Blogs

Sure you could learn to temper chocolate without a thermometer by doing the lip test (kinda gross) or the back of your hand test (still gross), but it isn't always accurate when you are learning.  What I've learned is to just jump to a digital thermometer to get an accurate reading every time and ensure your chocolate really is in temper.  So here is a little advice on choosing a thermometer for tempering chocolate: http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.ca/2015/03/digital-thermometers-must-have-when.html .

While on Oahu , Richard and I visited two and a half farms growing cacao. Why the half? Let me explain…

The first farm we visited was Kahuku Farms , on the North Shore. Dr. Nat of Madre recommended we stop by here. Kahuku provides farm tours or, as they call them, smoothie tours. We rode around on a wheeled bench, pulled by a trailer through the rows of beautiful crops in the demonstration portion of the farm and received a delicious homemade smoothie made from the ingredients we had seen just moments before. Our tour guide is married to Kylie, a fourth generation Kahuku farmer and has taken on the education part of the business. We learned a lot about the history of the farm and their attempts to share such fresh and delicious vegetables with the local population. Hawaiian food traditionally includes a lot of meat, but the Kahuku food truck serves only vegetarian foods made from their farm’s produce. Surprisingly to the farming family (but not to us Californian hippies), it’s a huge hit!

Read more about Kahuku Farms and our visits to Lonohana and Waialua Estates, here: http://rootchocolate.com/2015/03/12/cacao-farming-on-oahu/

From weddings to baby showers and from corporate events to milestone anniversaries, party favors have become increasingly popular. They are used to express appreciation to the guests as well as promoting brand visibility and loyalty. According to Chocolate Favors World, "Choosing chocolates as return gifts has become the best way to make a lasting impact. This is on account of the universal fondness of chocolate." Did you know that the worldwide consumption of chocolate was as high as 7.2 million tons in 2009? It is expected to skyrocket to 8.2 million tons by 2020, according to the Statistics Portal Statista . Once you have decided on chocolate as a great option, there are several things you may wish to consider to arrive at the final decision.

Making the Right Decision with Chocolate Favors

Shape:  Chocolates are available in a large variety of shapes and sizes. You can make the choice depending on the occasion. For instance, if it's a Christmas party, you could get favors in shapes of Santa, a star or even a reindeer. For weddings, heart shaped chocolates or ones with wedding bells could be ideal. The decision could depend on the gathering. If it's a corporate setting and guests would comprise of employees or clients, you may wish to opt for simpler designs like squares and bars, as this will showcase your logo better. In case you wish to have a theme party, the shape could be chosen accordingly. For instance, if you are having a casino themed partly, you could opt for chocolate poker chips, which are easily available online. In fact, you would be surprised at the array of shapes available, including different fruits, puzzle pieces, champagne bottles and even bandages!

Taste: You would want your guests to savor the chocolates and remember you fondly. Since taste is such a critical part of your favor, opt for Belgian chocolate. If you wish to add an exquisite touch, you could choose dark chocolate, although milk chocolate is more popular, especially among kids.

Customization: The wrapper as well as the chocolate can have some artwork. For instance, if it is a corporate event, you could have the company logo and tagline on the wrapper and the chocolate.

Packaging: Often ignored, packaging can add to the novelty of your return gift. Apart from the chocolate wrapper having some artwork to depict the theme of the party, you could opt for the favors to be placed in colorful organza bags with matching ribbons or a transparent box. If you have chosen a unique shape, ensure that it can be seen through the packaging.

One of our most decadent evenings on Oahu was spent at Madre Chocolate  in Kailua. We were the last ones to arrive for a whiskey & chocolate tasting, taking place in their tiny retail storefront. We squeezed into our chairs at one of the two tables of 8 people each. In front of each person was a placemat with two sets of flavor wheels on one side and a colorful list of all the available chocolates and whiskeys on the other. We also each had a line of whiskeys in shot glasses and the table was laid with about 15 different cocoa pod-shaped dishes, piled with small tastes of various chocolate bars made by Madre.

Read more here:  http://rootchocolate.com/2015/03/09/learning-from-dr-nat/ 

Since Marou started making waves among chocolate lovers worldwide, there are telltale signs that Vietnamese cacao is becoming the trendy thing to do in bean-to-bar chocolate. Here is my list of single-origin chocolate bars that I've found made from Vietnamese beans: http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.ca/2015/02/vietnam-trending-chocolate-origin.html  Do you know of any others? I'd love to learn about them!

