For the Love of Chocolate

Photo compliments of Amano Chocolate

There seems to be a trend among artisan chocolate makers – creative, handy, entrepreneurial types. Well, the founders of Amano Chocolate, based outside of Salt Lake City, UT, are no exception. A marriage of a love of designing and building and a passion for chocolate, Amano lives up to its namesake – Italian for “by hand” or “they love.” (oh, Italians…). I had the pleasure of speaking with one of the founders, Art Pollard, about the story behind the confection and the inner workings of the business.

Let’s start at the beginning. What set things in motion for you to go into chocolate-making?

Oddly enough, you can probably track my passion for chocolate back to a physics lab. I grew up in Los Alamos, NM where the National Laboratory is located. By the time I was thirteen years old, I was working in several different university nuclear research labs. Through college, I designed and built equipment for my university's physics department – the same one where I started working on the various nuclear projects. It was there, while eating a chocolate bar, that I first contemplated making my own chocolate… My co-workers said I couldn't do it and first informed me that chocolate, in fact, comes from cocoa beans!

Years later, a $2 truffle from a Belgian company with an outlet in Hawaii took chocolate to a whole new level for me. My business partner, Clark, and I have put our lab background and love of creating and building to good use. While we started out working as programmers with chocolate making as a side business or hobby, it has slowly taken over. I flew out to Europe to study at a confectionery school, searched for the right machinery to make the chocolate, and visited cocoa plantations around the world to find the right beans. Once we found a space and started experimenting with the beans, it was a matter of choosing when to test the market.

Somehow, National Public Radio (NPR) managed to get hold of one of our early batches, and began touting our chocolate as one of the best in the country (and featured in NPR’s 2007 Valentine’s Day article). While we weren't officially launched yet, when the NPR attention centered on us, Clark and I looked at each other and said, “I guess we’ve launched!”. But seriously, the artisan chocolate industry is just about everything I enjoy in life. I get to rebuild machines that are close to 100 years old. I have always enjoyed horticulture. And I am also a dire-hard foodie. So it’s the perfect combination.

How did you choose your current sources of cacao? Single origin vs. mixed?

We choose our sources of cacao based entirely on flavor. It’s a lot of work to figure out the best way to process the beans, which is why we can’t pursue every source of bean that comes to us. At this point, each of our chocolate bars is single-origin. While it would be a great challenge to pursue a high-quality mixed-source bar, I’m having too much fun making single origin chocolate right now!

In what ways do you consider the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of the company as a whole?

Well, every area is different. But as far as cocoa is concerned, I don’t think that Fair Trade really works. The premium is barely 5%, and little of the price premium consumers pay actually reaches the farmers. On the other hand, working directly with farmers, helping them learn to grow and harvest quality cocoa, opens the door for chocolatiers willing to pay more for quality. We are paying at minimum twice market rate and as much as four times. None of the money goes to a certifier in a developed nation – it goes directly to the community where it belongs.

I noticed that you travel a lot! Do you interact directly with cacao growing communities, and if so, what is the most rewarding aspect of working at this level?

We interact with farmers at various levels, both on large plantations and cooperatives, as well as small-scale farmers. We also obtain differing quantities of cacao from the different growers.

Whenever we finish a chocolate bar, we always make an effort to take the finished product back to the communities for them to try. In general, it is tough to get chocolate in the tropics, because of the hurdles in storing it, and the opportunity for farmers to eat chocolate made with their own beans is a rare treat. For me, it’s a honor getting to know a farmer who really cares about what he does, meeting his family, and being entrusted with his entire year’s crop. It is a great responsibility to have the cacao in the factory, with the imperative to do something truly special with it.

Where do you see the company headed? Any exciting upcoming developments?

We are developing some new origin bars, but the details are still under lock and key!

Final (and most important…) question – if you could eat any chocolate, which would it be?

