Congratulations Askinosie Chocolate on 5 Years

Shawn Askinosie with a Cacao Tree

When I opened Chocolopolis four years ago, there were a handful of artisan craft chocolate makers who created chocolate from the bean in very small batches. Askinosie was one of them. At that time, the bean-to-bar movement was so new that the one year of experience Askinosie had under its belt qualified as an eternity in the world of micro batch chocolate making. While there are many new artisan craft chocolate makers that have popped up in the ensuing five years, Askinosie is a well-tested veteran with a unique approach that deserves to be singled-out and celebrated on their fifth anniversary.

What is that unique approach? Askinosie only buys cacao directly from cacao farms. While it doesn't sound revolutionary, it is.

The large players in the mass market chocolate category buy cacao on the bulk market through many layers of middle men, usually having no direct relationship with the farmers. Each layer in this vast chocolate supply chain takes its cut of the value of the cacao, leaving very little profit for the farmer. The farmers do not receive a price premium for producing better quality cacao, so they have no incentive to improve fermentation or drying techniques. This results in poor quality cacao that is not attractive to artisan craft chocolate makers.

Artisan craft chocolate makers search for quality. They look for cacao from flavorful genetic varietals that have been well fermented and dried. They learn about the farms, the farmers and the production practices before they purchase cacao from a particular farm. They pay a minimum of 2-3x the bulk market commodity price for cacao when they find something of quality, far more than fair trade pays. While they might have conversations with a particular farmer about his practices, they'll often employ a broker when it comes time to cut a check. Not all of them purchase directly from the farmer.

There are many practical reasons for this, so I'm not in any way faulting other artisan bean-to-bar makers. It's just reality. If you're searching for the best quality cacao and you can't buy container-load quantities, you're often limited to purchasing from cooperatives or from larger cacao importers. When you do find a small producer of great cacao, sending a check directly in the mail to a cacao farmer in a country with little infrastructure can be a risky strategy. While there are individual instances where this can work, it doesn't happen in every situation. So you can see why it would be difficult for a chocolate maker to only purchase cacao directly from farmers in every situation.

That's what makes Askinosie so unique. While many chocolate makers start their chocolate making process with the cacao, Askinosie Founder, Shawn Askinosie, begins his chocolate-making process with the farmers. He looks for farmers who are willing to listen to feedback on fermentation and drying practices. He visits each farm before purchasing their cacao, and he shares 10% of his profits from each bar with its respective cacao farm, giving the farmers A Stake in the Outcome. His message of doing good for the farmers comes through loud and clear on all of his packaging, with pictures of the farmers on the bars. Askinosie Chocolate is good chocolate that's good for the farmers. It's the best of both worlds.

On its fifth anniversary, it seemed appropriate to celebrate Askinosie's unique success in the craft chocolate world. Congratulations to the entire Askinosie team and their partner farmers on five successful years!

Happy chocolate tasting,
Lauren
Chief Chocophile

Bar of the Week: Askinosie's Davao

Our bar of the week is the dark Davao from Missouri-based Askinosie Chocolate.   Made from trinitario cacao grown in the Philippines, this 77% dark chocolate is the first Filipino single-origin bar.  It's yet another chocolate milestone from the trailblazers at Askinosie! 

By looking up the "choc-o-lot" number stamped on each bar on the Askinosie website, you can learn more about the timeline and formulation of a particular bar.  Askinosie constantly tinkers with its formulas to achieve a consistent product based on inconsistent natural ingredients. In the spirit of full disclosure, Askinosie notes that the current batch of 77% Davao includes 1% of cocoa butter made from the same Davao beans; the other 23% is organic sugar.  

Each Askinosie wrapper is adorned with a photo of the lead farmer responsible for the cacao inside.  The Davao bar features the smiling face of Peter Cruz.  These personal touches are a nod to Askinosie's close and direct relationship with the farming communities that grow its cacao. 

The Davao bar has won rave reviews, with tasters hailing its intensity and richness, and some comparing its fruity depths to those present in a well-aged red wine. 

Stop by for a sample of Askinosie's Davao on Saturday August 21st. 

