FIG Tree
Bean to Bar
Chocolate

At The FIG Tree we make and sell ethically sourced, handmade bean bar chocolate. We pride ourselves on using fair trade ingredients and cocoa beans sourced directly from farmers in New Koforidua, Ghana, the first Fair Trade Town in Africa. Our chocolate comes in six core flavours: Milk, Milk Orange, Dark, Dark Mint, Oat Milk, and White Oat Milk, with seasonal delights added throughout the year. You can purchase our chocolate at Single Step, 78A Penny Street, Lancaster, and at various stalls, or directly from us at The FIG Tree.

"Nine out of ten people like chocolate.

The tenth person always lies"

John G. Tullius

The FIG Tree Bean to Bar Chocolate Tasting Notes

All our chocolate is conched for 72 hours to give our signature smooth mouthfeel.

DARK (Vegan friendly)

FIG Tree dark chocolate contains 75% cocoa solids giving it a strong citrusy, vegetal, oaky flavour combined with redberries.

DARK MINT (Vegan friendly)

FIG Tree dark chocolate flavoured with pure fairly traded Holy Llama spearmint essence. The robust garden mint flavour complements the strength of the 75% dark chocolate.

DARK MILK

FIG Tree milk chocolate contains a generous 50% cocoa solids so is best referred to as a rich dark milk chocolate rather than the everyday milk chocolate familiar to most. In addition to the oak and redberries the Ghanaian cocoa beans provide an earthy taste of truffles known to chocolatiers as umami. Umami or savoury taste, is one of the five basic tastes (together with sweetness, sourness, bitterness, and saltiness) that can be detected by taste receptors on the tongue.

MILK ORANGE

The FIG Tree rich dark milk chocolate stands up to the acidity of the pure fairly traded Holy Llama orange essence.

As prepared by expert chocolatier David Greenwood-Haigh of Coeur de Xocolat Ltd

"If I were a headmaster, I would get rid

of the history teacher and get a chocolate teacher instead and my pupils would study a subject

that affected all of them"

Roald Dahl

Chocolate Hunter Review of FIG Tree Dark Chocolate

FIG Tree 75% - Ghana - New Kofridua - Fair Trade

BBD Batch: 05/2026

Ingredients: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter

Cocoa content: 75%

Cocoa origin: Ghana, New Koforidua, Farmer "Frederick"

Cocoa varieties: local varieties (no more detailed information)

Evaluation

A) Appearance: aesthetic, shiny, normal brown, flawless – Score: 10/10

B) Scent: winter spices, gingerbread, fresh herbs (especially mint), racy fruit notes (plums, cherries, grapes), slightly floral-vegetable, subtly earthy, fruit fermentation – Score: 16/20

C) Taste: spicy, biscuit and creamy at first; Main part harmoniously earthy and creamy red-fruit-almond-spice character (racy-fermented fruitiness: plums, red grapes, cherries) with herbal-minty, malty-molasses and floral accents; floral-vegetal blossom honey finale; Finish herbal-grassy and molasses-earthy, medium-light roasting; Bitterness and astringency balanced-moderate – Score: 16/20

D) Aroma quality: Pleasantness, intensity and harmony are very good – Score: 20/20

E) Aftertaste: pleasant, clean and comparatively mild; bitterness and astringency moderate –

Score: 10/10

F) Texture: pleasant, harmonious, melting properties very well done – Score: 10/10

G) Overall impression: I like it very much – Score: 10/10

Total score: 92/100

Conclusion: By West African standards (aromatic fine cocoa is still very rare in Ghana and the Ivory Coast for various reasons), this pure dark chocolate has a very rare taste for West African standards. surprisingly complex aroma profile with surprisingly dominant, racy fruit and herbal notes.

As far as high-quality chocolates with cocoa beans from Ghana are concerned, it is definitely one of the most interesting and complex (also fruity) in terms of taste that I have ever . Chocolates with cocoa from South America are of course often even more aromatically profound, but as Ghanaian cocoa the product is a pleasing aroma sensation.

Because in West Africa there is mostly little aromatic Amelonado cocoa, which usually tastes strong and relatively bitter - often grassy and with characteristic coconut notes, which are known, for example, from Lindt chocolates.

The aroma is probably higher quality here, because it is not a mixed mass cocoa from a huge cooperative (e.g. the products of "Fairafric" are clearly less aromatic), but specifically only cocoa from a single place, namely the city of "New Koforidua".

As a result, this transparent supply chain has an effective influence on quality through optimized selection, fermentation and drying, etc can.

In addition, the chocolates are produced in a small factory in very small batches, and particularly gently - because the degree of roasting is also here extremely light - advantageous for highlighting existing fruit aromas.

Extremely worth trying - an amazingly fruity-complex Ghana chocolate, and on top of that from transparent fair trade.

Sustainability assessment: very good overall; no negative abnormalities found.

Sebastian Kobylak

Fürth, Germany

See the whole review here: https://www.chocolate-hunter.com/2025/09/15/fig-tree-ghana-75-fair-trade-new-koforidua/