Curation standards and sourcing

How we choose our chocolate makers

Q: How does Bar & Cocoa choose its chocolate makers?

Our team tastes every bar before it reaches our shelf, and we decline more makers than we carry. We focus on bean-to-bar makers and favor those who can name where their cacao comes from, publish what they pay for it, and keep ingredient lists short. Our selection changes across the year as new harvests and makers come in.

Q: Is all the chocolate you sell ethically sourced?

We don't make that claim for our whole selection. Sourcing practices differ from maker to maker, and we buy finished chocolate rather than cacao, so a blanket claim wouldn't be honest. Instead, this page names specific practices that specific makers publish, such as sourcing reports, certifications, and named farm partners, with a link to each maker's own source.

Q: Do you buy cacao directly from farmers?

No. Bar & Cocoa is a retailer. We buy finished chocolate from more than 50 craft makers, and those makers buy the cacao. When a maker publishes how it buys its cacao, that's the best source, and we link to it wherever we can.

Q: What's the difference between direct trade and Fairtrade?

Fairtrade is a third-party certification. Direct trade describes how a maker buys cacao, usually through a relationship with a specific farm or cooperative, and no one certifies it. That means direct trade is only as meaningful as what the maker publishes about it, which is why we look for makers who name their partners and share what they pay.

Q: Do you carry B Corp or fair trade certified makers?

Some of our makers hold third-party certifications. For example, B Lab lists Valrhona as a Certified B Corporation, and the World Fair Trade Organization lists Zotter as a Guaranteed Member. Certifications vary by maker and sometimes by bar, so check the certifier’s listing, linked in the sourcing section on this page.

Q: How can I find out how a specific bar was sourced?

Start with the product page, which names the maker and, where the maker publishes it, the cacao's origin. For more, email info@barandcocoa.com and we'll point you to what the maker has published.

Q: I'm a chocolate maker. How can I be considered?

If you're a bean-to-bar maker and would like to be considered for our shop or chocolate club, send us a message using the chat on our site. We may ask for samples. We receive many requests, so sending samples doesn't guarantee inclusion or feedback.

Bar & Cocoa doesn’t make chocolate. We choose the makers. Every bar on our shelf has been tasted by our team, and we decline more makers than we carry. We favor bean-to-bar makers who can name where their cacao comes from and share what they paid for it.

Below are the standards behind every yes, followed by the sourcing practices specific makers publish, each linked to the maker’s own source.

50+

craft chocolate makers on our shelf

30+

countries our makers come from

Every bar

tasted by our team before we stock it

We decline more

makers than we carry

The standard

What we look for in a maker

These are the standards we apply when we taste and choose. Tasting applies to every bar we sell. The rest are what we favor, and makers meet them in different ways. That’s why we name practices maker by maker below instead of making one claim for everyone.

We taste every bar

A bar reaches our shelf because someone on our team tasted it and said yes. We decline more makers than we carry, and our selection changes across the year as new harvests and makers come in.

Bean-to-bar craft

Our shelf is built around bean-to-bar makers, who handle every step from raw cacao bean to finished bar: roasting, grinding, refining, and tempering. That control is how a maker decides what the cacao tastes like in the bar.

A known origin

We prefer makers who can name the farm, cooperative, or community their cacao comes from. Direct trade isn’t a certification. It’s a relationship, and it’s one we ask about.

Published prices

We favor makers who publish what they pay for cacao. A published price is more useful than a label, because you can read the number for yourself.

Short ingredient lists

Many of the dark bars we carry are just cacao and sugar, sometimes with added cocoa butter. We read a short ingredient list as a sign of quality and of a maker’s confidence in its cacao.

How the cacao is grown

Cacao can be grown well or badly. When a maker discloses its growing practices, such as agroforestry or shade-grown cacao, we pass that along so you can weigh it yourself.

Sourcing

Sourcing, maker by maker

We buy finished chocolate from makers. We don’t buy cacao ourselves, and sourcing practices differ from maker to maker, so we don’t make one blanket ethics or sustainability claim for everyone we carry.

Here’s what specific makers publish about how they source, with a link to each maker’s own page so you can read it in full. It’s a sample of the makers we carry, not a complete list, and we add to it as we verify more. We last checked these sources in October 2026.

Published prices and sourcing reports

The most useful thing a maker can publish is what it paid for its cacao. These makers put the number in writing.

United States · Sourcing report

Dandelion Chocolate

Publishes an annual sourcing report, with editions going back to 2014. The 2024 report profiles each origin and lists how much cacao Dandelion bought and the average price it paid per kilogram.

Source: Dandelion Chocolate, Origins and Sourcing Reports
Shop Dandelion Chocolate

United States · Published prices

Raaka

Prints the price it paid for the cacao inside every wrapper, and buys directly from named sources: Semuliki Forest in Uganda, Kokoa Kamili in Tanzania, and Zorzal Cacao in the Dominican Republic.