Bar of the Week: Askinosie's San Jose Del Tambo

We're kicking off Ecuador Month with Askinosie's San Jose Del Tambo bar, a 70% dark chocolate made from Ecuadorian Ariba beans.

Missouri-based Shawn Askinosie is a former criminal defense lawyer with a unique and uncompromising approach to making chocolate.  He eschews vanilla and emulsifiers, using organic cane sugar, goat milk, and cocoa butter pressed from the same cacao that goes into each bar. While not certified either fairtrade or organic, Askinosie works closely with farmers and discourages the use of pesticides.  The company only buys beans from farmers (not from brokers), pays above market prices, and has instituted a program through which a portion of profits are returned to individual farmers. 

For the choco-curious, Askinosie's products offer a lot of fascinating extras.  Each bar is stamped with a "Choc-o-lot" batch number; enter it into the website to get a dated synopsis of all of the steps that go into making a particular bar.  Each Askinosie bar's wrapper is also decorated with the photograph of a farmer who grew the cacao. The San Jose Del Tambo bar features Vitaliano Saravia, the lead farmer of this 200-year-old plantation in the Andean foothills.

Stop by on Saturday, May 1st, to sample some of this deliciously ethical dark chocolate.

Don't let your biases get in the way of tasting chocolate

For our seventh Anniversary Month celebration in July, we hosted a chocolate "bracket" among sixteen bars from our craft chocolate collection. Similar to a NCAA basketball tournament or a NFL Football season, we arranged the sixteen bars into brackets, and customers could submit "fantasy brackets" in advance of the competition. The most perfect fantasy bracket, as judged by me, the Chief Chocophile, won a Golden Ticket entitling him or her to a free bar of chocolate every week for a year. The stakes were high!

For the next eight Thursdays, our weekly chocolate happy hours featured blind tastings of the competing bars in a particular bracket. Any customers who came to happy hour had the chance to taste the bars and vote for two of their favorites, with the winners moving on to the next round. We handed out ballots as customers came in the door so that each person only received one ballot (no stuffing the ballot box!), and we were careful to cut the tasting pieces small enough so that customers would have a difficult time recognizing the brands just by the appearance of the bars. There were even times I had difficulty figuring out which bar was which just by taste.

Before I provide observations and thoughts about tasting biases, I'd like to congratulation Shawn

Shawn Askinosie

Askinosie and the team at Askinosie Chocolate! A job very well done! Not only does Askinosie make fantastic chocolate, they work directly with cacao farms to create some of the most meaningful cacao sourcing I've witnessed. Make sure to read about "Shawnie" Askinosie's recent sourcing visit to Tanzania as told by a cacao farmer himself for chocolatenoise.com.

While I've always enjoyed this bar from Ecuador, it's gotten better over the years. I often found myself surprised by how much I liked this bar during the blind tastings.  While I didn't know what bar it was during the tasting, I knew when tallying up the votes, and, frankly, was often surprised that I'd voted for it over some of its competitors. And this didn't happen just once. It happened over and over again.

Today I got together with my team of mathematicians to crown the winner of the chocolate fantasy bracket league. As we reviewed the fantasy brackets, it was fascinating to see what people thought would move forward to each round and to the finals. It was a good reminder to not let your tasting biases get in the way.

What do I mean by that?

While the bars in our collection are all good chocolate, they are a craft product that is different every time. While one batch of a particular origin by a particular chocolate maker may be excellent, the next may not be quite what you remember.

It might be that the next cacao harvest wasn't as good as the last, or that the chocolate maker is experiencing more humidity or heat than usual, or any number of other things.

It could also be that the batch is much better than what you remember. Perhaps the chocolate maker received a particularly good batch of cacao or has gotten better at chocolate making with time and experience.

Your taste buds aren't the same every time, either. What you've eaten, the time of day and your mood can affect how you taste chocolate.

Pretty packaging can also get in the way of your taste buds. Much as I'd like to say packaging doesn't matter, I think it does, even subconsciously. When I've been asked by new craft chocolate makers about how to go about putting their bars on the market, I always tell them packaging is important. While some in the industry may think I'm being too commercial in providing this advice, my experience is that it affects peoples' perceptions of the taste of the chocolate.

