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A Taste of Belize

December 1, 2016 by Madeline Weeks

Madeline Weeks is a PhD student at UC Davis studying the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of fine flavor cacao and chocolate. Before starting her PhD studies, she spent two months living in Belize and Guatemala interviewing cacao farmers who sell to Maya Mountain Cacao and Cacao Verapaz. Her time volunteering with these two organizations has given her a deeper appreciation for the unique flavors of each country. Below, she tells us about her recent research into the word “terroir.” At Dandelion, we use “terroir” in the same way that the wine industry does, to refer to way the environment around a tree impacts the beans. We don’t generally consider genetics or post-harvest process a part of terroir, but vocabulary is a hot button issue in an industry as new as craft chocolate, and things are always changing. Here, Madeline makes the case that “terroir” in the cacao world could encompass more than it traditionally has.

Cracking open pods in Belize.

Many people think of chocolate as one flavor, just “chocolate.” I did too, until I tasted single origin chocolate for the first time.

After tasting chocolate from different origins, I began to wonder: “Why does chocolate from Belize taste drastically different than chocolate from Guatemala, and how can cocoa beans from the same region taste so different from each other, year to year?” I’d been tasting a lot of chocolate at the Dandelion Chocolate factory, and I like it so much that I started coming in on Saturdays to help the production team sort beans in the bean room. This summer, I travelled down to those same countries to learn more about cacao cultivation and post-harvest processes. In the wine, cheese, and chocolate industry, we talk about “terroir” as the way land and weather influence the taste of something. What I discovered in Belize is that on top of these elements surrounding flavor, there is a web of social and cultural dimensions that may contribute to its nuances. To think about flavor this way is to expand the definition of “terroir” beyond soil, and after my time in Belize, I think it’s a new definition worth considering.

In Belize, my first taste of cacao was the “baba” at the Cacao House, where Maya Mountain Cacao Ltd. (MMC) ferments and dries the cacao. Baba is a thin layer of sticky white pulp that covers the raw beans and aids in flavor development during fermentation. It is incredibly tangy and sweet, like a fusion of flavors from tropical fruits like mango, cherimoya, and lychee. Eating that baba made me feel happy, and so did tasting Belizean cacao in its native environment. I was standing on the soil on which the cacao trees had been grown, I could smell the slightly sweet and slightly sour smell of fermentation, and see the beautiful piles of cacao being dried under the sun.

A cracked open pod revealing the mucilaginous pulp, also called “baba.”

Then I bit into the pulp-covered bean. Beneath the sweetness was an astringency that made me wrinkle my face. The beans did not have the characteristic deep “chocolate” notes that one might expect. I later learned this is because their flavor still needed to develop, and that happens during the post-harvest phases of fermentation, drying, and roasting. Curious to taste how the flavor first begins to develop on the farm, I spent the next couple weeks interviewing and living with ten cacao families that sell to MMC.

It was customary to begin each homestay by sharing a meal with the family. Quite literally, we would eat farm-to-table. A typical meal might consist of jippii-jappa (heart of palm) and wild herbs sautéed with chili pepper flakes, black beans slow-cooked over a wooden stove, and piping hot tortillas made from corn that was freshly ground over stone. All of these foods had been harvested from the farm and transformed into sustenance through a process bordering on alchemy.

: A typical meal of corn tortillas, jippii-jappa, and beans.

: Making tortillas during my homestay with Victor Cho’s family.

Like a chef in the kitchen, each farmer has a different style for cultivating the fruits of his or her labor. Their harvest instruments? Simple to the untrained eye – a machete and a burlap sack. Yet the sharpness of the machete only counts for so much without true knowledge of the craft. One of my homestay hosts, Victor Cho, explained to me that finding the right machete for a person was like matching the right wand to a wizard. The size, weight, and curve must be right for the one who swings it. When we talked, he was still waiting until his adopted son was old enough to teach him how to use the machete on the cacao farm. He also taught me that proper harvesting requires full incorporation of the senses: look, touch, smell, and sometimes even taste to ensure that the pods are ripe. He showed me that unripe pods are like plastic fruits that don’t deliver the full spectrum of flavor, and it reminded me of how my mother had also taught me to smell the ripeness of fruit by incorporating my senses, walking me through the farmers’ market and asking questions about where the food comes from. The passing of knowledge from one generation to the next primes the future generation with a natural sense of quality.

A walk through the cacao farm with Victor Cho.

Either on the farm or back at the house, the harvested pods are cracked open to remove the wet beans covered in baba. These beans are stored in buckets covered with banana leaves to sell to MMC or saved for home consumption. One experience I will never forget is tasting the freshly cut baba with Daniel Coc’s children. Daniel is one of the buyers for MMC and recently started growing cacao alongside the corn on his farm. After three years of waiting, his family had proudly harvested their first pod and were ready to crack it open. As we tasted this cacao together, I was filled with appreciation that they had invited me to share this special moment. Learning to taste began with learning to savor.

: Tasting the delicious sweet baba straight from the pod.

: The first ever harvested cacao pod from Daniel’s farm.

During another homestay, I was treated to a highly traditional way of consuming cacao. Some households keep a portion of their harvest for home consumption by storing these beans in buckets for a few days before rinsing off the baba and leaving the beans to dry on a sun patio. The cacao used for home consumption is often “washed,” as is traditional here, rather than being fully fermented and prepared for export. Francisco Cho had just prepared a spicy cacao drink made with black pepper and invited me to join in savoring a cup with his family. This delicious drink was my first time tasting cacao in traditionally prepared form in Belize and I felt honored to take part in its deeper symbolic meaning. Cacao has been integral to Maya traditions in Central America for thousands of years and to this day is still an energetic drink that invigorates the spirit and brings community together. For me, it was a gesture of welcome on this unfamiliar soil.

A mug of hot chocolate prepared Belizean style with black pepper.

The beans that are sold to MMC go through a different postharvest process than that used for home consumption. Each week the buying team visits the households of hundreds of farming families, one by one, to purchase pounds of freshly harvested, wet cacao. The proceeding postharvest steps bring us back to the Cacao House, where the wet beans are fermented, dried, sorted, and eventually shipped in large containers to chocolate makers like Dandelion. It takes more than a full day of work and three people to make their purchasing rounds, in part because of the distance between communities, and in part because of the poor condition of some roads. These visits are also an important time to build relationships. I was impressed by how Daniel Coc would patiently sit down with each of the families to check in about everything, from squirrels on the farm to the health of the family. Since the buying team is usually the first-point of contact to the farmers, their ability to relate to the communities is a key ingredient in keeping everyone committed to quality.

Selling wet beans to Deon Chavarria, the Buying Director of MMC. He weighs the wet beans, pays the farmers, and loads the beans into trucks to bring to the Cacao House. The banana leaf covering the wet beans helps prevent oxidization.

After spending this time getting to know the families in their home environments, I thought back to my original question: What was it that gives chocolate from Belize its unique flavor? Within the Geography Group at UC Davis, we’ve been looking at this from the perspective of terroir and are working on a forthcoming paper. In the chocolate world, “terroir” can mean a number of things depending on who uses it, from biophysical traits like cacao variety or genetics, and harvest year to cultural dimensions like fermentation and cultivation practices. I personally am finding that there is no single definition, similar to what Kristy Leissle had uncovered about the word “artisan.” In trying to get to the root of terroir, as a means of understanding what makes chocolate taste the way it does, I’ve reflected on what terroir means to me personally.

I see terroir as a web of interconnectedness. Within this web are communities of people, plants, and organisms. Terroir begins in the soil, where a healthy microbiome is essential for nourishing the roots that grow into the food we eat and contributing to the flavor in beans we turn to into chocolate. But terroir is more than just flavor, it is also about the people’s connection to the land and to each other. Terroir tells a story about people and place. As my research journey progresses, my understanding of its complexity will continue to evolve. What I can say, is that the unique flavor of cacao from Belize is a product of terroir in all its dimensions—and that cacao has a miraculous way of bringing people together.

Acknowledgements: This journey would not have been possible without support from many people. I am grateful for the initial planning conversations with Cynthia, Greg, and Molly from Dandelion, Maya and Emily from Uncommon Cacao, and for the in-country field support from the Maya Mountain Cacao Team: Minni, Deon, Daniel, and the ten cacao families from whom I learned tremendously about the taste of cacao in Belize.

