Day 16: Our own bean to bar plain chocolate

Lachua, Guatemala 80% plain chocolate

  

This is the only unflavoured chocolate in the whole calendar and as this is a reflection on our chocolate journey oer the years, I felt it was important to mark our attempts at bean to bar chocolate

This was made with cocoa beans grown by two farmer organisations in the northern area of Alta Verapaz, Lachua region, Guatemala.  Here there is a pristone cenote lake within a national park, and te farmers focus on organic and ecofriendly farming. I bought the beans from Uncommon Cacao, an organisation that sources speciality cocoa from farmers and sells to craft makers.  These beans are sourced from, as explained on their website.

Uncommon Cacao was started by CEO Emily Stone in 2010, and is one of a small handfull of ethically driven companies from which you can buy small amounts of cocoa - by which I mean one 50 or 60kg bag to a tonne.  So, not just a small pack for tasters!  Their website is full of information about where the beans are sourced from, the details of the organisation involved, farmers or cooperative.  They make every effort to be as transparent as possible about what they pay, what their staff costs are, overheads, etc.  

Sourcing and shipping cocoa is in no way straightforward, and so as a small maker it is just really not possible to source directly from growers yourself - there is local transport, language, export regulations, shipping logistics, import logistics, and so on.  All increasing complex for so many reasons.  As I found when I tried to source cocoa direct from Indonesia, I could find a shipper for a small mount of beans, but no organisation with an export license (legally required) would deal with anything less than a container load of cocoa.

So, to enable me to learn more about the process, I invested in this large sack, and when I have spare time, I work with 2 or 3 kgs, roasting them in my little Behmor coffee roaster - trying to understand and master the art of roasting beans.  Then crack the roasted beans, winnow off the shell (with a hairdryer, that magic tool again!), and grind the beans in the table top grinder.  The process runs over 4 or 5 days, but it is the roasting stage that needs most attention and care.  Nudging out the flavours you want from the beans will be affected by a degree or two, a minute or two more or less.  There is much to learn.

Indeed, when you taste this chocolate, I won't be offended if you think 'she has a long way to go!'.  I know I do, and actually one of the things I am looking forward to about being retired from making and selling, is having the time to really focos on learning this craft.