Notes from…

Archive for the ‘Chocolate Making’ Category

Today I received the question, “how does the preserved chocolate taste in comparison to the fresh?” I know there are some out there that question the whole “fresh” concept, and throw on top of that the “preserved” bars and they probably think I’m out of my mind. Well they’re right, I am out of my mind but for different reasons, that aside, there really was only one clear way to answer that question. So I headed to the climate controlled room they’re stored in and grabbed one to try. Here’s what I found out:

Now it’s open and the aroma hits me immediately. That is the first sign that I’m on the right path. As I’m writing this, it’s still lingering from the half of the bar I’ve yet to eat. There really is no way to describe the feeling I have, possibly gratifying. I truly have every intention on providing the best quality chocolate that you have ever tasted. The concepts of “fresh” and “preserved” are not some clever marketing gimmicks dreamed up by an MBA in an office far away, this is just who I am. If you’re not blown away and completely satisfied, neither am I.

Okay, enough of that, now that my palate was awakened and eager to taste I opened up the bar. The next important sign is visual. Did it retain that shine from a perfectly tempered chocolate bar? As you can see from the next set of photos, we’re good.

As you know, there is no real way to taste test the same batch of chocolate fresh side-by-side with the preserved bars nearly two months later, so I won’t even go there. My palate is refined somewhat, but my memory, not so much. The two key things for me though are flavor and texture. Texture is one that really can be off-putting with old chocolate. This bar is still as silky smooth as it was the day it was made and though I can’t compare the flavor to fresh, it is still outstanding. What else would I say, right? I know there are doubters and we’ll see where these bars are in another month, 6 months and even a year. If they’re still around that long. So try one yourself.

Alright, now we’re at the how and why part of the fresh and preserved chocolate concept. As in any food, fresh is preferred, right? Of course, so why not chocolate? As I’ve mentioned in previous posts that once cacao is roasted, the race is on to preserve the best flavors developed in the process. I skip the aging of chocolate because in my opinion, it’s bogus. Two things affect the flavor and quality of chocolate, air and light…wait make that three and add temperature. Chocolate goes stale in what is referred to as bloom. I won’t go in to the scientific mumbo-jumbo but you’ve probably seen chocolate that’s gray and when you bite in to it, it has a texture more like crackers. So you can imagine the horror I experienced when I did a little quality control checking on my chocolate in stores and came across a tin of drops that looked like this:

Yes, that looks pretty bad. Now granted this tin has been sitting around here for about 6 months since, but I can assure you that it looked no better back then. I put the chocolate bar I’m currently eating next to it for comparison.

Here’s another shot of a bar I bought that had the same issue.

If you buy a lot of chocolate, I’m sure you’ve seen this and probably went ahead and ate it because, well, it’s chocolate! I could go on and on but the fact of the matter was that when I saw my own chocolate look like that and thought that someone could have bought it, I knew I had to make a change. I’m sure some did buy it like that and they’ll probably never buy my chocolate again.

In closing, I hope you can see that all the wackiness that is “fresh chocolate” and “preserved chocolate” isn’t just a clever marketing tactic for me. It’s the most important thing to me. Try a fresh chocolate bar and compare it to a preserved chocolate bar. Let me know what you think and if you’re not happy, I’m not. Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

David Mason

The Chocolate Maker

I selected one of my favorite beans for this batch. Not just because of it’s outstanding quality, but also the access I have to the cooperative to be able to purchase directly from them. I’ve posted a short clip below from a documentary film about the La Red Cooperative in the Dominican Republic. It provides a great look into the lives of the farmers.

Now on to the batch notes:

• Cut Test: Beans well fermented with few under-fermented*
• Sort: Aroma is good, very little debris or foreign material, low concentration of beans stuck together. Went smoothly.
• Roast: Beans in at 1336, 350F. Out at 1405, 325F (259F)
• Winnow: No issues with winnowing, good separation with minimal nib loss.
• Conche/Refine: No issues, fine texture achieved with good viscosity.
• Batch Complete: 01/13 at 1200.
• Tasting: Texture is ideal, very smooth on the palate. Flavor profile is signature for this bean source. Good chocolate flavor with complex hints of tropical fruit and citrus. Leaves a lasting impression on the palate that will have you wanting more when it’s gone. By far the best I’ve achieved with this bean. Very pleased!
• *Some under-fermented beans are preferred as too many over-fermented beans results in undesirable flavors.

Below is a short version of the documentary film ‘Chocolate Country’ about the La Red Cooperative from whom I purchased the beans for this batch.

