The Best Clean Dark Chocolate: Cacao, Honey, Microgreens, and Sea Salt
Introduction – what we mean by “clean” dark chocolate
If you love dark chocolate, you’ve probably had this moment: you flip over the package to read the label, and wonder, “Is this even chocolate?” as you look at the list of ingredients. Between long ingredient lists, confusing certifications, and recent headlines about heavy metals, it can be hard to know what to trust.
At Back Mountain Microgreens, we wanted to craft a dark chocolate that lined up with what we want: real food, simple ingredients, and honest information. For us, clean dark chocolate means:
- A very short ingredient list that's recognizable and easy to pronounce.
- Ingredients that are not chemically processed.
- Transparent ingredient sourcing.
- A mineral profile we can see for ourselves.
Our Batch No. 1 Dark Chocolate Leaflets are our first expression of that commitment.
A quick primer on chocolate types
Before we zoom in on our foundation recipe (the one we use to make Batch No. 1), it helps to understand what people mean when they use specific words to describe chocolate, and even more so what we mean when we say dark chocolate:
- White chocolate is mostly cocoa butter, sugar, and milk solids. It’s sweet and creamy, but doesn’t contain the cacao solids where most antioxidants live.
- Milk chocolate blends cacao solids with sugar and milk powder. It’s smooth and familiar, but usually has more sugar and less cacao.
- Dark chocolate leans into higher cacao percentages. That’s where you find the well-known antioxidants, polyphenols, and magnesium that people talk about when they say dark chocolate can be a more nutrient-dense choice as opposed to other kinds of chocolate.
We created our dark chocolate for people who want that deeper cacao flavor and it's potential nutritional benefits—and who care a great deal about the ingredients inside each piece they consume.
Heavy metals and radical transparency
In 2022, Consumer Reports raised understandable concerns about heavy metals like lead and cadmium in chocolate. Those headlines made a lot of people stop and ask harder questions about what’s really in the chocolate they enjoy.
Instead of pretending those questions don’t exist, we're going a different route altogether: we tested our Leaflets and share the numbers.
For our Batch No. 1 Leaflets (14 g serving size), third-party lab testing measured:
- Cadmium: 0.941 ppm (w/w)
- Lead: 0.13 ppm (w/w)
We’re not here to offer medical advice or tell you what your personal limits should be. What we are committed to is honesty and transparency. Heavy metals show up in many foods because they occur in soil and the broader environment. Rather than hiding that reality, we:
- Work closely with our Ecuadorian cacao supplier, whom we know by name.
- Share our mineral profile so you can make informed choices about how often to enjoy.
- Continue paying attention to evolving guidance and research.
If you’ve been feeling uneasy about “mystery chocolate,” our hope is that seeing real numbers and real sourcing details helps you feel more confident about what you're getting.
Meet the 5 clean ingredients
Our dark chocolate is intentionally simple. Every Leaflet is made from just five ingredients:
- Cacao Paste – The foundation of our recipe—ground cacao nibs. This is the deep chocolate flavor and cacao solids that contain the antioxidants and polyphenols everyone crave.
- Locally Sourced, Raw Honey – A neighbor of ours, the Beekeeper's Daughter, gently sweetens our recipe with real-food instead of refined sugar or syrups.
- Cacao Butter – Cuts the bitterness of the cacao paste, and adds that silky, melt-in-your-mouth kind of texture.
- In-House Broccoli Microgreen Powder – Our signature twist! These microgreens are grown and processed by us, then added in a quantity that carries forward many of the nutritional benefits of broccoli while maintaining the rich chocolatey flavor chocolate-lovers expect (read this as—our Leaflets taste like chocolate, not broccoli).
- Natural Sea Salt – A small, intentional pinch that wakes up the flavors and keeps the ingredient list grounded with this time tested pantry staple.
For us, “clean” means non-chemically processed, real-food based ingredients that we can describe in plain language. No mystery flavors. No unpronounceable stabilizers.
Macros, satisfaction, and savoring your chocolate
A single Batch No. 1 Leaflet (14 g serving) comes in at approximately:
- 6 g fat
- 5 g carbohydrates
- 1 g protein
These macros are in line with other well-respected dark chocolate brands—but there’s a key difference in how we invite you to enjoy them.
Because of the higher cacao content and the healthy fat from cacao butter, most people find that just a few bites feels surprisingly satisfying.
Instead of mindlessly working through a whole bag, you’re more likely to:
- Be content with one or two Leaflets at a time.
- Relax and enjoy each individual piece of chocolate for a while.
- Let the chocolate actually melt in your mouth so can taste it before it goes down the hatch.
That kind of slow, intentional enjoyment can be one small but meaningful way to shift from numbing ourselves with sweets to nourishing our bodies with treats that fit into an overall healthy lifestyle.
Treats that match our values
Running a small business often has Luke and I talking about management. That's the right word for business, but for life outside of work, a better word is stewardship.
We talk a lot about stewardship... how we want to be good stewards of our health.
We try... but just like with management... we don't always get it right!
Anywho... our dark chocolate is one piece of that stewardship journey:
- We chose real, minimally processed ingredients.
- We shared the Batch No. 1 lab results.
- We aimed for something special—something to savor—not just inhale.
We think life without treats would be boring, so we made treats we don't need to feel guilty about enjoying.
Our hope is that Leaflets help you enjoy chocolate in a way that lines up with how you choose to steward your health.
How to enjoy and share
If you’re ready to experience the absolute best, clean-ingredient Dark Chocolate for yourself, here are a few ideas:
- Try a Leaflet: Start with one or two Leaflets after dinner and notice how you feel when you slow down and really taste each bite.
- Pair them thoughtfully: Enjoy just one leaflet with a cup of coffee or tea, fresh berries, or a small cheese board. Sort of an at-home “tasting” moment.
- Share your story: If you know someone who loves dark chocolate but feels uneasy about what’s in it, invite them to try a Leaflet and share why our ingredient list and lab transparency matter to you.
