When life gives you cacao beans make chocolate, right? To be fair I had so much fun doing this. I just might have found a new hobby. Though my 100% cacao chocolate bars tasted amazing, there is still a lot of room for improvement.

While I love dark chocolate, for many people the taste might be a bit too bitter. So if I ever want to make it for other people I might have to find a few ways to make a chocolate that’s still super healthy but less bitter.

Also, since I don’t have the right materials yet, the chocolate paste I produced was still a little coarse. You can’t taste it in the bar but to produce and even better product I will need a stone or wet grinder instead of the coffee grinder I used.

Secondly, once your beans are ground into a liquid you slowly need to cool it down to a certain temperature, a step called tempering, I skipped this step and poured the chocolate straight into the molds. That’s why my chocolate melts quite fast once you take it out of the fridge.

Anyhow, I must say I am quite proud of my first go on a bean-to-bar product.

Cacao Beans

Recently I came across a page of the only cacao farm in Cambodia, called Kamkav Farm. Inspired by a Colombian chocolate lover and connoisseur I met recently, I emailed the farm to ask if they could send me some beans. One week later they arrived and the bean-to-bar soon happened after.

I can’t wait to go visit the farm in a few weeks when we close our bakery for a while to take a much-needed break.

Photo credit Kamkav farm)

From bean-to-bar experiment

Roasting of the dried and fermented beans

Cacao beans are dried after fermentation. Fermentation of the beans is important to destroy the seed coat, kill the germs, and give the cacao a good taste. I am so looking forward to visiting the farm and learn more about the harvesting, fermentation, and drying process.

When I received the beans, they already went through these steps. So my journey started with the roasting of the beans to enhance their flavor and make them easier to peel.

Peeling of the roasted beans

This is a lot of work but it kinda works therapeutically. I am pretty sure commercial chocolate makers have a machine for this.

And the best part, nothing goes to waste. The peels make a great mild chocolate flavored tea.

Grinding

Like mentioned before, for the best result this step should be done with a stone grinder. However they are fairly expensive so I started my experimenting journey=y with a small, simple coffee grinder.

When grinding you have to make sure the mixture doesn’t get too hot so I had to stop several times to let the grinder and mixture cool down a little.

Pour in molds and let set in the fridge

I just love dark 100% cacao chocolate, but if you don’t fancy the bitter taste you could add some raw palm or coconut sugar to the mix to sweeten things up before pouring the chocolate into molds.

For extra crunch and beautiful looks, I added roasted cashew nuts, roasted coconut flakes, dried mulberries, and dried goji berries.

Let set in the fridge.