Taza Chocolate
Dominican 80% Dark Stone Ground
Stone-ground in the Mexican tradition rather than conched smooth, Taza's Dominican 80% keeps a deliberately grainy texture that makes it an unusually legible introduction to what unrefined cacao actually tastes like. Taza was the first United States maker to publish a third-party-audited Direct Trade transparency report, naming cooperatives and FOB prices.
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- Maker
- Taza Chocolate · United States
- Type
- dark
- Cacao
- 80%
- Status
- draft
Most dark chocolate is conched for hours until the particles fall below the threshold the tongue can detect, somewhere around twenty microns. Taza does not do this. The bars are stone-ground in the Mexican tradition, on granite mills, and the grit is left in on purpose.
That choice makes this bar useful in a way a smoother one is not. When the particles are large enough to feel, you notice the cacao as a ground seed rather than as a finished confection — closer to how cacao is consumed at origin than to how it is consumed in Europe. For a reader working through the archive, it is a short-cut to understanding what conching actually removes.
Where the cacao comes from
Taza buys Dominican cacao through cooperative partners in the Dominican Republic, and the specific cooperative has varied by production year. Both CONACADO and Öko Caribe appear in the maker's published sourcing over time, so this review cross-links to both archive records rather than asserting a single source for any given bar. Check the wrapper of the bar you actually receive — Taza prints the partner.
The Dominican Republic is the largest producer of certified organic cacao in the world, and its cacao is overwhelmingly Trinitario in the traditional classification, admixed in the modern genetic reading. The country is also where the distinction between Sánchez (unfermented or lightly fermented, sold as bulk) and Hispaniola (properly fermented, sold at a premium) still structures the whole trade. An 80% bar has nowhere to hide, so it is a fair test of which side of that line the beans fell on.
Transparency
Taza was the first United States maker to publish a third-party-audited Direct Trade transparency report, naming cooperatives and disclosing FOB prices paid. That matters here for the same reason provenance status matters on our origin records — a claim that can be checked is a different kind of claim from one that cannot.
What we have not done
The Open Cacao Index editorial team has not tasted this bar. The descriptors on this page come from the maker's own published copy and are labelled as such. This record carries status draft and will move to reviewed only when it has been corroborated independently, and to verified only when the editorial team has tasted it directly. We would rather say so than manufacture a tasting note.
Origins in this product
Sources
- Taza Chocolate 2026, 'Dominican 80% Dark Stone Ground Chocolate' — https://www.tazachocolate.com/
- Taza Chocolate 2026, 'Direct Trade Transparency Report' — https://www.tazachocolate.com/pages/direct-trade