They are all my babies! It is totally a mood thing, though. The Chuao bar from Venezuela is spectacular, and for that we are paying four times the market rate. Our Madagascar is beautiful. The Dos Rios from Dominican Republic is also a favorite. Ecuador has some really wonderful beans, but the finished chocolate sold today has not been spectacular. Our Guayas bar has met with success where these other tries have failed. No matter what, each has its own unique tale and own individual flavor profile. It just depends on the time of day, my mood, etc. And like I said, each of them is like one of my babies!

Wow, another unique and not-at-all linear path to the chocolate biz. Thanks to Art for a lively and enlightening conversation, and best of luck on the mysterious future plans! In the meantime, I think I’ll go have another piece of that Madagascar bar sitting in my room…

Let's Talk Organic

Note - photo is NOT from Portland...

First off, greetings from Portland, OR and the first ever Vida Vegan Conference! After two full days of munching and musing , I am left with a lot to think about and a whole new perspective on the vegan community.

One of the panels I yesterday was on nutrition. While very interesting, the panel raised an issue with which I still feel torn. Organic is always better. As you may recall, I have written about organic production in the past - particularly with regards to berries and compared to conventional. So, obviously I don't disagree with the merits of choosing organic, but rather the principle that one can blindly put faith in an organic product. Depending on your values and goals, it is not always better.

As with most things in life, there are two sides to the coin. A Grist article from about a month ago, in response to a separate Scientific American blog post provides some serious insight on this issue. The selling points: GMOs are not allowed, dangerous chemicals are banned and generally it is more energy efficient. But sadly, in the world in which we live, even organic agriculture is not all sunshine and roses. Industrial scale production does employ approved pesticides, monocropping, and heavy machinery for tilling the soil, etc. There is debate over nutritional benefits, though I fall into the camp that organic-done-right is superior in micronutrients.

So, while I support organic in theory, in practice I think a blanket acceptance is too simplistic. I would rather support a local farmer, who may not be certified organic but makes thoughtful decisions about the use of chemicals, than a nameless organic agriculture giant with whom I have no connection and no established relationship. Get to know your farmer, find out if he/she strives to a more agro-ecological approach that aligns with the services nature provides us, and support those who do at the market or through a CSA.

What are your thoughts on organic? Is that what you tend to purchase?

Dare to Bake: Sweet Stuff in Life

Another month has come and gone. Can you believe it? This month was crazily busy, but I managed to produce some outputs for this challenge.

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at Chocoley offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

Dark chocolate covered salted caramel popcorn

Salted caramel ingredients: turbinado sugar, almond milk, fleur de sel

Dark chocolate disks with cranberries and pecans -or- dates and walnuts

Chocolate-covered figs (and strawberries)

Fruit complements of my fantastic farmer!

Home Sweet Home

I've been dreaming about blackberries for weeks. Granted, we do have them in DC, but something feels special about PNW berries. And when they start to ripen in the late August sun, there is a bittersweet taste that comes of surviving the other ten dreary months and knowing that the grey will return in only a few short weeks. But that is the reality in which Seattle-ites live.

On Sunday afternoon, I took a trip down memory lane and went blackberry picking in my parents' neighborhood. Perhaps I should clarify, we moved to the neighborhood when I was 18 months old, so most of my childhood summer memories have their roots in this very location. Despite the suboptimal weather that has shortened and delayed growing seasons along the northwest coast this year, I managed to bring back quite a haul of berries.

After consuming not an insignificant number, I decided these pretty tart little beauties were dying for a place in a pie. Luckily, Lisa of Vegan Culinary Crusade is still accepting raw pie entries for the mini pie challenge! I also posted this puppy on Simply Sugar and Gluten Free's Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays (it's been a while).

Blackberry Almond Petite Pie (yield 1 small tart or deep dish cupcake size)

Crust

1/2 cup raw almonds

6 dates

1/4 cup flaked coconut

1 tbs ground flax

1. Whiz all ingredients in a food processor until starting to stick together. Press into mini tart pan (or make do with a cupcake tin...)

