“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” ~~Dolly Parton
I owe my chocolate career to a single lightbulb moment of staring into a barrel of cocoa beans and having a flavor revelation all because of a lifelong love for baking. I stared, saw beans, and realized, There’s not just one flavor of chocolate.
That idea~~chocolate is a flavor diversity~~was ground-shaking to me, having been long misled into seeing chocolate as “just chocolate.” Not just in the grocery store, but sadly, even despite my pursuit of baking as a possible livelihood (pastry school) and a short-lived career working for a cranky once-famous pastry chef. I’d been around a lot of chocolate. I’d stuffed it into cookies, whirled it into cakes and brownies, licked the melted bits from my morning break hot-from-the-rack croissant.
Nobody ever said, not once, that chocolate flavor reflects the everythingness of origin, cultivation, genetics, post-harvest tending, fermentation.
I’ve noted earlier that offering baking chocolate and couverture (two different products! the former needs to be tempered to hold shape during baking, the later is typically melted and requires a higher % of cocoa fat) was baked into my business model at Map. Baking with my own chocolate was a surprising joy, and if you love something, that’s a good reason to foist it on the world right? The couverture paid the bills, and is one part “I don’t have to temper this giant block” and another part, getting the word about craft chocolate out into the world. Something to consider: bars aren’t the only path.
If you missed it, I shared some thoughts here:
That post inspired me to embark on what I assumed would be a very easy path that I dubbed The Great Craft Baking Chocolate Experiment. My plan was that I’d buy craft baking chocolate, test it by using it as a home baker or small bakery owner might experience it: open the bag or box, sneak a nibble from the bag or block, if it’s a block how easy (or not) it is to chop, and from a baker’s perspective see how it performs in a baked cookie (keeps it shape vs melts), plus the tasting feedback.
I went into detail in Part One:
A quick re-cap of the experiment
For each of the three categories
I’m purchasing craft chocolate specifically labeled as baking chocolate,
baking a batch of chocolate chip cookies with each product using my trusted recipe (minus the walnuts and espresso I always add),
offering a cookie to four different people accompanied with a short questionaire
The questions (aka reviews) were:
Can you taste the chocolate?
How would you describe how the chocolate tastes?
Do you like it in the cookie?
If yes/no, why?
My tasters were:
Someone who eats craft chocolate on a regular basis,
a plant-based-only home baker,
someone who never eats craft chocolate,
a baker who works with a variety of chocolate products and makes a range of pastries
The issues I encountered (why it wasn’t as easy as I’d imagined):
For medium and small it’s hard to find, mostly only online. I searched and searched. I found ONE small craft maker offering it. Possibly other small makers don’t offer online sales, or just sell it locally.
Pricing is a giant leap of faith and if ordering online, the price + shipping makes a batch of chocolate chip cookies cost more than grass-fed steak. The leap from Big Craft to Medium Craft was huge, namely because of the bag size (over a pound; why?) This points to at least one question: is craft chocolate “just” for folks with disposable income? For Dandelion the answer is yes. They’re in techlandia (San Francisco) with lots of tourists and where the average zip code has a net worth over $450,000 per resident. I couldn’t bring myself to pay the price that two of the medium-sized makers asked (exactly the same…? kinda odd), and was happy the small maker offered small-sized options (it’s smart marketing).
The reviewers provided the comments, I provided the baker’s view. Note the %, and form, vanilla (I personally don’t consider this addition a positive), not just the ranking. For info on the size/categories refer to the link to Part One.
I’ve included the Medium Group even though I didn’t test them, and also, the only small batch maker I found who was selling something resembling baking chocolate (labeled as snacking chocolate). I chose an origin I’m not fond of (!) to avoid bias.
Congratulations to Harvest Craft Chocolate! Their snacking chocolate chunks were wonderful (I recommend they market them for baking). The response was “wow” and a discussion about “finally, flavor!” instigated by the taster/reviewer who never ever buys craft chocolate, a lesson unto itself. This person was the most hesitant to take part, and came away a true craft believer. As I wrote earlier, I chose the Costa Rica option because #notafan but now I can’t say that, because the astringency I’ve come to expect from this origin was non-existent. Full disclosure: I am excited about the results (a) because small batch received the highest reviews but also (b) (the tasters did not know), Elizabeth is a Next Batch community member. I hope that is inspiration!
Friendly FYI
Saturday the paid subscription fee changes. Paid subscriptions give access to the upcoming workshops and classes, maker interviews/lessons, alllll the things.
If you’ve already become a paid subscriber your’e all set :) If you’re a free subscriber, you can use the button to upgrade. If you’re reading this on mobile, ya gotta get to a computer (it’s a payment processor security measure).
This is a long-ish post, so if it’s cut off in your email the full version can be found on substack.
Happy cacao trails,
Mackenzie
WOW, no way!! 😵 <-- my face when I saw little old Harvest Chocolate! I had no idea but wow, I am so happy it was enjoyed! Full transparency, we’ve had a LOT of trial and error with this bean and it has by far been the hardest for us to work with. So happy it baked up so well, thank you thank you thank you! 🫘 🍫🥰♥️
I am not surprised, they have the best chocolate and so happy that they are close by.