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Local chocolate expert to compete in France

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Chocolate By The Bay

Stephen Durfee, pastry instructor at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America at Greystone), St. Helena, will be representing the U.S. as the “chocolate expert” on our 3-person team in the Coupe Du Monde de la Patisserie in Lyon, France in January 2013.

Dubbed “The Greatest Worldwide Competition For Pastry Professionals,” The Coupe Du Monde de la Patisserie, or World Cup of Pastry, has been likened to the Academy Awards. Each competing country is represented by three experts: a pastry chef, chocolate maker and an ice specialist. They are judged by a 21-member panel of pastry chefs (most with the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France, or Best Craftsman in France) on their technical, artistic and performance skills over a single day on a set number of desserts.

To earn his place on the team, Stephen had to compete against three other top U.S. pastry chefs, April 20-21 in Grand Rapids, Mich. With the given theme of communication, he designed and created three elaborate pieces with a Batman-influence. (Think “the Bat Signal.”)

If you’ve seen the movie, Kings of Pastry, this event is similar. The judges are members of the same organization and wear those distinctive collars. But the World Cup happens every year; and as the name implies, it’s a worldwide competition. The Meilleur Ouvrier de France, Pâtissier Competition on the other hand only occurs every 3 or 4 years and is focused on French chefs.

According to the CIA’s website, Stephen is a Certified Executive Pastry Chef and has worked there since 2000. Before that, he was  executive pastry chef at the Michelin-rated 3-star French Laundry. He won the 1998 James Beard Award for Pastry Chef of the Year and was named one of the 10 Best Pastry Chefs in America by Pastry Art & Design and Chocolatier in 1999.

Congrats to SFBA local, Stephen Durfee, for making it through to the final rounds. We look forward to whatever he will make to surprise, delight and impress the judges in Lyon.

 

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What century do you want your chocolate from?

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Chocolate By The Bay

I have to admit when I started reading this article in New York Magazine, I thought it was an April Fool’s joke that I was getting to a couple of weeks late. But the publish date is April 15, so I’m assuming this is for real.

In “The Twee Party,” Benjamin Wallace describes the lengths the Mast Brothers (bean-to-bar chocolaters in Brooklyn, NY) go to for authentic artisanal chocolate-making. I can’t do better than the article’s description, but it includes a hand-built schooner delivering beans from the Dominican Republic, Civil-War era beards, a blown-glass winnower, and a 30-day “resting” period for the chocolate.

These guys are so serious about what they are doing that it borders on parody. In fact, Benjamin recommends: “If you’ve ever wondered what a Christopher Guest documentary about Brooklyn artisans might look like, Google ‘Mast Brothers YouTube’.”

I guess this represents a logical conclusion to pushing your product to the limits of what small-batch, hand-crafted chocolate means, but I find it too funny to take seriously. Lucky for us in the SF Bay Area, we have some excellent bean-to-bar makers who, while holding the Mast Brothers in some esteem, are producing amazing single-origin bars without all the twee-ness describe in the article.

Single-origin splurge

Serious chocolate that tastes good is still a phenomenon to be commented on. It doesn’t need to get into artisanal one-upmanship. We like it, we eat it and share it with friends. Repeat. And one of the chocolate makers we think is doing it right is Dandelion Chocolate, SF chocolatiers, who go to great lengths to source unique beans and develop single-origin bars that showcase those beans’ complex flavors.

Their bars are a great gift for your discerning chocolate-eating friends (and great for your daily chocolate dose). The bars are wrapped in pretty papers with info about the beans, the process, even who made the batch and wrapped the bar.

You can sometimes order the bars online, but often you have to get out and track them down. They are available in a couple of local farmers markets and some retail shops. (I just found out that my nearby Pasta Shop is carrying them!) When their chocolate cafe and factory opens in the Mission later this year, it will be much easier to “source your own” Dandelion Chocolate.

And no waiting for the slow boat from somewhere equatorial to come in.

 

Posted in American chocolate, Chocolate around the World, Local chocolatiers, Outside the Bay Area, San Francisco chocolate | Leave a comment

Mad for plaid

Posted on April 13, 2012 by chocolatte

While Scottish cuisine is widely mocked, perhaps summed up best by the Saturday Night Live skit, All Things Scottish (“All of Scottish cuisine is based on a dare!”), I hope they get their chocolate right.

