Archive by Author

Meet Our New Winter Pastries

January 22, 2018 by Molly Gore

We’re constantly experimenting with new flavors and formats in our pastry kitchen, and every few months, we like to roll out a new, seasonal menu.

We keep some pastries on our menu year round—the s’more, the brownie flight, the chocolate chip cookie—but when the season’s first figs or persimmons or oranges come to market, our kitchen team just can’t help but do those flavors justice.

Meet the newest additions to our menu! (Spoiler alert: the winter citrus is almost too delicious right now.)

Salted Caramel Éclair

This season, we swapped out our earl grey éclair for a salted caramel rendition. With salty, caramelized cream inside and a rich, chocolatey Camino Verde glaze on top, it’s our new, delicious take on a classic.

Creamsicle Panna Cotta

Winter citrus, meet chocolate. This season’s version of our panna cotta is infused with nibs from Camino Verde, Ecuador and topped with chocolate orange streusel and citrus. Infusing nibs in cream creates a panna cotta that tastes like chocolate but looks like white cream, and when we mix that with blood orange? It’s a luxuriously rich and delicious creamsicle.

Chocolate Bostock with Roasted Apples

Our almond-laced, Camino Verde custard-filled bostock gets dressed up with roasted apples just in time for the chilly weather. We recommend it with a hot chocolate and a warm, cozy sweater.

Lime Macadamia Tart

Last but not least, a chocolatey, zested zinger. Meet our newest tart: a little bit tropical, a little bit tart, and a whole lot of delicious.

Come to our book launch party!

November 6, 2017 by Molly Gore

We still have tickets left for our book launch party on November 14th at The Archery! Our book hits shelves that day, and we’re really excited to share it with you and celebrate. We’ll have cocoa nib-infused beer from Almanac Beer, Co., smoked brisket from Central Kitchen and bites from The Cheese School, cocktails from Workhorse Rye, and of course, a decadent spread of cakes and more from our own Lisa Vega and her team. We’ll be signing books, too. Hope to see you there!

And for those of you in Southern California, we’ll be throwing a second launch party at Hedley & Bennett in Vernon on November 16th, from 6:30-9pm. The event is free and open to the public, and you can RSVP here. On November 17th, you can also catch us signing books from 10:00am to 11:30am at Thyme Café and Market. We look forward to seeing you and sharing our chocolate!

The 2016 Sourcing Report is Here!

November 4, 2017 by Molly Gore

Our 2016 Sourcing Report is here! In it, you’ll find profiles of every origin we purchased cocoa beans from in 2016, details about how they get to us, information about how much we purchased and how much paid, as well as updates from our factories.

We write an annual sourcing report because we believe that transparency is good for everyone. Historically, it’s been difficult for consumers to get a clear view of the supply chain and the conditions surrounding cacao production, and for producers, it’s similarly opaque. As a craft chocolate maker, we are part of a small but growing set of companies that seeks to shift focus to the bean. We strive to make chocolate whose origins are distinct, clear, and sustainable, and we hope this report helps to connect our producers and their practices with each other and anyone interested in learning about where chocolate comes from.

Now, you might be saying, “2016? That was, like, a really long time ago.” And you’re right! This year, we were a little caught up writing this other thing, which meant the sourcing report took us a little longer than expected this time around. But it’s here, and we hope you enjoy it!

Supporting Wine Country

October 13, 2017 by Molly Gore

Our hearts go out to those who have lost so much in the Wine Country fires this past week. This Saturday, October 14th, we’ll be donating 50% of all hot chocolate proceeds to support fire relief efforts and families who have been impacted and displaced by devastating loss in Northern California. If you’re going to come visit us one day this week, make it Saturday. And maybe order an extra hot chocolate or five.

We love you North Bay, and we’re here for you. We’ve got our eye on relief efforts but please reach out to us at info@dandelionchocolate.com for donations, requests, and to keep us attuned to ways we can support.

Thinking of you and sending strength,

The Dandelion Chocolate Team

Q & A: Maverick Watson

April 4, 2016 by Molly Gore

NAME: Maverick Watson mav

HOMETOWN: Moorpark, California

FAVORITE CHOCOLATE: 85% Camino Verde (Dandelion)

WORKED AT DANDELION SINCE: January 2013

POSITION: Ferry Building Manager

Q: Hi Maverick!

A: Hey!

