70% SINGLE-ORIGIN BAR

Zorzal Comunitario

Dominican Republic

2021 HARVEST · By Mari
tasting notes: cream cheese, grapefruit, gin

The beans for this bar come from a collection of farms surrounding the bird sanctuary, Reserva Zorzal. Dandelion Japan Chocolate Maker Mari focuses on balancing the unique bitterness and acidity of these beans, to bring out fresh, tangy-creamy, citrusy notes.

Our partners in Japan make chocolate that can be strikingly different from our American bars, although we all work with the same beans. We’ve found that the Japanese team enjoys highlighting fermented, roasted, bitter, and herbaceous flavors, whereas in San Francisco, we often lean toward fruity, creamy, and caramel notes.

INGREDIENTS & ALLERGENS

All of our single-origin chocolate is made with just cocoa beans and sugar; no added cocoa butter, lecithin, or vanilla. Our chocolate is free of soy, dairy, eggs, and gluten, and it is made in a factory that does not process nuts.

WEIGHT
2.0 oz (56 g)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Shelf life:

Stored properly, your bar will remain ready to enjoy for many months.

Vegan

Gluten Free

Nut Free

Soy Free

Two Ingredients

Direct Sourced

Dandelion Chocolate Japan Chocolate Bar Dandelion Chocolate Japan - Zorzal Comunitario, Dominican Republic 70% 2021 Harvest Single-Origin Chocolate Bar
70% SINGLE-ORIGIN BAR
Zorzal Comunitario, Dominican Republic - Japan
cream cheese, grapefruit, gin

About Zorzal Estate, Dominican Republic

Reserva Zorzal is a 1,019-acre organic cacao farm and bird sanctuary located in a moist, broadleaf-rainforest region of the northern Dominican Republic. Charles (Chuck) Kerchner co-founded Reserva Zorzal and Zorzal Cacao (a.k.a. Cacao del Bosque S.R.L) in 2012, hoping to prove that a for-profit business could be a viable, economically sustainable driver of environmental conservation.

Chuck and his co-founders (Jamie Phillips, Jesus Moreno, Jaimie Moreno, Angelica Moreno, and Sesar Rodriguez) bought a relatively undeveloped 412-hectare (1000-acre) piece of land in the mountains of the Duarte Province. They divided it into Reserva Zorzal (the bird sanctuary) and Zorzal Estate (the farm) to protect a critical habitat and simultaneously grow high-quality cacao. While Zorzal Cacao processes and sells estate-grown cacao under the name “Zorzal Estate,” the company also buys freshly harvested beans from neighboring farms, ferments them, and sells them, under the name “Zorzal Comunitario.”

Unlike many origins where we source beans, the Dominican Republic has a thriving national cocoa industry, and Chuck supports and retains staff through continual education. When travel is possible, Dandelion runs annual customer trips to visit Zorzal and the Zorzal team.

ABOUT DANDELION CHOCOLATE JAPAN

We launched Dandelion Chocolate Japan in collaboration with Seiji Horibuchi in 2016. Seiji frequented our Valencia Street café and we developed an immediate rapport based on our shared love of chocolate. Seiji has an eye for detail and boundless energy, and we loved our conversations together. He proposed taking our chocolate international by building a new factory in Kuramae, old Tokyo — an area known for artisan workshops and a craft culture.

For more about Dandelion Chocolate Japan, we invite you to visit our blog.

David foils chocolate bars at the 16th Street Factory

Mari prepares a profile in Kuramae, Tokyo