The Moniaive Chocolatiers are advertising “The World’s First Tartan Chocolate.” Organic and Fairly Traded, it’s made in their shop in southern Scotland and available online.

Taste o’ Tartan bars are hand-painted with purple and green glitter, then drizzled with chocolate stripes approximating a tartan (AKA plaid) used by the Scottish Parliament, according to the Dumfries & Galloway Standard. They are available at the Parliament’s gift shop in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The article predicts they will make the perfect Scottish souvenir. I have to agree since all I ever seem to get from relatives’ trips to the homeland are ugly brooches of our family crest. (But really, how can you possibly pretty up a dead boar’s head on a platter?) Next time somebody’s heading to Edinburgh, I’m going to request some of these!

The Moniaive Chocolatiers also offer Tiny Tartans, chocolate disks with simpler tartan designs, and their site announces After Dark Tartans (mint chocolate disks) coming soon.

No mention though of custom plaids to match family tartans or molds of family crests. That’s probably for the best.

 

Posted in Chocolate around the World, Outside the Bay Area | 1 Comment

Chocolate 3-D printer

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Chocolate By The Bay

Launched the day after Easter by Choc Edge Limited in the UK is the world’s first 3-D chocolate printer. Instead of being limited to commercial molds or having custom molds made, you can use software to sketch your 3-D design, and the Choc Creator printer will reproduce your design in chocolate.

Choc Edge is interested in having people “co-creating” their own chocolates with whoever has one of these machines. As such, the machine doesn’t seem intended for mass production. It makes chocolates one at a time using a syringe-like apparatus that pumps a thin even stream of chocolate and creates the bonbons in layers.

From the videos on their website, it looks like a slow process.

According to Tecca, Choc Creator Version 1 is available for purchase: $4,600 plus shipping from the UK.

 

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Ready for your close-up in chocolate?

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Chocolate By The Bay

Here’s something for any of our readers who dream of becoming chocolatiers themselves:

MysticArt Pictures is looking to cast someone like you in the upcoming USA Network reality series, “The Moment.”

The show will focus on “personal reinvention and life transformation” and is scheduled to air this summer. Each week will highlight a different person working to achieve a life’s dream that was delayed, and one such person they are looking for is one who is looking for a second chance to be a chocolatier.

The show is scheduled to air this summer, so apply now for the chance to re-live your dream. Details are available on MysticArt Pictures’ website.

 

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Eat chocolate & lose weight

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Chocolate By The Bay

This is a good day in medical research: According to a just-published paper by researchers at the University of California in San Diego, people who ate more chocolate than average weighed less than others who exercised the same and ate the same number of calories, but less chocolate.

Calories are not all equal, according to the research. Even better, it seems that chocolate calories are better than other calories.

The results come from a survey of over 1000 people, age range of 20s-80s, who were generally healthy (no diabetes, heart disease, etc.). Participants were asked about their food intake and had their BMI (body mass index) measured.

The average times people in the survey ate chocolate was 2x a week. Those who ate chocolate more often were more likely to have a lower BMI than those who ate it less often, even though they exercised the same amount and ate the same amount of calories.

Results showed that participants who ate chocolate five times a week weighed 5-7 pounds less than those of equal height who didn’t eat any chocolate.

Details of the research includes various caveats, such as that the food survey was self-reported and did not include amounts of chocolate eaten, only frequency. But when someone is announcing that chocolate calories have magic slimming powers, who cares about the details?

 

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Lots of love at SF’s Chocolate Salon

Posted on March 13, 2012 by chocolatte

As always, this year’s SF International Chocolate Salon (3/4/12) had more local chocolate than I could ever hope to sample in an afternoon. Newcomers and old favs put out such a great variety that I almost didn’t miss other favorite chocolatiers who weren’t exhibiting this year.

New locals I visited at this year’s show were Dandelion Chocolate, COCOA, and Sixth Course Artisan Confections. And with my fellow CBTB chocolateers, I tried as much interesting chocolate as I could.

