chocolate with geoseph

Here at Chocolate With Geoseph, the tastings and many of the classes focus on chocolate makers. Also known as bean-to-bar chocolate makers. More specifically, what many call “craft” or “fine” bean-to-bar chocolate makers. This is very different from a chocolatier (AKA chocolate melters), which most people who work with chocolate are. I worked many years as a chocolatier myself, but after getting more involved with fine chocolate, I became more interested in bean-to-bar chocolate making.

In short, a chocolate maker makes the actual chocolate from the cocoa bean to chocolate (AKA bean-to-bar). Making chocolate from scratch used to be reserved for large or enormous sized manufacturers. However, today you are seeing a niche of small-scale artisan chocolate makers popping up around the world. These bean-to-bar chocolate makers have full control over the flavour process of chocolate making from the raw cocoa bean to the final product: chocolate.

Chocolatiers do not make the actual chocolate from the bean. They take chocolate made, usually from a large chocolate manufacturer, melt it down, and shape it into bars and figures or turn it into confections such as truffles, bonbons, and so on. Even the most famous chocolate shop in Paris, London, or New York do not make chocolate from the cocoa beans. They are chocolatiers. They make chocolates (filled bonbons, pralines, figurines), but not the chocolate itself. Chances are, unless it was obvious to you, all the chocolate shops you ever visited were most likely chocolatiers, not chocolate makers.

Today’s bean-to-bar chocolate makers are usually very small-scale, like your local artisan baker who makes everything from scratch (but in this case, it would be like the baker actually also milling their own grain!). It’s also similar to a specialty coffee roaster who sources fine coffee beans and has the knowledge of how to roast them properly for optimum flavour. A true fine chocolate maker sources rare verities of cacao, roasts them properly, and refines them in a way that allows them to taste very different that the chocolate you are used to. This is what I focus on here at Chocolate With Geoseph, and especially at my other website Bean To Bar World.

Making chocolate from scratch is an art, and a craft, much like being a master baker or chef, a guilder, a textile artist, and so forth. There are certain stills and qualities of product that cannot be reproduced in mass by machines. Quality craftsmanship is also tied to human cultures, family and cultural traditions, purpose in life, quality of life, and so much more. Chocolate is my area of expertise when it comes to quality craftsmanship, but like many skills and crafts, they are being replaced by mass production void of anything other than immediate satisfaction. Understanding the craft of fine chocolate is for those who appreciate and understand the importance of maintaining quality craftsmanship regardless of the industry.

What is unique about chocolate from a bean-to-bar chocolate maker?

If you would like to learn about what the differences are between craft fine bean-to-bar chocolate, and the chocolate you can buy at the grocery store or local chocolate shop, think of booking a tasting with your own professional chocolate sommelier!

Why is the chocolate you sell cost so much more than other chocolate?

The chocolate a chocolatier uses to melt down and make confections or mold into their own bars or shapes is made from what is called “bulk cacao”, which not only tastes different from fine cacao, but costs much less. Bulk cacao is purchased by industrial chocolate makers at a range of prices, but for simplicity sake it would be purchased at about $2 per kilo, maybe $3 or a bit more for Fairtrade certified bulk cacao.

The fine cacao that is used to make the chocolate sold here or used in my tastings costs as little as $6 per kilo but as much as $12 or more for some makers and some cacao origins. A few reasons why the cacao cost so much more is due to the quality of bean being much higher quality, it costs more (money and time) for cacao growers to grow this cacao, and most of this fine cacao is purchased at fair prices that exceed Fairtrade certified bulk cacao. Add onto it that these bean-to-bar chocolate makers have to process the cocoa beans and make the actual chocolate before using it, where a chocolatier gets to bypass this stage. Therefore, there is a great deal of labour costs in making the actual chocolate. As well, compared to chocolate makers like Cadbury, Hershey, Lindt, or Callebaut for instance, these fine chocolate makers are very small-scale, so economies of scale comes into play as well. Many (but not all) of the reasons why fine chocolate made by an actual bean-to-bar chocolate maker costs so much more.

Why is learning about fine chocolate makers important?

For about the past century or so, chocolate has become a food enjoyed on every continent. However, it has been pumped out by enormous multinational companies who use more-or-less the same variety of cacao, and produced (to slightly varied degrees) the same type of chocolate. They have set the stage for what chocolate should taste like. And all of us grew up on the chocolate these companies made. They dictated what the flavour should be. A delicious flavour of course, but very predictable. Not too interesting, but not too bland. A food to appease the masses.

Fine chocolate and learning about makers of fine chocolate promotes a few things. It promotes the craft and art of artisan chocolate making. It promotes rare varieties of cacao that are being replaced around the world by bulk commercial grade cacao. The rare varieties produce seeds with very unique and interesting flavours. If you appreciate chocolate made from fine cacao, you are helping to support the makers who purchase it, the cacao growers who grow it, and you help sustain the genetic diversity of cacao around the world.

Fine chocolate is not for everyone, but for those who appreciate it, a difference is being made in the world. It encourages creative entrepreneurs who want to create a food that not only satisfies your stomach, but satisfies your mind as well. It allows them to exercise and preserve their craft, and offers them purpose and control over their livelihoods. It encourages the farmers to continue to grow the more challenging rare varieties of cacao, and gives them pride to know the cacao they grow and harvest is being appreciated for what it is. It sustains fair-trade relationships between these cacao growers and the bean-to-bar makers who pay them a better price for their higher quality cacao. It allows the preservation of varieties of cacao that are being wiped out due to a “profit” first mindset associated with large multinational chocolate corporations. And these are just a few of the reasons why those who appreciate fine chocolate continue to support it.