American, Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Makers: A Complete List
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Tasting Notes
Hi Clay;Thanks for your comment! But I'm confused why it matters where we do our roasting? We are actively and directly involved in each and every step of the chocolate making process:We buy our own cacao beans at source, partnering directly with farmers to guide cocoa bean fermentation and drying. Our TCHOSource program invests directly in infrastructure and training that helps farmers produce better quality beans. We take possession of those beans at the farm, and ship them to our roasting partner.To be clear, we don't outsource roasting any more than we buy liquor. All of our roasts are directly supervised by our R & D team. Prior to the roasts, we do numerous, meticulous test roasts in our SF lab to arrive at the perfect roasting profiles for each lot and for each of our flavors. Then we fly to our roasting partner and supervise each roast and grind according to our detailed instructions. Yes we do not own the equipment (although, really, in other cases, the banks probably own the equipment), but the roasts would not be conducted, nor come out any differently, than if we owned the equipment.One important benefit of roasting close to the growers is that we help the producing countries increase their share of the value-added (and capture more of the profit) in making chocolate, unlike many other bean-to-bar manufacturers who simply buy beans.In our SF factory, we make chocolate from our cocoa massbut we have participated directly in all of the work up to that point. In our factory, we perform all the refining, conching, tempering, molding, and packaging.I think the most essential part of being a bean-to-bar manufacturer is sourcing our own cacao beans and being directly involved with the farmers who grow themthen directly participating in every step of the chocolate-making process. To me, this seems to matter much more than who owns the equipment we roast on.We'd love to see you (and any other members) during the Fancy Food show! Thank you for hosting this discussion.
