The Why
Chocolate, it seemed to me, started tasting bad or boring or both. Chocolate had changed since I was a kid and it wasn’t in my imagination. My suspicion radar was up. Consternation meter pegged. And so, many moons ago, down the chocolate rabbit hole I went to get to the bottom of the mystery.
That was my original “why”.
But a more refined “why” materialized years later after I opened the doors to The Cocoa Forge in Port Townsend WA. I remember the moment distinctly. It was the 2nd day that I had the tasting room open - a startling clear blue Pacific Northwest September day in which a mild breeze wafted over from Port Townsend Bay bringing with it a seriously fishy seawater aroma - which I was very worried about. A young couple who were out touring the globe happened by and bravely ventured down the unmarked driveway and into the unknown; the deep dark and cool depths of my little micro-factory located in my newly restored late 1800’s cold storage keg room. I don’t think I had much signage up at that time, but they somehow found me. I had made 14 different blow-your-hair-back, eye-opening cacao origins for tasting. Which was silly because you really can’t taste more than 4 or 5 at the most before your taste-buds are blown.
I set them up with a tasting plate and stepped slightly away so they could taste in peace. Ok, I was surreptitiously watching out of the corner of my eye and waiting for the fun “OMG” facial expressions that inevitably happens to people when tasting real chocolate for the first time. But the young lady seemingly froze, mid taste, on one of her chocolates. I sidled back over to answer any questions. It was only a matter of moments before we discovered the square of chocolate she was “frozen” on was made from the very same beans from the very small village where she had grown up in in Ecuador. Blink. That was my “NAILED IT” moment. “This. Tastes. Like... Home.”, she managed to say. I thought she was going to cry. I know I definitely felt like welling up because she just validated everything I had been working towards.
These origins are all so unique and special with their own personalities. And you could rightly describe the phenomenon as terroir but that is only part of it. It is a Sense of Place somehow. So, my job, really, is to stay out of the way. Do no harm. Let their personality's shine. These beans have a story to tell. And their little lights should not be hidden under a bushel!
Ok. BTW. There's one more thing. I really enjoy this work!