The New Factory

As usual, it’s been a long time since I’ve had a chance to write about Rogue Chocolatier and what we’ve been up to. Over the last year, we have been continually overwhelmed with the demand for our chocolate. It was taking me up to 70 hours of labor a week to produce 70 lbs of chocolate (500 bars), even with the aid of a full time employee.

The long work hours were largely due to the machinery I was using, as the conche was only capable of a very small batch size. In turn, this has lead to persistent stock issues. We are really lucky to be working with stores that have been very understanding of the nature and limitations of artisan production. Our tiny 400 square foot facility was bursting at the seams.

These issues, coupled with a desire to be closer to family, lead us to begin looking into facilities in Massachusetts. We found a great space in Three Rivers, Massachusetts, where we moved April 1st. The following five months were filled with trial, as we painted, did all of the ceiling tile work, installed our former machines (as well as some new ones), plumbing, duct-work, etc. We’re really pleased with the resulting space so far. It has enabled better separation of different processes and allowed us to work a bit more efficiently.

Many of you already know that several months ago we were able to finally sell a couple of beautiful antique machines that I had purchased with the hopes of refurbishing them. After several years of storing those machines, fixing them up, and learning about
chocolate manufacturing and the chocolate that we want to make, I had decided that they weren’t the right fit. Fortunately, we broke even and I was able to use a portion of the money to acquire a small laboratory conche. Laboratory chocolate conches are specialty machines that generally cost the same as production machines, because there are so few produced. They are generally only used for research and development laboratories for larger customers in order to reproduce the dynamics of larger machines for formulating purposes. At any given moment, you’re lucky if one is for sale in the world. We purchased this used conche from a company in Germany. It was a great deal, because there were no controls included, the inside was covered in superficial rust, and it had been sitting in a shipping container for about 20 years. Mechanically, these are very simple machines with just a few moving parts. I thought to myself, how hard can it be to refurbish it myself?

Well, as it turns out, not as easy as I had hoped!

Just a little on the machine: the new conche is a rotary conche. What that means is that we are now able to process the chocolate with much greater energy efficiency, and in my opinion, better repeatability and control over flavor and texture than a so-called melanguer/wet grinder that we formerly used and that are being used by many of the newer bean-to-bar start-ups, or than a longitudinal conche. The conche functions by smearing a powdery mix of cocoa mass and sugar that comprises most of the particles in the chocolate against the walls of a horizontal tank to deaggomeratize, disperse, and coat particle surfaces with cocoa butter. This process changes the texture of the chocolate so that it has better melting properties in your mouth. More importantly, this process changes the way we perceive chocolate flavor by altering the way that aromas and flavors emerge in our mouths.

For example, rather than just tasting a very straight forward cocoa flavor and acidity, one might experience a layering of various fruit aromas, a gradual build or shift in acidity, and a more harmonious overall character to the chocolate. This is the same overall process we have been using for the past year and a half or so of production, but rather than a modified machine with poor temperature control and low power, this machine is designed for this use. Also, we are using the same cycle times as we had before. So, the real change is that we are now able to do the process we have been doing all along, but better. In theory, we should be able to actually control a process that has up until now involved a good deal of chance. There is still a lot to learn and I have been working out the main quirks on the first few batches. So far, the results are very exciting. I am happy to discuss the merits and advantages of different types of conching with anyone interested. I plan to blog about it soon on our website.

As we move into the holiday season, I am working hard to bring in some new products. I hope to have more announcements relating to them very soon. In the meantime, I’m really excited to have all of the bars back up on the site. Everything is in stock. We really appreciate your business and all that it has allowed us to do. We are working hard every day to keep innovating and producing chocolate that we hope you’ll love. I hope to be sending out updates more often. Stay tuned!

1 comment | October 5th, 2011

The White Clones

Yesterday, we headed to a project in a small area in a valley at the base of the Andes somewhere east of Piura. It was a long drive mostly along roads with large cobblestone sized rocks, around bends that make you grab for anything, and over bumps that knock you around like a pebble in a tin can. It is truly the most exhausting form of sitting. At first the Andes were just silhouettes behind a cast of grey over the horizon. Gradually, they became clearer as we passed through myriad small towns on our way. At last, when we thought it would never end, we looked out over a valley where rice and cacao are grown with elaborate irrigation systems from the rivers that flow down from the Andes. This was a special place for our guide, because it was were he grew up. We plunged down into the valley and drove over shallow riverbeds that seemed to threaten to mire our truck, and into the town.

