Chocolate (derived from Cacao) is among the world’s most threatened food crops due to climate change and unsustainable farming practices. For the love of chocolate, global Cacao demand continues to soar, and the availability of Regeneratively grown, fine Cacao is extremely limited.
Pura Vida Chocolate is committed to the Regenerative cultivation and harvest of exquisite heirloom Cacao throughout Costa Rica, protecting important genetics and providing the key ingredient for the best bean-to-bar chocolates.
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Our Chocolate
Our Maleku and South Caribe are made with only two ingredients: Cacao and Panela (unrefined whole cane sugar). We provide 75% as well as extra dark 85% in 35g bars.
Our Farm
We are committed to the Regenerative cultivation and harvest of exquisite heirloom Cacao throughout Costa Rica, protecting important genetics and providing the key ingredient for the best bean-to-bar chocolates.
We mindfully grow and source some of the most delicious and nutritious Cacao in the world while simultaneously improving the quality of soils and sequestering carbon/mitigating climate change.
We partner with small subsistence Cacao farmers who are impeccable land stewards and utilize the finest post-harvest processes to further develop exquisite flavors.
Beyond Organic
Our Cacao comes from small farms in Costa Rica. These farms are family run, use regenerative practices, not relying on pesticides or chemicals. While cultivating premium quality, USDA organic certification is cost-prohibitive. Only well funded corporations can afford this, inviting shortcuts and exploitation of family farmers! So please accept our personal guarantee that we source the best Cacao available at any price.
Our packaging uses compostable sugarcane paper (PureLabels) and compostable wrapping from plant cellulose, because we care.
Our Unique Flavor
Fine, heirloom Cacao is bred not for highest production, like the commodity, slave-labor cacao which is highly processed into cheap chocolate. Instead, our heirloom Cacao varieties are bred and cultivated to create exquisite flavor and quality! Coincidentally, the same orchard and soil care practices that infer optimal flavor development, produce managed landscapes that most closely resemble wild, native ecosystems where flora and fauna can thrive! Ecological Farming is imperative to humankind’s survival on our shared Earth, and an antidote to decades, centuries of destructive human impacts! We can BE the change we seek.
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Where We Work
Pura Vida Chocolate is made entirely in Paonia Colorado, at the base of the western slope of the Rockies. Here in the North Fork Valley of the Gunnison River we enjoy breathtaking views and world class stone fruit orchards, a high-density of organic farms, and vigorous vineyard and viticulture.
In addition, we cultivate Cacao on our 35-acre tropical farm in Costa Rica. Our first one-hectare orchard has been planted in 2019, and we hope to make a small run of chocolates from our first modest harvest in 3 years. But, this same one-hectare orchard is already poised to perform amazing ecological benefits!
In year one, with immature plants, it is estimated to “draw down” 1.4 metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere and convert it into stable carbon in the form of soil and plant tissues via photosynthesis. This natural phenomenon has the potential to empower small farmers to both grow nutrient-dense tree foods, like Cacao, and act as land stewards with the power to actually assist in the reversal of climate change!
Imagine millions of global farmers participating in this Ecological Revolution, feeding hungry people, protecting plant and animal life, and healing our Earth!