The Product
Spring & Mulberry, the date-sweetened dark chocolate brand founded in 2022, is adding Salted Almond to its lineup — a 72% cacao bar studded with whole roasted almonds and finished with sea salt, sweetened exclusively with dates and carrying an MSRP of $9.99. The SKU is live now on the brand's direct-to-consumer site, with retail placement described as forthcoming.
The launch arrives alongside a brand campaign the company is calling "Timeless Good Taste," a positioning move that leans away from trend-chasing in favor of familiar flavor architecture. Co-Founder Kathryn Shah framed the bar as an exercise in refinement rather than novelty: "We weren't chasing a trend with this bar. We wanted to honor a pairing people already treasure and make it the way we believe chocolate should be made, sweetened only with dates."
Segment Context
The better-for-you confectionery segment has seen sustained operator and buyer interest in reduced-sugar and whole-food-sweetened formats as consumers increasingly scrutinize ingredient lists across both retail and foodservice channels. Date-sweetened and monk-fruit-sweetened bars have carved out shelf space in natural grocery and specialty retail, with brands positioning no-added-sugar claims as a functional differentiator rather than a niche attribute. Spring & Mulberry's price point — $9.99 per bar — keeps it in the premium-specialty tier, competing with craft chocolate labels rather than mass-market confectionery.
For foodservice buyers and specialty retail operators, the almond-salt-dark-chocolate combination is one of the most proven flavor profiles in the category, reducing adoption risk for buyers wary of experimental SKUs. The whole-food-sweetener angle adds a clean-label hook that aligns with growing menu and shelf labeling demands across segments from hotel amenity programs to café retail sets.
What's Next
Salted Almond joins an existing portfolio of nut-forward and ingredient-layered dark chocolate bars, broadening everyday flavor coverage for the brand ahead of what is typically the category's highest-volume selling season. Retail distribution details have not been disclosed, but the DTC launch provides early read-through on consumer demand before wholesale channel placement is confirmed. For specialty buyers evaluating the SKU, the no-refined-sugar positioning and simple ingredient deck are likely to be the primary decision drivers.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
