For the Heart of Darkness chocolate from Marou Faiseurs De Chocolat, X marks the spot. This gorgeous bar of chocolate, which pairs up perfectly with Treasure Island chocolate, feels like a mysterious journey as you look at its map-inspired label. Rice Creative’s design is thorough and exciting, using inspiration from the location where these single origin chocolate bars are made.
“Tan Phu Dong, a tropical river island in Southern Vietnam, is the origin of some of the most precious cacao on the planet. Marou Faiseurs De Chocolat have discovered the rare and fleeting supply, making two new and perpetually limited Chocolate bars from it. First came ‘Treasure Island,’ a popular 75% cacao bar. Going a bit darker and maintaining the literary titling, Marou created ‘Heart of Darkness,’ the 85% cacao version.”
“Complete with an introduction written by celebrated author, Lawrence Osbourne, the ‘Heart of Darkness’ package gives one a deeper, darker view of its predecessor. The terrain of the old topographical map is laid down on heavy black paper in a specially mixed silver and black screen printing ink. A hidden golden bat, a Vietnamese symbol of prosperity, hangs auspiciously in the folds of the wrapper. The chocolate has gone on to become ‘World Champion’ at the International Chocolate Awards in 2015. We sincerely hope you can catch one for yourself.”
The dark, almost ominous packaging makes Heart of Darkness feel secretive and enigmatic. Unwrapping the packaging, which looks like a map, feels like uncovering the buried treasure marked by the X on the front. An extremely stylized, handwritten font on the front looks like a personal message from the person who buried the treasure, and combined Osbourne’s text on the back it makes Heart of Darkness an amazingly unique bar of chocolate.
“A bit more on the bat: This bat has been inspired by traditional carvings found on Vietnamese architecture. The bat has played a significant role in Vietnam’s traditional arts and culture. The Sino-Vietnamese word for bat, ‘Fu’ sounds identical to the word Phúc (good fortune) making the bat a symbol of happiness and joy. The bat is shown flying upside down, meaning ‘happiness has arrived.’ Also, ‘a bat descending from the sky’ sounds exactly like ‘happiness descends from heaven.’ We found this a well-suited symbol for a truly heavenly chocolate.”
Designed by Rice Creative
Country: Vietnam
