Chocolate

At Sierpe Café & Chocolate, we take pride in our artisanal chocolate-making process, where each step is infused with passion and dedication. Our array of flavors, with fruity and exotic options, awakens the taste buds and transports you to the heart of Costa Rica. At the foundation of most of our chocolates lies a rich 70% cocoa base, allowing you to savor the exquisite essence of pure, premium chocolate.
Every cocoa bean is handpicked by dedicated locals who understand the true value of this precious gift from the land. With skill and passion, our artisans delicately transform these beans into silky, velvety chocolate
delights that captivate the senses.

The cacao pods are delivered to us freshly picked

From the tempering we mold into 1 oz bars which are cooled before wrapping. During this process, the bars must be vibrated to get the air bubbles out of the chocolate

We carefully, monitoring constantly, ferment the beans in banana leaf lined wooden boxes

We use a commercial juicer to transform the nibs to a paste, known as cacao liqueur.

Each bar is individually wrapped by hand in a paper lined foil, designed especially for chocolate before the label/sleeve is wrapped around the bar

After fermentation we sun dry the beans for about 6 days

A minimum of 24 hours in a stone grinder „melanger“

This is important to give the chocolate a smooth texture and adds to the flavor

Beans are roasted in small batches in our coffee/cacao roaster

We temper in a small but effective tempering machine which makes the process fail safe and flow smoothly.  We keep our tempering process cool with the airconditioning in our commercial kitchen

Awards won at Costa Rica’s premier Chocolate gathering for Artisan chocolate makers

While the artisan chocolate movement is very young in Costa Rica, it has been making huge waves as it rivals the Specialty Coffee movement which began in the 70’s in the USA.  The number one event for artisan Chocolate makers in Costa Rica is the Chocolate Festival held in Puerto Viejo every October over the Halloween week-end.

We are regulars there and are proud to say that in the 2015 competition for the best of the best chocolates produced by the countries most dedicated artisan chocolate makers, we won FIRST place with our milk chocolate. This past festival in 2016 we won the most coveted award being first place in the single origin dark chocolate category.  All you have to work with is your cacao and some sugar, you have to be good.

While it was the milk chocolate and our dark chocolate that brought us the prestigious awards in Puerto Viejo, it is the chili chocolate bar that brings the most attention.