Chocolate to look forward to

Dandelion Chocolate is an SF bean-to-bar maker whom we met at their recent Chocolate Tasting 101 at SF’s 18 Reasons. They had 3 single-origin bars at the show: Columbian, Madagascan, and Venezuelan.

We’d tasted the first 2 at the 18 Reasons event, but Todd of Dandelion was excited about the Venezuelan bar. The beans are from a new area for them: a little village, Ocumare, in northern Venezuela. Todd explained that the beans have a distinct flavor: “I taste cinnamon,” he said.

We got the hint of cinnamon and liked the texture of this bar, but it has a bit of an acerbic bite to it — it dried out our mouths a little. But it’s not a bad bar, it’s so dark and bittersweet that half a square would take care of any chocolate craving you’re having.

They will also be offering a Bolivian bar soon, and due to popular demand, they are giving their Chocolate 101 presentation once a month at their current space. Check their website for dates and also for updates on when they move into their new chocolate café and factory. Todd said they have 2 steps left to finish in the 10-step permitting process and have to start paying rent in 4-5 months so they are very motivated to get it done.

Todd also recommended we check out COCOA, who work out of the same building as Dandelion, along with fellow show vendor, Kika’s Treats, and local icon, Recchiuti Confections.

Chocolate brings people together

This spirit of fellow chocolatiers sharing and helping each other seemed to be one of the themes this year. We also spotted Her Coconess Shelly Seward helping out at Neo Cocoa’s booth. Turns out Shelly and Christine Doerr (Neo Cocoa) share a commercial kitchen space. And we ran into Anni Golding of Gateau et Ganache on the show floor. She wasn’t exhibiting this year; instead she came to see what the show is like for us attendees and to show support for her fellow chocolatiers.

Friends and family were also part of the support network of many chocolatiers at the show from (Vice Chocolates) I-Li Chang’s childhood friend pitching their Lush Collection of wine and beer flavored chocolates (“These are so good they make me want to punch myself in the face.”) to (Coco Tutti) Elyce Zahn’s calm, quiet husband filling custom orders all day long (the perfect Yin to Elyce’s high-energy Yang) to self-described “Helpful Husband” Erin of new exhibitor COCOA’s Jewel.

Amazing chocolate

Jewel started COCOA in 2009, and although this is their first show, their products are available across the country at Dean & Deluca, and locally at more places, such as Bi-Rite Market and Boulettes Larder. Their main product line is a series of single-origin flavored tiles. Erin explained their philosophy is to “add a little flavor to accent the natural flavor of the chocolate.”

To achieve that, Jewel uses mostly essential oils; for example the Bergamot tiles are 68% cocoa flavored with oil of Bergamot. The taste is very subtle. Erin suggests it’s “good with a cup of tea.”

COCOA introduced a new product line at the show: blended bars, which included a white chocolate with candied violets bar that they created for their daughter who’s too young to appreciate dark chocolate yet. As someone on the opposite of the spectrum (both age wise and chocolate wise), I was amazed by this bar.

Normally I avoid all white chocolate, but this sample was so good that I bought a bar. The white chocolate is creamy and subtly chocolate (we think that’s due to its high fat content) with the violets adding a not-too-sweet note. I can’t believe it, I like white chocolate!

We four CBTB chocolateers found the flavored chocolates by COCOA generally too subtle for our tastes. We’d taste the flavor notes in the middle, but chocolate was always the end taste; and with the dark chocolate with matcha green tea and mint, we didn’t get a matcha taste at all. It was more grassy or earthy tasting. But if you prefer a chocolate in which chocolate is definitely the dominant taste, but want something a bit more complex than straight cocoa, you should check out COCOA.

Slow good

The other new exhibitor we checked out was Sixth Course Artisan Confections. Chocolatiers Bridget and Gianina come from the restaurant world and do a lot of wholesale business. (If you go to Acquerello Restaurant, those are Sixth Course truffles on the tasting menu.)

Their focus is on local products. For example, Bridget listed St. George Spirits in Alameda, Clover Organic Farms and McClelland’s Dairy in Sonoma County, and SF’s own Guittard Chocolate as some of their suppliers.

