It is hard to believe I've not offered a basic chocolate making class in 20 years.  I hope to make this, and other more in depth ones, a more regular thing. This first one I’m giving a small nod to Fathers and Father’s day. Hint hint.  What will you learn in this one?? How different kinds of cocoa beans affect chocolate flavor, (yep, we are starting with raw cocoa beans)  How to roast the cocoa beans How to separate the husk from the beans and you’ll get your hands dirty doing some yourself. Recipes and types of chocolate Making the chocolate in a refiner (more dirty ..read more

Level: Novice Read Time: 9 minutes I have 70% dark chocolate and some 100% cocoa mass. Can I add some mass to the 70% to get to 75% dark? Yes. Good talk everyone. Alright, alright, I guess it isn’t over.  I can say more. I can nearly always say more, can’t I. Please try and ask the question you want the answer to, not a lead in question to your real question.   Lucky for those involved I can often recognize when the question asked isn’t going to lead to the desired answer.  When that happens I start a brief Q and A to tease out what someone really wants to know. Alchemist: Wh ..read more

Level: N/A Read Time: 4 minutes I'm curious about historical information on your site. Perhaps you've made intentional choices not to preserve certain information, but I wonder when beans go out of stock, would it be possible to preserve an archive section with the spider charts, your tasting notes, and roasting notes for these beans? It may be useful to remind ourselves of our old inventory, and to compare with new offerings. Maybe this is too much trouble? The short answer is yes, it has been too much trouble to the point where it was not feasible. This has been on our never ending ‘to do ..read more

I’ve been getting questions on a daily basis about what is happening in the cocoa market and how I see things so today’s Ask the Alchemist is addressing as many of them as I can with no one guiding question other than What the Actual Fuck?   All markets are built upon the backs of slave labor....until they aren’t   That is one hell of a statement, isn’t it?   Since we are just about to talk about the cocoa market, prices and how we move forward, I think that is a profound comment to set the stage of conversation. Many of you may be unaware but the cocoa industry is going thr ..read more

Level: Novice Read Time: 10 minutes I got some high quality cacao nips from my local store but the chocolate they made was horrible.  How can I make them into good chocolate?  They were certified non-GMO and organic.  Should I roast them again?   There is most likely a disconnect happening here in that if you made horrible chocolate from already roasted beans, it is a high likelihood the beans were not high quality.  For many years, back in the aughts, I didn’t carry any organic beans as they tasted about as good as the paper organic certificate.  Just because s ..read more

  We have a couple new beans, the first One, brand new.    Mexico Camino Cacao - Direct Trade - 2023 It never fails to excite me when I have a new origin to announce.  It is twice the fun when I can't seem to stop eating the chocolate.  Check out the spider chart.  The flavor is as big and full as the chart indicate   Ghana Rain Forest Alliance 2021 This is the epitome of a well rounded chocolate flavor profile and is the chocolate flavor we all grew up with and came to love.  The chocolate is deep and rich like fudge with walnuts.  I also get war ..read more

Level: Novice Read time: 7 minutes "At this point, just make the chocolate as you would any other" isn't recipe directions. Would you call it a recipe for oatmeal cookies if I just listed the ingredients and then wrote, "Just make them like you would any other cookie"? Your "recipe" has only left me with dried nibs. Then what??? This comment came in about my recipe for Ruby Chocolate.  I think it is very worthwhile to point out what I also said in the recipe: This recipe is just a jumping off point.  Feel free to experiment.  The only really thing you need to keep in place is ..read more

The new crop of Ecuador Palo Santo has arrived and it is delightfully lively. What I have found out though is that it does not shine at 80% where we do all our evaluations. I found it a little sharp and unintegrated at that level. In a burst of inspiration, I’ve decided to offer it up as a ready to go chocolate making kit. The details are in the right hand information tab of the product. TLDR is it is a 2 lb 68% kit with roasted nibs that you just have to turn into chocolate with your melanger. In not good news, it looks like Madagascar was a flash in the pan and we are probably not going to h ..read more

I recently purchased a Sylph Winnower and Spectra 11 Melanger from your website, along with raw cacao and other ingredients, moulds, etc. to make bean to bar chocolate. I am using a Behmor roaster to roast, left over from my early coffee roasting days and in good condition (I now roast coffee in a small commercial propane-powered drum roaster). I have also recently purchased a used Champion juicer on eBay and 4 pounds of raw cacao from Sweet Marias. The profile that I am using to roast the cacao is P5 D, which, as you are most likely well aware, is lowest temp, slowest roasting cycle, taking ..read more

"Where is my order? I ordered last Friday!” We got hit with an ice storm over the weekend and are currently closed. We have sheets of ice everywhere and although we are all safe, no one can get out due to hazardous conditions and a good portion of the city is without power. Add to that, USPS, UPS and FedEx are all not picking up either. We are now thawing and hoping to be back processing and packing orders tomorrow but I’m sure it will take us until next week to catch up. Your patience is deeply appreciated. But!!!!! Some of us have not been idle. After 20 years of being in business, I guess ..read more