World's Most Expensive Pure Dark Chocolate

[chandoo]

To'ak bar is the most expensive pure dark chocolate in the world without any fancy stuff like gold leaves or diamonds in it to increase its value. 95 percent of the world's chocolate is made from mass-produced beans, whereas they use rare cacao seeds harvested from the coast of Ecuador. These seeds are fermented and converted into liquid chocolate, which is then hand-moulded into bars. Each bar contains 81 percent cacao, and requires 36 different steps to create. Finally, a single, hand-selected, hand-measured, shelled cacao bean is placed in the center. The bean, measuring between 7 and 8 mm, has to fit perfectly. The $260 To'ak bar is presented in a numbered box made of Spanish elm, which is the same wood used to ferment the cacao beans. Apart from the chocolate, the box contains a pair of special wooden tongs used to pick up the bar, so that the oil from the fingertips doesn't alter its taste. Given that the production unit is so small, there were only 574 bars available for purchase last year.