They have 3 lines: Caramels, Wine & Spirits, and Chef’s Choice. We tried several: the Rosemary Caramel has a nice bite from the strong rosemary infusion, and the Hazelnut Praline truffle had a touch of Frangelico to temper its sweetness. We liked the very buttery Sage & Brown Butter Caramel with its aftertaste of sage. However, the Ceylon Cinnamon Caramel was a little too strong for us, verging on cinnamon candy hot-ness. Be forewarned: Sixth Course caramels are very liquid-y making for a potentially messy treat — especially when sharing one!

You can buy Sixth Course truffles and caramels at Rainbow Grocery and 24th Street Cheese Co. in SF. And after their impressive wins at their first Chocolate Salon appearance, highlighted by 8 Golds in Best in Salon, you’ll probably be seeing them in a lot more places soon. (See complete list of SFBA winners below.)

Our favorite returning champions

While we missed some old favorites (Au Coeur des Chocolats, Salt Side Down, Gateau et Ganache, Coco Delice) we were happy to see some veteran exhibitors and sample their wares.

Those characters at Socola Chocolatier did it again, adding levity to fine chocolates with their new “Inevitable Edible” truffle. Made with Death & Taxes Lager from Moonlight Brewing Company, they are launching it for Tax Day, but had it available for early filers at the show. We found that the beer taste comes on strong at first, but then smooths out, and we liked its fudge-y smooth texture.

Also new at the show were their raspberry champagne truffles and salty chewy caramels. And we got the scoop that they plan to create new telenovelas for new flavors. Catch up on their 1st series, “For the Love of Chocolate,” so you’re ready.

We were pleased to see Jade Chocolates at the show after their recent parting of ways with Leland Tea Company. While they didn’t have their flavorful truffles at the show, they did have their regular bars and new salted caramels and beautiful spicy mango orchids. And Mindy assured us that they are doing OK even with the loss of their retail space in Burlingame and will have truffles at the Christmas show. (That’s a relief!)

Neo Cocoa’s new flavors of shell-less truffles at the show included Wild Cherry, which used imported Italian Amarena cherries in 2 versions: a straightforward truffle and one layered with gourmet marshmallow. But the new Neo Cocoa truffle that I had to buy after tasting was the Espresso Mocha with marshmallow. With the marshmallow acting like the foam in a good mocha, it was like a spill-proof coffee drink.

And kudos to Christine of Neo Cocoa for being named one of 2011’s Top Ten Chocolatiers in North America by Dessert Professional Magazine.

In addition to the Lush Collection (which features Lucky, a chocolate lager flavored bonbon that even us non-beer drinkers love and other alcohol-flavored bonbons), a tea-flavored collection and the intriguingly named Concubine Collection, Vice Chocolates had their full line of bars including the award-winning fig & anise which along with Coco Tutti’s fig & walnut bonbon has me convinced that dark chocolate and fig are such an obvious combo every chocolatier should feature their own version.

We recommend another SFBA chocolatier

Speaking of Coco Tutti, the four of us just love their caramels, bonbons and truffles. Elyce had such a large variety of samples at the show, and each one was so good, I could’ve stood next to her all day eating her chocolates and come away happy from the Salon.

The selection changes depending on the season and maybe Elyce’s mood, so not everything that was at the Salon is always available. But if you ever get the chance, try the liquid ginger caramel with Thai chilies and roasted peanuts. The chocolate and caramel sweetness balance well with the hot chili/ginger bite. If you can’t get that, she also offers a ginger bonbon that she makes with fresh ginger too so it’s got that warm bite but a simplified taste palette.

Both Coco Tutti’s taste palettes and visual palettes are what draw us to these chocolates. The chocolates are not variations on each other, but instead so completely different. It’s obvious Eylce spends a lot of time in the kitchen experimenting and perfecting flavors. Visually they stand out too — like the wabi-sabi aesthetic of her hand-painted bonbons and hand-rolled truffles or the packed-with-peanuts topping of some caramels, even the pretty flower transfer used on her Jasmine bonbons — these are chocolates speak to the artist in us.

Other Coco Tutti chocolates that we enjoyed include the “Hot” Chocolate. This chipotle in adobo sauce bonbon has a smoky hot, but not too hot, flavor. The Raspberry bonbon, hand-rolled and dipped in raspberry-colored sugar, tasted like summertime. And the Cappuccino had a strong espresso flavor that seemed to make the chocolate more chocolate-y at the same time. Elyce explained her flavor mission: “I hate having a chocolate that says Cappuccino, but you can’t taste the coffee.”

