The catalyst for Helen and Glen Davies to establish Wild Mountain Chocolate was documentary Semi-Sweet
BRITISH COLUMBIA – Canada’s only organic bean-to-bar chocolate maker, Wild Mountain Chocolate, has launched to provide craft chocolate that challenges the norms of the chocolate industry. Their chocolate is certified organic and ethically sourced.
Made in the Rockies, Wild Mountain creates chocolate that is naturally dairy-free, gluten-free and vegan made from only two ingredients; cocoa and sugar. The company was born from founders Helen and Glen Davies’ desire to make a product that challenges unethical sourcing in the cacao-growing industry and gives consumers an opportunity to purchase incredibly flavourful chocolate that aligns with their own values.
Wild Mountain Chocolate sources premium organic raw cacao beans. The cocoa beans are sorted by hand, roasted, winnowed, stone-ground, conched and tempered onsite in Invermere, BC resulting in incredibly complex flavour profiles that allow the specific properties of the beans to shine through.
Wild Mountain Chocolate co-founder and chocolate-maker Glen Davies said they started the company after learning about the historic and ongoing exploitation of workers in the chocolate making industry.
“There is no easy solution to the ethical problems specific in the industry and cocoa growing regions, so we’ve decided one way to make a difference is to educate consumers about how chocolate should be made and grown – using only premium beans to challenge the treatment of cocoa beans as cheap commodity,” he said.
“We believe in the sustainability of organic farming, so it was also important to us that our products are certified organic.”
Wild Mountain Chocolate is certified organic under Canadian Organic Standards, which guarantees the quality and authenticity of products from field-to-table or bean-to-bar. Being organically certified guarantees the cocoa beans, which are organic at origin, are not fumigated with pesticides as they are transported between countries.
“A lot of people don’t know that most chocolate manufacturers use cocoa solids made by big, usually European, corporations to make chocolate – only a small number of makers use the actual beans, roasting and grinding themselves,” co-founder Helen Davies said.
“At Wild Mountain, we are the only chocolate maker in Canada that imports certified organic, premium beans and handles the entire process ourselves to create a certified organic, made in Canada, chocolate bar. We feel it’s important to the integrity of our product and company to work in this way.”
Using 100 per cent organically sourced beans, Wild Mountain Chocolate is produced using two ingredients – cocoa beans and sugar. The specially selected beans come from South America, the Caribbean and Madagascar and each origin delivers a different flavour experience. Other organic ingredients are added for their various flavoured bars including vegan milk chocolate, Creamy-O.
Wild Mountain Chocolate is currently available for retailers and consumers online and in store at locations in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan.