Taza Chocolate: Organic...Sweet!

Linden Hills Co-op is pleased to feature one of our favorite chocolate suppliers: Taza.

Taza is a small bean-to-bar chocolate maker, and the only producer in the US of 100% stone ground, organic chocolate. They roast, winnow, grind, temper, and mold their chocolate in house and by hand. They use exclusively organic and sustainable ingredients to craft their chocolate.

Roasted cacao nibsTaza’s cacao comes from a small cooperative in the Dominican Republic with a hearty and diverse tree stock called La Red Guacanejo. Our sugar is sourced from an innovative company in Brazil called the Green Cane Project. Aside from making remarkable organic cane sugar, they process the spent cane fiber to power their factory and the nearby town. We use true cinnamon (not cascia) and whole vanilla pods, both organic and biodynamically grown, from a tiny plantation in Costa Rica called Villa Vanilla. The same care and attention to detail goes into the procurement of all our ingredients.

Direct relationships with our growers bring us the highest quality ingredients while ensuring fair wages and work practices on the farm.

Our chocolate making process is unique. Taza chocolate is stone ground and minimally processed, and we do not conch. We use authentic Oaxacan stone mills instead of steel refiners to grind our cacao. Due to the imperfect surface of a granite millstone, unrefined cacao particles and sugar granules remain in the finished chocolate. These pop with explosive flavor on the palate, lending our bars their distinctive granular texture.
Taza is proud to make chocolate that is good to eat, clean for the planet, and fair to farmers.