I could go on and on about Coco Tutti, but suffice to say that all four of us CBTB chocolateers love these chocolates and have added Coco Tutti to our list of Recommended Local Chocolatiers. Check their website for events and stores where you can experience Coco Tutti for yourself.

SFBA chocolatiers and candy makers at the 2012 show & their awards:

• Alter Eco Fair Trade Chocolates: 4 Gold, 1 Silver, 6 Bronze in Best of Salon 1 Bronze in Attendees’ Choice
• CC Made: 3 Gold, 3 Bronze in Best of Salon
• Clarine’s Florentines: 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Bronze in Best of Salon
• COCOA: 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 2 Bronze in Best of Salon
• Coco Tutti: 2 Silver, 2 Bronze in Best of Salon; 2 Gold, 1 Silver, 3 Bronze in Attendees’ Choice
• Dandelion Chocolate:  1 Gold, 2 Silver, 3 Bronze in Best of Salon
• Guittard Chocolate Company: 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze in Best of Salon
• Jade Chocolates: 3 Gold, 3 Silver, 1 Bronze in Best of Salon
• Kika’s Treats: 2 Silver, 2 Bronze in Best of Salon
• Monterey Chocolate Company: 1 Silver, 4 Bronze in Best of Salon
• Neo Cocoa: 1 Silver, 2 Bronze in Best of Salon; 1 Bronze in Attendees’ Choice
• Nicole Lee Fine Chocolates: 1 Bronze in Best of Salon
• Saratoga Chocolates: 1 Silver, 2 Bronze in Best of Salon
• Sixth Course Artisan Confections: 8 Gold, 3 Silver, 3 Bronze in Best of Salon; 6 Gold, 1 Bronze in Attendees’ Choice
• Snake & Butterfly: 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 4 Bronze in Best of Salon
• Socola Chocolatier: 1 Gold, 6 Bronze in Best of Salon; 3 Silver, 1 Bronze in Attendees’ Choice
• The TeaRoom Chocolate Company
• Toffee Talk: 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze in Best of Salon; 1 Bronze in Attendees’ Choice
• Vice Chocolates: 1 Gold, 3 Silver, 8 Bronze in Best of Salon; 1 Bronze in Attendees’ Choice

See this year’s list of all award winners.

 

Posted in East Bay chocolate, Events, Local chocolatiers, News, Peninsula chocolate, Recommended chocolatiers, San Francisco chocolate, South Bay chocolate | Leave a comment

Chocolate at your fingertips

Posted on February 9, 2012 by chocolatte

According to SF Gate, there’s now an app that means you’ll never have to miss a chocolate buying/trying opportunity again. Pam Williams, founder of Ecole Chocolat, an online professional chocolate-making school, has created the Find Chocolate! App, which does exactly what it says.

Based on your current location, the free app shows you a list (at least if you’re in a chocolate-rich location like SFBA) of nearby chocolatiers and chocolate shops. The database currently lists over 2000 chocolate destinations worldwide, with more being added as chocolate businesses submit their info to be included.

The app is definitely an early version with gaps in the content and no way to customize or interact much with it (and distances are in meters, which makes sense in that Ecole Chocolat is Canadian, but it really messes with my American sense of distance) — but it’s about chocolate! And it immediately tells me about chocolate nearby!

There’s also an interactive chocolate map of the world on William’s website: chocomap.com. So if you’re planning a trip somewhere, you can do some research on chocolate destinations at your destination, or just check out what’s happening in other parts of the chocolate world.

This is also where you can submit your own chocolate business for inclusion on the map and in the app. I hope every chocolatier and chocolate shop gets on this and uploads their info. I would hate to overlook anybody in my quest to become a chocolate maven.

 

Posted in Chocolate around the World, Local chocolatiers, News, Outside the Bay Area | Leave a comment

Some SFBA chocolatiers recognized as best in America

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Chocolate By The Bay

Congratulations to local chocolatiers, CocoTutti and The Tea Room Chocolates, for being named 2012 Grand Master Chocolatiers by TasteTV, sponsors of the popular SF International and Napa Luxury Chocolate Salons.  This is the 1st year CocoTutti and The Tea Room were named Grand Masters. Last year, they both won Excellence awards.

