Background: Batch Craft was founded in 2015 by Zan Maddox & Tamara LaValla, a creative couple based in Rock Hill, SC. Their goal is to use their love of travel and their creative talents to produce small, limited edition "batches" of inspired treasures for our loving consumption. Their first few batches have focused on chocolate, which is a scallionpancake favorite! Their plans are to expand from chocolate to other treats and different arts and crafts.
Order This: Chocolate...duh! They are currently selling their 5th batch of chocolate bars with cacao sourced from Ecuador (limited edition of 200 bars for each flavor). They make all of their chocolate in house (literally in their house) with cacao beans that they source directly from farmers in the country which they are making their current batch. For $20 you get to pick 3 chocolate bars from their four different flavors - dark, coffee, vanilla, and salt. All the bars are 65% chocolate, which means they are considered dark chocolate, but not too dark that they taste like you're eating bitter earth. The extra ingredients - sugar, vanilla, coffee, salt, and cocoa butter - are all organic and sourced from the best places on earth. For instance, they get their salt from Bull's Bay Charleston and their coffee from Pure Intentions.
But enough about the ingredients, let's talk about the taste! All of the bars were super creamy and nutty, with the 65% chocolate being the perfect amount to bring out the chocolate flavor without getting the crappy bitter aftertaste. We ordered the dark, vanilla, and salt. Our favorite was the salt, which had the perfect combination of sweet chocolate body, cooled off and balanced with the salt; however, we are splitting hairs as all of the bars were excellent.
Riverwalk Hospitality: The chocolates come in adorable packaging with personal notes from "Zammy." Each bar is individually numbered and comes with the following inscription: "Handcrafted with love & OCD in our Rock Hill, SC kitchen." They will also hand delivery the chocolate to you if you live in the area.
Frankie's Notes: I would eat all the chocolate in the world if it wouldn't kill me; "Love & OCD" would be the name of Yvonne's memoir; Sometimes if you close your eyes and eat chocolate you can pretend you are Willy Wonka; Javon's #1 fear is leaving the chocolate on the counter and coming home to Ollie having the ingenuity to open 3 layers of packaging and committing "death by chocolate."
Rating: A must buy!
Et Cetera:
www.batchcraft.com