Good day Herve,
Thanks for taking time to get in touch,
Well, I was actually wondering what bean to bar workshops are available, or that you could recommend ? preferably in the uk however a little trip to France wouldn't be out of the question. 
Ants
Hi guys,
I'd like to start a conversation with the hope of establishing if the small private chocolate industry in the UK is growing as much as I have heard it is, would love to hear from any new start up operations as well as the more experienced UK based chocolate makers,
I recently visited a customer of mine who had the entire operation running from his conservatory and it looked very interesting and his chocolate was amazing. I supply cocoa beans from various origins and find the following "bean to bar" operation very interesting indeed. Anyone got any experiences they would like to share ? Please feel free to introduce yourself.
Rgds
Anthony
Hi guys,
If anyone is looking to source South American cocoa beans, harvested from Criollo dominated farming regions then please look no further, through a rather complexe maze of contacts I acquired whilst living in South America I now have a reliable steady supply coming into the UK, ittook me long enough to sort out, I've beenat it for the last 4 years,sending emails back and forth along with a few visits.
[ EDITED to remove direct contact information.]
Speak soon and as a new member of this website I would like to say "HELLO" to all.
Best Regards
Anthony Aaron
I believe (so I've been told) that this 'smokey' effect also changes the colour of the cocoa powder that is produced from these beans. I've actually got some in storage not that I would know how to turn them from "bean to bar". I agree with the minimum 50%.
When it comes to different flavours, I feel it is interesting to note the difference in origins of cocoa beans, for example, whilst nearly all European manufacturers stay away from Smokey Cameroon beans there are some factories that only purchase these smokey beans. In Douala and surrounding regions their cocoa beans are forced through fermentation with the aid of fires, they part sun dry and part artificially dry. However when the beans arrive in Europe if they have a smokey smell to them they are instantly rejected by the receiver most of the time as the flavour is affected. The rejected beans are then normally sold as salvage (tonnes of the stuff) however I had the pleasure to taste a chocolate bar made from these "smokey" beans and I thought it was rather unique and different yet still enjoyable. The barbeque effect was to my liking. Unfortunately due to the lack of demand these smokey beans are rarely used for chocolate making.
