Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Made in North Carolina
At Longleaf Pine Chocolate we believe chocolate should be experienced and savored. We treat each batch of chocolate as its own artistic creation, whether it is bold dark, classic milk, or a botanical, fruit or spiced chocolate infusion.
We are a small batch, craft chocolate company that is focused on quality over quantity. Follow our Instagram so that we can notify you when we release new batches of chocolate, and inquire below at our email to purchase.
We also produce custom orders for company events, galas, receptions, weddings, and other functions. Email us at inquiry@longleafpinechocolate.com if you are interested in a custom order.
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Our Chocolate
Our bean-to-bar chocolate is crafted with manical attention to detail and care in the North Carolina sandhills. Below are samples of our chocolate bars. We are always exploring new formulations and inclusions so please check back with us to see what new options we have been crafting. All of our chocolate is made with a focus on simplicity, purity and quality.
Blood Orange Dark Chocolate
Our 70% Ecuadorian Arriba dark chocolate is a customer favorite. This chocolate is made with only three ingredients (the cacao bean, cacao butter, and organic sugar), so you can experience the cacao bean in its fullest. The chocolate is delightfully aromatic with a rich and smooth flavor. In our blind taste tests it is consistently rated high for its balance and long, clean finish. Its nuanced tones delivers nuttiness with a balanced bitterness present in premier dark chocolates.
Nutty
Balanced
Rich
White Chocolate
Our 70% Ecuadorian Arriba dark chocolate is a customer favorite. This chocolate is made with only three ingredients (the cacao bean, cacao butter, and organic sugar), so you can experience the cacao bean in its fullest. The chocolate is delightfully aromatic with a rich and smooth flavor. In our blind taste tests it is consistently rated high for its balance and long, clean finish. Its nuanced tones delivers nuttiness with a balanced bitterness present in premier dark chocolates.
Nutty
Balanced
Rich
70% Dark Peruvian Nacional
Our 70% PeruvianNacional dark chocolate is a customer favorite. This chocolate is made with only three ingredients (the cacao bean, cacao butter, and organic sugar), so you can experience the cacao bean in its fullest. The chocolate is delightfully aromatic with a rich and smooth flavor. In our blind taste tests it is consistently rated high for its balance and long, clean finish. Its nuanced tones delivers nuttiness with a balanced bitterness present in premier dark chocolates.
Nutty
Balanced
Rich
Ecuadorian Milk Chocolate
Our 70% Ecuadorian Arriba dark chocolate is a customer favorite. This chocolate is made with only three ingredients (the cacao bean, cacao butter, and organic sugar), so you can experience the cacao bean in its fullest. The chocolate is delightfully aromatic with a rich and smooth flavor. In our blind taste tests it is consistently rated high for its balance and long, clean finish. Its nuanced tones delivers nuttiness with a balanced bitterness present in premier dark chocolates.
Nutty
Balanced
Rich
60% Ecuadorian Dark
Our 70% Ecuadorian Arriba dark chocolate is a customer favorite. This chocolate is made with only three ingredients (the cacao bean, cacao butter, and organic sugar), so you can experience the cacao bean in its fullest. The chocolate is delightfully aromatic with a rich and smooth flavor. In our blind taste tests it is consistently rated high for its balance and long, clean finish. Its nuanced tones delivers nuttiness with a balanced bitterness present in premier dark chocolates.
Nutty
Balanced
Rich
How to Order
Our bean-to-bar chocolate is crafted with great attention to detail and care in the North Carolina sandhills. Below are samples of our chocolate bars. All of our chocolate is made with a focus on simplicity, purity and quality. We are always exploring new formulations and inclusions so please check back with us to see what new options we have been crafting.
About Us
Greetings from Longleaf Pine Chocolate!
We are a small-batch, craft chocolate company based in North Carolina, home of the magnificent longleaf pine tree. One crisp, relaxing day in the sandhills of North Carolina our family was talking about things we were passionate about and chocolate was mentioned. There was universal agreement on such. I mean, who is not passionate about chocolate, right? If you are not, you may consider immersing yourself in “chocolate therapy”!
Our discussion turned to how chocolate was made, with the short answer being that none of us knew. Our curiosity got the better of us and we agreed to make our own batch of chocolate. And then we made another batch and then another and then another. What started from passion and curiosity turned into love for the craft of small-batch, artisanal chocolate making. Creating chocolate in its most natural, purest form where you taste the nuanced notes of the particular cacao bean and not the blandness of homogenized, industrial chocolate with artificial flavorings and additives. The type of cacao bean, the beans origin, the growing conditions of a particular season, the care with which the bean is fermented and roasted, and attention to how the cacao beans are refined all impact how true, pure chocolate tastes. We applied our curiosity to learning and refining each phase of the chocolate making process to produce chocolate that is as unique as the beans from which it originates. In crafting our chocolate we are focused on:​​​​​​​​​​
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Simplicity.
We include minimal ingredients to ensure the cacao bean is the star of the show.
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Purity.
We only utilize natural and organic ingredients.
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Quality.
We craft our chocolate with an artisans’ attention to detail and care.
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We are passionate about crafting the highest quality chocolate possible. We hope you share our passion for chocolate and invite your ideas and thoughts on our existing or potentially new offerings. Please email us at comments@longleafpinechocolate.com with your thoughts and we will get back to you. ​​
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How We Craft Our Chocolate
Ingredients
Our chocolate ingredient philosophy is “less is more”. We want you to experience the nuance of the cacao beans and other natural ingredients and not fillers or additives. In our dark chocolate we limit our ingredients to fair-trade cacao beans, cacao butter and organic sugar. No emulsifiers, no fillers, no additives, no unnatural ingredients. So what you taste is the unique, natural essence of the cacao bean. For our milk chocolate we add dry whole milk powder. In our specialty and seasonal bars we blend in “inclusions” such as natural nuts and fruits.
Roasting
The composition and flavor profile of a cacao bean can change from year to year based on variations in each year’s crop conditions. We roast small batches of cacao beans to determine the optimal roast profile of a particular cacao bean before we roast larger batches to produce our chocolate. It is an iterative process, and takes time, but it is the best way to determine the roast profile that will produce the most stimulating, flavorful and rewarding chocolate.
After the cacao beans have been meticulously roasted we "crack" the beans to separate the cacao bean from the cacao bean shell. We then winnow the resulting cacao nibs from the cacao bean shell to prepare the cacao nibs to be refined into chocolate liquor. It is important to ensure the shells have been successfully winnowed or the viscosity and taste profile of the resulting chocolate will be impacted.
Cracking
& Winnowing
Refining
& Conching
Refining and conching are about achieving optimal texture and taste. We transform the cacao nibs into chocolate liquor through a time intensive refining and conching process that grinds the cacao nibs into chocolate liquor. We utilize granite stone grinders to complete the refining with the process typically taking between 24 to 48 hours. We monitor the process to ensure the chocolate liquor has been refined down to the desired micron level, which is anywhere from <20 microns for our smoothest chocolate to a >20 microns for our “rustic” chocolate. We then conch, or agitate and aerate, the chocolate liquor to optimize cocoa butter distribution consistency and adjust its acidic profile.
Tempering
Tempering chocolate is art and science. When you limit your chocolate ingredients, like we do, it becomes more difficult to obtain the level five crystal structure that results in chocolate with that perfect “snap”. We adjust our tempering process to account for the specific cacoa beans we are utilizing, the composition of the specific chocolate we are crafting, as well as humidity levels and ambient temperature.
