With much appreciated help, we’re ready for tomorrow’s markets! Remember, there’s a prize for anyone that comes by both. Hope to see you there.
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This Saturday we’re headed to two markets. We’ll be at the Underground Market from 11 AM – 4 PM at Public Works, 161 Erie Street. We’ll also be at the New Taste Marketplace from 12 PM – 5 PM at St. Gregory’s Church, 500 DeHaro Street. We’ve been doing a lot of prep and we’ll be bringing a lot of chocolate, including single origin bars from Venezuela, Madagascar, and Costa Rica.
Two markets on one day sounds pretty adventurous, but we have an added twist. Todd’s currently biking from London to Paris, so Cam and I will be working both markets on our own. Fortunately, we have several friends who jumped at the chance to help us out, so we’ll have lots of support. We thought we’d make the most of this opportunity and have a prize for anyone who comes to visit both of us. If you’re headed to both markets, be sure to ask for the secret word at your first stop. When you deliver the word to the Cam or me at the second market, you’ll get a surprise gift!
Both markets are great events, and I hope that you have the chance to check out each of them. They’ve both gotten a lot of attention in recent months. The New York Times and SF Weekly published slideshows of delicious food at the Underground and SF Weekly also voted the New Taste Marketplace the Best One-Stop Shopping for DIY Eats. We hope to see you at one or, even better, both markets!
We took Memorial Day to work on a fun project- testing the hot chocolate varieties we hope to have in our cafe. We initially imagined a matrix of hot chocolates built around different variables like milk, water, melted chocolate, cocoa powder, sugar, caramelized sugar, and more. We began with the basics. Initially, we mixed melted 70% dark chocolate with different quantities of water and milk. We used chocolates from different origins- our Venezuelan and Costa Rican. Next we played with cocoa powder, water, and milk. For this we used Costa Rican cocoa powder, pressed with our cocoa butter press.
After a few rounds of testing, we realized that there are very distinct types of hot chocolate. There’s a Swiss Miss-style hot chocolate that brings you back to childhood nostalgia and cold winter days. Then, there’s a variety that turns on the coffee part of your palette. You could imagine a hot chocolate that has the same rich, smooth punch as coffee, but made with cocoa powder and water. There’s European-style drinking chocolate, dark like the inside of a molten chocolate cake. Finally, we even created a pudding-like hot chocolate that’s velvety and buttery.
Throughout the course of the day, our initial idea of a hot chocolate matrix began to shift. We’ll still work with the full set of variables. But, we hope to find a short set of hot chocolates that hit all of our different associations with the drink. For each of these, we’ll play with the right chocolate, liquid, and sweetener until we nail it. Someday, you’ll be able to come to Valencia Street and taste the full flight!
Finally, yes, our stomachs hurt pretty badly after a full day of hot chocolate tasting. It didn’t help that Todd made delicious homemade marshmallows.
posted by alice
We’ve had a busy week getting our online store up and running. But I thought I’d share a few pictures from the weekend and our trip to the New Taste Marketplace. The event is really taking off, which is exciting. It won a “Best of” Award from SF Weekly this week and got a few good write ups from places like Tablehopper.
We brought bars from Costa Rica, Madagascar, and Venezuela. The Venezuelan was a runaway success, which we hoped for. It’s a bar we describe as tasting “hot chocolatey,” and seems to appeal to a wide range of tasters.
We also got to meet a few new faces. We were especially excited to meet Adam from Fog City News, a local chocolate expert. We talked with a lot of people involved in the local, hand crafted food scene. There’s so much to learn at these markets. Thank you all for coming by, we hope to see you again next time!
posted by alice
On Monday, we had the pleasure of touring a few chocolatiers around the factory. Cristina of Kika’s Treats, Jewel of {cocoa}, Anastasia of Sweet Revolution, and Christine of Neo Cocoa came down to the garage to learn more about making chocolate from the bean.
We thought the best way to illustrate the process was to make chocolate together. In a few hours, we sorted, roasted, cracked, winnowed, and started melanging a batch of Costa Rican beans. We also let the chocolatiers try tempering with our Selmi. It took a minute for each of them to get the hang of the pedal depositor, and we threw back a few more bars than usual. But, they were excited to test out the machine and see how easily and consistently it tempers.
