Blogs

Chocolate was first enjoyed as a drink. Mash up some cocoa beans, add water and some other exciting ingredients (sugar, spices, corn) and yum, its dessert for kings and queens.

But now we usually eat chocolate in a bar. Did you ever wonderhow that came to be? No? Well, Ill tell you anyway. Read all about it.

I subscribed to Standard Cocoa's monthly chocolate delivery service, and my first box contained Middlebury Chocolates! Small batches ofhandmade bean to bar chocolate.

Good stuff!

Read about the three bars I got!

It took me a while to go through Amsterdam's chocolatiers with detailed blog posts . There's always personal favorites... and I knew from the beginning which was my number one chocolatier in town (although I like some other places quite a lot, too!). Anyway, when it comes to pralines/bonbons/chocolates, my favorite is: Metropolitan . Most notably: they are one of the VERY few chocolatiers that actually make their own chocolate from bean to bar! Delicious!

Cacao sense is common sense

Most of our practices are based on common sense, keen observations and experiences gained throughout the years of our operations. In the farm, we have existing shade trees, like madre de kakaw and the big grasses served also as shade. Since our seedlings were being transported from another place we made sure that the seedlings recovered first, before they get re-planted. We even dug deeper and wider holes using our invented hole digger for planting the trees. Our approach to pest is more of an integrated pest management. Most of the time we use organic inputs, but as a balance, we also use chemical pesticides, herbicides, and weedicides, especially, at that time when the cacao seedlings were still growing. Through time we have learned the life cycle of insects. We also learned when and where to spray, and where these insects hide during day time. We had a very bad experience on grafted cacao trees. Of the 100 field grafted cacao seedlings, only one survived. So we stopped grafting and let the cacao seedlings grow naturally. Besides, the life span of un-grafted seedlings is longer than the grafted ones. We are also particular at record keeping. We have assigned one of our workers in monitoring and filling data of the farm journal we devised. It contains information as to their daily, weekly and monthly tasks. That way, we can keep track of their output and can also know the status of the cacao trees. At first, we even kept data of the weight of the harvested pods including its thickness; weight of beans, before and after mucilage is removed; the weight of beans before and after fermentation; and weight loss before and after drying the beans.

Read more here - http://pinoychocophile.blogspot.com/2014/04/cacao-sense-story-of-dingayan-cacao-farm.html

Dingayan Cacao Farm prides itself for the cleanest cacao beans in Lasam, Cagayan, Philippines.

Contact Info:

Ihope you will love this book as much as I did! A charming memoir of 25 years in business at the Washington, DC chocolate shop of the same name. A boost to every entrepreneur, dreamer, and chocolate lover.

Read all about it!

What do you call the neighborhood shop that represents thedreams,hard work, family loyalty, and enduring passion for chocolate of two very special sisters? Chocolate Chocolate.

Read all about it on The Chocolate Tourist blog!

...and finding it (eventually).

A morning in Georgetown leads us on a wild goose chase! But chocolate always comes through in the end.

Read on!

Ahhh, Monday! The first day of a new week. The first week of a new month.

The first opportunity for hot chocolate. And joke recipes!

Find the full recipe here!

Mmor own Koko Samoa Tea One of the most popular hot drinks at the High Tea Szaln is Mmor Koko Samoa Chocolate Tea. We have been serving this innovative new "tea" to Australians for three years now and finally wed like to reveal how we make it. Our customers are a sophosticated group and we present them a menu with forty different teas. Yes, we do serve a Haute Supreme Hot Chocolate, which uses a variety of dark chocolates. But this new hot chocolate drink has also found a group of gourmands coming back for it.

First off, its not actually tea per se, in the sense that it does not come from a tea leaf or herbal leaf. Mmor Koko Samoa Chocolate Tea actually comes from raw organic cocoa beans that we bring in directly from cocoa farmers that we personally know in the Pacific island of Samoa. Its the favourite beverage of Samoa where it is called Koko Samoa. Traditionally, it is made from fermented or unfermented cocoa beans, water, a bit of raw sugar, and perhaps some liquid coconut cream. It is a usual part of the village meal in Samoa. Considering how much they drink, this might explain why Samoans are some of the happiest people in the world!

This is the way they drink it in the islands, grits and all! In the video youll see how we actually make Mmor Chocolate Tea. We start with fermented and dried raw cocoa beans. First we sort them because large and small beans do not roast the same length of time. Its important to inspect the beans for any imperfections and throw away any beans that dont meet the gold standard.

Using a light aluminium tray, we first roast the beans for five minutes at 160 C and then reduce the temperature to 130 C for a total of eighteen minutes. Subjecting the cocoa beans to a high temperature initially, slowly reduce the temperature and stop the roast when the beans are "cracking", but before they start to burn. The initial high heat lets the beans gain some thermal momentum and allows for a good separation of the husk and nibs as the beans expand. You lower the ambient temperature so as not to burn the outside of the bean, but let the interior continue to roast. Finally, the cocoa beans will start to pop and crack as water vapour is explosively released. This happens when the cocoa bean temperature is around 150C. Experience and smell are the key indicators when the beans are roasted.

Pure raw and organic cocoa beans from the Pacific island of Samoa Roasting accomplishes a number of things: It helps separate the outer husk from the inner bean and makes cracking and winnowing much easie. It kills the embryo and sterilizes the cocoa bean. Various chemical reactions occur when cocoa beans are roasted and proper roasting is integral to good flavoured chocolate.

After roasting, the woody husk of the cocoa bean is removed in a process called winnowing. There are big machines that do this, but we mostly use our fingers and a rolling pin. This separation step also breaks down the cocoa bean into small 2-5 mm irregular-shaped fragments known as cocoa nibs. The goal here is to crack the cocoa beans into pieces and then separate the husk from the nib. To make chocolate, this husk needs to be fully removed. Then we use a hair dryer set at cool to blow off the husks. We collect the husks and make . . . another chocolate tea which is absolutely delicious. It is called Cocoa Husk Tea and is also full of theobromine (no caffeine) so has wonderful properties but is also calorie free.

San Diego is so cute.

Between the sunshine, the water, the palm trees, and the colorful little neighborhoods dotting the landscape, San Diego beckons to visitors and makes you want to explore. Since I was there for the race last weekend , I went in search of chocolate.

And I found Caxao Artisan Chocolates in Little Italy, as well as Eclipse Chocolate - a brunch, dinner and truffle cafe near Balboa Park. Each unique and wonderful

Readall about it