THE CRUEL SIDE OF CHOCOLATE & CACAO: PART 3
The cacao industry has always struggled with human rights concerns related to the farming and
OUR CHOCOLATE BAR GUIDE
Living Lotus Chocolate creates pure, kind, and beautiful bean to bar treats that suit all chocolate lovers. We source clean, ethical ingredients for our products and don’t use any additives – only the good stuff. High-quality and organic ingredients make up the bean to bar chocolate that our customers know and love.
We invite you to join the Living Lotus community as chocolate lovers who seek joy through the decadence of chocolate and appreciate the beauty and experience of every bite.
Our chocolate bars have gone through many changes to become the beautiful goodies that they are today. We’ve gone through many different packaging options, different designs and chocolate moulds, and an uncountable number of cacao bean taste tests! We’ll always be testing because in the cacao world there are limitless flavours to experience. We are so proud of the bean to bar chocolate products that we offer today.
If you’ve ever had trouble deciding which Living Lotus chocolate bar you want to try next, or are curious about the difference between our various bars, this chocolate bar guide is for you!
Before you start, here is some information you need to know about our chocolate guide:
Tasting notes:
The process of tasting chocolate can reveal nuanced flavours that will enhance your chocolate eating experience. As you experiment with tasting different types of chocolate you can learn to pick out the different notes and discern between different flavours.
If you’ve ever smelled perfumes before you may be familiar with the layering of the fragrance notes. Top notes are what you smell after the perfume is first sprayed, heart notes come through after a few minutes, and base notes develop after the perfume has time to dry down and warm up on your skin.
The tasting notes in chocolate are similar. The head note is the flavour that envelops your tongue as you bite – what makes you first go ‘yum’ or ‘meh’. The body notes follow and develop as you chew and the chocolate melts in your mouth. And finally, the tail notes are the last lingering flavours that stay in your mouth after you swallow – similar to an ‘aftertaste’.
Sweetness:
All of our Living Lotus chocolate bars are sweetened with coconut sugar, a low-glycemic and non-refined sugar option that is less processed and more sustainable than white sugar and tastes just as delicious.
Sourcing:
Our cacao is not from the commodity trade – it is directly sourced from smaller cacao farming communities. Commodity trade cacao has a goal for quantity over quality while speciality cacao is grown for flavour. This means that our cacao sources provide beans with the best flavour and notes for the best tasting chocolate. Most importantly, by not supporting the commodity trade, the farmers that we source from get paid a fair wage. This is the reason why we do what we do!
Additives:
Our bean-to-bar chocolate recipes use minimal ingredients with none of the ‘extras’ (eg. No soy lecithin here!) to create a creamy and delicious product that you can feel good about. All of our chocolate products are vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and cruelty-free, with none of the additives that you can find in your typical grocery store bars.
Clean, kind, and simple.
Ready?
Living Lotus Chocolate Bar Guide
The darkest bar in our newest collection, the 70% Awajún dark chocolate bar features lightly roasted cacao beans from Awajún, Peru. Deep cacao-forward flavour that pairs perfectly with a glass of red wine.
Origin: Peru
Tasting Notes: Red fruits, fruity, floral
Sweetness level: O
Ingredients: Cacao beans*, cacao butter*, coconut sugar*
*Organic
Milk chocolate aficionados will find a new favourite in our 50% Awajún oat milk chocolate bar. Lightly roasted cacao beans from Awajún, Peru lend a beautiful flavour to this sweet (and fully vegan) version of the milk chocolate that you know and love.
Origin: Peru
Tasting notes: Red fruits, fruity, floral
Sweetness level: OOOO
Ingredients: Cacao beans*, cacao butter*, coconut sugar*, certified gluten-free oats*
*Organic
The original dark chocolate bar that Living Lotus is known for. Our 70% Arriba Nacional dark chocolate bar features unroasted cacao beans from Ecuador and is smooth, rich, and just sweet enough to satisfy.
Origin: Ecuador
Tasting Notes: Banana, floral, herbal
Sweetness level: O
Ingredients: Cacao beans*, cacao butter*, coconut sugar*
*Organic
Certified gluten-free oats give a creamy quality to this 57% Arriba Nacional oat milk chocolate bar. Unroasted cacao beans from Ecuador are featured within our vegan version of milk chocolate.
Origin: Ecuador
Tasting notes: Creme, banana, floral, herbal
Sweetness level: OOO
Ingredients: Cacao beans*, cacao butter*, coconut sugar*, certified gluten-free oats*
*Organic
Looking for a dairy-free version of your favourite white chocolate? Our creamy blonde chocolate bar is a delicious take on white chocolate with tasting notes of toffee and caramel. A fan favourite among vegans and non-vegans alike.
Origin: Ecuador
Tasting notes: Toffee, caramel
Sweetness level: OOOOO
Ingredients: Cacao butter*, coconut sugar*, certified gluten-free oats*
*Organic
Ready to try some chocolate?
Audrey is the founder of Living Lotus Food & Nutrition Inc. a plant-based dessert and food education company in Vancouver, BC. Trained as a certified Whole Food Educator and Raw Food Chef, she is passionate about Making Health Sweet and empowering people to make better food choices. She enjoys playing in the kitchen, yoga, sewing & riding her bike in the sun.