Davis Chocolate™ offers private label, premium chocolate—crafted with the purest ingredients, custom flavors and molds, and exceptional customer service.

As wellness continues to be a healthy trend in the chocolate business throughout North America, market dynamics and consumer preferences expand the opportunities for growing your brand beyond your brick-and-mortar storefront or community.

Educated, nuanced and selective consumers want to know they are making the best choices for their health, and will pay a premium price for what they perceive as premium chocolate.

In fact, according to a recent article posted online by Store Brands, Stagnito Business Information , consumers are willing to pay up to 8.9% more for products they deem healthy.

In-house brands provide value and higher margins. By getting your privately labeled bar on shelves in regional and national stores, you can expand your business without affecting the joy you share with the customers in your shop.

Private label chocolate currently makes up 3.2% of the US market. Loyalty for chocolate brands is intense. As you know, in chocolate quality matters. For your patrons, chocolate purchases are discretionary, but they believe there is a high benefit to cost in terms of enjoyment and satisfaction of your chocolate.

Chocolatiers who want to satisfy their loyal customer's high expectations for diverse and healthy snacking options, should consider increasing their marketability by offering private label brand chocolate bars co-manufactured with Davis Chocolate™.

We are ready and able to help you meet your pricing strategy, innovation plans and supply chain demands with custom recipes, small to medium ordering (low minimum orders) and fulfillment capabilities. This allows you to bring your passion to delight the senses through artisan chocolate – and spend more time on your craft while we manage the process.

Our commitment to socially responsible sustainability , high quality carefully crafted chocolate and exceptional service will make your brand stand out. From quote to prototype, you work closely with our chocolate development and marketing teams to get your product to the marketplace and grow your business.

With our experience in innovative product development and collaboration , we can offer you a unique range of options, with control of the process from farm through production.

I know you all must be biting your nails, waiting for the taste results of our  roast test  last week. Well, I won’t make you wait any longer!

First a quick note on the process… We made 4 batches of chocolate, differentiated mostly by the roast profile, but also partially by grind time (purely due to circumstance). This was the first time we had both of our  Premier Wonder Grinders  going at the same time, which was quite an experience. Together, they are significantly noisier than one on its own, and they have slightly different frequencies, resulting in interesting table vibrations all night.

Read more and learn about the results here:  http://rootchocolate.com/2015/02/17/roast-test-taste-test/

We’ve been enjoying all the chocolate we made in the past few months and are now jumping back on the horse to try out new beans, recipes, and tools!

Our current experiment is working with our Behmor 1600 Plus  to figure out what exactly the temperature range is for a kilo of cocoa beans at each of its pre-programmed roast profiles. We’ve now tested three of the five programs and plotted the temperatures (in degrees Fahrenheit) at 10 second intervals for each of them. We’ve overlayed the three temperature takes with Chocolate Alchemy’s power output charts  to show how that affects the temperature as well.

Read more here: http://rootchocolate.com/2015/02/11/behmor-roast-tests/

How do we know the quality of cocoa beans when they show up in one of those giant burlap bags? How can we tell they'll be tasty once we've put them through the intensive processes that result in a chocolate bar?

We did some research and asked some friends, but we're always learning, so don't take this post as the be all end all of cocoa bean evaluation. The best way to learn to evaluate beans is to travel to cacao-producing countries and learn from the makers and farmers themselves.

In a nutshell, here's what we've learned so far: it takes all the senses and some background research to determine high quality cocoa beans.

Read more here:  http://rootchocolate.com/2015/02/02/cocoa-bean-quality/

How do we transform our experience with chocolate from a hobby to a business without losing the fun, collaborative, part-time nature of it all?

Honestly, this is a very difficult question and we don't assume that there is an answer. This question goes much deeper than the surface question of how to start a business - it asks how we want to spend our free time, how we want to spend our working hours, how much financial risk we are willing to take on, how confident we are that our chocolate is actually any good, if chocolate bars are our ultimate product, what the future of our family looks like, and how permanent we are in our current living location.

All that said, we are trying to follow the practices of The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses , in order to keep the potential business light and flexible. Some of the recommendations in the book are difficult to apply to a brick and mortal chocolate shop, since it's mostly geared toward tech startups. However, we're doing our best!

Let's take a look at the different business model options for starting a bean-to-bar chocolate business (at least to our knowledge in California):

http://rootchocolate.com/2015/01/29/chocolate-business-models/