Interestingly Sted says one of their guiding principles is to “Honor Place”, which I hoped meant transparency & discussion on bean origin. Alas, any hint of bean origin is absent from the packaging, though in messages with the maker I was informed beans come from a variety of origins including El Valle, Duarte, El Romano and a co-op of small farmers in Haiti. It sounds like they are trying to source from small farmers, which is good and I understand the changeability of sourcing makes it hard to keep up to date on pre-printed bar packaging.
I also had a chance to try their caramel crack bar, honey lavender and coffee & cream bars (not pictured). I could detect the latent burnt bean notes under all of them. The defects in the chocolate are barely tolerable at 50% with sugar and inclusions to distract. However at $8 a bar the only slightly lower price (compared to good craft chocolate) isn’t worth it.
While I appreciate a small family business trying to make chocolate, due to taste issues I unfortunately can’t recommend these bars. For just $2-4 more a bar you could get MUCH better tasting craft chocolate from other makers.
But, I am open to continue tasting @stedfoods bars in the future for changes & improvements.
Discover more from The Chocolate Tour Guide
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.