Where Our Ingredients Come From
We use single-origin chocolates from Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Domincan Republic, and Hawaii. They’re made by some pretty cool people who don’t chop down lots of trees or enslave their neighbor’s kids in order to grow and harvest their cacao. Instead, they work directly with farming families as part of their communities, and produce some of the best freakin’ chocolate in the world. We like that, and so we strive to serve our own local community in much the same way.
Republica del Cacao is changing the world one cacao bean at a time. They create alliances with local producers to strengthen traceability and promote the preservation of artisanal techniques, developing sustainable production of fine aroma chocolates. Read more about them here.
Orquidea Chocolate is a premium chocolate made with the finest and aromatic cocoas from the San Martin region in Peru. Fifteen years ago ,they started this sweet initiative with the objective of cultivating cocoa instead of the coca leaf. Read all about it here.
We make all of our fresh truffles and sea salt caramels with cream from Baker Brook Farm right down the road in Gray. We get weekly deliveries in old-fashioned glass bottles, and the cream on top is so thick you can eat it with a spoon.
Did you know that some of the best butter in the world is made right down the road from us in Scarborough, Maine? Yup, and that's the butter we use in all of our fresh truffles and sea salt caramels.
From our very beginning in 2007, we gathered our ingredients from local sources. Rhubarb, mint, and black currants came from our neighbor's gardens on Isle au Haut. We picked apples from trees on the side of the road. Cranberries came from our backyard bog, and raspberries and blueberries were brought to us from local foragers on the island.
Now that we're in the big city, we get to work with other amazing family-owned farms and local gardens right here in Maine, or in other nearby northern New England states. Please check out the farms and small producers we use by clicking on the links below.
And we love using other exotic ingredients from the tiny, far-off corners of the world. And when we do, we try to source those from small, family farms as well, so that our dollars directly benefit other local communities and their environment as often and as much as possible.