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WBM april 2018
VIEW BEAN-TO-BAR CHOCOLATE
as a part of a whole artisan approach to
food,” she says. “It’s making a distinc-tive
product, with the discernment of
a human mind and human hands. If I
buy something labeled artisan, I expect a
certain level of quality and integrity in the ingredients and
care in the process. It’s the opposite of industrial, mass-produced,
overly processed food. It’s got more heart.”
Rattigan believes the people who become connoisseurs of
bean-to-bar chocolate are people who care about the source
of their food.
“Chocolate passes through so many hands, from the
farmers who plant and harvest it, to the people who fer-ment
and dry it, export it, and that’s all before it enters the
maker’s hands,” she says. “We try and tell the story of our
chocolate, which includes our own story, but also the story
of those amazing partnerships with cacao farmers. It’s all
about human connection.”
OR Brent Peters of Black Mountain Chocolate in Winston-
Salem, the appeal of starting a bean-to-bar business was all
about the craft.
“My business training is as a lawyer,” he says. “Lawyering is a
thinking job that happens mostly in the head. With chocolate, I get
to work with my hands and even eat the fruits of my labor. I define
craft as applying individual skill, art and love to create something
useful. Automation, technology and mass production have their
place in modern society, but we need to cling to craft as an antidote.
Like the quote by John Ruskin: ‘The highest reward for a person’s
toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it.’”
Any bean-to-bar maker will say what differentiates their product
from regular chocolate comes down to three important things: the
type of cocoa beans, the source of the beans, and the process of turn-ing
the beans into chocolate. Basically, it’s all about the beans.
“Chocolate is made from the seed of a tropical fruit, the cacao
fruit,” Peters says. “Like any fruit, cacao has different varieties,
and each variety tastes slightly different from the others. Just like a
golden delicious apple tastes different than a Jonathan or a cabernet
sauvignon grape tastes different from a pinot noir grape, a Criollo
cocoa bean (and its chocolate) tastes different from any of the other
10 major varieties of cacao.”
Above, from top: Krysta Harden, United States Deputy Secretary
of Agriculture from 2013 until 2016, examines cocoa pods at
the African Cocoa Initiative farm in Ghana on Nov. 16, 2015.
Cocoa pods (also called cacao) have rough, leathery rinds that
generally turn yellow or orange when ripe. A harvested pod is
opened, showing the beans inside.
IRENE SCOTT FOR AUSAID JOHN.U/FLIKR USDA PHOTO
ESCAZÚ ARTISAN CHOCOLATES
ESCAZÚ ARTISAN CHOCOLATES
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