Theobroma cacao
If you thought my latest project, buying an antique churn and making my own butter, was bizarre and atavistic, get a load of this:
I just heard from someone here in town whose dream is to make his own chocolate, from raw cacao beans to finished bars. (OK, I doubted, but I’m beginning to believe. Just let me hear from someone in the greater Chambanoy area who is building a wood-fired bread oven, getting truffles to grow around their oak trees, or pressing their own olive oil in a granite mill, and I will believe that Jesus is coming back, that the Food Rapture is at hand, and that we can all die happy.)
Daniel Schreiber is a graduate student in computer science, but he admits he gets more pleasure from making things by hand and what he most wants to make is chocolate–chocolate as friendly to the earth, as fair to the people who grew it, and as delectable to the palate as it is possible to make it.
Chocolate comes from cacao “beans,” which are actually the seeds of a tropical tree. The name of this genus, theoobroma, means “food of the gods,” and comes from Mayan and Aztec legends that the gods discovered cacao in a mountain and then shared this food with their people.
I don’t imagine he’ll be growing his own beans anytime soon, but he plans to work only with Fair Trade and Organic cacao beans, and then to roast, crack, winnow, refine, temper, and mold first the beans and then the cacao liqueur by hand, using a cacao mill and a chocolate mélangeur or mixer. Being a poor grad student, he can’t afford to lay out the $1000+ this equipment will cost, so he has set up a website to solicit donations, with the promise that you will get to be more or less involved in the project and get some dark chocolate at the end of it.
Is this cool or what?! What a great thing, to have people in our community dreaming such dreams. What a great use of the web, to connect with the people who can help make that dream a reality. Dan has only got a few days to go to secure the pledges he needs to get this project off the ground, so I urge you to check it out and support it if you can. As of the moment, his site is saying that the project is fully funded, but as someone else who put together a micro food operation on an even more microscopic budget, I know there are plenty of unanticipated expenses.
I’ve put my money where my mouth is and become a backer. I’m already dreaming of a bacon bar or a barbecue bar that might be ready to unveil by next year’s Lar-B-Q, and offer up to the ancient Aztecs. Daniel is planning to come to the Lar-B-Q tomorrow, so you can meet him and find out more about his project if you like.
Aw, Larbo, that’s so awesome!
We have our own locally made chocolate in Toronto too, from a company with similar ideals called Chocosol. They can’t grow their own cacoa because of our harsh climate, but they do make everything else by hand and hold amazing summer solstice festivals.
I wish I could get in on this one with you!
Thanks for mentioning the Cocosol company near you, mochapj! I’m sure as Daniel gets going with this project, he will want to talk to any people as possible trying to do the same kind of thing.
[...] at the beginning of this summer (wait! is summer over? where did it go? how did I miss its going!), I wrote about Dan Schreiber’s project to purchase fair trade cacao beans, roast them in his oven, grind them in a stone mill, and [...]