Q: So, first of all, congratulations on the new job! Until yesterday you were the longtime Café Mentor with a Focus in Beverage Management, and now you’re Dandelion’s Ferry Building Manager. How excited are you to have a job title with a reasonable number of words in it?

A: I’m very excited.

Q: But really. You’ve been at Dandelion forever (since 2013), how does it feel switching gears?

A: I’m really excited to start this new phase with Dandelion. The Ferry Building is a very different space, kind of separated from the rest of Dandelion, and one of my biggest goals is figuring out how to make a more cohesive cultural connection between the Ferry Building and the rest of the company.

Q: You joined Dandelion to help open the café on Valencia Street. How has it changed since those days?

A: I came on before the café or factory were built out, when the whole space was more of a Confusing Retail Location and Chocolate Museum. I think when we started, things were more free flowing, and as we’ve grown we’ve developed a lot of structure and systems for organized growth. There’s been a lot of trial and error. Strategically, we’re a lot more effective. Also, things don’t break as often, which is nice. Now, our employees come with experience that makes sense, whereas in 2013, our lawyer Joey was tempering bars.

Q: What did you do as the café mentor?

A: I was basically an assistant manager, maintaining our drinks program and adding drinks to the menu, training staff, maintaining quality standards, and all that. I do recipe research, and sometimes manage disasters like grease traps and broken sinks.

Q: Grease traps are gross. What’s the worst maintenance disaster you’ve ever had to deal with?

A: When the grease trap overfilled for the first time, it was horrifying. I won’t go into too much detail but I remember Cam being elbow deep in the sludge. We tried hard to stay open but eventually we broke out the Shop Vacs and had to close. That disaster was second to the notorious glass pastry case explosion two years ago.

Q: What do you like about working on the other side of the café counter?

A: I like the dynamic atmosphere; no two days are exactly the same. I get to work with a lot of amazing people. People get really excited about this space, which helps me see it with fresh eyes every day. That’s one of the most amazing things about working here—it’s easy to get tunnel vision when you’re here every day, and not realize how amazing this place is, but when someone comes in who has never been here before they have this look on their face that reminds you “Yeah, this is a special thing that’s happening.” It’s also fun to see the company grow.

Q: You make those leather-cuffed mugs we sell during Christmas, and a lot of us know you as a part time leatherworker. Tell me about that.

A: My fiance and I have a company, Steer and Arbor. She does woodworking and I do leather. We make and sell handcrafted utilitarian items.

Q: Utilitarian? Like hammers?

A: Like spoons, tables, cutting boards, belts, and bags. We sell at craft fairs, online, and on the factory shelves when the holidays roll around.

Q: If you had a superpower, what would it be?

A: An endless supply of dad jokes.

Q: I mean, that pager on your belt is kind of a dad joke.

A: It’s not a pager, it’s my phone holster. On second thought, does having a car phone qualify as a superpower? It should.

Q: It definitely should. Next question: if you could serve coffee to anyone from history, who would it be?

A: Herman Melville. And I’d ask him about the meaning of the great white whale.

Q: That’s a big question.

A: I’m a big man.

Q: I know you are.

A Visit to Steelgrass Farm

April 1, 2016 by Molly Gore

Last month, I took a week off and packed my bags for Hawai’i. I chose Maui and Kauai in February because a) I thought it might never stop raining in San Francisco and Hawaii seemed as good an antidote as any, and b) because the Maui coast is impossibly thick with humpback whales this time of year. I love whales.

Those with the good sense to research their vacations better than I do would have learned that Kauai is home to Mount Waialeale which, with an average of 450 inches of rainfall a year, is also sometimes known as The Wettest Place On Earth (and not the first place you might go for a rain-free vacation). But no matter, trudging through volcanic mud feels a whole lot better than weathering a downpour in the city. Over the ten days I was there I hiked the Nā Pali coast, slept on beaches, but despite my plans to really take some time away—and like a lot of chocolate makers who try to go on vacation—I ended up chasing chocolate anyway.

Steelgrass Farm sits on the eastern edge of Kauai at 22° above the equator—about as far north as you can get and still grow cacao. I’ve known about Steelgrass for a few years—it’s a family-run farm that we’ve led customer trips to, and Will Lydgate, one of the younger Lydgates who helps manage the farm, stops by Dandelion whenever he’s in town. I’ve tasted their honey and their chocolate when it shows up at Dandelion, but I was thrilled to get to see it myself.