You can follow Madeline’s PhD journey and exploration of flavor on Twitter and Instagram: @madelinecacao.

Tastes Good, Feels Good, Must Be Theobroma Cacao!

June 16, 2016 by Adam Kavalier

Adam Kavalier is the founder of Undone Chocolate in Washington D.C., and he also happens to be a plant scientist whom we like to reach out to when we’re trying to understand the compounds in our beans. Here, he explains the mysterious properties of Theobroma cacao, and why a plant would dare to taste so good.

tree2 Many plants are a source of nutrition for humans and animals, but some plants are so much more than just that. Some plants taste better than other plants, and some just feel good to eat. And then there is Theobroma cacao, a special plant at the intersection of those two worlds that tastes as good as it makes us feel. But why, if we look at this from an evolutionary perspective, would a plant create compounds that we like to eat, and more so, that make us feel good? What’s in it for the tree?

As far as plants go, Theobroma cacao is especially, unusually rich in compounds that impact the way humans feel and function. While it wouldn’t seem critical for T. cacao to make polyphenols (antioxidants), methylxanthines (stimulants), or biogenic amines—(the neurotransmitters that are released in the brain when we feel good and are in love)—all of these actually play a major role in the way a plant survives.

Plants produce sugars through their remarkable ability to photosynthesize, combining the sun’s energy with carbon dioxide and water to produce energy to survive. This process is the basic foundation for life, and the reason we are all alive and able to live on this green planet (and enjoy chocolate). The synthesis of sugars and other compounds such as amino acids, DNA, and RNA, gives a plant cells the ability to survive on a primary level. These compounds are therefore referred to as primary metabolites.

A second group of compounds that includes polyphenols, methylxanthines, and biogenic amines, are more indirectly associated with survival. These compounds are referred to as secondary metabolites. Plants are sessile, which means they cannot move like many other organisms, and therefore can more easily fall victim to predators that are looking to eat (in the case of animals), or infect (in the case of bacteria or fungus) them in order to fend for themselves.

It has been well documented for centuries that the difference between a medicine and a poison is often a matter of dosage. Many secondary metabolites are bitter and toxic to small plant predators but, luckily for us, can be medicinal in large mammals such as humans. So, while secondary metabolites can provide a defense system for plants against insect and animal predators, they can provide medicinal benefit to animals large enough in proportion to the dosage. It is known that theobromine (the most abundant methylxanthine in chocolate) can increase good cholesterol, or HDL levels, and the polyphenols in chocolate can have a positive impact on the vascular system which controls blood flow and blood pressure.

Although they can be toxic to small animals and plant diseases, the wonderful compounds in chocolate are incidentally good for human health, and have the added bonus of making us feel good and tasting delicious!

Cheers to healthy and tasty craft chocolate that makes you feel good!

Chocolate in India: A Conversation with Arun Viswanathan

April 26, 2016 by Alex Voynow

Arun Viswanathan is the chocolatier at the helm of Ganache for Da Chocoholics, a chocolaterie out of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. On a sourcing trip to the Coimbatore region in late 2015, Greg, our Chocolate Sourcerer, met Arun. While visiting the U.S. in February, Arun decided to come by our Valencia street location for a few days to learn how we make chocolate from the bean, in the hopes of bringing those skills back to his company in Coimbatore. We caught up with Arun towards the end of his time here to learn more about his business and the chocolate industry in India.

Hi Arun!

Hey!

So, it’s been great to work with you for the past few days on the production floor here. What’s your background, and what do you do in India?

Well, I got my masters in food science and technology from Cornell University, and later I got my second masters in food engineering and marketing in India. Studying food science, I realized there that chocolate is one of the only fields where I get to bring in a lot of science and creativity.

From there I decided I wanted to specialize in chocolates. Then, I was in Bruges, Belgium, where I got certified as a chocolatier, making bonbons, truffles, and pralines. I worked in a store called The Chocolate Line, run by Dominique Persoone—one of the best [chocolatiers] in Belgium. So then I got back to India, and started my own company—Ganache for Da Chocoholics. We opened our first store in June last year, and now we plan to expand to other cities in India.

