Zikzak - Slavery is an issue we take very seriously at TCHO. Not all of West Africa, but the largest producer of cacao in the world, namely Cote d'Ivoire, employs slave labor in cacao production. Not surprisingly, some of its clients, notably Nestle, Cargill, and Archer Daniels Midland, have been sued by the International Labor Rights Fund. We are not buying ANY cacao from Cote d'Ivoire, nor will we until the situation there changes, which is likely to be a long time.

Popartdiva - Chocolate is a modern food. We are against the faux-traditionalism surrounding chocolate marketing. Design junkies that we are, we're hoping our final packaging will not be an embarassment. But we really want to please your mouth, not your eyes.

Forrest L Norvell - We're doing Beta chocolate because, honestly, we are currently at the end of our development program and putting the final tweaks on our formulations -- and would love feedback on how we're doing. Right now we are working on our "chocolatey" flavor profile, based on Ghanaian beans. We will be doing permutations of it with various sugars and vanillas to see what we and our customers like. This process is entirely by hand, in ridiculously small lots, and with lots of attention, intention, and what might be described by some as love, but which I prefer to characterize as obsession. I totally agree with you, the proof is in the tasting, and I'm certainly as allergic to hype as you appear to be. By the way, there's nothing "techno-toyish" about our Beta packaging -- it's an off-the-shelf craft paper envelope with a food-grade lining, hit with a rubber stamp, filled with our chocolate, then heat-sealed on the edge. No Noka here.

And Mark F - thanks for the call out. Come visit the factory!