(SALT-FREE) Layered, eclectic. An herbaceous, earthy, intoxicating holiday cocoa, built from the juxtaposition of travel and the illumination from noticing place — rooted in Vietnam, with elsewhere folded in. An off-center interpretation of French–Vietnamese chocolate shaped by witnessing spice foragers in northern Vietnam and by knowing the fuller, complicated backstory of Vietnam’s cocoa history —the occupation, extraction, and abandonment narrative. This mix hones in on the exquisite flavor of Vietnamese spice culture, not European taste. It carries the perfect amount of lingering bitterness, representing colonial system collapse and the farmers who carry the long tail of risk and loss. This blend leans into that idea of challenge, possibility and collaboration. At its core: two converging forces — My Herbal Roots’ creative spirit; spent cinnamon basil blooms, wintered, toasted, pie spiced, juxtaposed by Vietnamese cocoa and spices foraged from Hmong highlands. One side (including the French influence) cultivated, gratuitous, elitist, the other wild, shaped by altitude, isolation, lived necessity — guided by ingenuity and intimate botanical knowledge and perseverance. The wild Vietnamese botanicals bewilder and intoxicate. Prickly ash brightens with citrusy resin. White michelia brings soft floral. Cubeb pepper lifts with lemongrass-pine. Licorice root sweet-earthy, bitterness. A few others remain an enigma, but they belonged, so in they were folded the way travelers and locals quietly and eventually merge. Earthy dried winter herbs are pulverized with orange zest and vanilla into rich, sweet-spicy Vietnamese cocoa made in France by famed Chocolaterie A. Morin with ethically sourced cocoa beans grown in Vietnams Ben Tre region. Bitter Hanoi dark roast coffee adds zing. Brew this cocoa directly into your coffee. Flavor egg coffee and sabayon desserts, cakes, cookies— anything rich and decadent. Vietnamese brownies?