What kind of chocolate do you make?

Basically we’re working on the Indianization of Belgian chocolates.

What does that mean?

If you look into a box of our chocolates, you would find flavors like saffron, lemon and pepper, Madras filter coffee, which is like a South Indian delicacy, Gulabi Lassi, which is a rose petal-based product. We also do international flavors like Wasabi, and now we work with farmers in India to help them develop good quality cocoa which we intend to use over time.

What is your relationship with the farmers?

In the global market, Indian farmers are slowly getting recognized for growing cacao, and we would like to one day soon make a single-origin chocolate from Indian cocoa. We’re building a factory now where we want to produce Indian bean-to-bar chocolates.

Have you found a difference between Americans’ taste and the Indian palate? Is there a culture of bean-to-bar chocolate making there?

The American market and Indian market are similar in one way: they both like sweet and milk chocolate, but dark chocolate is definitely surging in popularity in both countries, possibly because the health benefits of dark chocolate are more well-known now. I would say we expect the Indian market in five years to be where the U.S. chocolate market is today—supporting the small batch bean-to-bar chocolate makers, and our chocolate.

Right now you’re selling to people in Coimbatore, which is your home base. Are you selling anywhere else?

Also in Chennai. But we’re planning a franchising model, and we have a factory coming up. Once we have more production capacity, we will be selling it in those two cities plus Bangalore. The factory will also be in Coimbatore, right near all the cocoa farms. We can use all the fresh produce from the farms, which after learning here [at Dandelion], fresh cocoa makes the chocolate taste a lot better.

Bean-to-bar chocolate is so different from the way chocolate has been made for decades. Are there people where you’re from that are skeptical of your chocolate business?

Yes—people are sometimes a little bit skeptical about whether I should be planning for a trend that won’t be existing in the very near future. But from what I’ve noticed, there’s been a really good response so far. We’re coming up with a lot of new concepts and plans, and it’s definitely just the beginning of what we want to do. So someday, we hope to enter the American market. We also started doing workshops for people in India on chocolate, and I’ve also done a chocolate workshop at Cornell University.

For those who want to make chocolate in India, what are the difficulties that you and others face?

First of all, it’s the market. We have to educate every customer on why the chocolates we make are expensive. So once they understand that, and taste it, they really enjoy it. I wouldn’t really call it an issue, it’s just hard work. Another problem is the sourcing of the cocoa, and specifically the licensing of it. Because it’s a new market, it can be hard to understand how licensing and exporting works, or what laws we need to follow. In terms of bean-to-bar in India, there isn’t really anyone to look up to, so we really have to rely on Google. Other than that, there aren’t really any problems, just huge potential. There’s a huge population who have travelled well, been educated abroad, and who want to taste good products.

You’ve been spending some time at Dandelion, do you have any favorite bars here?

I really like the Zorzal, and I think Madagascar was good too. I’ve eaten so much chocolate here that it’s hard to know what’s what. There was one that I really, really liked, I forget which one though.

Was it Guatemala?

Yes! Guatemala is my favorite. So Guatemala, Zorzal, Madagascar. 1, 2, 3.

It’s been really fun to work with you. What was it like working at Dandelion for a minute?

I’ll put it this way: In India, there’s this grandmother’s philosophy that says when you’re happy in the kitchen, the food always tastes good. I think that comes through a lot in your chocolate. On the production team, I couldn’t see a single face who didn’t enjoy what they were doing. I definitely think that’s one of the main reasons why the chocolate tastes so good. You guys have so much fun here, I don’t know if i’ve had as much fun as I’ve had here in my own factory! I feel like it’s a huge part of your success.

Well gee. I think we do genuinely have fun on the production floor, and it really feels like we’re a team. It’s special that you actually noticed it! Thanks for taking some time to sit down with me.

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.

Why I Teach My Students About Chocolate

February 26, 2016 by Kristy Leissle

This week, we’re delighted to welcome a guest post from Kristy Leissle, or as some may know her, Doctor Chocolate. Dr. Leissle earned a PhD from the University of Washington by studying chocolate in 2008, and a few years later, came to visit us when we were still just a few folks sorting beans in a Palo Alto garage. Here, she tells us about a class she teaches at UW Bothell concerning a certain subject you’ve probably already guessed by now.

