Regular price
£10.00 GBP
Sale price
£10.00 GBP
Regular price
Hunt This One
Sleep Walk
34 g
Fine Dark Chocolate
Sleep Walk - El Vado, 70%
Single-origin Chiapas cacao from a smallholder community by the ford. Dried fruit, nuts, molasses.
Above-the-fold callout
A quietly excellent single origin with a story rooted in place. Sleep Walk — the Chicago chocolaterie born from Dark Matter Coffee — source this 70% from a community of small farmers near Tuzantán in Chiapas, Mexico, who take their name, El Vado, from the ford ("vado") their land sits beside. Just two ingredients, hand-tempered bowl by bowl, and a warm, comforting flavour: dried fruit, mixed nuts and molasses. No brightness or acidity to chase here — this one is all depth.
Origin & Craftsmanship
The cacao comes through Agrofloresta Mesoamericana from twenty to thirty-five smallholder families around Tuzantán, who grow it alongside beans, papaya, pumpkins and even coffee — a deliberately diverse rotation that keeps harvests coming through the year and income stable for the community. Sleep Walk keep their part of the process just as grounded: two ingredients only, cacao and sugar in a 70/30 ratio, hand-tempered in small bowls on a granite tabletop and hand-wrapped in foil and a custom, artist-designed sleeve. There are no stabilisers or preservatives at all, which makes the bar more temperature-sensitive than most — a fair trade for how clean it tastes.
Flavor Profile
Warm and comforting rather than bright. The Chiapas cacao gives dried fruit — raisin, fig — over a base of mixed nuts and a rich molasses sweetness, with the low-acidity, rounded character that Mexican cacao does so well. Deep, mellow and easy to love; the sort of two-ingredient bar that proves great chocolate needs nothing added, only good beans treated with care.
Tasting & Pairing Guide
Let a square melt slowly and the molasses and dried fruit build into something almost fudgy. It's a natural beside a rich, chocolatey coffee — fitting, given the maker's roots — and it pairs beautifully with an aged rum, a tawny port, or a glass of stout that echoes the molasses. For food, walnuts, dates or a slice of aged cheese all sit comfortably alongside it. And because it has no added stabilisers, keep it below 18°C so the temper stays true.
Summary
The El Vado 70% is single-origin done with honesty and heart: two ingredients, cacao from one named smallholder community in Chiapas, hand-tempered in Chicago by a maker that grew out of great coffee. Dried fruit, nuts and molasses, deep and mellow, with a genuine sense of the people and place behind it. An easy everyday bar with an uncommonly good story.
We ship award-winning craft chocolate from our warehouse in Saint John, New Brunswick to more than fifty countries. Rates, transit times and free-shipping thresholds for every destination are below.
How We Protect Chocolate in Transit
Fine chocolate is temperature-sensitive by nature. We pack according to the forecast along the actual route, not the season on the calendar.
25–30°C (77–86°F) — insulated packaging
30–35°C (86–95°F) — double insulation with an ice pack
35–40°C (95–104°F) — double insulation with ice packs
Above 40°C (104°F) — the shipment may be held until conditions improve
We ship Monday to Thursday so nothing sits in a weekend warehouse, and a business delivery address gives chocolate a better chance than a doorstep in August. These measures reduce risk substantially. They do not eliminate it — in sustained heat, softening can still occur in transit.
Estimated Delivery Times
Every timeframe shown in the table, at checkout, or in a shipping confirmation is an estimate. Actual transit varies with destination, customs clearance and carrier operations, and peak periods and public holidays in either country affect it further. We dispatch promptly, but once a parcel is with the carrier we have little control over its progress, and we can't guarantee a delivery date.
Customs and Duties
Duties, import taxes and local handling fees are set by the destination country and are the responsibility of the recipient. They are not included in our shipping charge. Where a destination has a specific requirement, it's noted alongside that destination's rate.
If a carrier asks you for information to complete clearance, respond promptly. Parcels held for unanswered customs queries are usually returned or destroyed, and we can't recover them.
Orders With Pre-Order Items
An order that mixes in-stock and pre-order items ships complete, once every item has arrived. This avoids a second shipping charge. The expected date for a pre-order item appears on its product page and in your order confirmation, and you'll be emailed when the full order ships.
If you want the in-stock items sooner, place two separate orders. Pre-order items can't be expedited.
Damage, Melting and Delays
We don't refund or replace orders for melting, carrier delays, or customs-related outcomes. Our pricing reflects the protective packaging included in every order rather than a margin held back to cover weather.
If something arrives genuinely damaged, write to us within seven days with photographs of the parcel and its contents and we'll look at it.
Delivery to Specific Countries
For country-specific details on customs, transit and local requirements, see our pages for chocolate delivery to Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore.
Don't See Your Destination?
Write to hello@hellochocolate.com and we'll quote it.
Vegan, Dairy-free
Our chocolate makers proudly refrain from using any artificial stabilizers or preservatives in their products, making their creations more temperature-sensitive compared to other premium chocolates.
To ensure the optimal taste experience, it's advisable to store our chocolates in a cool, dry place where the temperature hovers between 16°C and 18°C. Please refrain from refrigerating our chocolates, as this may cause sugar crystallization due to increased humidity, altering their texture and flavor.
On the contrary, if stored in excessively high temperatures, cocoa butter may separate and form a white film on the chocolate's surface. This loss of cocoa butter can lead to the chocolate drying out and, consequently, a potential alteration in flavor. Your mindful storage practices will help preserve the integrity of our delectable chocolates.