Raw chocolate is simply that the bean (or seed) of the cacao pod has NOT been roasted. All other chocolates on the market are made with the roasted bean. Roasting is not bad, it’s actually a good way to bring out the flavor profiles of the bean much like roasting coffee beans from different parts of the world.
We like to work with the UNroasted bean. Some people think that if you don’t roast the bean there will be no flavor or a ‘green’ flavor much like raw coffee beans. Those are not so tasty raw. But actually, the raw cacao bean has great flavor. It tastes like chocolate-because it is!
We like to use the raw, unroasted bean for a few different reasons. The first being that it’s such a nutritional powerhouse. Really it is. It’s said that it’s one of the highest, if not THE highest, antioxidant food on the planet. No joke., it really is that great. We will outline more on this in future posts. Second, it just makes you feel good. There really are properties in Raw chocolate that elevate your mind and body that are not found so abundantly in roasted dark chocolate. Click here for more details. These properties are greatly degraded or lost with the higher temperatures of roasting.
Third: It’s a challenge to work with. It can be a bit bitter so we love finding other raw & natural ingredients that complement the raw cacao. It’s fun and rewarding to create new flavors that everyone wants more of.
So when you think you can’t have chocolate because it’s on the forbidden list and you feel guilty when you do indulge, your sure to love this little bit of news: Our chocolate is so good you can have it for breakfast, lunch AND dinner if you want. Why wait for dessert??