New harvest — Tanzania 75%

Three ingredients.
One origin.
Nothing to hide behind.

Single-origin bars made bean-to-bar in small batches — cacao, cane sugar, and a little cocoa butter. No vanilla, no lecithin.

Shop the bars See how it's made →
★4.9 · 4,127 reviews Stone-ground in small batches 60g bars

Bittersweet

Sambirano

Madagascar

70%

Single origin · 60g

Bean-to-bar Batch N°214
Bestseller
★★★★★ 4.9 from 4,127 reviews

As featured in

The Cacao Review Slow Table Provisions Quarterly FERMENT & FLAVOUR The Maker's Journal Pantry No.7 Origin & Craft

The range

Six origins. Each its own character.

Every bar is one cacao from one place, ground for three days and bar-aged a fortnight before it ships. The percentage tells you the cacao content — the origin tells you the flavour.

Bittersweet

Kokoa Kamili

Tanzania

75%

60g

Kokoa Kamili, Tanzania

$10

Red berry and brown sugar, finishing on a clean, dry snap.

red berry brown sugar

Bittersweet

Sambirano

Madagascar

70%

60g

Sambirano, Madagascar

$11

Citrus and raspberry with a bright, lifting acidity.

citrus raspberry

Bittersweet

Maranon Canyon

Peru

72%

60g

Maranon Canyon, Peru

$11

Soft caramel and walnut — mellow, rounded, easy-going.

caramel walnut

Bittersweet

Hacienda Limon

Ecuador

80%

60g

Hacienda Limon, Ecuador

$12

Intense cacao, dried fig and a deep, earthy base.

dried fig earth

Bittersweet

Lachua

Guatemala · Sea Salt

68%

60g

Lachua, Guatemala

$11

Honey and toasted oat, finished with a flake-salt edge.

honey sea salt

Bittersweet

Ben Tre

Vietnam · Hazelnut

73%

60g

Ben Tre, Vietnam

$12

Roasted nut and cocoa with a soft, creamy finish.

roasted nut cream
2–3 ingredients No vanilla No lecithin Dairy-free Bean-to-bar
Direct trade since 2014

Our story

We refused to mask the cacao.

Bittersweet began with a single batch of beans carried home in a duffel bag. Our founder, Marisol Vega, had tasted cacao at origin that bore no resemblance to the chocolate on the shelf — and wanted to know what had been lost between the two.

The answer was vanilla, lecithin, and speed. So we built the company around their absence. We travel to the farms, ferment and dry the beans alongside the growers who raise them, and run a slow stone grind that takes three days per batch — long enough to round the chocolate without flattening what makes each origin its own.

Two ingredients, sometimes three. Nothing to stretch the cacao, nothing to hide a flaw. If a harvest doesn't taste like itself, we don't bottle it. We'd rather make less.

MV

Marisol Vega

Founder & head chocolate maker

Bean to bar

Four steps. No shortcuts.

Every bar travels the same route from a fermenting box at origin to a tempered slab in our workshop. It takes about three weeks.

01

Direct sourcing & fermentation

We buy from named farms and co-ops, and ferment the wet beans on-site for five to seven days — the stage that sets a cacao's flavour for good.

02

Slow roasting

Each origin gets its own gentle roast curve — low and unhurried — to develop depth without scorching the bright top notes.

03

A 3-day stone grind

Nibs and cane sugar go onto a granite melangeur and turn for 72 hours, until the chocolate is smooth and the acidity has mellowed.

04

Hand tempering & molding

We temper by hand on a marble slab and mould each bar — the step that gives it the gloss and the clean, audible snap.