Rambutan! It tastes better than it looks.

Steelgrass is a cacao farm, but it’s also a wildly diverse demonstration of just about every delicious thing that grows on Kaua’i. On the farm’s chocolate tour, you get to see vanilla vines climbing their way up foxtail palms, Tahitian lime trees, and soursop fruits as big as melons ready for picking. We tasted milky star apples, sweet and clear rambutan, pear-like mountain apples, spicy watermelon radishes sprinkled with Hawaiian salt, and the farm’s award-winning honey. (We licked the plate when no one was looking.)

Mountain apples that taste like mild pears.

We watched our tour guide, Andrea, make paper by hand from a stand of invasive papyrus reeds that spread like wildfire throughout the farm. We passed by trays of thousands of vanilla beans curing in the sun, each from a blossom pollinated by hand. Then, we tasted our way through a mix of chocolate made by Valrhona, Guittard, Manoa and more while Andrea fed us an incredibly dense and detailed history of chocolate. The three hours I spent at Steelgrass were three of the most densely educational that I can remember.

Andrea about to chop open a cocoa pod with a machete.

Right now, Steelgrass has about 200 trees under cultivation, and plans to plant 3,000 more. After the tour, Tony Lydgate drove us to the land he’s converting and preparing for expansion, and walked us through a grove of two-year-old saplings that were already fruiting. Most people will say that cacao trees don’t fruit for three to five years, so it was especially surprising to see Tony’s trees looking so happy and heavy with pods.

Tony and the trees.

We were also surprised to learn that the trees which appeared to be the healthiest were in fact planted directly from seed, not grafted or planted from saplings raised in a nursery which is far more common. To decide which trees to plant, Steelgrass worked with the University of Hawai’i to discern which genetic mixes would yield the best and most delicious beans. The expansion is a large and exciting one, and I can’t wait to come visit again as soon as my Steelgrass honey jar is empty. If I keep going at the pace I’m going, that could be tomorrow.

Q & A: Birgitte Rasine, A.P.E.

March 21, 2016 by Molly Gore

Every other Monday, we’ll introduce you to a member of the Dandelion community through a Q & A. Stay tuned to meet our chocolate makers, café staff, kitchen team, producers, partners, importers, mentors, friends, and everyone who helps make chocolate possible. This week, we step outside of our typical interviews with chocolate makers and cacao producers to meet Birgitte Rasine. Birgitte is an author and sustainability warrior who fuses mythology and biology in her latest book, The Jaguar and the Cacao Tree, which works to connect us closer to the ancient roots of our food. She has worked in sustainability since 1998, and the first book she worked on was Dr. Arnold Newman’s Tropical Rainforest with an introduction by Dr. Jane Goodall.

NAME: Birgitte Rasine

HOMETOWN: Brno, Czech Republic

FAVORITE CHOCOLATE: Heirloom chocolate, especially To’ak and Ingemann Cacao Fino

Title: A.P.E. (Author, Producer, Entrepreneur)

Favorite Food: Soups and sauces

Q: Hi Birgitte! So, your book, The Jaguar and the Cacao Tree, comes out tomorrow. What’s it about?

A: It’s a fantasy, action, and adventure story. It follows Max, an American boy, and Itzel, a Maya girl, and several other characters that span the generations: their parents, grandparents, and siblings, along with a few cool animals (real and mythic). Max travels the world with his bee researcher dad, which is how he gets to visit Guatemala where Itzel introduces Max to the rainforest, animal spirit guides, the Maya way of life, and a sacred cacao tree that—I won’t spoil it—can unleash some less-than-benevolent beasts and magic.

The book is about the history, mythology, and biology of cacao, and it’s part of a larger series called “Max and the Code of Harvests”—“code” referring to the DNA of food. The point of the series is to connect readers with the ancient roots and mythology of food.

Q: Tell me more about that mission.

A: I think that our connection with food has to change because our food systems have become so adulterated, mechanized, and processed. At this point, most of us, kids especially, really don’t know where all of our food is coming from. A study was done years ago that discovered that a lot of children in America didn’t know that you were supposed to peel an orange before you eat it. You ask: Where does milk come from? And too many kids say, the grocery store. Where does chocolate come from? A vending machine. Many people may not know that chocolate comes from a football-shaped fruit that grows on a tree pollinated by tiny midges, not bees.

Q: And why are those important things to know?

