We all like a good origin story

The Romantic version of how we came to make guilt-free chocolate that doesn’t need sweeteners to taste good, be they natural or made in a science experiment?

Picture it, Sicily 19… 

well no, that would have been a romantic start. More like 2020, Deep into the upheaval we in the hospitality industry know fondly as the Hell of COVID19. Responsible for 60 odd families’ welfare at the Southern tip of Africa. Our beloved Truth Coffee Roasting has in one moment of virus fuelled legislation, gone from the best payer in coffee in the region and employer of the first choice, to a financial disaster. Government relief isn’t coming through and we are facing our team and their families knowing starvation. Not an option.

So we think. Deeply. We aren’t going to start selling toilet paper online as one idea in the thinktank. What do we do? What do we do well. There is that moment of aha. 

Why has no one applied to chocolate what we helped in our own small way to pioneer in Coffee? Our mutual founder, @daviddonde was excited. Motivation was afoot. We had a purpose once again. Could chocolate go through the whole flavour not bitterness paradigm?

Challenge one: you can’t polish a turd. Find decent Cacao beans. Ethically sourced, sure, certified? Who cares. But delicious, an absolute requirement. We found, eventually. and the story is going on the blog. Chocolate is not coffee. The questions that are natural to us in coffee are alien in Cacao and chocolate. It is still the 1980’s in much of chocolate. Yes, there are some inspiring pioneers, but they are few and far between. 

Next came that learning curve. Steep, daunting, but huge fun. Could we pull it off? Chocolate without crap in it. That tastes good? That has a long lingering and pleasant aftertaste? Buy some, you decide 

Who We Are

Founded by David Donde and Ken Walton and the team behind the multiple award-winning Truth Coffee and equally world-beating The Art of Duplicity our newest exploration into flavours