka, California factory by two former woodworkers and boat builders. The maker calls it bold and wild with an almost tobacco-like richness. The curveball of any tasting.

    Best for Someone who thinks they have tasted every kind of dark bar

    $14.00 (2 oz / 57 g) on the maker's site, read 2026-11-12

    See it at Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate
  4. Single estate and named fermentaries

    Asochivite

    Goodnow Farms

    Wild cacao harvested by Q'eqchi' Maya farmers in San Juan Chivite, Guatemala, who ferment and dry it in their own village. Goodnow presses its own cocoa butter from the same beans. Green banana and mango, bright and clean.

    Best for Fruit lovers who also like knowing exactly where their bar came from

    $16.00 (55 g) on the maker's site, read 2026-11-12

    See it at Goodnow Farms
  5. Single estate and named fermentaries

    El Carmen

    Goodnow Farms

    Small family farms near Matagalpa, Nicaragua, with beans fermented at Cacao Bisiesto on a profile built with Goodnow. Stone ground and conched for five days. Caramel and raisin, warm and round.

    Best for Taste it next to the Asochivite. Same maker, same 77%, two different places

    $16.00 (55 g) on the maker's site, read 2026-11-12

    See it at Goodnow Farms
  6. Single estate and named fermentaries

    Waiāhole, Oʻahu Island Bar 70%

    Mānoa Chocolate

    About 100 trees on the Reppun brothers' farm in the Waiāhole Valley on Oʻahu, made into a bar once a year in Kailua. Single estate at its smallest. It sells out, so grab it when it is up.

    Best for A gift for someone who already has a favorite bar

    $15.00 (2.1 oz / 60 g) on the maker's site, read 2026-11-12

    See it at Mānoa Chocolate
  7. High percentage, 80 to 100

    100% Cacao

    Raaka Chocolate

    Unroasted Kokoa Kamili beans from Tanzania and their own cocoa butter. No sugar. Raaka calls it creamy, bright and strong with a tingling fruity bite, and that is exactly right. The friendliest 100 percent bar we know.

    Best for The brave, and anyone curious what cacao alone tastes like

    $8.00 (one bar, about 50 g: 2 servings of 25 g) on the maker's site, read 2026-11-12

    See it at Raaka Chocolate
  8. High percentage, 80 to 100

    Colombia Tumaco 85% Dark Chocolate

    Fruition Chocolate Works

    Cacao from Tumaco on Colombia's Pacific coast, sourced through Uncommon Cacao, with just cane sugar. Brownie, butterscotch and blackberry, per the maker. A 2026 Good Food Awards finalist on the maker's page.

    Best for A first step past 80 percent

    $14.00 (60 g) on the maker's site, read 2026-11-12

    See it at Fruition Chocolate Works
  9. High percentage, 80 to 100

    Arhuacos 80% Single-Origin Dark Chocolate Bar

    Castronovo Chocolate

    Cacao the Arhuaco people propagated from ancestral trees in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Soursop, white grape, walnut, black pepper and green tea on the maker's card. Strong and still somehow light on its feet.

    Best for Slow tasting, one square at a time

    $14.00 (62 g) on the maker's site, read 2026-11-12

    See it at Castronovo Chocolate
  10. Heirloom cacao

    Madagascar 75%

    Ritual Chocolate

    Bejofo Estate in the Sambirano Valley holds Heirloom Cacao designation #15, awarded in 2018. Ritual turns it into a 75% with citrus, raspberry and roasted peanut. The classic Madagascar fruit with a little more weight.

    Best for Learning what heirloom cacao tastes like

    $12.00 (single bar, 82 g) on the maker's site, read 2026-11-12

    See it at Ritual Chocolate
  11. Heirloom cacao

    Belize 75%

    Ritual Chocolate

    Two ingredients, from Maya Mountain Cacao in Toledo, Belize, whose beans carry the Heirloom designation. Dried fig, cherry and honey. Softer and warmer than the Madagascar, and a lovely pair with it.

    Best for A side-by-side with the Madagascar 75%

    $12.00 (single bar; 12-pack sold out) on the maker's site, read 2026-11-12

    See it at Ritual Chocolate
  12. Bright, fruity origins

    Kokoa Kamili, Tanzania 70% 2025 Harvest Single-Origin Chocolate Bar

    Dandelion Chocolate

    Beans from Kokoa Kamili, a fermentary in Tanzania's Kilombero Valley that buys fresh beans from local farmers. Dandelion roasts gently and tastes guava, Turkish yogurt and fudge. If one bar changes a mind about dark chocolate, it is often this one.

    Best for Converting a milk chocolate person

    $13.00 (2.0 oz / 56 g) on the maker's site, read 2026-11-12

    See it at Dandelion Chocolate
  13. Bright, fruity origins

    72% Madagascar, Sambirano

    Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate

    Beans from Bertil Akesson's estate in the Sambirano Valley, made with organic cacao and cane sugar only. Molasses, orange and toast with the red berry notes Madagascar is known for. Bright and very easy to finish.

    Best for An afternoon square with tea

    $10.00 (2 oz / 57 g) on the maker's site, read 2026-11-12

    See it at Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate
  14. Bright, fruity origins

    72% Mababu, Tanzania Dark Chocolate Bar

    Askinosie Chocolate

    Trinitario cacao from a farmer group in Mababu, Tanzania, with cocoa butter Askinosie presses in its own factory from the same beans. Strawberry, blueberry and graham, with a creamy texture. Askinosie also publishes what it pays the farmers.

    Best for Someone who likes to know who got paid

    $11.00 (85 g / 3 oz) on the maker's site, read 2026-11-12

    See it at Askinosie Chocolate
  15. Nibs and salt, with restraint

    Jaguar Cacao Nibs, Macambo 68% Single-Origin Dark Chocolate Bar

    Castronovo Chocolate

    A 68% Arhuaco bar studded with nibs of macambo, a wild relative of cacao, bought from a women's cooperative in Chazuta, Peru. The maker tastes hazelnut and macadamia. The crunch belongs here.

    Best for Anyone who wants texture in a dark bar

    $16.00 (62 g) on the maker's site, read 2026-11-12

    See it at Castronovo Chocolate
  16. Nibs and salt, with restraint

    Sea Salt Dark Chocolate 70%

    French Broad Chocolates

    A 70% dark with flake salt from Spicewalla, the Asheville spice company, pressed into the bar. Salt pushes the fruit forward and the bitterness back. Simple and hard to stop eating.

    Best for Sharing, or keeping in a desk drawer

    $12.00 (60 g bar; 28 g snack bar $6.00) on the maker's site, read 2026-11-12

    See it at French Broad Chocolates

What we pass on

  • We rarely reach for bars that list vanilla and lecithin on a single origin. They are fine chocolate, and the origin gets quieter.
  • We pass on dark bars that say only "intense" or "premium" and never name a country. If the maker will not say where the beans grew, we cannot tell you why it tastes the way it does.
  • Flavored bars where the chocolate is a backdrop for candy, cereal or syrup are fun. They belong somewhere other than this page.
  • Prices move and bars sell out, especially single estate ones made once a year. Check the maker's page before you count on one.

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