Photo by Marc Studer, UW Bothell Photographer (L337)

“You teach a class on chocolate?”

I hear the question often. The tone is vaguely incredulous—though usually inflected with, “How can I enroll?”

I’ve taught Chocolate: A Global Inquiry at the University of Washington Bothell since 2010. While I teach across Global Studies and African Studies, I am pretty sure I was hired for my proposal for this class. Looking back on my job interview now, I realize how unusual a hiring decision it was.

UW Bothell is one of only a few universities that has interdisciplinarity at its foundation, which means that instead of relying on one discipline (say, anthropology or biology), we combine many different research methods to understand a subject. This, I think, is perfect for studying chocolate. Food is multi-dimensional, and chocolate particularly so.

During research for my dissertation in 2005, I started looking at why West Africa—where I conducted most of my doctoral fieldwork—has a limited market for chocolate, even though the region produces about 70% of the world’s cocoa. To understand this, I had to study the political economic forces that shaped industrialization in the region, as well as regional food culture. Knowing about factory capacity to make chocolate wasn’t enough; I had to know too whether people wanted to eat it. I found that while there was not much of a sweets culture among Ghanaian cocoa farmers, they still wished they could access and afford chocolate⎯its lack was a sign, to them, of their own material poverty.

For my PhD, I studied chocolate using ethnography, history, political economy, and cultural studies. When I started teaching Chocolate: A Global Inquiry at UW Bothell, I introduced my students to interdisciplinary thinking as well. We studied complex questions like, “Is chocolate a health food?” In this case, I wanted them to grapple with the popular idea that chocolate is high in antioxidants.

Our first approach was to look at the actual nutritional studies that found chocolate to be high in antioxidants. But then we backtracked: why do we believe this invisible particle—an antioxidant—is the key to our good health? For this, we read Michael Pollan’s account of “nutritionism,” which is the idea that any food equals the sum of its parts—calories, vitamins—as opposed to seeing it as a whole, complex thing. To better understand nutritionism, we delved into history, and considered other ways that humans have understood food. We haven’t always reduced it to a calorie count!

But even this wasn’t enough to answer the health question. We also had to consider the politics of information. For example, who or what institutions funded the studies that showed chocolate to be high in antioxidants? What might have been their agenda in supporting that science? And what other aspects of chocolate might have been left out of those studies? It’s a rabbit hole, really. One of the coolest aspects of interdisciplinarity is that it allows for complex answers to complex questions. But the answers typically lead to more questions.

With every academic quarter lasting only ten weeks, I had to draw some boundaries. But they were wide. My syllabus began with history, then moved through chocolate manufacture; supply chain economics; global politics; industrial biographies; advertising and marketing; health; labor ethics; and trade justice.

One of my favorite sections looked at how books and films present chocolate as a socio-cultural thing, giving it meaning beyond food. We watched Chocolat to study chocolate’s symbolism in struggles between good and evil. We read excerpts from Harry Potter, considering why J. K. Rowling chose chocolate as cure for a dementor attack, which sucks all happiness out of the human soul. And, of course, we studied chocolate advertisements.

The most provocative of these were from a series by Divine Chocolate, which ran in the UK. The ads feature women farmers from the Fairtrade certified cooperative in Ghana, Kuapa Kokoo, which supplies cocoa for Divine. Each of the women is smartly dressed, standing in a powerful pose and holding a piece of chocolate. As such, they look totally different from virtually every other image we see in the US of black African women, who are usually shown as impoverished, or, at best, as the beneficiaries of Western aid. But these women look nothing like that. My students had long and challenging discussions about why seeing a black African woman cocoa farmer looking sexy and powerful, holding chocolate, was so startling and—in many cases—unbelievable to them.

These images appeared in the Journal of African Cultural Studies (2012) 24:2. Original images were reprinted with permission from Divine Chocolate. Photograph by Freddie Helwig and St. Luke’s advertising agency.

We were examining chocolate through critical political, historical, and ethnographic lenses, but I soon realized I wanted to incorporate the experience of chocolate into my class. I had the idea after watching visitors mindfully tasting samples at the Northwest Chocolate Festival, where I served for four years as the Director of Education.