The International Chocolate Salon Awards for the Best Chocolatiers and Confectioners in America are based on the combined total number of Gold and Silver Awards received by each entrant in the 2011 TasteTV Chocolate Salons.

Other local 2012 Best Chocolatiers and Confectioners in America named by TasteTV include some perennial favorites and a CBTB Recommended Chocolatier:

Master Award Winners

• Jade Chocolates
• Kollar Chocolates
• Monterey Chocolate Company
• Nicole Lee Fine Chocolates
• Toffee Talk

Of the Master Award winners, only Jade is a returning champ. The other four winners are new to the list.

Excellence Awards Winners

• Alter Eco
• AMELLA
• Au Coeur Des Chocolats
• Clarine’s Florentines
• Dandelion Chocolate
• Dolce Bella Chocolates and Cafe
• Gateau et Ganache
• Ghirardelli
• Guittard Chocolate Company
• Kika’s Treats
• Landru Chocolates
• Neo Cocoa
• Plumeria Flours
• Salt Side Down Chocolates
• Saratoga Chocolates
• Sixth Course Artisan Confections
• Snake & Butterfly
• Socola Chocolatier
• Sterling Confections
• Toffeeology
• Vice Chocolates

Last year’s local winners of best in America awards.

 

Posted in East Bay chocolate, Local chocolatiers, Recommended chocolatiers, San Francisco chocolate, South Bay chocolate | Leave a comment

Beneficial weed grows in SF

Posted on February 8, 2012 by chocolatte

Local “start-up upstart” Dandelion Chocolate gave a presentation on the making of chocolate from bean to bar combined with a tasting, Jan. 31, 2012, at 18 Reasons in the Mission District. The always interesting presentation was loaded with personal tales and insight won from experience by Todd & Alice of Dandelion.

UPDATE: Due to the positive response to the Chocolate 101 presentation at 18 Reasons, Dandelion does the presentation once a month at their factory. Check their website for dates and to reserve a spot.

Todd (Masonis) started Dandelion Chocolate with Cameron Ring in 2010 in their garage. Alice joined a year ago. They have since moved operations to a kitchen in SF’s Dogpatch neighborhood, and are currently building their new space, which will be their chocolate factory and a chocolate café on Valencia St. in the Mission neighborhood. If we’re lucky, we might see it by spring/summer 2012. (Although in the world of SF business & building permits, one has to be patient, very very patient.)

Dandelion makes bean-to-bar chocolate, meaning they import the beans, then roast, grind/conch, temper, mold and wrap each bar by hand. They even go so far as to code the bars by the bag of beans they came from and sign each bar they make. This is not a sign of OCD or pretentiousness — instead it is aimed at helping the consumer find what they like in the very particular world of artisan chocolate.

How the other guys do it

Todd started the presentation/tasting with the basics as applied to artisan & industrial chocolate making and ended it with ways the Dandelion process differs. For example, ingredients commonly found in both industrial & artisan chocolates are nibs, cocoa butter, sugar, milk powder, cocoa powder and vanilla bean. Dandelion bars contain only 2: roasted beans (nibs) & sugar.

Also, most chocolate makers add extra cocoa butter (not Dandelion), which makes the tempering step faster; but at least in the States, most makers don’t create their own, they buy it from a big distributor. This cocoa butter is “deodorized,” meaning it has no flavor or aroma of its own, which is what the other chocolate makers want so their chocolate can be more consistent.

This quest for consistency in taste and mouth-feel is also the reason for a lot of the additives in chocolate, such as vanilla (used to mask other flavors) and lecithin (the miracle ingredient: it reduces viscosity! controls sugar crystallization! improves shelf life! is cheaper than real chocolate!).

Consistency is also the reason for some unnecessary roughness in the handling of cacao beans on their way to your chocolate bar: As Todd explained, cacao is one of the few foods we eat that is both fermented and roasted. So many chocolate makers will under-ferment (to minimize bold flavors) and over-roast beans — basically burning them. Add Dutch processing (kinda like washing the beans in lye) and/or the previously mentioned additives and you can achieve consistency.

