Menakao 100% Dark Chocolate Couverture for Cooking & Baking.
This is truly ethical cooking chocolate – a 2.5kg bag of 100%, dark, sugar-free chocolate couverture (buttons), suitable for both home and professional baking, a 230g bag is also available.
These 100% cacao couverture pistoles made from fine superior cocoa have a mouth-watering, citrus edge and a roasted, fruity flavour, a little like a fruity filter coffee. Although containing no sugar at all, made with nothing but cacao, this is quite easy to eat for such an intense chocolate, the absence of sugar revealing all of the richness of the cocoa.  This is perfect for a variety of uses in the kitchen, for both home and professional bakers.
Menakao 100% Dark Chocolate Couverture for cooking & baking – intense, roasted and dark.
This chocolate doesn’t just taste good, it does good. Madagascan chocolate maker Menakao proudly crafts its chocolate on the island, using only local ingredients. Unfortunately, this is rare even for craft chocolate – it’s estimated that less than 5% of the world’s chocolate is produced in the same country the cocoa is grown. By making the chocolate in Madagascar in addition to growing the cacao on the island, Menakao generate about 4-5 times the benefit of Fair Trade for the local Madagascan economy.
One of only a few chocolate makers in the world that make chocolate at the source, Madagascar-based Menakao produce a deliciously fruity range of cooking chocolate using local beans. Read more about Menakao
At the Sourdough School and the Sourdough Club we ensure that we use ethical chocolate in all our chocolate-based recipes. It is so difficult to find truly ethical cooking chocolate for home and professional use in supermarkets and high street shops, so we are delighted to include this range in our online shop. Our Sweet Sourdough recipes can be found on our Sourdough Club website.
If you aren’t already a member you can join the Sourdough Club and learn to bake sourdough with Vanessa online.
Beyond Fair Trade chocolate
Many artisan chocolate makers source their cocoa beans directly from the farmers and farmer co-operatives, cutting out the middlemen and ensuring a significantly higher price, which is more than the Fair Trade premium, for the farmer.
Why Bean-To-Bar chocolate?
Just as the way grapes are grown and nurtured is critical for the quality of great wine, the same is true for cocoa beans and chocolate. Soil conditions, climate and the care and attention of the farmers and chocolate makers all impact the final product.
The best chocolate often comes from chocolate makers who have a direct relationship with the farmers they buy from. This direct trade also cuts out middlemen and ensures higher payments to cocoa farmers in some of the world’s poorest countries.
The same care and attention to detail also characterises the makers who source these beans and create the bars or the cocoa powder. Whether they’re working out of a small kitchen or a dedicated factory, all these makers are united in the care and attention they make to creating their chocolate.
You can view the full range of Cocoa Runners cooking and baking chocolate, cocoa powder and cocoa nibs in our shop.
