FAQ

Cacao beans contain a significant amount of antioxidants - which help repair damaged cells in the body and prevent the onset of disease.

Antioxidants neutralize free-radicals in the body, which do damage to your cells, and help to reverse the damage done. 

The higher the percentage of cocoa found in a dark chocolate, the more the antioxidants.

Flavonoids are a large group of plant-based antioxidants. The type of flavonoids found in chocolate are called flavanols. You won't find flavonoid content on nutrition labels, but you will find the percentage of cocoa solids. Since flavonoids are found only in the solids, you can use the percentage of solids as a general guide for choosing products with the most flavonoids.

All of our cocoa beans are sourced from the fair trade cooperative ABOFCA in Ghana.

Verse is proud to partner with Uncommon Cacao as a sourcing supplier of our transparently traded, ethically-sourced, high quality cacao beans. 

Uncommon Cacao started its work in 2010 to help create meaningful market access for smallholder cacao farmers, build a more fair and sustainable specialty cacao supply chain and consistently deliver the highest quality beans to their craft chocolate makers globally.  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.

Alkalized cocoa powder (also known as dutch processed cocoa), has gone through a 'washing' process, usually with a potassium solution, to neutralize the natural acidicity of the cocoa.

Heavy metals like lead and cadmium are found naturally in soils around the world. Many different agricultural crops such as legumes, grains, and leafy vegetables absorb these materials into their leaves, fruits and seeds.  This is why trace amounts of lead and cadmium can be found in cacao beans, and therefore in dark chocolate. Higher levels of cadmium are found in volcanic soils which are more common in the South and Central America. 

Here at Verse Chocolate, we source our cacao beans from a single origin in West Africa, which has lower levels of cadmium in the soil. We also work with a bean supplier, Uncommon Cacao, who takes great care in testing their beans regularly. The fair trade and organic beans used for Verse Chocolate come from the ABOCFA Cooperative in Ghana. 

In addition, Verse monitors our chocolate for lead and cadmium to ensure the safety and compliance.

The most recent tests did not detect lead at a testing threshold of 0.1 PPM (parts per million).

Cadmium was detected at 0.116 PPM (.116 micrograms of cadmium per gram of chocolate).  The World Health Organization has set a tolerable weekly intake of 7 μg/kg/body weight/week (Cadmium Toxicity: What Are the U.S. Standards for Cadmium Exposure? | Environmental Medicine | ATSDR (cdc.gov))

To help put these number in perspective—1 oz of Verse Chocolate contains 3.3 micrograms of cadmium, a person who weighs 180 pounds would be able to eat over 28 oz of chocolate in a week before reaching the cadmium limits prescribed by the WHO (that's about 6.5 boxes of Verse).  While we love to see our consumers enjoying our chocolate, 28 oz per week might suggest a lack of balance in your diet😊

Other foods in your diet might also contribute to lead and cadmium intake, so stay aware—good on you for keeping such a close eye on what you put in your body. We hope this answered your questions about heavy metals, but please reach out if you have more.

All orders are shipped with guaranteed delivery within 3-5 days (either by USPS Priority, UPS ground, UPS Next Day Air or DHL Worldwide) depending on your proximity to our shipping facilities and the shipping method selected. 

If you need to make any changes to your order please reply to your order confirmation email as soon as possible. We will do our best to make requested order changes while the order is still processing in our factory. Once it ships out, we can no longer adjust order items or re-route shipments.

Please double check your shipping address before placing your order. Once shipped, we are not responsible for lost packages due to an incorrect original address. If your order has been returned to our factory due to an incorrect original address, we will gladly reship your order to the correct address for the cost of shipping.

We take great care in making sure your package arrives to you in perfect condition. However, if you are dissatisfied with what you have received, please contact us at support@versechocolate.com for more information on how to move forward with your concern. We want you to be happy and we will thoughtfully address any issue you are experiencing!

We’d be happy to help you plan a bulk chocolate order. Please reach out to support@versechocolate.com and include: date chocolate is needed, quantity, any other event details.

Email support@versechocolate.com and we’d be happy to help answer any additional questions!

We accept all major credit cards, PayPal, and Apple Pay.

Here we address the most regular inquiries we receive. If we haven't addressed your inquiry, or you have another concern, please reach out to us at support@versechocolate.com and we'll do our best to respond in a timely manner.