A: Well, once you know where your food comes from and who produces it, your understanding of it and relationship with it changes. I would say that whatever food we consider sacred, whatever food we have a relationship with, we respect. So if we have a relationship with food as well as the people who produce it, we can begin to respect them both. It’s the only way we can make changes towards a more sustainable food system.

Q: I hear you, but how do you build relationships to a food when that food and the producers who grow it are thousands of miles away? You can’t meet them at the farmers’ market like you can here.

A: That’s an excellent question, and one that we’ve been grappling with all along. My team and I are working with a number of partners, including the Heirloom Cacao Preservation Fund, which certifies heirloom cacao trees, on a media content initiative centered around our desire to reconnect people with the origins of chocolate. In addition to the novel, we’re producing a coloring book that’s coming out this fall, and developing an interactive game for the tablet about the flora, fauna, and foods of Mesoamerica, including chocolate. And with the HCP and our other partners, we’re working on projects to enable kids to connect with cacao farmers and chocolate makers. There are some language and technology barriers of course, but we’re working through it.

Q: How were the Maya connected to cacao?

A: The Maya were not the first to have hot chocolate, or to eat chocolate. Scholars believe the Olmecs, one of the most ancient civilizations in Mesoamerica, had domesticated cacao. Nobody really knows how or where it was discovered. It’s like corn in the sense that it’s a complicated process to make it edible; you have to cut the pod off the tree, break it apart, ferment and roast the beans, then grind them and go through all the steps necessary to produce chocolate. Either someone was really determined or it was a series of happy accidents that brought chocolate into being. And because it was so nourishing, exquisite, and healing, the ancient cultures considered it a sacred food. In cacao-producing regions across Mesoamerica, the cacao tree was considered the tree of creation, or the tree of life.

Q: Did it have any other roles in Maya life?

A: Yes, cacao was also used as currency. People know the rumors and story of the Aztec emperor Motecuhzoma—he had a storehouse of hundreds of thousands of cacao beans that the Spanish raided, and it is said he drank chocolate from golden cups. What most people don’t know is that the Maya had a special coming of age ceremony for children that involved cacao. In the ceremony, the four rain gods were invoked and the children were anointed with sacred water mixed with flowers and ground cacao beans. There were a number of sacred rites that involved cacao—usually birth, marriage, and death.

Q: How does cacao play a role in the lives of Max and Itzel?

A: When Max and Itzel open up the pods of the sacred tree, they literally come into contact with the history and the mythology of chocolate. It’s a way of taking our present and fusing it with the past. I want the story to bleed out into the real world, reconnecting our present and future with the past, and that’s why we’re putting together this media initiative. Integrating our history and our myths into our everyday lives and society enriches us in so many ways, spiritually, socially, and culturally, because we know where we’re coming from.

Q: Okay, last question, and it should be an easy one for you. If you could have hot chocolate with anyone from history, who would it be?

A: Lord Cacao for sure! He’s a real historical personage—he ruled Tik’al in 682 AD, and the recipe for his hot chocolate is on the book’s web site. I created a myth involving him, for the story. I’d hope he wouldn’t throw me down a pyramid for that!

Q & A: Pearl Wong

March 7, 2016 by Molly Gore

Every other Monday (most of the time), we’ll introduce you to a member of the Dandelion community through a Q & A. Stay tuned to meet our chocolate makers, café staff, kitchen team, producers, partners, importers, mentors, and everyone who helps make our chocolate possible. This week, we’d like you to meet Pearl, one of our former chocolate makers who took some time off to get deep into every facet of chocolate making and the cacao supply chain last year, and has since returned to help us open in Japan.

Name: Pearl Wong (or PWONG)

Hometown: Trumbull, CT

Job Title: Consultant – Interim Production Manager for Kuramae

Worked at Dandelion since: March 2013 – June 2015 (San Francisco), November 2015-present (Dandelion Japan)

Q: What do you do at Dandelion in Japan?

Seiji, CEO of Dandelion Chocolate Japan, hired me to set up production at Kuramae and train chocolate makers on the Dandelion chocolate making process.

Q: What is your favorite part of what you do?

We temper by hand (using a marble slab) right now because the test batches are too small to go through the Unica. This means everyone really gets to learn what is happening during the tempering process. I thought it would be easiest to learn that if they had to stir and mold the chocolate by hand.