What to do about biases? Unless you're able to have someone set up a blind tasting for you on a regular basis, it's hard to avoid them. I recommend tasting a group of chocolates together rather than one at a time. I become a much tougher judge of taste and texture when there's a group of different chocolate makers for comparison. The comparison helps me get around any packaging and brand biases (e.g., "I know I like this bar because I've always liked this bar").

Don't write off a bar forever if you don't love it the first time. Wait awhile and try it again. Sometimes a new batch can do the trick.

Bar of the Week: Askinosie Soconusco Nibble Bar

Region: Inclusion using beans from Mexico
Bean Type: Trinitario
Cocoa Content: 75%

In a city recently named one of the ten worst places to raise a family in America, the same city that is trying to escape its lynching past, Springfield, Missouri now has something to be proud of - Askinosie Chocolate. The driving force behind the company is founder and chocolate maker, Shawn Askinosie, and he has a whopper of a tale to tell. If you've ever dreamed of a midlife career change this is the story for you. Shawn began his career with a degree in political science and a high paying job as a criminal defense lawyer. Along with that job came many awards, as well as a number of death threats, and the latter convinced him to consider pursuing his passion for chocolate. Making chocolates and truffles is one thing, but taking the time to learn how to create chocolate from the bean is a whole different challenge, especially when you tell your family that you want to leave your high paying position to focus on your new hobby full-time. A trip to the Amazon Rain Forest to study post harvest techniques and some time with a Master Chocolate Maker in Ecuador helped get Shawn up to speed, and a few (thousand) tests later the finished products began to emerge.

The 70% Soconusco Nibble Bar is one of the four Askinosie products that we currently carry. The Nibble portion of the name refers to the crushed cocoa beans that are sprinkled over the back of the bar to give the chocolate a nut-like crunch.

Fun Fact: Shawn puts two hidden references to his family on the packaging for his bars. The 1-2-3 is a secret message to his wife and the toot-toot is a nod to his daughter.

Back in Stock...

Our shelves are well-stocked this week with new shipments from Amedei, Askinosie and Dolfin.

As our featured maker of the month it's only fitting that we brought back two of the bars that make Amedei one of the finest chocolate makers in the world, the Chuao from Venezuela and the "9" bar whose name is taken from it's blend of nine beans from around the world. Also on hand is the Bianco Con Pistacchi, a delicious white chocolate blend studded with Bronte pistachios.

Another option on the white chocolate front is Askinosie's single-origin San Jose Del Tambo white bar, made with the unique addition of goat's milk powder. This isn't your traditional white chocolate bar and we have plenty of samples for anyone who would like a taste. For those that like a little crunch in their chocolate we have Askinosie's white bar with salted pistachios and one with cacao nibs.

Our inclusion section is bursting with bars blended with everything from passion fruit to pink peppercorns, and Dolfin brings two flavored milk chocolate bars to the mix. The first is a blend of 32% milk chocolate and sencha green tea from Japan, while the Hot Masala bar is spiced with ginger, black pepper, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon.

In the truffle case we've brought back the pineapple and coconut confections by Norman Love as well as one new treat, a peanut butter ganache blended with Swiss milk chocolate.

With all of the options available in our store we know that one bar is never enough, and that's why we're developing a frequent customer card to reward you for your business. The actual card is still in the works but we'll let you know as soon as it's available.

Aisles and aisles of chocolate

Ina Garten at the Fancy Food Show

Close your eyes and imagine this. Five football fields full of cheese, olives, oils, sauces and chocolate. The Barefoot Contessa sitting at a booth radiating her warm smile and waiting to meet you, cupcakes in hand. Rick Bayless sauteing samples of his chicken in roasted garlic and chipotle tomato sauce and arranging them on a tortilla just for you.

This is how I spent last Sunday and Monday, sampling the latest creations of the world's culinary experts at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York. Open to retailers, distributors and importers, the Fancy Food Show is the trade show to the gourmet industry, and it's a sensory experience to behold. As a veteran, I expertly walked past the blue cheese, the spice-infused olives and the warm cupcakes and nibbled on many samples of chocolate. I hit chocolate saturation pretty quickly, but I soldiered on like a chocolate veteran.

