Raaka Virgin Chocolate

Brooklyn, New York

Ryan Cheney was introduced to chocolate making at a yoga school on a beautiful island in Thailand, where he was excited by the flavors of unroasted cocoa beans. Inspired by companies with social missions, he founded Raaka to explore low-temperature chocolate making and create a more equitable global society in which communities have opportunity to improve their quality of life.

After spending a year learning bean-to-bar chocolate making, Ryan teamed up with Nate Hodge, a musician and gastronomist with a lust for exotic flavors and groundbreaking processes. For several months, Nate and Ryan enjoyed the sound of micro-batch chocolate grinders churning around the clock as they developed a new approach to chocolate making.

fair trade commitment

We use organic ingredients whenever possible and fair-trade sugar certified by Fair Trade USA. We currently purchase cocoa beans that have been directly traded with Maya Mountain Cacaoin Belize, Akesson's Organic Farm in Madagascar, OKO Caribe in the Dominican Republic, and CIAAB (a co-op in Bolivia, featured in our award-winning Bourbon bar). The cocoa farmers from whom we purchase cocoa beans receive at minimum $500 above market price per metric ton of cacao beans. At today’s cocoa prices, this is equivalent to a 20% raise.