I love tempering – it’s a beautifully complex process and it feels like the chocolate is talking to you about where it’s at and what it needs to be predominantly Form V (the ideal crystal structure that we want the cocoa butter to take). Also, chocolate tastes great when it’s been well-tempered. And I like tasty chocolate.

Q: How does tempering affect the taste of chocolate?

Basically it changes the way the cocoa butter melts in your mouth and therefore how your mouth draws out the flavors, whether it involves a bit more work on your part or just more time. So, how these flavors are perceived will change due to the crystal structure of your tempering. Not to mention a whole ‘nother set of factors like smells, sounds, and other people’s influence. But I find tempering is a factor that gets a little overlooked.

For an analogy – think of a time you had one type of soup. One time you had it fresh and hot. The other time you had it cold the next day because you don’t own a microwave and extra dishes are work. Think about how those two experiences were different or similar!

Q: Cold soup? Ew. What does your typical day look like?

I stroll in around 8:30AM to write up the plan (we start at 9AM); vacuum out the roaster; take lids off the melangers and test batches; taste everything, and the day just flows from there. Every day we do most of the steps in chocolate making even though we’re still mostly at the test batches phase (i.e. 1 kilo batches).

Q: How are the test batches going? Is the process different at all because you’re in Japan?

Well, the overall Dandelion process hasn’t changed – we’re doing a ton of experiments to narrow down the flavor profile of each bean. But the additional work I’m doing here is to figure out our 10 kilo roaster which uses a different heating element and therefore it has changed our roasting style from Valencia. It’s been pretty interesting because I’ve been roasting manually – something we almost never do at Valencia. And I’ve been roasting cacao as though I were roasting coffee (to a bean temperature rather than to a set time). I’ve been really enjoying the learning process of how this roasting style affects the flavor of cacao. I’ve also been able to dial in the roaster a lot better now that I’m working with Camino Verde beans. They are the beans I am most familiar with since I spent 6 weeks on the farm helping to harvest, ferment, and dry them last fall.”

Q: What’s the most challenging thing you’ve confronted in the last month?

The way companies are structured here is a little different, and working within new kinds of hierarchies takes some getting use to mainly because I’m not a hierarchical person at all. There are so many different etiquettes in business you have to observe. Little things always get lost in translation, so learning to manage here is just different.

The 10-kilo US Roaster and now the used Hobart cutter mixer can be mechanically challenging too. So I guess another continually challenging aspect is dealing with equipment that doesn’t behave the way you expect it to and/or breaks down unexpectedly.

Q: But what else is new, right?

True, it’s not really a chocolate factory until everything breaks down at least once or twice, and then on a monthly or weekly basis. Sometimes I wonder if being a good chocolate maker really means being able to troubleshoot and fix up the machines that make the chocolate.

What happens when you don’t give the Hobart cutter mixer a day off? It takes a day off anyway.

Q: Big question: what’s your favorite chocolate?

Ugh this kind of question is tough to answer because it really depends on my mood. But I always love Marou’s bars (Vietnam). Their Treasure Island is my favorite of their line. I think 24Blackbirds (Santa Barbara) makes great two-ingredient chocolate, as does Letterpress Chocolate (LA). Also, Bar au Chocolat (LA) makes beautiful Madagascar and Bahia, Brazil bars, and their packaging is some of the best I’ve seen. Finally, Om Nom (Iceland) is another one of my favorites for their packaging, and their Papua New Guinea bar is great.

From Dandelion? The Madagascar from 2014 and 2012 are my favorites, as are Mantuano and Öko-Caribe 2014. I will always cherish the original Papua New Guinea bar from 2012 which, by the way, I still have a few of, and I think I must be the only one in the world with these bars now. Obviously, the unicorn Camino Verde 70% 2013 bar is a favorite. Too bad it was too thick to temper.

Q: Sorry to interrupt, but I thought I was the only one who hoarded 2012 Papua New Guinea bars. I keep them locked in a golden box buried three miles underground. I love them.

That’s weird, how would you ever get the chocolate out of the ground to eat it? But honestly there are a lot of great bean-to-bar makers out there, so it’s hard to call out just one favorite. It highly depends on what I’m craving that day. And also I’m very picky, so what I really like might not be reflective of other people’s taste preferences. For example, I only named dark chocolate bars above because that’s my go-to chocolate type. I’m highly biased against milk bars, so you shouldn’t trust my opinion on milk chocolate.

