Check out their site to learn a lot more about the nuances of the craft chocolate movement, from debates over dark chocolate vs. Often, the website The Chocolate Life (now hosted on The Maven) is used as a meeting ground and a forum for all things chocolate. This has resulted in a very culturally disparate but decidedly united group of chocoholics, such as myself, finding common ground in cacao grown around the world. Some also started their careers as chocolate makers or inherited a family business. Who Makes Craft Chocolate?Īll different kinds of people have started making bean to bar chocolate, most of whom stumbled into chocolate making from a whole other career path, such as lawyer, ethnobotanist, or auto mechanic. This exponential increase has caused a huge shift in availability of microbatch chocolate-making equipment, bumping the numbers up even higher. This third wave includes some makers who craft chocolate from their own cacao, often called tree-to-bar chocolate makers. Much of what these companies were initially making was bean to bar dark chocolate made with only cacao & sugar, though their repertoires quickly expanded.īy 2010, there were dozens of such small-scale producers just in the US. Around 2015 there was another noticeable bump, and since then, hundreds of tiny chocolate producers have popped up worldwide. The aforementioned Taza joined with four other companies (Askinosie, Patric, Amano, and DeVries) in 2008 to form the now-defunct association of Craft Chocolate Makers of America.
This was around the time at which Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker was sold (it’s now owned by Hershey’s) and Taza Chocolate was formed. However, it’s generally accepted that the craft chocolate movement began in earnest around 2005. This eventually led to the formation of several equal trade and environmentally-friendly certification companies. In my opinion, a great chocolate makers cajoles an evolution of flavor notes from their beans, combining scent & taste & texture to create unique flavors.Ī shift in consumerism towards businesses with more transparent practices and fair traded ingredients started in the 1980’s. They’re used to showcase both the nuances in flavor of each region’s beans and the skills of a craft chocolate maker. Single plantation or single origin chocolate bars are just one of the staples of The Movement. The phrase “bean to bar” is often used in reference to the fact that craft chocolate makers control the origins of their products form the unroasted cacao bean to the finished chocolate bar. It is the result of a marked shift from westernized and over-processed “chocolate” to a global cacao product, made from material grown all around the world. What Is Craft Chocolate?Ĭraft chocolate is chocolate made from raw cacao beans sourced transparently and made into chocolate on a small scale, with a strong emphasis on the inherent flavor of the beans. There is a multi-faceted industry and community behind craft chocolate, and in order to understand it, you need to see the whole picture.Īllow me to paint it for you. Craft Chocolate: Bars With a HeartĪnswering the question “What is craft chocolate?” is not as simple as describing a thing. So what is bean to bar chocolate exactly, and how has it proven itself to be different? On top of that, they often control the conditions in which it is grown & harvested & processed. In real-world terms that means they have a monopoly on purchasing the cocoa grown in some parts of the world, notably West Africa. They’re producers of a large percentage of the world’s industrial chocolate, and provide most people’s first experience with chocolate.īut it also refers to them forming an industry mindset, one which controls a majority of cocoa sales. For one, it refers to their ubiquity around the world. The term “ Big Chocolate” has two functions.
The old type, or the old model for chocolate making, is considered to be that of the “Big Five” Chocolate makers: Mars, Nestle, Hershey’s, Kraft/Mondelez, and Cadbury (now owned by Kraft/Mondelez). Making bean to bar chocolate has been compared to making beer or wine, especially in regards to vintages for each cocoa bean. Even that same chocolate will taste different a year later, if you can let it sit that long.Ĭraft chocolate makers understand and manipulate this fact, cultivating the different personalities of each batch of cacao they make into chocolate. Each chocolate bar you taste is just a snapshot of the life of those cacao nibs and the many seeds used to make that batch of chocolate. And just like you wouldn’t want someone to only see one still image from your life, you shouldn’t limit your chocolate experience to the bar in front of you. Chocolate as we taste it starts as a seed that someone took the time to plant and then care for, just as someone created and cared for you.
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