While others might be taking photos with Rick Bayless, I was more excited to meet Francois Pralus, Marc Cluizel and Maricel Presilla, pillars of the world chocolate community. I came home with a camera full of photos of me with the chocolate glitterati, an album only a chocolate geek would appreciate.

Me w/Marc Cluizel and Art Pollard (Amano)

Choco-celebrity meetings included an evening choctail reception at Michel Cluizel's boutique on Fifth Avenue with Michel Cluizel's son, Marc Cluizel, a great guy.

Stopping at Amano's booth for another taste of Art Pollard's newest single-origin bar from the famed Chuao cooperative. I promised Art we'd have the bar available for Amano's tasting event at Chocolopolis during our anniversary week so our customers can weigh in on this limited edition bar. Stop by Monday, July 13 between 4:30 and 6:30 to try some Amano chocolate!

Hanging out with Francois Pralus

Talking cacao with Francois Pralus at his booth on the France aisle as he loaded me up with samples of his fondue, giandujia and barre infernale (which really is infernal).

Meeting Santiago Peralta, the founder of Ecuadorian chocolate company, Pacari, and being interviewed by the Trade Office of Ecuador at his booth.

Me w/Shawn Askinosie and Kesha Alexander

Finally meeting Shawn Askinosie and hearing about his upcoming trip to Tanzania with students of his Chocolate University. His Cocoa Honors students chose a village in Tanzania as the origin of cacao beans for Askinosie's next chocolate bar, and they raised money to fund the drilling of a deep-water well for the village.

Taste testing Joan Coukos' new line of milk chocolate confections for Chocolat Moderne and sharing a drink with her at a great, neighborhood Greek restaurant she's been frequenting for almost 20 years.


I've got so many stories from my NYC travels, I had to break this up into 3 posts. Next up, geeking out on chocolate at the Fine Chocolate Industry Association event before the Fancy Food Show.

Happy chocolate tasting,
Lauren Adler
Chief Chocophile

Bar of the Week: Askinosie's Tanzanie

What do a model volcano, a colonial settlement diorama, and our current bar of the week have in common? 

They're all school projects. 

Askinosie's 72% dark chocolate Tenende bar was developed by students of the Chocolate University, aSpringfield, MO program that introduces high school students to the inner workings of socially responsible small business.  Generous sponsorship allowed thirteen Chocolate University students to travel to Tanzania, where they met face-to-face with Perce Kyeja, head of the UWATE group of cacao farmers.  The collaboration culminated in the Tenende bar and a wrapper featuring Kyeja's photo.

Tenende is a mild dark chocolate with notes of earth and herbs and a sweetness that recalls dried cherries.  Come try a sample on Saturday, August 6th. 

What do Fairtrade & Direct Trade Have to Do with Quality?

One of the biggest challenges the artisan chocolate community faces is perception. Consumers have perceptions around many of the issues that define artisan chocolate, such as the monikers for "fair trade" and "direct trade". What do these terms mean? It depends upon whom you ask. They are complex issues that are not easily reduced to a sound byte.

And that's the problem.These terms often end up reduced to a label used for marketing hype. I can't blame the marketers. The issues are complex and messy. They don't make an easy story for marketing purposes. Unfortunately, when reduced to a simple moniker, such as "fair trade", they often take on perceived meanings that may not be entirely accurate. I thought it would be useful to provide some thoughts on how fair trade and direct trade affect the cacao industry. Since fair trade and direct trade are meaty topics that would fill many pages, I'm going to provide a few high-level examples from recent conversations I've had with experts on these topics.


Let's start with fair trade. As Dr. Kristy Leissle (a.k.a., Dr. Chocolate) pointed out at our recent Serious Chocolate Talk ("Is my chocolate bar Fair, Direct or Free?"), one of the challenges with the formalized certification body, Fair Trade International (aka, "FLO"), is that there are dozens of pages of administrative, environmental, economic and other rules that members must follow to earn the label of Fairtrade certified. The administration of these rules is something that's put together by chocolate consuming countries (e.g., developed nations) and imposed upon cacao producing countries that have little to no infrastructure. Dr. Leissle points out that FLO has done a lot to raise awareness of the plight of farmers growing agricultural commodities in the Third World. It has not, however, been the economic revolution it purports to be.