Does consistency make a great-tasting bar?

The answer from Dandelion seems to be ‘No.’ Instead of aiming for consistency, Dandelion works to bring out the unique flavors of each bag of beans they receive. In addition to making singular batches that display different flavors, they are also known for their dark roast 100% bars, which are mellowed by a longer conching process. (If you want a high cacao content bar, but find them too bitter, check this one out.)

Their process is similar to the new coffee roasters’ process starting from working closely with bean farmers. In fact, Alice had just recently returned from a trip to the farm in Madagascar where they get the beans for their single-origin Madagascar bars.

It takes a village to raise a bar

Dandelion is committed to developing strong relationships with their cacao growers. Todd & Alice described the multiple benefits of this:

“Farmers tailor the fermenting and drying process to their clients’ requests,” Todd said. And, Alice added, “Most Madagascar beans come from this one farmer so the different flavors come from their processing.”

By having a direct relationship with the growers instead of buying through middlemen, Dandelion can influence how their beans are handled to get the results they want. They can also influence how workers are treated and even how the cacao industry survives. “The typical farmer of cacao is much older and not passing on their skills,” Todd explained. “But people are engaging with farmers now so they see it is valuable.”

In response to a question about whether Dandelion was fair trade chocolate, Todd said, “Fair trade is geared toward large operations. Our goal is to form a direct relationship with the farmer instead so that we know their practices. With fair trade, the farmer gets 2 cents out of every $1. The rest goes to the middleman. Plus most of these beans are junk [because the farmer is guaranteed a certain price no matter the quality].”

Todd & Cam started Dandelion after selling their tech business, but they didn’t leave their interest in technology behind: They “built prototype machines by tapping into the maker community on the Internet,” explained Todd.

The proof is in the bar

So does all this attention to the entire process make a difference? For the 20-30 people at the tasting, it seemed to. We started with a range of other makers’ chocolates from dark to white to compound (i.e., chocolates adulterated with transfats —blech), then transitioned through tasting ingredients (or in the case of cocoa butter, just rubbing it on our hands) and chocolate processing stages (chocolate liquor does not taste like liquor-filled chocolates, but instead is grainy & bitter).

Finally we got to taste 3 Dandelion 70% single-origin bars: The first made with beans from a cooperative in Columbia was described by tasters as super chocolate-ly, very smooth, nutty, and not fruity. The second, of Costa Rican origin, was described as raisin-y, fruitier, and a little floral. The third, from Madagascar beans, was a redder color and was the lightest and fruit-est tasting of the evening. Todd shared a fun fact about that color: “Red Velvet cake used to be made with cocoa powder only and was naturally red.”

This was followed by a lively Q&A session in which we learned not only how they decided on their name (“We named the company after an upstart and a weed,” Todd said. ”And it’s also about nostalgia, it reminds you of childhood. It’s beautiful because it’s real and grounded, not fancy or anything else.”), but about the fungus that is devastating Costa Rican and Mexican cacao crops (“If it ever gets to Africa, even Hershey’s bars will be $40,” Todd predicted.) to other chocolate makers they like (Fresco Chocolate, Colin Gasko, Askinosie and Mast Brothers).

Other interesting topics covered in the presentation included an explanation of why you shouldn’t be too concerned with a chocolate’s listed percentage: “Percentage can be from anything from the beans: the nibs, cocoa powder, cocoa butter,” explained Todd. “It’s not comparable from manufacturer to manufacturer. What’s important is who is making it, what’s their style.”

Todd & Alice ended with a description of their new space: “It will be a chocolate factory with a café in front, so you can see the process and get a hot chocolate. A hundred years ago there were chocolate houses and coffee houses.We’re bringing back the chocolate life.

“We won’t be serving food, we’re only going to do things that we are great at. It’ll be an open space, no schedule, no tour, just come in and ask questions.”

As for what to expect chocolate-wise: “There’s a movement now to brew cacao like coffee. We will have a representative version of that. We plan to offer 5 different kinds of chocolate drinks, including a European sludge-like version and a Swiss Miss light foamy version along with the brewed cacao.”

 

 

Posted in Chocolate around the World, History, Local chocolatiers, San Francisco chocolate | 1 Comment