Eating Askinosie chocolate makes you feel good. This should be obvious, right? Not just for the great flavors, the satisfaction this gives is apparent when it hits your tongue, but also for their story and the way they do business.

Askinosie is a small-batch chocolate maker from Springfield, Missouri. Shawn Askinosie was a criminal defence lawyer who, in 2005, decided to make chocolate from scratch. Since then he's used his legal skills to leave no stone unturned,asking questions and doing everything to find answers, including an apprenticeship in Ecuador, to be a good chocolate maker. All their chocolate is made from single-origin beans, and made without vanilla or lecithin, to let the terroir of the cacao shine through. They press their own cocoa butter, the only small-batch maker in the US to do so.

Askinosie sources all their beans direct from small farmers. Their packaging has a photo of the farmer and this direct relationship means transparency and traceability. They pay above fair trade prices, but what really stands out about Askinosie is that they share 10% of net profits directly with these farmers. They are assured of quality because it is linked with profits; better post harvest techniques equals better taste, better selling chocolate and more for the farmer. Wow. Now that's a partnership.

So when you look at the package, think of this... this farmer is directly benefiting from this purchase through profit sharing. The package itself is natural, unbleached, compostable, biodegradable, and just plain cool. The chocolate inside has just two ingredients, cocoa beans and pure cane sugar, was passionately made in small-batches in the US, and best of all tastes great. What's not to like?

We've got 3 Askinosie bars in the store... 1. Socunosco 75%, 2. Socunosco 58% Dark Milk with Fleur de Sal, both from Mexico, and 3. San Jose del Tambo 70% from Ecuador. Each bar is $7.50. Give it as a Valentine's gift and make everyone feel good. Stop by the store to pick one up.