Bean-to-Bar Chocolate by Megan Giller Megan Giller is the author of Bean-to-Bar Chocolate. She is a food writer and journalist whose work has been published in The New York Times, Slate, Zagat, Food & Wine, and Modern Farmer. Giller has written extensively about the food scenes in both New York City and Austin, Texas, and her blog Chocolate Noise was a 2016 Saveur Food Blog Awards finalist. She offers private chocolate-tasting classes, hosts “Underground Chocolate Salons,” teaches classes at shops across the country, and judges at chocolate competitions. She lives in Brooklyn. Find Megan online at: Twitter: @megangiller Instagram: @chocolatenoise Website: chocolatenoise.com More from Megan Giller: I am a writer of prose and poetry, and sometimes whimsical vignettes. Characters are what I love best, and I follow quirk, kitsch, longing, love, lifestyle, and, most importantly, food. Some say my affinity for leafy greens is tempered only by my obsession with peanut butter. But mostly you’ll find me writing about the everyday, the extraordinary, and good food for places like Slate, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, and more, as well as judging chocolate competitions like the International Chocolate Awards. I spend my time checking out the best restaurants in New York City and Brooklyn, talking with amazing chocolate makers across the country and internationally, and walking with my dog, Echo, through Prospect Park. Giller has written for major outlets, including: Men’s Health Travel + Leisure Food & Wine Fortune Slate The New York Times Modern Farmer Food Republic The Kitchn Tasting Table TasteBook Zagat National Zagat Austin Delish Quartz Texas Monthly Bean-to-Bar Chocolate: America’s Craft Chocolate Revolution: The Origins, the Makers, and the Mind- Blowing Flavors 240 pages; 6½" X 8" Full-color; photographs and illustrations throughout $19.95 paper over board ISBN: 978-1-61212-821-4 bean to bar chocolate AMERICA’S CRAFT CHOCOLATE REVOLUTION THE ORIGINS ■ THE MAKERS ■ THE MIND-BLOWING FLAVORS MEGAN GILLER RECIPE PHOTOGRAPHY BY JODY HORTON ß Storey Publishing The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by publishing practical information that encourages personal independence in harmony with the environment. EDITED BY Hannah Fries and Sarah Guare ART DIRECTION AND BOOK DESIGN BY Carolyn Eckert TEXT PRODUCTION BY Erin Dawson INDEXED BY Christine R. Lindemer, Boston Road Communications COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY © Jody Horton, back (bottom), inside back (left); Mars Vilaubi, front, spine, back (top & bottom right, backgrounds), inside front (spread & facing title page), inside back (right); William Mullan, back (top left); Courtesy of To’ak, back, (top right & middle); Courtesy of Askinosie Chocolate, back (bottom left); Sascha Reinking Photography, back (author) INTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS APPEAR ON PAGE 231 ILLUSTRATIONS BY © Amber Day © 2017 BY MEGAN GILLER All rights reserved. No part of this book may be Storey Publishing reproduced without written permission from the 210 MASS MoCA Way publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote North Adams, MA 01247 brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review storey.com with appropriate credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, Printed in China by Toppan Leefung Printing Ltd. or transmitted in any form or by any means — 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other — without written permission from the Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data publisher. on file The information in this book is true and com- plete to the best of our knowledge. All recommen- dations are made without guarantee on the part of the author or Storey Publishing. The author and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information. Storey books are available for special premium and promotional uses and for customized editions. For further information, please call 800-793-9396. TO MARCUS CONTENTS FOREWORD by Michael Laiskonis vi EPILOGUE: Chocolate Revolution 200 INTRODUCTION: APPENDIX: Chocolate Timeline 202 Chocoholics Anonymous: The History of the World . in Chocolate! 