"Peppers and chocolate make a good pair," says grower and pepper enthusiast, Bobby of Jah Works Farm in Asheville. Both possess euphoric qualities, boost energy, and lend themselves to tasting with discernment: relishing the layers of flavors that reveal themselves slowly, and differ slightly on everyone’s tongue. Scorpion peppers are among the most piquant in the world, with more than 1.2 million Scoville heat units. Aside from the heat, The Scorpion offers a tender fruit flavor, which makes it the perfect pepper to pair with a fruit-forward cacao blend.

This chocolate isn’t a badge-of-honor experience meant to burn you from the inside out; our use of The Scorpion is judicious. We taste the fruit notes of both the pepper and the cacao.