A Change of Heart

To be honest, I have never been much of a dark chocolate fan . . . until now. I used to think that the bitterness was just way too nasty. But, my mom has always LOVED dark chocolate and I thought that she was crazy- I always gave her the Hershey's Special Darks that I would get from trick-o-treating. And my husband William loves dark chocolate as well, and was always having me try different brands, saying that I just hadn't tried the right one yet. Well, he was right. I just hadn't tried the right kind.

Just about 20 minutes away from the Oakland Temple in Berkley is the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory. They give FREE one hour tours with 5 samples of different kinds of dark chocolate. William has been raving to me about this chocolate and he always indulges me with all of my adventures so I was willing to give this a try. And I'm glad that I did. I now have a new respect for dark chocolate, and fine chocolate making in general, after this tour.

The tour itself was mostly educational, telling about the history of the company and also every step in the process of creating incredible dark chocolate. I'm going to share a few of the interesting tidbits that we learned. Chocolate is actually a FRUIT due to its being the seeds of the fruit. So when you are eating chocolate, what you are really eating are the finely crushed up seeds of the cacao fruit. Wow! This can now count towards my five a day :-)

So the seeds actually have a mucus covering on them and so they are mixed in with pieces of the ripe fruit and placed in the sun to ferment the seeds. The yeast in the air combines to break down the mucus and then produces heat that activates the seeds. This process also gives the chocolate a fruity flavor to it. This can make it hard to have uniform chocolate. Thus, they have a guy at Scharffen Berger who is their official taste tester. He gets sample bags from different bean producers and tries some of each of the beans to see if they have the right taste/flavors that they need. Here's a photo of his tasting station, complete with a toaster oven to roast the beans and a coffee grinder to grind them up.
After they get the right beans, they then roast them in this giant roaster
Then, the beans are sent down this machine that shakes them and removes the papery skin from them, slightly breaking them up. At the end, what comes out are pieces of the beans called "nibs" and these DO NOT taste very good. Primarily because there is no sugar and each one is very different so you can get some ones that taste like dirt.
These are two granite grinders that pulverize the nibs so that they have a smooth consistency
After some more cooking processes, it is pumped through these pipes to be dispensed into plastic bar molds.
We had to follow all of these safety codes to tour the factory, since it is a working factory. I had to borrow some clogs since you couldn't have open toed shoes and everyone needed to wear a hairnet. Here's William sporting his and looking o so much like he belongs in the I Love Lucy episode at the chocolate factory. They even had beard guards for those with facial hair!

Scharffen Berger has only been around for about 15 years. One of the co-owners went to France and had the most fabulous dark chocolate and ended up working at the factory there to learn about the process so that he could produce it in the U.S. The way to truly enjoy a good dark chocolate is to let it melt in your mouth so that you can enjoy the flavors. The first kind we tried was 70% cacao and had a very fruity taste to it- I was surprised because it wasn't bitter like the other kinds I have tried. The 2nd kind was a semi-sweet one with 60% chocolate and it was ok- good, but not quite as good as the second one. The 3rd one was my personal favorite- it was a milk kind, but with 40% chocolate, so it actually has more of a caramel taste to it. Then, we had one that was 60% cacao but had the nibs interspersed throughout to give it some crunch. It also made it extremely rich. And then we had one of their "endangered, limited edition" bars- there are special blends of unique beans that once they run out, that's it. That particular crop is gone. Eh, it was ok- not as good as the 1st and the 3rd. On the whole, I was impressed by the tour and the chocolate- especially since it was free. But that is to completely entice you to buy some because we really enjoyed it. William also wanted to try the 80% cacao but that was just way, way too intense for me. That much had some of the bitter taste.

So for all of you milk chocolate lovers, don't completely write off dark chocolate- just make sure that you try the right one. And yes, I am enjoying a piece of melted deliciousness as I write this.