Almond Creme

1/4 cup raw almonds, soaked for 60 minutes

1 tbs raw agave

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp water

2. Same deal, food process all ingredients until creamy. Layer about halfway into the crust.

Blackberries

1/3 cup blackberries

1 tsp raw turbinado sugar (optional) or agave

3. Toss and let sit for at least 3o minutes (maybe do this first) until getting juicy. Layer into the tart. ENJOY!

Are there any places you visit that make you feel like a child again?

A Sage Lunch

You may recall a post last year on Seattle restaurants. It needs updating, with new restaurants and those I've patronized since, but there was one I had yet to try - Hillside Quickies. Ok, I still have not been, but one of the locations recently become Sage Bakery and Cafe. This vegan spot on Capital Hill is a compact storefront with character to boot.

And the food is not so bad either! My mother and I split the Fire-Roasted Yam sandwich and the Mama Africa burger. Both were marvelous, but I liked the quinoa burger filling while my mother favored the sweet potato stacked on focaccia. While it's a bit pricy ($10 average sandwich price), it gets brownie points for serving up fare I would not normally make at home. As for that post-lunch chocolate craving...well, I would curb your sugar craving elsewhere unless desperation kicks in.

On that note, I will briefly mention the detour on my bike ride home from the late lunch. Flying Apron Bakery just opened its second location in downtown Redmond! This gluten-free, vegan, organic bakery offers fantastic peanut butter cookies, 50% off its day-old goodies, and an assortment of soups, sandwiches, and salads. It is hard to get gluten-free right, but Flying Apron does a pretty darn-good job (though, perhaps skip the cinnamon roll).

Three days to Portland!!!

You're Invited!

This time of year, the proportion of zucchini in my diet peaks, although lags slightly behind tomatoes and peaches. While I enjoy it simply prepared, roasted or sauteed, sometimes it is necessary to infuse a little something extra. My fellow DC bloggers, Victoria of the District Chocoholic and Valerie of City|Life|Eats, have invited any interested blogger to participate in a Zucchini Chocolate Blog Party. Yes, you heard me right, a celebration of two spectacular edibles!

The idea is to share a recipe of your choice that involves chocolate and zucchini. It can be sweet or savory, use any type chocolate or summer squash, and ascribe to one of four challenges:

• Challenge: A recipe using chocolate and zucchini
• Plant-Based Challenge: A vegan recipe using chocolate and zucchini
• Gluten-Free Challenge: A gluten-free recipe using chocolate and zucchini
• Ultimate Challenge: A vegan and gluten-free recipe using chocolate and zucchini

Based on my track record, you can probably guess what I chose. My situation was complicated slightly due to the fact that I am residing at my parental units' home, but I managed to scrounge up a few ingredients and make use of the large patty-pan squash from Sunday's farmers market. Some leftover frozen cherry halves were icing on the cake. Enjoy!

Chococherry Zucchini Cookies (yields 12ish large, vg, gf)

1 cup grated zucchini

1/4 cup vegetable oil (can substitute applesauce for lower-fat version)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup brown or turbinado sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup almond meal

2/3 cup oat flour (or other gluten-free flour)

1/2 cup tapioca starch

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

Cherry halves - about a dozen

1. Grate zucchini into a bowl. Add oil, sugars, extract, and cocoa powder, mixing until uniform.

2. Combine rest of the dry ingredients until it all comes together. For cookies, the dough should be pretty thick, so add more oat flour as needed. If you decide to make mini cakes, it can be a little more batter-like.

3. Use a tablespoon to scoop the dough onto a lined cookie sheet. Press a thumb into the center of the cookie, and the place a cherry half in the dent.

4. Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes until outside of cookie set. Allow to cool before consuming... or, plop a scoop of vanilla soy ice cream on top and dig right in!

I think this is one of those "bake your cake and eat it too" moments.

Heirlooms in the Garden

An heirloom can be defined as "something of special value handed on from one generation to another." Many of us are in possession of an item of this sort, such as a piece of jewelry or dinnerware. The same principle can be applied to seed varieties, pass down over the course of centuries, from generation to generation. And like your grandmother's ring, the seed passed down reflects the conditions under which it was developed (though, you also end up with a greater diversity of crops, while one ring tends to remain a single ring). Heirloom vegetables and fruits harken back to a day prior to the industrialized methods of farming that reward uniformity, and if any of you have seen those ugly heirloom tomatoes, you know what I mean!

