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Like coffee and wine, each cocoa bean comes from a unique terroir that impacts its flavor. Zak's Chocolate is giving patrons a taste of true chocolate.

We are proud to share this short video of our chocolate story, filmed by James Beard Award Winning videographer, Andrew Gooi. Filmmaker & Creator of Food Talkies

"These days, the Valley’s restaurant scene has gotten pretty good at embracing diners' dietary restrictions and decisions.

You can now be a vegan here, or indulge in a plant-based diet, and eat pretty well. 

Veganism, in short, means abstaining from animal food products.

Among the distinctions from vegetarianism are that vegans also skip additional products like eggs, dairy, and honey." 

"There are also many vegan options at Zak’s Chocolate.

Not only all of the single-origin dark chocolate bars, but vegan truffles and "milk" and white chocolate bars using coconut milk."

Click HERE to read the whole story.

"Some of these foods are farmed — and can be provided predictably in large quantities. Because the foraging climate shifts with the hours, days, weeks, and years, wild foods are more volatile. Some ingredients appear for just a few days a year." Click HERE to read the whole story.

"Barel Cactus: Stout and pumpkin-shaped, barrel cactus sprouts waxy yellow fruit in early spring. These oblong fruits cluster at the top, each looking like a skinless pineapple. They taste like lemon or yuzu, but dim. Twila Cassadore, a Western Apache foods activist, likens the flavor more to squash. For centuries, the Western Apache have used barrel cactus fruit. Cassadore serves a barrel cactus salsa with desert woodrat. She uses their coal-black seeds as a wide-ranging topping. They recall black sesame seeds, partly due to their crunch.

Where to taste: Try the seeds at Zak’s Chocolate in Scottsdale, where Jim and Maureen Elitzak deploy them for texture in a 70 percent cacao bar. Tamara Stanger of Cotton & Copper has used the fruit in desserts like semifreddo and lemon meringue pie."

As you may know, especially if you've attended one of our events or engaged us in conversation at our shop, we pride ourselves on using only ethically-sourced cacao to craft our chocolate. 

Ethical sourcing encompasses many things, including certain environmental, economic and social standards relating to the farming activities and the people we buy cocoa beans from and through. 

But basically, ethical sourcing is about knowing where your food (in this case, chocolate) comes from, how it's made, how the land is treated and how all the people involved in the process handle mutual responsibilities.

Our longest-standing trade relationship, and one we are most proud of, is with a small group called Uncommon Cacao, a Ceritfied B Corporation. Each year, Uncommon Cacao publishes a Transparency Report that is full of great insights and information, yet is also a pretty easy read. Here is a link to the 2018 report. We hope you will take some time to check it out. We'd love to hear what you learned and what you think.

We had a blast sharing an overview of what is unique about Zak's Chocolate

with AZ Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame Member, Pat McMahon

Click HERE to see the segment, which also shows some of our local wine &

spirits friends from Pillsbury Wine, Carlson Creek Wine and Adventurous Stills distillery.

We love pairing our chocolates with these amazing Arizona products

We are excited to finally be able to share these two short, behind-the-scenes videos

with you from a Golf Chanel feature that originally aired in the Fall of 2018.

Click Image above to view Part 1                          Click Image above to view Part 2

  We are excited to announce that we took home THREE Awards this year, and that our Belize 70% Dark Chocolate was named a finalist.

 *Silver for our Coffee Break Bar, a dark chocolate bar with milk & locally roasted coffee, blended together for the perfect Coffee Break

 *Silver for our Belize Single-Origin White Chocolate Bar

 *Bronze for our Peru Maranon Single-Origin White Chocolate Bar

  Yes, two different White Chocolates!

  White Chocoolate IS REAL Chocolate AND each origin offers different natural flavor profiles. Our Belize White is slightly fruity and our Peru is mild and soooo creamy

We are proud to represent craft chocolate in Trip Savvy's list of best shopping experiences across the Country. Click HERE to see the full list.

"A good tour guide can unlock your destination by providing context to the scenes before your eyes. The same goes for a shopping experience — watching locals interact at a market, or chat at a bookstore, can tell you more about a place than any guidebook itself. From cooking classes in Italy to London's flower and food markets, here are TripSavvy's favorite tours, classes and shopping experiences for 2018."

Join us January 29, 2020 for a Local Spirits & Craft Chocolate Pairing Evening with our good friends at 

Adventurous Stills in Tempe. Click HERE for details and to grab your tickets.