The Beans
Our experimentation with the amazing variety of Cacao beans from all around the world. The flavours within a bar of chocoolate vary depending on how and where the beans are grown and we intend to try as many as it takes to bring the best to our chocolate.
Togo Kekeli
We had the opportunity to try some beans from Togo, grown by a cooperative of farmers at Mount Agou. These beans have a light, creamy and sweet flavour. You can read more about them at Silva Cacao...
Costa Esmeraldas
For our first foray into fine flavour cocoa we chose Costa Esmeraldas beans from Ecuador. As soon as they arrived we could tell they were different to the beans we'd been using before. They smelled amazing before we'd even opened the package, and we were very excited to start making chocolate with them....
Our first beans
For our first chocolate, we ordered some beans from Peru from the internet. There was very little information about them, but they were all we could find that could be bought in small quantities, which seemed ideal for learning with. We soon learned that to make quality chocolate, you need quality ingredients, and unfortunately for us, these beans just weren't very good. On the plus side, we were able to have a go at chocolate making without spending a fortune, and we weren't stuck with an endless supply of poor beans....