Rich Dark Chocolate for the Rich? This Chocolate Bar Sells for $260

Could you split a chocolate bar with four to six of your best friends? You might if that chocolate bar cost $260 and came with a 116-page “how to eat this” guidebook.

The most delectable and rare dark chocolate on the planet can be found through Jerry Toth, a boutique chocolatier in Chicago who gathers his cacao beans from rare Fino y de Aroma trees in a remote Ecuadorian jungle.

A co-founder of To’ak Chocolate, Toth recently held a tasting to introduce his first batch of 574 dark chocolate bars, according to DNAinfo Chicago.

Toth believes his exclusive dark chocolates will find a place, alongside fine wine and bourbon, on the palates of connoisseurs who appreciate the combination of expensive and delicious.

A Wicker Park resident who grew up in Winnetka and worked as a Wall Street investment banker at Solomon Smith Barney before moving to Ecuador in 2002 to find a new way of life, Toth partnered with a local investor, Carl Schweizer, and 14 cacao farmers to start this company.

“At best, we’re hoping to make a living doing something that we love. I don’t think I’ll ever make enough to be able to buy chocolate like this for myself,” Toth said.

The most expensive chocolate piece in the world is reportedly the $250 custom-made chocolate truffle made by Knipschildt Chocolatier in Denmark. Their chocolate costs $2,600 a pound.

To’ak’s chocolate bars — packaged in an engraved, hardwood box — are meant to be divided into tiny pieces and dissolved on the tongue. And each box comes with tweezers made of Spanish elm so your grubby fingers do not spoil the taste of his pristine dark chocolate. The 116-page booklet tells the story of To’ak cacao beans and offers instructions for eating your chocolate.

In five years, Toth told DNAinfo, “dark chocolate tasting will be something that people in the U.S. do. ... In 10 years, I worry it’ll be even a saturated market.”

In Chicago, you can find To’ak chocolate bars exclusively at Lush Wine and Spirits: 1257 S. Halsted St., 1412 W. Chicago Ave. and 2232 W. Roscoe St. Or order them online at toakchocolate.com.

» learn more about the chocolate-making process via DNAinfo Chicago, and check out what the skeptics say in their comments section

» the 10 most expensive chocolates in the world.