Our Story
Verse chocolate is the result of innumerable treks across the globe, untold hours of conversations with people from distant lands and a sincere dedication to studying the best methods of crafting chocolate. Your participation in that journey begins with your first bite of our dark chocolate.
Verse has “cracked the code” on how to make a dark chocolate less bitter without the use of excess sugar. It starts with cacao bean fermentation at the farm. The fermentation process of cacao is directly related to the taste and sweetness of what becomes chocolate. Verse can deliver a high cacao content with all the creamy sweetness of a lower percentage.
Verse has “cracked the code” on how to make a dark chocolate less bitter without the use of excess sugar.
We Don't Sugarcoat Things
Verse isn’t just another new chocolate, it’s an entirely new way of crafting chocolate. Scott Walker set out to create Verse with one goal in mind; to change the popular belief that dark chocolate needed loads of sugar or artificial sweeteners in order to taste good.
After decades of working in the cocoa industry, Scott was well- ‘versed’ in the inherent health benefits of the cocoa bean. Cocoa in its natural state can be an excellent source of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. But these nutrients take a back seat when combined with unnecessary additives, sugars, emulsifiers, and artificial flavors.
At Verse, we’re bent on showing people that cocoa tastes great in its own right. We’ve crafted a tailormade dark chocolate that actually tastes like chocolate, with no compromises. We ditched the extra sugar without ditching the great taste. At Verse we don’t sugarcoat things. We don’t have to.
The Lead Singer
At Verse, when it comes to making dark chocolate of the best taste and quality, we sing a surprisingly simple tune, and for good reason. Cocoa, cocoa butter and sugar. That’s it.
We lead with organic cocoa as our headliner. In fact, with 90% dark chocolate, there's not a lot of room for other ingredients. Which is why we take great care in sourcing the highest quality cocoa available.
Our beans come from the ABOCFA Cooperative in Suhum, Ghana. This farmer-owned cooperative is known for producing the highest quality, organic and fair trade certified cacao in the region. The cocoa bean variety is called Amelonado, and has a classic rich and fudgy flavor, representative of what we have come to know and love in chocolate.
Supply Chain Story
Verse is proud to partner with Uncommon Cacao as a sourcing supplier of our transparently traded, ethically-sourced, high quality cacao beans. Together, Verse and Uncommon Cacao endeavor to build a more fair and sustainable specialty cacao supply chain and deliver a delicious dark chocolate that we can all feel good about. Learn more about our transparent supply chain and local farmer impact here.
Uncommon Cacao believes that farmer prosperity is a key ingredient in good chocolate.
They boldly embrace transparent trade to source quality cacao by measuring and delivering transparent pricing data for every transaction along the supply chain. Why? It creates accountability and fosters trust. Information is power in the hands of farmers, chocolate makers, and conscious consumers.
The work ABOCFA has done to ensure that farmers are not deforesting for their cacao farms is impressive. These efforts have been for the sake of maintaining their certifications, as well as for their customers who expect these standards to be upheld.
ABOFCA farmers practice agroforestry by intercropping their cocoa trees with plantains, bananas, yams and native forest trees. They also avoid deforestation by ensuring farmers do not situate cocoa plantations in protected forest areas.
ABOCFA takes their Fair Trade and Quality premium distribution plans seriously. ABOCFA trains farmers in best practices in fermentation and drying, so there can be more consistency in the quality of their product. They distribute between 40% and 50% of the total funds from the Fair Trade Premium directly back to farmers in the form of a cash payment after the season finishes. This means that farmers are earning higher prices than the Ghana established farmgate price, being rewarded for quality and for ethical labor practices.
The rest of the Fair Trade Premium goes towards cooperative management, certification maintenance, community projects, and child labor monitoring and remediation programs.
Every year, the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) announces the farmgate price for cocoa for the season. This is published information, and all farmers know it. They hold their local purchasing clerk accountable to this farmgate price. For the 2019 buying season Uncommon Cacao paid a premium 43% higher than the Fair Trade and Organic premiums combined.