Blood Orange Dark Chocolate

Ocelot Chocolate is a small business, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is owned and run by Matt and Ish. In 2013, two weeks after getting married, they started making chocolate in the back kitchen of their apartment, which they sold at local farmers markets. Five years on they have a small factory and an amazing little team!

Their chocolate supplier works tirelessly to ensure that the cocoa farmers are given the fair trade and resources to enable them to focus on producing healthy, high-quality cocoa and that they are able to not only look after their own families but also protect the environment and communities around them.

In order to produce the beans needed to make chocolate, these farmers nurture the trees, handpick the cocoa pods, and separate the beans for fermenting. After a carefully controlled fermentation process, the cocoa beans are sun-dried to retain their natural qualities. The beans are then hand-peeled, before further processing into nibs, paste, butter and powder. Ocelot uses a combination of couverture and also cocoa nibs which they then grind in their factory - we buy both of these products from an organic 'bean-to-bar' producer.

The chocolate with a cocoa percentage of 70%, is made from beans which are grown in Virunga National park - Africa's oldest nature reserve, and the home of the last Mountain Gorillas. There, the farmers are actively working to protect the gorillas and this precious habitat, and the beans that are produced reflect this wondrously diverse region, creating chocolate with the rich and tart flavours of dark fruits, earthy forest floor and smoky tobacco.