We are chocolate pioneers.

Taza makes stone ground chocolate that is seriously good and fair for all. From farm to factory, we do things differently.

We do things transparently. 

It starts with Taza Direct Trade. We said no to opaque supply chains and low-quality cacao. We created the chocolate industry's first third-party certified Direct Trade cacao sourcing program, to ensure quality and transparency for all. We have real, face-to-face relationships with partners who respect the environment and fair labor practices. They provide us with the best organic cacao, and we pay them prices significantly higher than Fair Trade. In fact, you can see exactly what we pay them, right here in our 2022 Annual Cacao Sourcing Transparency Report.

Taza Direct Trade means more money for our partners, the best cacao for us, and seriously good chocolate for you.

THIRD PARTY CERTIFICATION

We’re serious about transparency and trust. To guarantee the integrity of our Direct Trade program, our five Direct Trade claims are independently verified each year by Quality Certification Services, a USDA-accredited organic certifier based in Gainesville, Florida. See our five verified claims here. 

Friends,

One of the things that most excites me as a craft chocolate maker is meeting our ingredient producers. Most chocolate consumers in the US have never even seen a cocoa pod before, let alone tasted cacao fresh off the tree. I feel fortunate to be able to engage with this unique farming community in my line of work as a chocolate maker. Most people don’t think of chocolate as a fruit or vegetable, but that is exactly what it is: a slurry of ground fermented seeds from the cacao fruit with dried cane juice. It sounds so weird when described that way, but that is the basic thing we call chocolate.

We have been publishing our annual Cacao Sourcing Transparency Reports for twelve years now, and sourcing cacao directly from farmers for even longer. After knowing nothing about cacao for the majority of my life, it has become a seemingly endless revelation to work with as an ingredient, and I learn some fascinating new detail about it almost every day. 

Here at the factory, the entire Taza team is eager to continue supporting organic and regenerative cacao production so we can keep making our unique and bold stone ground chocolate products. Now go do your part and help us eat some of this chocolate!

Yours in transparency,

Alex Whitmore
Co-Founder and CEO