Rogue Chocolatier

Sambirano Bar Wins at the 2010 Good Food Awards

I have just returned from the Good Food Awards in San Francisco, CA. I am so pleased to announce that the Sambirano bar, made with cacao from a single family-owned estate in Madagascar, was a winner of the 2010 Good Food Awards! The bar was up against about 180 entries for the chocolate category alone. The judges included some of the best known names in the industry. Even more amazing, it was a blind taste test! I am so honored to have been given this award for many reasons. The award ceremony featured a keynote speech by none other than Alice Waters herself. I had the chance to meet many big names in the food world that have been extremely influential in how we approach our food today.

The following day, Rogue Chocolatier was given the opportunity to sell at the Ferry Building Farmers Market, where we were greeted by throngs of excited foodies. I cannot explain how energizing this experience was, nor the depth of my gratitude to be an award winner. To celebrate, I will be offering free shipping on all web orders over $20 for the remainder of January! Here’s your chance to taste the bars that everyone is talking about! Please, if you get a chance, click onto the Good Food Awards website and check out the amazing foods that were involved with this project.

2 comments | January 23rd, 2011

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Piura Bar Makes Return Trip to Juan Tirado’s Farm

The Piura bar has been a fantastic success. Everyone who has tried it has been amazed at how delicious the cacao underlying this bar tastes. It’s clean, mild, complex, and unique. It has received accolades and coverage in the local press from Metro Magazine and Minnesota Monthly. I feel bittersweet in announcing that we have just a few bars left, and the retail bars are sold out!

I had the remarkable opportunity to bring the Piura bar back to Juan Tirado’s farm this past summer. He is the farmer from whom I bought the Piura cacao beans. He was extremely pleased to taste a chocolate made with cacao from his farm, and taken aback by my enthusiasm after reading the insert enclosed with the bar. There are no chocolates that I am aware of that offer this level of depth in honoring the individual farmer that was responsible for the cacao for a particular bar. His farm is unique. I had never seen anything like it. His cacao orchard is essentially in the middle of the desert! Upon arrival in Piura I insisted that we had to immediately head to see him. I was traveling with Art Pollard, Maricel Prescilla, and Alan McClure as a part of a government sponsored trip to Peru, in conjunction with their first “Salon de Cacao y Chocolate” to promote Peruvian cacao and chocolate.

We drove through the arid landscape of Piura, crossed a small river in our 4×4 and whipped around curves on a very narrow small dirt road skirted by wooden stick fencing.. After the dust had cleared, we stood at the entrance to Juan Tirado’s farm. One must first understand that essentially ALL cacao grows in tropical jungle type climates and areas. Only through savvy irrigation have they been able to grow cacao in this area. That is not to say that cacao is a brand new arrival to the region; Juan Tirado’s trees are at least 30 years old. The trees are grown from seed, and therefore lack the characteristic fork of hybrid plantings and grafts. We walked around and looked at the diversity of trees on the farm, as well as examining his pruning practices. Finally, we met with two men who regularly work his farm. We had arrived just at the right time as they had a big pile of freshly harvested pods and were in the process of pulling the ‘baba’, or wet cacao, out of the pods! I promptly gave both of them a sample of the chocolate. I can only infer from the look on their faces that this moment was an epiphany. Most farmers will never taste chocolate made from cacao that they grow. To say the least, they were pleased with the result.

We then headed to the fermentary and drying station. Fermentation and drying are such crucial aspects of the supply chain that I really wanted to see this in process. Though their setup is quite rudimentary, they are able to do a fantastic job with processing cacao. I evaluated their process and am working with them to try to further improve the quality and consistency. As I bid farewell, I made one promise to Juan that day. He asked that I bring him more chocolate. I promised I would find some way. To that end, I will be heading back to Peru next month to try to secure another small quantity of cacao for this year, and, of course, to bring the last of the bars back to Juan Tirado himself. Needless to say, I am looking forward to doing both these things!

Add comment | January 23rd, 2011

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Growing Rogue

With continued growth in production, our tiny factory is bursting at the seams. For this we are not complaining, but needing to increase our space and purchase better machinery. I have finally sold a couple of antique machines that I had been hoping to rebuild for a few years. This has provided a small amount of capital that I am using to purchase a small state of the art conche, and to relocate the company to a new facility. This move will allow us space to install several innovative machines that I have been hoping to build for a few years. The end goal is not just to increase production, but to improve quality and allow us to better meet the demand for our chocolate buyers. Right now we are in a state of constant back order, so a requirement of the business is to make sure we are able to keep our stores stocked with chocolate. In doing this, our attention to detail and our obsession with quality will not falter. In fact, with these new machines, I will be able to apply all that I have learned so far to make better, more delicious chocolate. To all of you who have supported Rogue Chocolatier I give my sincere appreciation. Without your continued support we would not be moving forward into this new chapter.

Add comment | January 23rd, 2011

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