All of our cacao is grown organically, though not every farm maintains an organic certification. We label our chocolate to indicate which ones do but please be advised that an organic certification is not a qualifier for quality. Cacao is not an industrial grown crop. Most of the world’s cacao is farmed by smallholder farmers (average of 3 hectares). For the most part these farmers cannot afford pesticides or other chemicals. There are tons of challenging facing cacao cultivation, none of which are addressed with being designated organic.

Most of McGuire Chocolate bars are made with two ingredients: Cacao Beans Cane Sugar Cacao Butter The Hank Series and Limited Edition bars have some extra ingredients. We source the cleanest, purest, highest quality ingredients we can find. You will never find soy, emulsifiers, artificial colours or flavours in any of our bars.

THE BEANS

• Craft chocolate is made from fermented cacao which requires structures to be built and operated in remote areas
• 95% of all chocolate is made from unfermented cacao resulting in a bitter product that required lots of sugar and other additives to be palatable.

THE PROCESS

• Due to the combination of friction and aeration during the refining process natural flavours evolve in chocolate
• The use of soy and other lecithin products dramatically reduce the time required for the chocolate to refine
• Mass produced chocolate contains a lecithin for economical advantages while craft chocolate makers rarely go down this path
• At McGuire Chocolate we grind each batch for about 6 days (24 hours a day) in order to obtain the consistency and flavour we are aiming for

THE PACKAGE

• Craft chocolate is made in small batches which means bars are packaged with care by hand
• Packaging will provide transparency about cacao content and the source of the ingredients

THE MESSAGE

• Craft chocolate promotes a happy and sustainable supply chain by ensuring all participants are fairly compensated
• With emphasis on quality you can feel good bout nourishing yourself

Orders that have chocolate bars only can be shipped letter mail in Canada. Letter mail is a more economical option than parcel but the downside is longer potential ship time and no tracking. Orders that qualify for free shipping and fit letter mail will be sent via this method. All other shipping is tracked and your email address will be signed up for delivery notifications. Orders that qualify for free shipping that do not fit in letter mail will be shipped via Canada Post Expedited Parcel.

• FSC Certified, ensuring responsible forestry
• Geen-e Certified, made using 100% renewable green electricity
• Green Seal Certified, using 30% post consumer fibers
• Carbon neutral
• Chlorine free

We don’t list any of this on our packaging because we don’t want to distract from what really matters: the chocolate. Using eco-friendly paper doesn’t improve the quality of the chocolate but it does represent our brand: simple and natural.

We primarily work with two distributors: Meridian Cacaoand Uncommon Cacao. We also get beans from Delicacies Valley, and directly trade with Nahua in Costa Rica

We went to Costa Rica in April 2017 where we visited Nahua and a couple of cacao farms. We can't wait to go visit more farms! We are lucky to work with distributors whom are regularly engaged with each origin and help to provide a transparent connection for our supply chain.

If your chocolate is defective in any way we are happy to replace it. Please let us know what the issue is and we’ll work out an arrangement.