Fairtrade certification can be expensive and logistically difficult to maintain, and in most situations it does not provide incentives for the farmer to produce quality cacao. The current $200 per metric ton Fairtrade premium is typically used to fund development projects at the village level, such as installing water pumps or digging wells. These projects do benefit farmers, but they are not explicitly intended to improve cacao quality and have nothing to do with growing fine flavor strains.

By contrast, many of the small-batch chocolate makers pay 2-3x the world market rate for cacao, and they usually purchase more directly from the farmer. For some prized cacao, they're often paying much more than 2-3x the world market rate. The current bulk market commodity price for cacao is approximately $2,450 per metric ton (as of August 20, 2012). Isn't it in the farmer's benefit to receive $4,900 per metric ton (2x $2,450) for growing a fine flavor strain than it is for them to receive $2,600 ($2,400+$200 Fairtrade premium) per metric ton of bulk cacao?

But it's not just the farmer who benefits. Chocolate eaters benefit as well. Paying the farmers a premium for quality creates incentive for them to continue to produce quality varietals of cacao using excellent fermentation techniques. This results in some darn good chocolate.

So what, exactly, is direct trade? Not surprisingly, it depends upon whom you ask. Unlike Fairtrade, there is no certification body for direct trade. There are many different examples of what I'd consider direct trade. For me, it comes down to stated principles that provide the farmer with incentives to produce quality cacao and leave him or her with more of the profits, eliminating layers of middlemen. There are many different ways to accomplish this in the complex world of cacao sourcing. I offer a few as examples.

I'll start with a brief mention of Askinosie Chocolate, whose purchasing practices I discussed in more detail in another blog post. Askinosie develops relationships with farmers, purchases cacao directly from them and shares 10% of profits with them. That's about as direct as it gets.

Taza Chocolate, a small-batch American chocolate maker, purchases 90% of its cacao from a cooperative in the Dominican Republic called La Red. Taza has created its own certification called "Direct Trade Certified Cacao" based on its relationship with La Red. While creating your own certification might sound like a marketing ploy, it actually can work well in a situation like Taza's. By setting up criteria that are clear, simple and important to both Taza and the farmer, Taza is able to keep bureaucracy to a minimum and provide the farmer with incentives to produce quality cacao. Taza pays the farmer a premium to produce organic cacao using fair and humane labor practices with a minimum of a 95% fermentation rate and 7% or less moisture content. It's straightforward and it's focused on quality measurements.

I had a long phone conversation with Colin Gasko of Rogue Chocolatier, one of my favorite craft chocolate makers, to better understand how he sources cacao. He produces some of the smallest batches of chocolate around, and he currently makes 4 different single-origin bars. His sourcing model demonstrates the many complexities of buying cacao, particularly as a small-batch maker who purchases small quantities of cacao.

Colin's cacao sourcing strategy varies depending upon the origin of the cacao. He buys from renowned cooperatives in some countries, shares containers that come from well-known farms in other countries, and buys directly in others. In situations where Colin might develop a direct relationship with a farmer, he usually hires a broker when it comes time to make a purchase of cacao from the farmer.

Why hire a broker? Brokers are better equipped to deal with importation logistics, such as customs and freight. As Colin put it, he doesn't have the scale or expertise to be an importer, and that's not where his time is best spent. Does Colin's direct relationship with the farmer classify as direct trade, even though he's hiring a broker? I would say most definitely "yes". In this example, most of the layers of middle men have been eliminated from Colin's purchasing process and the farmer receives much more of the value of his cacao in payment. In addition, Colin is often paying considerably more than the world market rate to the farmer for producing quality cacao.

As you can see, fair trade and direct trade are complex issues that really can't be covered in a sound byte or one blog post. So what can a conscientious consumer do? Look beyond the labels. Understanding the truth behind your chocolate takes a bit of research. If you really want to know, you'll need to do the work.