Anyway, my point is: always remember that these things are highly subjective to the individual. Find out what you like and stick with it – don’t worry too much about what experts, foodies, or judges tell you are good or bad.

Q: Good advice. Tell me about Kuramae.

Kuramae is a town within Tokyo. It is considered old Tokyo because there haven’t been as much development here, so there aren’t skyscrapers everywhere. The architecture is also quite old in the neighborhood. It’s quiet, mostly residential, but has some neat craftsmen shops and great little restaurants that are owned and operated by just one or two people.

One of my favorite spots is the 500 yen sushi don (sushi rice bowl, like a chirashi) take-out window. They serve fresh sashimi on top of flavorful sushi rice. And did I mention it’s stupid cheap? 500 yen. That’s less than five dollars.

Another favorite is a handmade soba noodle shop that is literally called the soba izakaya (izakaya means pub). I haven’t gotten to try everything on the menu, but I hope to be able to do so before I finish my assignment.

Q: That is stupid cheap. Speaking of things that are not stupid cheap, do you miss San Francisco?

Not at all. I’m surprised how many people are trying to live in the Bay Area right now. It’s kind of crazy considering all the other great and affordable places where you could be living comfortably, instead of fighting for an old apartment/studio lease with 50 other people. And the even better thing is that you can find local coffee roasters and brewers and chocolate makers almost everywhere in the US. I know because I took a road trip across the country last summer and I found all the comforts I enjoyed in San Francisco, elsewhere.

Q: Ok fine, sure, whatever. Just try to change your mind, okay? San Francisco misses you.

Q & A: Kai Heimpel

January 25, 2016 by Molly Gore

Every other Monday, we’ll introduce you to a member of the Dandelion community through a Q & A. Stay tuned to meet our chocolate makers, café staff, kitchen team, producers, partners, importers, mentors, and everyone who helps make our chocolate possible. We took a few weeks off for the holidays but we’re back this week with Kai Heimpel, our R & D Assistant who spends his days rescuing machines in distress.

Name: Kai Heimpel

Hometown: Saarbrücken, Germany

Favorite Chocolate: Omnom Licorice & Sea Salt

Worked at Dandelion Since: March 2015

Position: R & D Assistant

What’s your typical day like?

Well, on a typical day I usually have a project in mind. I get to work and I start to work at the project, but inevitably I’ll find something more urgent, a machine that just broke. I’ll take a look at it, and try and fix it. At some point, I’ll get back to my first project, but not before I get caught up in emails or calling a service person or someone to help. You never know when a machine is going to stop working, so it’s really unpredictable. But that’s what I do: projects. Just not always the ones I counted on that day.

So you spend a lot of time repairing broken things?

Basically. At Valencia, something breaks about every week. Sometimes, chocolate gets stuck in between the granite, the steel, and the Delrin (a food-grade acetal resin). Left long enough, it starts to grind down the Delrin and steel, and even the millstones. So we have to keep all the maintained to keep the machines turning at a similar rate.

Last time I saw you, you were elbow deep in the wiring of the tempering machine.

Well, it breaks all the time. It has a big augur screw on an axle in the back that pumps the chocolate, and it’s held by two bearings. Somehow chocolate got into the ball bearings, and chocolate is the darndest things when it gets into machine parts because it grinds down metal surprisingly quickly.

Wait, chocolate beats metal?

Sometimes you can lose a millimeter a month or something weird.

That’s crazy. So what happened this time?

Are you really interested in hearing about this?

Yes.

Okay. So, the chocolate made the bearing irregular, produced a bunch of heat, and baked the chocolate on. It was black and stinky, and looked like charcoal. I’m actually surprised we didn’t find any diamonds. It was so hard and black that I thought it was a seal, so I was spending half a day on it to get the seal off and then, in a burst of inspiration, I grabbed a spike and chiseled it, and suddenly it broke because it was chocolate! Unbelievable. Now that’s what really excites me.

Can you think of anything more exciting than chiseling baked chocolate off a ball bearing?

No.

Got it. How does San Francisco compare to home?

It’s expensive. And all the streets are straight, it’s confusing. Gas is cheaper and measurements are all in Imperial, which you call Standard, even though it’s not standard anywhere but here. Also there’s Yosemite here and all that. That’s different.

Who is your superhero alterego?

Birdman.

Why?

It was a good movie.

Hmm. If you could be any animal, what would you be?

Is a virus an animal?

No. And why would you want to be a virus?

I’m just checking the perimeters of the question.