203 From Cake to Craft 1 My Top 50 Bean-to-Bar Makers in the About the Recipes in This Book 7 United States 211 Farms, Co-Ops, and Companies 218 CHAPTER 1: From the Bean 15 Glossary of Chocolate Words 220 CHAPTER 2: A Sense of Place 45 Selected Bibliography 226 CHAPTER 3: Tasting and Eating 79 Thanks 226 CHAPTER 4: Chocolate Snobs Index 227 Don’t Eat Milk Chocolate (and Other Myths, Debunked) 115 CHAPTER 5: Labeling and the Art of Design 135 CHAPTER 6: Ethics for the Next Century 155 CHAPTER 7: The Future of Chocolate 179 Foreword By Michael Laiskonis, Creative Director, Institute of Culinary Education MAKING CHOCOLATE IS EASY. Making real time. With a connoisseur’s obsession good chocolate is extremely difficult. and an investigator’s precision, Megan Most chocolate makers I know share Giller has created a road map for chocolate this sentiment to some degree. While a lovers to better navigate this brave new bar of chocolate is indeed the sum of its world of small-scale producers, their pro- ingredients and its manufacturing steps, cesses, and the delicious diversity of their the art and science of crafting that bar products. Megan’s own story is like many also rely on a subtractive process, much others — a happenstance tasting bore a like a sculptor liberating beauty from an life-changing revelation: not all chocolate uncarved block. is the same. It can be different. What sepa- The chocolate maker starts with an rates craft chocolate from the industrial unroasted cocoa bean — an edible dia- goes far beyond mere aesthetics and mond in-the-rough — paring away the into the philosophical. Craft chocolate superfluous to reveal its essential nature. embraces the variability of an agricul- The resulting flavors are an expression tural product that has subtle differences of the bean’s time, place, and heritage, from one origin to the next, and from har- and even a bit of the maker’s personality. vest to harvest. Each batch — each bar — Compounding this already complex task embodies the cocoa bean’s individuality. is the skill needed to preserve the taste of As we consumers seek to broaden our the bean — its bitter edges intact — and palates with the flavors of fine chocolate, then steer the process toward showing we also care deeply about where it’s from, that bean’s potential. It’s a skill that relies what’s in it, and how it’s made. Insight, on experience, endless testing and tast- which this book offers in great depth, ing, and some intuition. The more I learn enhances the tasting experience. Ethical about chocolate, the more I realize how sourcing and transparency of the process, much I don’t know, which is both wonder- too, are increasingly important. One fully satisfying and endlessly frustrating. might argue that this homegrown move- Alas, the word craft itself implies an end- ment and its followers are helping to shift less pursuit of elusive perfection. the entire chocolate industry, influencing This is the driving force behind how the largest chocolate companies craft chocolate, and this book is the first approach, or at least market, their own attempt at chronicling this movement in products. This new era of chocolate is vi about hunting down the best raw mate- personal styles and the strong opinions rial, respecting its sense of place, and that guide them ensure an endless oppor- sharing the untold stories of the farmers tunity for new chocolate experiences. who make it possible. Among the many talented experts As we trace the story of chocolate that Megan introduces in this book is from its wild origins to its spread across Ed Seguine (former researcher for the globe, we discover transformations Guittard and Mars and now an indepen- and refinements along the way. There dent adviser). I once attended a panel is romance in the idea that the current discussion on the current state of craft craft movement is about taking chocolate chocolate, where he sat as an authorita- back into the realm of a hands-on, artisan tive anchor of the industry. Regarding aesthetic. Yet this movement is rather the very serious business of tasting fine a leap forward in chocolate’s evolution chocolate, Ed reminded us of one sim- that simply builds and improves upon ple truth: “If we aren’t having fun, we’re its past. As you read the profiles within, doing it wrong.” The best chocolate in the you realize no two chocolate makers are world is simply the one you enjoy most. alike and thus no two chocolate bars are With this book in hand, I encourage you alike. There is no right or wrong way to to taste, taste, taste all that this movement make chocolate, and I firmly believe there has to offer. The best chocolate is always is little bad chocolate to be had. These out there, waiting to be discovered. FOREWORD vii INTRODUCTION H C O O L O I C H F S CAKC E TO CRAFT A S N O U N Y M O I CONFESS: in the eighth grade, I wrote a poem about chocolate cake. My mom pulled the cake out of the oven, and it was just so, I don’t know, gooey, sitting there, wafting cocoa scents that would tempt an ascetic. All evidence of that poem has now been destroyed, though it took a lot longer to realize the silliness of my stanzas than it did to scarf a few slices of cake. 1 My mom didn’t seem surprised by few fulfilled faces sat sipping something the poem. After all, I was the person dark and dreamy.