The best starting point is the chocolate maker's website. See what they have to say about how they source cacao, and if you don't see anything, ask. The way they answer the question and their willingness to talk about the issues will also give you an idea of how they view the issue altogether.

Make sure to also compare what you learn from different sources. For example, many of the largest chocolate companies in the world are members of the World Cocoa Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that was established to improve the incomes of poor cacao farmers. The World Cocoa Foundation has a number of nobly stated goals, but exactly what do they mean in practice? Is your bar of chocolate helping the farmers improve their incomes? If so, how? How does this approach contrast with the approach of the small-batch makers? Do these goals encourage the farmer to plant better varietals and improve fermentation?

You may be saying to yourself, "But I just want to eat my chocolate bar, already!". I don't blame you. It's a lot of serious talk for such a happy treat. Let me simplify this for you. Don't take labels at face value. I'm not saying you shouldn't purchase chocolate with labels like Fairtrade and direct trade. I'm just saying that you shouldn't assume that they're a panacea to a farmer's problems. They might be, but without doing the research, you won't know.

Happy chocolate tasting,
Lauren
Chief Chocophile

This week's happy hour: Staff Picks II

Our Staff Pick's happy hour is back this Thursday from 5-9pm. Our first Staff Picks happy hour in July was a huge hit, and we're excited to have different team members choosing bars this time around. Make an evening out of it by shopping at the Queen Anne Farmers Market, and then drop by Chocolopolis for a taste of chocolate. Here are our staff picks for this week:

Reina - Valrhona Palmira Single-Estate 2010 (64%)
Dominica - Coppeneur Trinidad Habanero & Lavender bar
Sebastian - Askinosie White Chocolate (made with goat's milk and small-batch pressed cocoa butter)
Lauren - Patric In-NIB-itable BAR (70% Madagascar w/Madagascar cacao nibs)

New: Patric Chocolate and Rogue Chocolatier

We've scoured the U.S. for artisan bean to bar chocolate makers that you won't find anywhere else in Seattle. First up is Patric Chocolate, which hails from the state that is becoming quite popular for fine chocolates, Missouri. Home of both the Christopher Elbow collection and the Askinosie bars, Patric Chocolate entered the chocolate scene in January of 2007 and is quickly becoming a popular seller at Chocolopolis. Alan McClure is the founder and passionate chocolate-maker behind the two Patric products that we carry - 67% and 70% dark chocolate bars from the Sambirano Valley of Madagascar. At first glance the two bars appear identical, but look closely and you'll notice the subtle difference in the ingredient list of the bars. The 70% is purely cocoa beans and cane sugar, while the 67% has added cocoa butter which has been pressed from the same origin of bean so as not to muddle the flavor. All of his chocolate is produced in small 50-60 lb. batches to ensure that the quality and flavor of each bar remains consistent throughout the entire chocolate making process (compare that with the reported 1,000,000 lbs of chocolate Hershey's produces in a day).

Next up is Rogue Chocolatier which takes first place in two categories: smallest chocolate factory and youngest chocolate maker. At the age of 23, Colin Gasko is producing bars of exceptional quality out of his bedroom-sized warehouse in Minneapolis, MN. We've brought in two of his bars, the Sambirano from Madagascar and the Hispaniola from the Dominican Reopublic, and while both bars are 70% dark chocolate there is an incredible difference in everything from the color of the chocolate to the flavor profiles found in each.

We are very excited to have the opportunity to highlight artisan chocolate companies that are just starting out, and as previously mentioned you won't find these bars in any other stores in the city. We also have leads on a few other U.S.-based bean to bar makers that we are interested in bringing in so check back for updates on new products and store events.

What a Ride it's Been!

Chocolopolis May 2008Two years ago I opened Chocolopolis. It was July of 2008, and while the economy had been struggling for awhile, the biggest hit was yet to come. Winter is the time for heavy chocolate consumption, not summer, yet we had a very good July and August in 2008. I don't know if it was the economy or the "wow" factor of being a new business with a cool concept, but our sales were better than I'd expected. I remember thinking, "If business is this good in July and August, can you imagine what September will be like?" We got to September and the stock market tanked. Cue the crickets.

