If you live on the Northern Coast of California you know a lot of people that work with their hands; from fishing to working with wood they are both well-established businesses. How do you go from working with wood to creating chocolate bars? It’s the question Adam Dick & Dustin Taylor answered with the chocolate bars they sent us.
Such artisan work goes into creating this chocolate bar; After the roasting comes the milling, then the conching. What is conching? The Dick Taylor website describes it best, “The milled chocolate contains particles that are of perfect size but not perfect shape. As the sugar and cocoa solids are violently sheered apart in the roll mill the newly ground sugar particles are coarse and have sharp edges. Not only this, but the flavor of the chocolate will be on the brighter side, still retaining many of the initial bitter notes. Conching, in general terms, is an extended period of agitation, stirring, or aeration under heat, allowing the chocolate flavor to mature and develop. This generally takes between 24 and 72 hours but can be shorter or longer depending on the chocolate. After proper conching the flavor notes of the chocolate are at their peak, and the chocolate takes on a glossy, silky smooth appearance.”
After conching, the chocolate is shimmied into bar molds, extracting any bubbles. From the bean to the bar; from the raw cacao to the organic browned butter, hand sprinkled nibs, and sea salt is derived a delicate distinct taste.
Each bar is hand-foiled and wrapped in a thick linen paper that appears hand-drawn.
Each bar is deliciously handcrafted, and each package has a grand story of how the artisan chocolate was created, so much so it seems almost a shame to think of it as a candy bar.
Dick Taylor, Roasted, handcrafted, Chocolate, northern California, food, organic
