Raw Agave Chocolate Bars

Crunchy Mint Dark Chocolate - Raw Organic

Made with Single Origin, Certified Organic Raw Cacao from Satipo, Peru - 72% raw cacao. Sweetened with Organic Agave Syrup. Hand-made in Melbourne.

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45g	$4.75	Qty
100g	$7.90	Qty
20 x 45g	$82.97	Qty
11 x 100g	$75.90	Qty
Mixed Box 11 x 100g	$75.90	Qty
Mixed Box 20 x 45g	$82.97	Qty

Crunchy Mint Dark Chocolate - Raw Organic

What is it?

It seems that most serious chocolate lovers love a good mint chocolate. So we have done our best to satisfy you all with this little creation. We use Tasmanian peppermint essential oil to get that amazing mint chocolate flavour and then use our raw cacao nibs from Satipo, Peru to give the bar a crunch and an extra shot of raw chocolate power.

Cane Sugar free
Gluten free
Dairy free
Low GI
Vegan
Fair Trade

Ingredients

Organic raw cacao butter, Organic raw cacao powder, Organic raw agave syrup (dark), Organic raw cacao nibs, Peppermint oil, Himalayan crystal salt

Health Benefits

Antioxidants

Raw Cacao beans contain 10 grams of flavonol antioxidants per 100 grams, which is an incredible 10%. Research has also demonstrated that the antioxidants in cacao are highly stable and easily available to human metabolism. In the adjacent table you can see that our Loving Earth Raw Chocolate has more antioxidants than Goji Berries and Acai Berries. The ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) scale was developed by the United States Department of Agriculture to measure the ability of antioxidants to absorb free radicals, which normally cause cell and tissue damage. The higher the ORAC score, the higher the level of antioxidants present in the food. Click here to see the Southern Cross University ORAC score for Loving Earth Dark Chocolate (this result shows per g).

ORAC Scores for top 10 Antioxidant foods per 100g
1)	Loving Earth Raw Cacao Powder*	98,000
2)	Raw Cacao Nibs**	62,100
3)	Loving Earth Raw Dark Chocolate*	27,900
4)	Roasted Cocoa Powder	26,000
5)	Goji Berries**	25,300
6)	Acai Berries**	18,500
7)	Dark Chocolate	13,120
8)	Prunes	5,770
9)	Raisins	2,830
10)	Blueberries	2,400
Source: US department of Agriculture
* Tested by Southern Cross University
** Tested by Brunswick Laboratories, MA, USA

Magnesium for the Heart and Brain

Raw cacao is the primary dietary source of magnesium, the most deficient mineral in western civilisation. Magnesium is the most important mineral for a healthy functioning heart. It also plays a key role in producing energy for the neurons in the brain from glucose. So when there is an abundance of magnesium the brain works with clarity and focus.

Mood elevators and Anti-depressants

Cacao is a great source of serotonin, dopamine, anandamide and phenylethylamine (PEA), four well-studied neurotransmitters, which are associated with feelings of well being and help alleviate depression. Both PEA and Anandamide (the bliss chemical) are found in abundance in the brains of happy people and are particularly released when we are feeling happy. Both of these nuerotransmitters are present in raw cacao in large enough quanitities to affect the brain and lift our moods. Cacao also contains monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAO Inhibitors) that keep neurotransmitters in the bloodstream for longer without being broken down.

We have all experienced the positive feelings associated with eating chocolate, now we have access to pure raw unadulterated chocolate in the form of organic raw cacao. This is much more potent than the processed chocolate and doesn't have any sugar or dairy products blocking the positive effects of all the goodies in raw cacao. My experience is that eating 11 raw cacao beans is enough to experience a blissful sense of well being.

How to Use

Eat a square or two for a delicious, energising snack. Even better when shared with someone you love!

Growing

Satipo is a region that sits at the edge of the Amazon basin at the base of the Andes mountain range. In this area we work with 4 small producer groups that are grouped under the umbrella association of cacao producers of Satipo that consists of 164 families in total.

Meet the Grower View Google Map

Chene Criollo Cacao Loving Earth from Loving Earth on Vimeo.

Processing

First of all, the cacao pods are harvested from the trees and cracked open. The beans are then taken out and fermented. The level of fermentation affects the flavour; we do a low fermentation of about 45 degrees C, as otherwise the temperatures can get quite high, which affects the structure of the nutrients. The main thing that Loving Earth does differently to other chocolate makers is that we don't roast the raw cacao beans before we process them. The standard procedure in the chocolate industry is to roast the raw cacao, which helps bring out the flavour. It removes a lot of the microbiological contamination they might contain, but it also removes some of the valuable antioxidants contained within. What we do instead is wash them with a citric-based organic disinfectant. Afterwards, they're dried in large commercial dehydrators, at controlled temperatures, before being winnowed into nibs, which basically means taking the skin off them. Then we grind them into liquor, and finally we press them into powder and butter.

Basically, we get five products from this process. We get raw cacao beans, and because we've disinfected and washed them you can eat them - raw! We get raw cacao nibs, which are the beans without the skin. We get raw cacao liquor, which is the nibs ground into a paste. Then when we take the the liquor and put it into a very high-pressure press, which presses all the fat and butter out of it. So the end product is the raw cacao butter and then this hard cake that's milled into raw cacao powder. 1kg of liquor is about 50% fat, so when you press the liquor you get about 40% cacao butter and 60% powder. The powder retains about 10% fat content after pressing, and all the antioxidants plus a lot of the nutrients are concentrated in that powder.

We buy and import these five products, which we use to make our raw chocolate from scratch. When indigenous communities such as our friends in Peru manage to add as much value as possible at the point of origin, not only do we support agricultural industry, but also the development of that community. We get the five basic materials we need to make our chocolate, and they earn more, allowing them to further develop infrastructure to process their cacao.

Nutrition Information

Our Dark Chocolate has an ORAC score (oxygen radical absorption capacity) of 27,900 per 100g please see the laboratory results from Southern Cross University

Serving Size 20g

	Per Serve	Per 100g
Energy	414.1kj	2071kj
Protein	1.7g	8.5g
Fat-total	7.6g	38.1g
- saturated	4.6g	22.9g
Carbohydrate-total	9.6g	47.9g
- sugars	5.1g	25.5g
Sodium	10.3mg	51.4mg

Packaging

Every Loving Earth chocolate bar comes to you in a plant-based inner wrapper to maximise freshness and extend shelf life. These wrappers are not made of plastic and are compostable.

The boxes which contain our wrapped chocolate bars are made from 80% recycled post-consumer cardboard and are printed with vegetable inks.

Raw Agave Chocolate Bars

Crunchy Mint Dark Chocolate - Raw Organic