The French Broad Dark Chocolate Nicaragua is brought to us by a couple who enjoyed their craft. It all started with a trip to Costa Rica, which was an eyeopener for them. Since then, they have owned a few successful businesses. But it took them a few years to come up with the bean-to-bar chocolate masterpiece. It is to be expected; after all, masterpieces are worth the wait. 

They found themselves traveling all over Central and South America, including Costa Rica, Perú, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, the place that inspired this origin-oriented dark chocolate bar. The cacao beans from Nicaragua come from Cacao Bisiesto, a company founded in a leap year hence its name. They grow Criollo and other cacao varieties, and this has been happening for generations. The owners Giff and Jose have preserved the varietals, but are now using precision dried, and fermented steps to produce exceptional flavor cacao beans. 

Although the pods might be sourced from Nicaragua, the Origin chocolate bar is shaped in the French Broad Chocolate factory in Asheville, North Carolina. The beans are then processed and molded into a bar. This process isn't as simple as it sounds, it's quite laborious, but the end result is a delicious dark chocolate bar that takes one back to Nicaragua. 

The French Broad Chocolate factory is a 3-star certified green facility that the Gattigan's have taken the initiative to build as an eco-friendly business. They try their best to leave no environmental footprints behind, and the chocolate bar wrappers are another example of such action. 

The aromas you can feel in this dark chocolate bar once you have some time to slowly enjoy it include rainforest, jungle, rain, and coffee. Once in your mouth, slowly melting, try to find flavors like brown sugar, licorice, cacao, black tea, and coffee. 

What are you waiting to get this award-winning chocolate?