I can't seem to stop writing about peaches and tomatoes, can I? Perhaps that is because they are so flavorful and wonderful at the moment. Perhaps that is due to the large quantities of the two fruits I have been consuming. Either way, it is always nice to incorporate in a new flavor or two to change things up.

Well, A Couple Cooks recently posted a delicious recipe for an heirloom tomato and peach salad! Very summery - refreshing and nourishing. The photo gracing the blog emphasizes how the deep red of the tomatoes contrasts nicely with the vibrant yellow flesh of the peaches and makes the green of the mint pop (and the couple themselves make a pair of beautiful bloggers!)

Though a really simple and quick recipe, I made a few changes to suit my mood and herbs on-hand:

1 heirloom tomato

1 large peach

3-4 leaves basil

dash of white balsamic vinegar

pinch of fleur de sel or sea salt

Five days more to Portland!

A Week Out West

Greetings from Seattle! Yesterday's full day of travel has landed me in my parents' house outside of the city for the next week. This is exciting in its own right, but the impetus for the visit, particularly for the timing, is actually the Vida Vegan Blogger Conference next Friday! It's hard to imagine that I have been waiting for this event since I found out I was attending back in February. Well here I am, and planning on enjoying a relatively relaxing week lead up to the fun.

This morning, I made a visit to the Redmond Farmers Market. It didn't disappoint - with stall stocked full of tomatoes, eggplants, peaches, and zucchini. There was cauliflower, kohlrabi, green beans, and corn. It looked not too dissimilar from the markets back in DC. Maybe a few less peaches here, a few more broccoli florets there. But when I bit into a peach and popped a blueberry into my mouth, the difference became readily apparent. Where the blueberries (and most other berries this time of year) are phenomenal, the peaches for the most part are underwhelming. Geography - and the associated climate, soil profile, topography, etc - seem to make a huge difference in flavor, and possibly nutrition, of market produce.

If one examines the USDA's maps of producing regions, it quickly becomes apparent that the growing conditions for my two "homes" are very different. While I'm not well-versed beyond simple difference in weather between the district and the state of Washington, you can imagine that the mountainous topography and higher latitude of the Puget Sound Region contrast sharply with the subtropical climes and only mildly hilly terrain of the Nation's Capital.

Ok, enough ranting. I'll be back tomorrow. Six days and counting!!!

A Belated National Can-It-Forward Day

My kitchen has been getting a lot of use on Sunday afternoons. After we pack up at the farmers market at around 1:30pm, I stuff my bike basket full of overly-ripe produce items and race up the hill to my apartment. Then, I proceed to spend the entire afternoon processing the bulk of seconds peaches and tomatoes acquired at the aforementioned market. Whew.

Well, yesterday happened to be National Can-It-Forward Day! While I have to admit that my usual summer canning activities did not differ, I thought I would take a moment to extol the benefits of canning. Canning as we know it really only dates back to mid-19th century, but the premise behind it and other older food preservation methods are the same: make the months of bountiful harvest last during times when plants won't grow. Why do I can? When you see the tables overflowing with tomatoes and peaches at the market, it is a hard to suppress the urge to bottle it up! And honestly, when one's favorite fruits come out in droves too great to consume in one sitting, there really is no other option. And thus we come to the Sunday canning adventures.

Slicing and freezing peaches was my go-to up until this point. Last year I had a good five or six gallon freezer bags of peach slices to tide me over through (half) the winter. However, because of limited freezer space, I have jumped into the marvelous world of canning fruit. Peaches packed in a light, vanilla bean infused, sugar syrup. Yum. Crossing my fingers that they are a success. Learn more about preserving stone fruit here. As for the tomatoes, you can read about my exploits with those last year. I have that canning venture down pat!

