Highline Bar-Guatemala; Bean-to-Bar

Bean-to-Bar chocolate bar; Guatemala

Along the Animas River corridor, the “Highline” is considered the most dramatic, the pinnacle, of the canyon.  Thus, the pinnacle of ACC chocolate is our Bean-to-Bar Highline Bars.  Incorporating only single origin premium cacao and organic pure cane sugar, this is the truly the chocolate lover’s chocolate.  Simple ingredients allow the chocolate lover to truly experience all the flavor that cacao can truly have; each bar having it’s own, distinct flavor profile and tasting notes.  Made bean-to-bar in our cafe at 920 Main Avenue, Durango, the process is open to view by the public.  We invite you to join us, ask questions, and try some chocolate!

This bar is currently our ‘brightest’ bar with strong citrus, banana and mango flavor notes. Alta Verapaz is a premium quality bean comprised of a blend of cacaos from the Lanquín and Cahabón regions of Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. This blend was designed to showcase the bright and fruity flavor so beloved in Chivite cacao, but with a broader range of farms and families outside of the very small association at Chivite. The community of San Juan Chivite is based entirely within a 180-hectare cacao farm, abandoned by its owner during the terrible Guatemalan civil war in the 1980’s and handed over in 1985 to the 65 families who were former workers of the farm. In 2002, the families converted a portion of the farm that was formally coffee over to cacao, and as the community has grown from 64 to 125 families today, cacao cultivation remains the source of over 90% of the community’s income. The village and farms are accessible only by swinging bridge over the wide, rushing Cahabón river; to sell cacao, association members carry 100-lb sacks over the bridge on their backs.

All of our bean-to-bar chocolate is made in small batches and handcrafted on-site.  At ACC, we like to rotate the bean origin of our bean-to-bar chocolate bars. This rotate lets you experience different bean origins which yield different flavor notes, cocoa butter content and terroir.  This creates and interesting and diverse experience for chocolate lovers and a great introduction to fine chocolate for those that have not yet experienced it!

Bean-to-Bar chocolate bar; Guatemala