A young chocolate company from Ecuador has the international confectionery world buzzing, and it’s not because of the sugar high. To’ak Chocolate has introduced a 50 gram bar priced at $260, which is about 10 times pricier than comparably sized bars in the super premium category; the most expensive bar at Noe Valley specialist Chocolate Covered, for example, runs $22.
The cost does include a hand-carved box made of Spanish elm, a 116-page booklet, and a set of wooden tweezers. According to the company website, 177 of the 2014 run of 574 bars have been sold. Few people in the chocolate business have had a chance to try it yet, but the high price point has already engendered a healthy amount of skepticism “that’s bordering on outrage,” one industry analyst told me.
To’ak owners Jerry Toth and Carl Schweizer came to San Francisco last night to host an intimate tasting at Bourbon & Branch. The bartender paired To’ak’s first release, Piedra de Plata Rain Harvest 2014, a bar of 81% Ecuadorian dark chocolate, with a 15-year-old rum, a 13-year-old cognac, and an 18-year-old single malt scotch. The presentation was intended to show both that this chocolate is ideal for pairings, but also that it should be considered in a similar category as fine wine and spirits.
“It’s meant to be shared with a group and something that is celebratory,” said Toth, who Fortune reports has a background as a former Wall Street investment banker. “The way you’d share a bottle of wine.”
I didn’t want to drink, though, I just really wanted to taste the chocolate. More importantly, I wanted to talk about the elephant in the room: Why does this bar of chocolate cost $260?
Toth and Schweizer pointed out that the price reflects the artisanal work involved in making the chocolate as well as the packaging (all done in Ecuador), the fair trade and organic certifications, and their promise to their farmers that they’ll pay the highest price for beans in their country. They also passionately feel that chocolate deserves a place in the higher end culinary consciousness. But their model and defense of it still seemed underdeveloped, a bit unprepared to face the side eye of the world market.
“We are the exact opposite of economies of scale,” admitted Toth. “We have no economies of scale … there’s a lot of peripheral layers involved in terms of the production of the chocolate, all the packaging, we have a team of people who designed this and are making this by hand, all the experiments we’re doing for long-term planning, it’s a human-intensive project.”
So how does the chocolate taste? Simply put, it’s a gorgeous bar; I picked up notes of honey and orange blossom and the smooth texture melted easily — too quickly, in this case, since we were just allotted two tiny triangles to try (about $50 worth!). I probably wouldn’t have needed too much more to be satisfied, as is customary with super premium chocolate, but I was left wanting more nonetheless. It made me think that I’d probably feel the same way if a friend had purchased a bar to share with a group and I received that allotment — only I’d be more upset because so much money was spent. Then again, even though my friends think I’m fancy because I’ll spend $10 or $15 on a bar of chocolate, I am still not the demographic for this product.
To’ak Chocolate is available for sale online and in just three wine shops around the country, including Beltramo’s Wines and Spirits in Menlo Park.
Photos by Tamara Palmer