On or around Nov. 16th of last year I announced our new Fresh Chocolate Bar concept and the response was amazing. The launch was quickly followed by the holiday rush and I think I just stopped spinning sometime last week. So with the new year, comes new things from BMC. Here’s a quick list:

New Chocolate Maker’s Club-(I know, cheesy name, perhaps a naming contest is in order?) Click here for more details. In short, you secure you’re supply of three fresh chocolate bars each month and get a bunch of savings to boot.

Preserved Bars- If you were wishing for just one more bite of that bar from a previous batch, your wish has been granted. Being that I err on the side of caution with each batch there are always a few extras. So, I decided to vacuum seal them and store them at ideal conditions to preserve them for you. Quantities are very limited, and once these are gone the flavor of that batch will remain merely a distant memory to your palate.

Bulk Chocolate- I was asked quite frequently if we sold our drinking chocolate in bulk, so now we do! You can buy a one pound bag of it in chunks and use for baking, drinking, cooking or just eat it. If you’re a club member, you get 10% off and we ship it free.

First Batch of 2011- Now that the dust has settled and I’ve wrapped up my year end duties for Uncle Sam, it’s time to get back to making chocolate! Click here to get the details on this batch and order yours. If you’re a club member, you’re already in…unless three bars won’t do.

Valentine’s Day- The next biggest chocolate day on the calendar. I’ll admit, I’ve never been much for the holiday as I believe you should say it year around. Boy was I ever wrong! Apparently you should say it year around, and, put an exclamation point on it each February 14th. Well, what could be better than fresh chocolate bars straight from the Chocolate Maker? I’m working on a special bar for the occassion. Stay tuned for more. If you’re a club member, you may be getting one from a sample batch in the mail real soon. I need some tasters!

Chocolate Maker’s Market- We held our first Chocolate Maker’s Holiday Market just before Christmas and the turnout was great. Sarah and I, along with our son Trent, really enjoyed meeting everyone who came out. We had so much fun that we’re planning to do them more often. If you’re not on our email list, please sign up, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter to stay informed.

Thanks for your support!

Sincerely,

David Mason

Founder & Chocolate Maker

“Relaxed Chocolate”. What does it mean? It means good chocolate without the snobbery. The antagonist to this sort of elitist chocolate with names you can’t pronounce and tasting notes describing flavors you hope not to taste. A chocolate that’s greatness is not defined by price or “aged” to make it sound more worthy of that price. It means a chocolate that you can just sit back and enjoy, or share with friends and loved ones over a casual conversation. Chocolate in its very nature is relaxing and soothing to the soul. Life is short, enjoy my chocolate, and just relax…

Okay, so maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but there’s a bit of truth to it. A truthful lie? Now that’s an oxymoron. Alright, so if you took a tour of my factory (back when we were doing that) you probably heard me mention “aging” the chocolate. Well, that’s what I’m talking about. I know eventually someone will call me on it, so I’m going to beat them to it. When I began researching about chocolate making, post the decision to start Black Mountain Chocolate, I learned of this practice. Oooo, I thought, how cool! It’s like wine or cheese…well maybe not cheese, but it sounded really gourmet and artisinal, so I ran with it. What I’ve since learned, is that in truth, the chocolate is never as good as it is the day it’s made. I know this because I get the pleasure of tasting straight from the conche. Also, from the Tasting Drop Experiment, if you read that post.

It is known that chocolate is one of those foods that goes stale when exposed to light and air. You may have had a bar of chocolate, or even my tasting drops, and it appeared dull and gray, maybe even grainy when you ate it. It’s not bad for you, but it’s certainly not great or exceptional. That’s partly what I’m talking about. Yes, some will argue that it’s just bloomed, or out of temper, and that’s true about appearance and texture, but flavor is a different story. You see chocolate is largely mass produced, and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but you are certainly not getting it fresh. With the way the commodity market works and the demand for chocolate, it can’t be produced the way that I do it. That being, fresh from the bean. What’s the difference you ask? The difference is, that most chocolate you consume is made in bulk, stored for lengths of time, and then melted and tempered to produce the final product. Yes, it will have that shiny appearance and good texture and will most certainly taste like the chocolate flavor we are used to, but it could be better, much better. How much? Just try one of my fresh chocolate bars and taste for yourself.

Maybe not everyone is confused but I know I sure am…just kidding. Well, a few weeks ago we notified the stores that are selling our Tasting Drops that we were making some changes and would no longer be selling our products for resale. That has turned out quite a bit of misinformation from, “we are selling wholesale only” to “we’re closing up shop”. Neither of which is true. What we’re actually doing is going retail only via mail order for the time being. I say “for the time being” because we eventually hope to open up shop so you can see our smiling faces making this fabulous chocolate. Anyhoo, we hope that helps to clear it up.

On the “& More” side. This week I received back from repair, the final piece to the puzzle that is to bring you our fresh from the bean chocolate bars. Just wrapping up some maddening tests and once I feel confident I can deliver on said promise. The “for sale” sign will go up….for the bars that is…not the shop!