Chocolopolis May 2010

It was a tough first year. We were trying to teach people about artisan chocolate and educate their palates in a very poor economy. Looking back I remember nights of little sleep and many tears. My wonderful husband, Mark Kotzer, kept me sane with optimistic reminders of why I would succeed. In my heart I knew I'd succeed because I always work hard and smart, and I don't doubt my ability to make things work. But it was really tough.

Two years later the sleepless nights and tears are gone. My days are still filled with a lot of hard work, but my job is a lot more fun now. We have many wonderful, loyal customers who have learned about artisan chocolate and come in to chat about their favorite bar, their children or their grandchildren. We've built a reputation around the country for being one of a handful of chocolate retailers that really understand artisan bean-to-bar chocolate. We've got an incredible team working at the store, all of whom are passionate about chocolate and enjoy working with our customers. I'm lucky to have such incredible employees!

One of the absolute best parts of this job is getting to talk to some of the most talented chocolate makers and chocolatiers in the world on a regular basis. I feel like I have a red line phone to Alan McClure of Patric Chocolate and Colin Gasko of Rogue Chocolatier. It's really great talking to these guys, and what I don't hear from one of them directly, I hear from the other. They're incredibly passionate about chocolate, and they're really talented artisans who are both friends and competitors. I've also learned from other artisan chocolate makers like Art Pollard of Amano and Shawn Askinosie. All of these chocolate makers are sources of so much information when it comes to the many interesting topics around fine cacao such as bean genetics, fermentation and drying techniques and cacao sourcing. I'll be talking with all of them in the near future for some upcoming blog posts on these issues.

I also have to thank Christopher Elbow, a world class chocolatier who took our word that we'd treat his confections right and agreed to let us sell these tasty gems on our truffle counter. Chris has been an incredible supporter, making us the only store in Washington state that sells his chocolates, and coming to Seattle to meet our customers in our first year. It's been a pleasure working with Chris and his team, who are incredibly supportive and down-to-earth, and who really care about producing excellent chocolates.

I've also enjoyed getting to know some of the other retailers around the country who are equally geeky about chocolate. Who are they? Seneca Klassen of Bittersweet Cafe in San Francisco, Biaggio Abbatiello and his team from Biaggio Chocolate in DC (my hometown!), Jesse Manis and Aubrey Lindley of Cacao: Drink Chocolate in Portland, and Jack from Chocolate Covered in the Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco. These guys are all incredibly interesting characters (particularly Jack), and they're passionate about their chocolate.  I look forward to visiting Seneca, who is leaving the Bay Area for Hawaii, where he'll tend his own grove of cacao trees full time. He's taking the plunge into cacao growing and chocolate making. I admire his willingness and fortitude in being able to follow his passion to the root of the cacao tree! If you'd like to follow Seneca's journey, check out his blog or follow his progress on twitter.

Most importantly, I'd like to thank our customers. True to Seattle's reputation, you have proven yourselves to be engaged and interested customers who want to learn about chocolate from farm to bar. Chocolate makers who conduct tastings at Chocolopolis are always impressed by how many of you want to hear their story while trying their chocolate. You don't just eat samples and walk away. We're proud to have so many chocolate lovers in Seattle.

Thank you to everyone who has helped make our first two years a success! We made it!

Happy chocolate tasting,
Lauren

Bar of the Week: Pralus Equateur

Cacao Content: 75%

Origin: Ecuador

Bean Type: Trinitario (Arriba)

This week's featured bar is the Pralus Equateur. Not only is this a single origin bar, but Pralus can pinpoint the region so closely that they print the coordinates right on the package: 2 degrees 20 minutes South, 78 degrees 40 minutes West, which puts the plantation in south central Ecuador.

The Equateur is a fine example of the Arriba bean. Full flavored, fruity, and strongly aromatic with a delightful hint of walnut. For an interesting comparison, try Pralus' version alongside another chocolate maker's treatment of the very same bean. Republica Del Cacao (Ecuadorian), Pacari (Ecuadorian), Askinosie (American), and Domori (Italian) all offer bars made from the Ecuadorian Arriba Nacional.