Source: Raaka, Transparent Trade
Shop Raaka

United States · Published prices

Dick Taylor

Buys its Belize cacao from Maya Mountain Cacao in the Toledo District and publishes what it paid: $7.80 per kilogram in 2022, which it lists as 289% above the fair trade organic minimum.

Source: Dick Taylor, Belize Sourcing
Shop Dick Taylor

Third-party certifications

Certified by an outside organization. We link to the certifier’s own listing so you can check it yourself.

France · B Corp

Valrhona

A Certified B Corporation since January 2020, recertified with a 2023 assessment. B Lab lists its overall B Impact score as 91.0.

Source: B Lab, Valrhona listing
Shop Valrhona

Austria · WFTO member

Zotter

Listed by the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) as a Guaranteed Member.

Source: WFTO, member directory
Shop Zotter

Madagascar · Estate grown · Ecocert organic line

Chocolat Madagascar

Grows cacao in the upper Sambirano Valley of Madagascar and makes its chocolate at its own factory in Antananarivo. Its organic line is certified by Ecocert.

Source: Chocolat Madagascar, Fine Malagasy Cocoa
Shop Chocolat Madagascar

Named farm and cooperative partners

These makers name the farms, cooperatives, or importers they buy from.

United States · Named cooperatives

Fruition

Since 2018 has sourced cacao from Tumaco, Colombia, through Uncommon Cacao and Cacao de Colombia, which buys from four cooperatives representing more than 580 farmers.

Source: Fruition, Tumaco origin page
Shop Fruition

United States · Named farm partner

Goodnow Farms

Works with Asochivite, a group of Q’eqchi’ Maya farmers in San Juan Chivite, Guatemala, and helped fund a fermentation and drying facility for them.

Source: Goodnow Farms, Asochivite
Shop Goodnow Farms

Iceland · Named suppliers

Omnom

Names its three cacao suppliers: Bertil Akesson’s estate in the Sambirano Valley of Madagascar, Kokoa Kamili in Tanzania, and Ingemann in Nicaragua.

Source: Omnom, Our Ingredients
Shop Omnom

United States · Named farm partner

French Broad Chocolates

Sources cacao from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Uganda. Its Nicaragua 70% bar is made with cacao from Cacao Bisiesto in La Dalia.

Source: French Broad, About Us and French Broad, Nicaragua 70%
Shop French Broad Chocolates

United States · Named importer

Eigen Chocolate

Sources its cacao through Meridian Cacao Company, an importer that works only with producers it deals with directly, and packs its bars in compostable packaging.

Source: Eigen Chocolate, About
Shop Eigen Chocolate

Made where the cacao grows

These makers make their chocolate in the country where the cacao is grown.

Vietnam · Made at origin

Marou

Makes its chocolate in Vietnam from Vietnamese cacao. In 2025 it distributed 49,000 cacao seedlings to 252 farmers across eight provinces.

Source: Marou, Our Impact
Shop Marou

Venezuela · Grown and made at origin

20/20 Chocolate

Grows, harvests, and makes its chocolate in Venezuela, with a fermentation room at La Cocorota in San Felipe, Yaracuy.

Source: 20/20 Chocolate, official site (Spanish)
Shop 20/20 Chocolate

Community and environmental work

Programs these makers run alongside their sourcing, as each one describes them.

United States · Farmer programs

Maeve

Has its Ghanaian cocoa roasted into liquor in Ghana, and since 2024 has funded wells, seedlings, and savings-and-loan programs for cocoa farmers there.

Source: Maeve, Sourcing
Shop Maeve

United Kingdom · Rainforest partnership

Chocolarder

Works with cacao farmers in the Gola Rainforest of Sierra Leone alongside conservation charities including the RSPB, and has shipped cacao by sail several times.

Source: Chocolarder, Impact
Shop Chocolarder

Sweden · Pricing and packaging

Standout Chocolate

Says it pays growers above the commodity price, and packs its bars in biodegradable film inside FSC-certified pulp boxes.

Source: Standout Chocolate, Doing Good
Shop Standout Chocolate

Where we draw the line

What we won’t claim

We don’t call our whole selection “ethical” or “sustainable.” Those words don’t mean much without a specific practice behind them, so we name the practice instead.
We don’t imply every maker meets the same sourcing standard. They don’t, and the differences are worth knowing.
We don’t choose makers on certifications alone. A label is one signal. What a maker publishes about its farmers and prices often tells you more.
We don’t repeat a maker’s claim as our own until we can point to the source. When we can’t, we leave it out.

Giving chocolate

Why this matters when you’re sending a gift

You shouldn’t need to research makers to give chocolate well. Everything in our gift boxes comes from the same shelf, tasted and chosen the same way, so you can pick by occasion, recipient, and budget and trust what’s inside. For the recipient who wants to go deeper, each bar’s maker and origin are on its product page.

Shop chocolate gift boxes Meet the makers