Right.

This is a trick question because humans are animals.

That’s irrelevant.

Can I go back to work now?

I guess.

Q & A: Dr. Charles Kerchner, Ph.D

December 14, 2015 by Molly Gore

Name: Dr. Charles Kercher, Ph.D

Title: Chief Troublemaker, Zorzal Cacao

Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts

Current address: Los Cincos de Guinneal

Favorite food: Italian

Q: I hear that Zorzal Cacao started as your Ph.D dissertation. How does that work?

A: It was mostly theoretical, trying to understand how to make conservation efforts for migratory birds more cost effective. You know, trying to answer the question: where is the biggest conservation bang for your buck?

Q: And where is it?

A: Well, conservation is traditionally done with government funding through grants, but those haven’t always been the most sustainable. In general, funding like that has provided about 25% of the real costs needed to finance protected areas in Latin America, and I think the private sector has a really unique opportunity to participate here because instead of surviving on donations, you’re giving and getting. It’s building a relationship.

Q: So, you’re growing cacao on the bird reserve?

A: Yes! About 150 acres of our 1019 are reserved for cacao production, and about 30 of those are in production now. We also buy from cacao farmers who live adjacent to the Reserve and share our conservation goals. And we just completed the construction of fermenting boxes and drying tunnels so so we can process our own cacao…

Q: How do you dry cacao with all that rain you get?

A: Well, we had to develop a few special techniques. We built 18-meter tunnels with big plastic covers and mesh screen beds elevated three feet off the ground inside. We structured the roof in a way that lets humid air escape, and when it’s really rainy, we use artificial drying techniques, powered by our solar panels or propane tanks, that shoots hot air over the beds of cacao. You want the beans to dry quickly enough that they won’t mold, but slowly enough that it lets the residual acetic acid from fermentation dissipate. That’s how you get a nice, chocolatey flavor.

Q: Let’s back up. How did you end up in the Dominican Republic in the first place?

A: Well, I initially came down with the Peace Corps in 2001 with a USAID grant to build fermenting boxes and build out an organic cacao certification program. I was working with farmers at the La Red cooperative, which is going through some restructuring right now. At the end of my Peace Corps service, I remember riding in the back of a red pick-up truck to my village and thinking there was an opportunity to create a business focusing on cacao and conservation. After the Peace Corps, I completed my master’s and doctorate degrees, focusing on conservation economics. Cacao production provides a unique opportunity to protect fragile ecosystems and create jobs for local communities. From a global perspective, there is a strong correlation between the cacao belt around the world (20 degrees North and South of the equator) and biodiversity “hotspots.” Thus, I came back to the Dominican Republic, because there was a unique opportunity to bring my academic knowledge related to conservation finance together with my practical experience in cacao cultivation and create a business. Given my existing connections and the focus on the Bicknell’s thrush, the Dominican Republic was an ideal place.

Q: Okay, now tell me about the birds.

A: It’s cool. The Bicknell’s Thrush is a songbird that migrates from Vermont to the Dominican Republic every year. It’s not the flashiest bird, but it has a beautiful song. It’s a good symbol for the link we’re trying to build between the hemispheres, between the public and private sector, and between business and conservation.

To be honest, it’s also easier to build momentum for a conservation-focused business if you pick a specific species to protect, even though we are really about building and protecting all kinds of biodiversity here.

Ryan Berk (Parliament Chocolate), Nate Hodge (Raaka Chocolate), Liv Ordway (Raaka Chocolate), Charles Kerchner, Greg D’Alesandre (Dandelion Chocolate), Neno (Producer, Zorzal Cacao), and Minda Nicolas (Dandelion Chocolate) visiting the Reserva Zorzal sanctuary last June.

Q: I heard something about a reforestation program too. You’re planting trees? We like trees.

A: Yep. We’re selling carbon credits to the chocolate makers who buy our cacao. The carbon offset project is registered with a third-party carbon standard called Plan Vivo. It is a reforestation project focused on restoration of biodiversity and bird habitat. One credit counts for one tonne of CO2. And everything here is solar powered.

Q: Everything??

Yes, everything. The lights, fans, TV, washer machine, pumps and refrigerator. Well, we need to buy the refrigerator…but we’re getting there.

Q: Sounds rustic. Okay, last question, and it’s a dorky one. If you could have coffee with anyone from history, who would you choose?

A: Eric Clapton, because he’s a rock star.