Dandelion Chocolate

Many people don’t realize it, but most of the world’s chocolate is industrial. It’s made by one of the giant cocoa grinders — companies like ADM, Cargill, Barry Callebaut, and Blommer, just to name a few. Any big company is going to have different priorities than a small one, and for industrial chocolate the goals are consistency and low cost. It’s a miracle of manufacturing that a candy bar can be so inexpensive and taste exactly the same as any other one. However, it doesn’t have to be this way. Chocolate is one of the few foods that is both fermented and roasted, two processes that create interesting flavor notes. It can have more complexity than wine, but as most companies will try to remove these nuances for the sake of consistency and cost, many people have never experienced chocolate’s full potential. Change is afoot and we are proud to be part of it. Launched in garages and kitchens around the country, the New American Chocolate Movement is giving Europe a run for its money as small-makers everywhere are searching for the one thing that’s been missing for a long time in the chocolate world: flavor. This is the story of how chocolate is made in small batches.