This bean-to-bar chocolate is a part of Raaka's Botanical Collection created in collaboration with the New York Botanical Garden. This bar was created to praise the combination of visual beauty and taste. Both cinnamon and hibiscus are flowering plants and important culinary instruments.  The packaging was created using the botanical paintings from the NYBG's archive and a share of proceeds goes to back NTBG's work in plant science, conservation and horticulture.

The chocolate for this bar was made using cacao beans from Zorzal Cacao (Dominican Republic).  The company works with two lines of cacao: Zorzal Estate and Zorzal Comunitario. Zorzal Estate bean is from cacao trees planted, grown, and harvested on the 1,030-acre Reserva Privada el Zorzal.  The Reserve includes a 130-acre organic cacao demonstration farm broken into 10 parcels (aka Parcelas). Each Parcela has its own planting design of specific clones. Zorzal Cacao currently harvests the majority of Zorzal Estate from Parcela 1, an existing 26-acre cacao grove they are restoring by grafting onto the rootstock. Based on the population structure of Parcela 1, the cacao is predominantly of the Amelonado ancestry, which tends to provide a deep chocolate base with a fruity flavour. In addition to producing our own cacao on Reserva Zorzal, they buy cacao from 16 neighbouring farms that share the company's vision for quality and conservation.  The majority of farms are under USDA organic certification umbrella program. One of the farms, Reserva Privada Camilo, is part of the 2,000-acre Private Reserve network established in the northern mountain range.

Hibiscus, a plant with colourful flowers, has been used for centuries for decorative and medicinal purposes. People have used it to make extracts, teas, and supplements. In traditional medicine, people use hibiscus preparations to treat ailments such as liver problems and high blood pressure. Today, a growing body of research supports these benefits, among others. 

Cinnamon is the dried inner bark of evergreen trees that are in the laurel family (such as bay laurel). There are three types. Cinnamon harvested from the Cinnamomum zeylanicum tree that is native to Sri Lanka is a softer and sweeter spice with a paler colour. Because Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon, this is usually referred to as Ceylon cinnamon.

NY Botanical Garden is one of the top two freestanding botanical gardens in the world where plant and fungal research is conducted, thanks to the resources of the International Plant Science Center, the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium, and the LuEsther T. Mertz Library.

Limited availability!