I made changes to my syllabus that were quite unconventional, from an academic perspective. I incorporated regular tastings, using generous donations from chocolate makers. My students created flavor profiles, learned to identify different manufacturing methods, and used synesthetic language to describe flavor and texture. Eventually, I reached a point where every lesson had a tasting component.

I also radically changed my assessment. When I began teaching Chocolate: A Global Inquiry, I felt I had to be very serious about it, to counter expectations that it was a “soft” option. I administered brutal examinations, including a giant, multiple-choice final for which a 100% score was all but impossible.

As I worked on the Northwest Chocolate Festival, though, and watched craft makers educate visitors, I thought—my students could do that. So I did away with the multiple-choice exam and announced that the final would be a festival. Each student would select a chocolate that was “teach-able”—had some interesting feature—and sample it at his or her booth as starting point for discussion. They would create a flavor profile, advertisement, and poster, and talk about those too. We held the festival in our classroom. I sent out a campus email announcement and wondered if anyone would come. I told my students that if no one came, they could just visit each other’s booths.

IAS Part Time Lecturer Kristy Leissle's class hosts the UW Bothell's first annual Chocolate Festival. The festival seeks to serve, educate, and explore the world of global chocolate.

Photo by Marc Studer, UW Bothell Photographer (L337)

Well, about half the University of Washington Bothell turned up. We wrote questions on slips of paper that visitors could ask—but would never think to ask—my students. The enthusiasm was astonishing: visitors clutching questions and rushing from booth to booth, excited to be learning about chocolate. Meanwhile, my students, who had now assumed the role of expert, realized that they could teach.

Photo by Marc Studer, UW Bothell Photographer (L337)

Chocolate: A Global Inquiry requires a lot of work that most of my classes do not, from soliciting donations to prepping samples to planning the festival. But it is also one of the most gratifying. I often hear from former students, who tell me they cannot buy or taste chocolate without thinking about something they learned in our class. It’s the nicest thing, to hear that teaching matters to real life. What instructor could ask for more?

Go, Sarah, Go!

January 6, 2016 by The Dandelion Team

Two and a half years ago, Sarah Hartman joined the Dandelion team as an intern in the hopes of starting her own chocolate company. From day one, we could tell that she shared the same passion about chocolate as we do. Sarah was the kind of intern you dream about, no job was too small; from bean sorting to tempering, she wanted to learn every detail of the chocolate making process. Sarah is from Brazil, and some of our favorite memories of her time here are the chances we had to introduce her to the fine things American has to offer, like line dancing and “hump day” (the explanation for which we left in the hands of this Geico commercial). Her giant smile and zest for life made working with her a dream and we were sad to see her go after a few months, but excited to see where she would go next.

A few weeks ago, we were thrilled to see Sarah and her husband, Colin Hartman, launch their own project, Harper Macaw. Their chocolate factory is located in Washington, D.C., and focuses on Brazilian cacao that works directly to help conserve the Brazilian rainforest. Harper Macaw partners with local conservation groups to reinvest in the expansion of Reserva Serra Bonita, a rainforest conservation initiative. Much like Dandelion, the factory also practices direct trade, and makes an effort to travel to each farm and form close relationships with producers in order to ensure the highest quality beans and a fair price for the farmers. We are so proud of you, Sarah, and hope to visit your factory soon!

If you are interested in learning more or buying some chocolate, please visit their website.

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.

Advent Calendar!

November 10, 2015 by Todd

For information about our 12 Nights of Chocolate, including tickets, click here.

Since the earliest days of Dandelion, we’ve always dreamed of having an advent Calendar to count down the days until Christmas. Opening up the small doors and finding a little treat was a special part of our childhoods. This year, we were finally able to make this dream a reality with the help of our friends. Designed by the talented Yvonne Mouser and featuring confections made by our very own chef, Lisa Vega, and our friends at Poco Dolce, Le Dix-Sept, Kika’s Treats, Nosh This, and Feve, we are proud to announce the first ever San Francisco Pop-up Advent Calendar.

Pre-sales start today for shipping on November 23rd. We’ve made a limited set of 300 and they are available for $150 in our online store.