Tasting notes, by origin

Tanzania 75% Red berry · brown sugar · clean snap
Madagascar 70% Citrus · raspberry · bright acidity
Peru 72% Caramel · walnut · mellow
Ecuador 80% Intense cacao · dried fig · earth
Guatemala 68% Honey · toasted oat · salt edge
Vietnam 73% Roasted nut · cocoa · cream

Bittersweet

Sambirano

Madagascar

70%

Single origin · 60g

2 ingredients Batch N°214
The flagship

Sambirano, Madagascar 70%

The bar that started the obsession. Madagascan cacao from the Sambirano valley carries a natural fruitiness most chocolate buries — we keep it. Two ingredients only: cacao and cane sugar. It is the bar we hand to anyone who says they don't like dark chocolate.

bright red fruit citrus a clean cacao snap

2

Ingredients

★4.9

1,840 reviews

72h

Stone grind

Shop Sambirano · $11 Free shipping over $40

Gifting

The Origin Set

All six bars in one linen-wrapped box — a guided journey through five countries and six cacaos. It arrives with a tasting-order card and an optional hand-written gift note. The most considered way to meet the whole range, or to give it.

Recommended tasting order

  1. 1 Madagascar 70% — start bright
  2. 2 Tanzania 75% — into red fruit
  3. 3 Guatemala 68% — a salted pause
  4. 4 Vietnam 73% — nutty and round
  5. 5 Peru 72% — mellow caramel
  6. 6 Ecuador 80% — finish deep
Gift the set · $58 Includes a gift note · ships in 2 days
Bittersweet
The Origin Set
6 origins · 5 countries 360g

Linen-wrapped · tasting card included

Tasting notes from the people who buy it

Loved bar by bar.

4.9

★★★★★

4,127 verified reviews

★★★★★
"The Madagascar 70% genuinely tastes of raspberry — no flavouring, just the bean. I've stopped buying anything else."

Hannah Lindqvist

bought Sambirano, Madagascar 70%

★★★★★
"The Ecuador 80% is the most serious bar I own. Dried fig and earth, and a snap you can hear across the room."

Daniel Okonkwo

bought Hacienda Limon, Ecuador 80%

★★★★★
"Gave the Origin Set for my parents' anniversary. The tasting-order card turned a gift into an evening. They rang to talk about the Guatemala."

Émilie Rousseau

bought The Origin Set

★★★★★
"The Lachua with sea salt ruined supermarket chocolate for me. Honey and toasted oat, then that little salt edge. Faultless."

Takashi Mori

bought Lachua, Guatemala 68% + Sea Salt

Where to buy

Now in 540 shops.

You'll find Bittersweet bars on the shelves of independent grocers, cheesemongers and specialty cafés — or have them shipped to your door.

Larder & Vine
FELL GROCER
The Cheese Room
Marlow & Co.
Provisions
NORTH & OAK

Find a store near you

Stocked in Portland, Brooklyn, Austin, Seattle, Chicago, Asheville and 63 more cities.

Prefer it shipped?

The full range, direct from the workshop. Free shipping over $40.

Shop online

Questions

Good to know.

What does single-origin mean here? +

It means every bean in a bar comes from one place — usually one farm or one co-op, in one harvest. We never blend origins. That's the whole point: a Madagascan bar should taste of Madagascar, not of a recipe averaged across three continents.

Is it dairy-free / vegan? +

Every bar in the range is dairy-free and vegan — two or three ingredients, all plant-based: cacao, cane sugar, and sometimes a little extra cocoa butter or an inclusion like sea salt or hazelnut. We make on shared equipment, so bars may carry traces of tree nuts; full allergen detail is on each product page.

How should I store and taste it? +

Keep bars somewhere cool and dark, around 16–18°C — not the fridge, which dulls the flavour and can bloom the surface. To taste, let a square sit on your tongue and melt rather than chewing it. The flavour unfolds in stages, and the bright top notes arrive first.

Do you ship in summer — will it melt? +

We ship year-round. From June through September, hot-climate orders go out with an insulated liner and a cool pack at no extra cost, and we hold dispatch to avoid weekend transit. If a bar ever arrives heat-damaged, tell us and we'll replace it.

Where does the cacao come from? +

Directly from named farms and co-operatives in Tanzania, Madagascar, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala and Vietnam. We buy on direct-trade terms — above market price, paid to the grower — and our founder visits each origin during harvest. The farm appears on every wrapper.

New harvest in stock

Shop the range.

Six origins, two or three ingredients, nothing to hide behind. Start with one bar or meet them all.

Shop the bars Gift the Origin Set →

Free shipping over $40 · ships within 2 days