Each of these women gave us a lot of great information about making chocolate confections. We asked questions about the viscosity, consistency of flavor, and flavor profiles of wholesaled chocolate. Their answers will be incredibly helpful as we scale up production.
We also swapped treats. The chocolatiers went home with lots of bars, and we spent most of the afternoon snacking on Anastasia’s delicious caramels.
We’re headed back to Potrero Hill this Saturday to sell our bars. Check us out at the New Taste Marketplace from 12-5 PM at St. Gregory’s Church, 500 DeHaro Street. We’ll have new bars from Venezuela for you to try!
Todd once mentioned that he makes banana bread with cocoa nibs. The idea stuck with me, and I’ve been eager to try. I grew up on my grandma’s Southern banana bread- a dense cake, with lots of sugar and buttermilk. I love her recipe, but I thought that our nibs would pair better with bolder flavors and a lighter texture. So, I worked from recipes from Martha Stewart and Smitten Kitchen, adding in our nibs.
The bread was wonderful. The cocoa nibs softened in the oven, but maintained a bite. They accentuated the flavors of the spiced batter without adding an overpowering chocolate taste. The bread was a little like my grandma’s; it was still sweet, with the tang of buttermilk. But, the layers of flavor in this recipe went far beyond a more typical version. I’d make this again any day- it’s a delicious variation on one of my favorites.
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter at room temperature, plus more for pan
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour, plus more for pan
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon bourbon
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1/2 cup cocoa nibs
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan, set aside.
2. Cream butter and light brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, and beat to incorporate.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter mixture, and mix until just combined. Add bananas, buttermilk, vanilla, bourbon, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves; mix to combine. Stir in nibs, and pour into prepared pan.
4. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let rest in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.
I had a fantastic time at the Underground Market last weekend. It’s exciting to feel the momentum building behind our chocolate. We brought bars from Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Madagascar. We encouraged each person to taste all three and to choose a favorite. Madagascar was the most popular overall, but Dominican and Costa Rican had clear supporters as well.
If you missed the chance to try, I’ll be at the New Taste Marketplace with Cam this Saturday from 4-9 PM. The market’s at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, 500 DeHaro Street in Potrero Hill.
I love the energy of these markets. Hopefully we’ll be at a few more later in the month. Part of the fun is meeting the other vendors and tasting their products. We got a lot of support and delicious samples from the tables next to ours: Vickle’s Pickles and Little Knock. I’m looking forward to more great food this weekend. Come by and check it out!
Here are a few pictures of our booth, and Todd looking very proud.
Earlier this winter, I went on a whirlwind trip to Germany to investigate the packaging options for our bars. I attended the Paperworld conference in Frankfurt and saw so many beautiful handmade papers form India and Nepal. We currently wrap our bars in handmade cotton paper from India. You can see an example in this picture. We love our packaging and hope to create something similar for the factory. Still, we needed to do a little more research, so I took off to Europe for a weekend of learning about paper.
The more I learned, the more I realized what we have to consider. I think we’ll continue to use paper from India because we love the texture and the imperfections that come from screen printing. The vendors I met gave me a much better picture of the paper making process. The paper is made from recycled cotton rags instead of wood pulp, which makes it eco-friendly. Since the work is done by hand, there are many variables in the production. For example, paper made during monsoon season can’t be easily dried outside. It takes much longer to create and will have subtle differences in color and texture. I actually love these slight variations- they reflect the energy put into each piece of paper. But, monsoon season is coming up quickly and it’s the busiest time of year for these factories. We need to place our first orders soon to avoid this rush. When we have everything together and see our first papers, it will be one of the first steps that makes Dandelion Chocolate feel like it’s coming to life!
At the end of the weekend, I came back with a heavy bag of paper samples and a lot of information that will help us create our packaging. We’re still choosing colors and developing patterns, but I met a few sources for really beautiful paper. It was a short trip, fighting jet lag the whole time, but well worth it.
And, as a fun anecdote, Paperworld runs alongside Creativeworld, Hair & Beautyworld, and Christmasworld in the largest conference center I’ve ever seen. There was a motley, and fairly hilarious, group of crafters from all over the world. The space itself overloaded all of my senses- take a look!