Yours Truly,

David

When I started Black Mountain Chocolate, I knew very little. I still have quite a bit to learn, but at that point, I was a true neophyte to the practice of making chocolate from the bean. What I did have though, was passion. A passion to learn more and that’s what I set out to do. Common advice that you will hear when starting a business is to portray yourself as the expert in the field, sort of fake it until you make it. I guess in a sense I did that to some extent, but chocolate is far more complex than I had ever imagined. Just given the fact that they are still discovering new flavor compounds to this day should have been my first clue, but I was a bit naive. Not so much that I set out on the path to hit the market with a fury though. I wanted to pace it out. It was difficult because at the time I started there were maybe a handful of chocolate makers in the country. It was a race to be the first at this or that. I got caught up in it to start, but slowed down as I felt there was no rush. I mean, we weren’t creating the next great techno-gizmo or anything. So it was then that I decided to base my first product on learning more. That being the Black Mountain Chocolate, Single-Origin, Dark Chocolate, Tasting Drops, (wow, that’s a mouthful). I wanted to learn three things. How the origin of the bean affected the flavor? How what I did affected the flavor? And, of course, what people liked? All that really counts is the latter of the three though. If you don’t like it, you won’t buy it; but to get to the third, I had to go through the first two.

So the Tasting Drops started with three different beans from three different countries. I did everything in the process the same so as not to confuse the results. I held many tastings and received tons of feedback on each one. I asked questions, listened, and watched as people tasted between the three. I compiled the data, mostly in my brain, and one thing stood out eventually. The chocolate that was just made, was always preferred. Well maybe not always, but it outweighed the other two greatly. At first, I was baffled because the fresh thing didn’t hit me right away. I would do a tasting one month, and one origin was preferred, the next, something different. Sure, everyone has different tastes, but there was on occasssion a repeat taster who would say “last time I liked this one, but now I like this one.” I had a hunch, tested it out, and it stuck. You may be asking yourself why one was fresher than the other? Well, to retain the integrity of the single-origin bean, I would produce one batch, clean everything and make the next. Sometimes it would be several weeks in between, or even longer.

So with that information at hand, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to provide the freshest chocolate available. To do that, I had to change my business completely. No longer could I put chocolate on the shelves of stores to sit for months on end, allowing it to diminish in flavor. I must make it fresh from the roasted cocoa bean and even sell it before I make it. The opportunity to be one of a very limited number of people to get the freshest chocolate on the planet is coming soon. Stay tuned…

Hello! Yes, that’s me, David Mason. I’m the founder of Black Mountain Chocolate and I consider myself a ‘Chocolate Maker’. I claimed that title back in 2007 when we first started the business. For this, the first post to my blog, I intend to start out by telling you what I’ve been up to for the past 2 years or so, and where we “plan” on going. Yes, those quotes are intentional because planning to me was an obsession, mostly an addiction, that I’m working to overcome. I’ll get into that later on I’m sure. For now, just about chocolate and where we are heading.

I said I claimed the title of ‘Chocolate Maker’ in 2007, although in reality, I didn’t make my first batch of chocolate outside of my home kitchen until around April of 2008. It was then that we completed the up-fit of an old building in Swannanoa, NC, that used to house the original post office to the area. It was quite a task. In order to produce chocolate for you, we must first pass inspection by the FDA. I received a tip from the owner of another food business to contact the local inspector early on in the process. It went rather smoothly thanks to that. I do take serious the fact that I’m producing a food for people, and didn’t cut any corners.

So, on this day, I’m about to embark on molding my first bar of chocolate. Sure, I’ve done it before, but mostly just playing around. This time, it’s for real. If you are not familiar with my chocolate, up to this point, I’ve only sold in drop form. I’ll spare you the boring details, but there was a method to my madness. Mainly, they were an experiment, a test of sorts, and they taught me quite a lot. It drove the connoisseurs crazy though. How could you be a bean-to-bar chocolate maker without a bar? I guess I was just bean-to-drop. Either way, I was making chocolate and that was all that mattered to me. But back to the bar. If you “like” us on Facebook you’ve probably already seen a sneak peak of the mold. You will notice that it is no ordinary bar. It was envisioned, or better, inspired by an evening with a glass of wine, good chocolate (mine, of course), and a warm fire. Here’s a shot of it to give you the full effect…well sort of.

This bar, to me, will represent how I feel about chocolate. It delivers as much a feeling, as it does a flavor. It satisfies a craving that just isn’t about hunger. It’s difficult to put into words, but you’ll know what I mean when you experience it. I enourage you to look at chocolate in a different way. It is what you make of it. Make it memorable.