First, we went to the central fermentary station. We took a look at the current harvest as it was fermenting and drying and tried to give feedback where we could. The cacao from this area has a 70% white bean count, but there are many challenges in getting consistent post-harvest processing in the Piura climate. Notably drying, which generally is an uphill battle in most producing countries’ damp climates, must be methodically slowed in order to improve the quality of the finished cacao and reach the proper level of oxidation in the cotyledons.

Next, we visited a few other farms. They were nice, but nothing exciting per se. I was beginning to think that perhaps we were wasting our time when we arrived at a newly planted farm where they have test planted 30 different clones of pure white bean varieties that have been found in the valley. 1,900 plants in total, that are now on the brink of the first harvest at 3 years old. We walked around and cut open several pods. The first one was magical. It had the strongest aroma of orange I have ever smelled in cacao fruit. The most wonderful thing is, nothing is known yet about the organoleptic properties of any of these varieties nor their genetic lineage. I am fascinated to learn what each might taste like. Will the floral fruited one taste of oranges? Will another taste of nuts? Soon, we will know. Another thing of note was how incredibly productive these small trees were. I look forward to hopefully being part of this project and learning a great deal about the genetics and flavor potential of these new plants.

1 comment | February 23rd, 2011

Overnight at Don Francisco’s Farm

The first day that we arrived in Piura, we had the opportunity to meet with the farmers association. Nobody else spoke a word of English, other than my current contact. My Spanish is poor at best. I did my best to introduce myself to the group. Next, they went around and introduced themselves. Only one of the board members was a farmer. He introduced himself and told me he had a cacao farm.  I tried to speak a bit with him and ask about his farm. He immediately invited me to visit him on his farm. Well, how often does a cacao farmer in Peru invite you to visit his farm? So, I responded “Yes, of course!”. I asked where his farm was. It turned out it was a two hour drive away. He seemed surprised that I was so quick to respond, but the decision was made. We would go the following day.

At this point, the plot get’s a bit thicker. Yes, it turned out that the town he lived by was a two hour bus ride away, however he was an additional one hour car ride away from there in the mountains at about 3,000 feet. He seemed concerned that I spoke almost no Spanish and he no English, but I assured him that all would be fine.  We would leave the next morning early, arrive and look at the farm, stay the night at his house, and then return the following day. He didn’t seem to  believe we were coming. He looked at my face as if he were trying to see if I was just saying yes only to not arrive. He was heading to buy the tickets that day, but wanted to be sure.  I assured him that there was no problem, that would be there at 8. We shook hands as I left the building.

The following morning, we arrived at the bus station at 8. Don Francisco was there and our contact was helping to translate a bit. Don Francisco was now wondering if it would be alright if we needed to stay another day. It turned out the one hour drive from the town was through torturous back roads that were impassable if it happened to rain. We might have to stay the night in town and get the the farm the following day. At the thought of being an hour car ride into the mountains unable to return in case of rain, my sense of  reason kicked in a bit. Fortunately, I am adept at suppressing such reasoning.

The bus ride went off without a hitch. We arrived in town and promptly found a car to give us a ride into the mountains. After a harrowing hour and a half of driving, we arrived at Don Francisco’s house. A house with mud walls and floor, with two bedrooms, a kitchen with a cuy(guinea pig) pen adjoined by a small portal on the base of the wall, and a porch with two fermentation boxes right out front. We headed right out to the farm, which is watered by a large mountain stream. Francisco’s farm was a dense jungle of cacao. Many trees are over 40 years old. Most of them were not pruned or weeded, but remarkably productive despite this. This is especially surprising, because cacao does not generally do well at all at altitude. Yet, here we were in the foothills of the Andes by the Ecuadorian border looking at these beautiful old cacao trees. We met Francisco’s wife out in the farm, who was working with their son and a farmhand to prepare seedlings to expand their cacao production. After an exhausting 2 hour journey through his farm, we headed back to the house.