Taste of Summer

Washington DC supposedly empties as August rolls around. People go on vacation, escape the oppressive humidity of the swamp that houses our Nation's Capital (...I don't think it's so bad...). As such, one would assume that the city turns to a ghost town. But you wouldn't think that after seeing the packed stalls at the farmers market this morning. Perhaps this was the last hurrah before people skip town. Perhaps it was in celebration of National Farmers Market Week! Even so, I think that the crowds today were a testament to the fact that farmers markets in the summer are festive, alluring, and downright breath-taking.

August is perhaps what I consider to be the epitome of summer, at least in terms of food. Today marked the first Sunday farmers market of August 2011, and you could tell immediately that summer is in full swing. While the berries are winding down (unlike in the Pacific Northwest), stone fruit abound. Hot weather vegetables include zucchinis, eggplants, and tomatoes (really these are also all fruit...) start to claim real estate.

Considering the prevalence of these last fruits of the earth, it seems only reasonable that one should take this into consideration when preparing meals for the coming week (and believe me, the peaches have already been accounted for...). So here I offer you a very simple, very easy, and very delicious summer stew that takes advantage of the height of summer produce. It's scalable, storable, and takes virtually no effort.

Slow-roasted ratatouille

1 medium Italian eggplant

1 large yellow summer squash

1 large or 2 medium tomatoes

2 cloves garlic

1 sprig of fresh oregano

1 stem of fresh basil

salt to taste

olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan

1. Slice eggplant into rounds (about 1/4" thick). halve, and then place in bowl and salt. Allow to sit thirty minutes. Meanwhile, slice up squash into rounds, slice tomatoes and garlic.

2. Coat bottom of a pyrex casserole with olive oil or spray. Layer eggplant, zucchini, some garlic, and tomatoes. Salt. Place basil and oregano here. Continue with a second layer of eggplant, zucchini, garlic and tomatoes.

3. Cover casserole with lid (or foil) and bake at 325F for an hour, or until everything is really soft and the garlic literally melts in your mouth.

4. I like to add red lentils or split peas. Can serve with crusty bread or polenta. Would also be tasty adding fresh corn from the cob or caramelized onions. ENJOY!

Ricki's holding a weekly roundup of recipes. Check out other healthy summer eats at Diet, Desserts and Dogs!

Across the Mediterranean

Have I mentioned how much I love summer? Not today? Well, I do. Besides the fact that I was born in July (oh, did we skip my 25th, this year...oops) and the weather is warm and sunny, there is so much good eatin' to be had. Summer is the season of tomatoes and zucchini, of peaches and berries, of eggplant and peppers, and of course - FIGS! Those teardrops of with which I fell in love during my farming excursion in Italia, how I have dreamed about their return to season. Well, the first of the fruit have arrived, just in time for this month's Raw Recipe Challenge! Considering the heat, a raw recipe is quite welcome.

Lisa of Vegan Culinary Crusade and Nicole of A Dash of Compassion have challenged readers to a month of mini pie making, in the raw. Unfortunately for my free time (what little there is), pies are probably my favorite baking pursuit, and I happened to learn of this challenge at the beginning of the month. Let's just say that this month may see a disproportionate number of raw pies...

Taste of Tuscany Tart (yields 1 mini tart; vg, gf)

Crust

1/2 cup raw almonds (optional - soak for an hour prior)

4 dates

1. Food process all ingredients until they begin to come together. Add a tsp of water, if necessary. Use fingers to press firmly into a small tart pan.

Banana Cream

1 medium banana (I like mine pretty unripe...)

1 tsp agave

1 tsp lemon juice

2. Place all ingredients in the food processor until smooth. Spread evenly over crust.

Figs

2 medium, sliced

3. Arrange fig slices daintily on top of banana puree. Perhaps drizzle a little agave or garnish with some sliced almonds.

Wasn't that simple? Just you, fresh ingredients, and something with a sharp rotating blade (watch out for that). Can't wait until my next raw pie? Check out my baby apple pies!