The rest of the evening we spent with Francisco and his family. We had dinner with them. We talked about the U.S. a bit. But mostly, we talked about cacao. Because of the prices that the cacao of this area are beginning to command, cacao is one of their most profitable crops. I cannot express how important this is in the development of sustainability in fine cacao. Francisco, among other farmers is growing cacao, not because he has to, but because he wants to grow it and sees a future in it. This is just not the case in many other countries. At one point, he asked me how much cacao I had bought in the last year from Piura. When I told him, he was pretty severely dismayed. It is a remarkable challenge to balance the priorities of improving the quality of life of farmers with producing fine chocolate at such a small scale. At Rogue Chocolatier, we are constantly thinking about how to balance the two. Unfortunately, the world is a complicated place where there are rarely easy fixes for these problems. As we continue to grow, one of our main goals is to positively affect the quality of life for farmers, but also the quality of their work. We fired up a gas generator for light that night. We sat with Francisco as he looked through a new calender he had received with pictures of farmers from other parts or Peru. I think what we saw was genuine pride that he was in the company of those he saw in the pictures. Time moves even slower in the country, but eventually we made it to sleep.

The next morning, we awoke to the various sounds that one does on a farm in the countryside: Burros with their ear piercing baying, roosters’ with their incessant pronouncements, pigs fighting over their morning meals, and birds from the jungle nearby. We had breakfast and then went back out on the farm. Everyone sat down up on the hill. Francisco’s wife began milking the cows for cheese that she makes and sells to the neighbors, Francisco cropped a stalk of sugar cane and began whittling off pieces and handing them to us, then, after a while, we headed back up to another part of the farm to see more trees. Francisco kept pointing out that it was important for farmers like himself to know producers like us and for us to visit them. He told me that we were welcome anytime, that we had a second home with him.

I hope to evaluate a bunch of samples of cacao from different parts of Piura after I return, but the one I am most excited to try is that from Don Francisco’s farm in the mountains.

1 comment | February 23rd, 2011

Rogue Chocolatier in Piura!

After a few days in Ecuador, we are finally in Piura!

The first day we got back here, we headed straight to the cooperative to do some cacao liquor tasting. As soon as we finished, I asked the managers if there was time to make it to Juan Tirado’s farm that day. They looked at me a like I was crazy, but agreed. So, we headed to the farm.  When we arrived in town, Juan was there waiting, as he had heard we were coming. I promptly gave him the box of Piura bars I had been terrified would be seized by customs  while going back and forth through Peru and Ecuador. He was so excited. Everyone in town told me that he’d saved the package from the last bar I’d brought and showed it to everyone who visited him.

The only problem we discovered upon arrival was that there was no way to get to Juan’s farm by car, because the rainy season had made the river impassable by car. The only option was to take a cable car over the river that was pulled across by several teenagers who had been swimming nearby, followed by a half hour walk. Not to be swayed by such things, we went across and visited his farm once again.

On the way back, we made sure to visit the fermentation and drying facility in town. I cannot express the joy it is to see good fermentation and drying practices after visiting so many facilities that just don’t take to time or care to do things right.

1 comment | February 21st, 2011

Ecuador!

Just a few quick pictures. We’re in Ecuador for a few days trying to learn about Ecuadorian cacao and  the farming and post-harvest practices here. We spent about 8 hours driving yesterday from Guayaquil to a small buying station in Los Rios province. Our guide drove maniacally at between 90-100mph en route while swerving and weaving through cars and “lanes”! Unfortunately, it was so rainy that we didn’t have much of a chance to tour farms here. We did have an opportunity to see some processing and buying stations and to see some of the old trees on one of the farms of the area. The politics of cacao in Ecuador are complex and the challenges involved in getting cacao processed correctly are a bit daunting. I will hopefully have an opportunity to speak to some of these challenges in a future post. Today we head to a major exporter to do a cocoa liquor sample tasting. Tomorrow, back to Lima and then Piura! Stay tuned!

Add comment | February 16th, 2011