Lemuel Food
My time participating in the 1st International Bean-To-Bar Workship at Coimbatore, India was my greatest inspirational experience in bean-to-bar chocolate making. We learnt and shared many experiences amongst the participants during the workshop. More importantly, Cocoa Town’s machinery and equipment really made the whole workshop run fluidly and easily.
During the workshop, we received vast knowledge from the Bean to Bar experts – professionals like Ms Mayari Castellanos, Chocolate Master Chriss Macbeth from Mexico, and also Mrs Andal Balu from CocoaTown. We got to use the CocoaTown machines for the crucial bean-to-bar process like sorting, cracking, winnowing, grinding and finally, the moulding of the chocolate into bars.
Don’t miss out on the cocoa farm tour if you are a Bean to Bar enthusiast because you get to see and take pictures of the various kinds of cocoa pods and trees. They are so vibrant and beautiful, you will find yourself snapping pictures endlessly. Also, the farming and post-harvesting process is vital in the process of bean-to-bar chocolate making, but if often overlooked. Getting to see the usually hidden hard work done by these farmers made me appreciate the opportunity to make use those cacao beans even more. Without the farmers that make cacao possible, we would not have chocolate.
I have been in the chocolate industry for over 25 years and have realized that manufacturing factory-line chocolates in mass quantities without truly exploring the process and the unique flavours of different beans is foolish of me. There are several different varieties of cacao beans that have distinctly different flavour profiles that will amaze you. This was a really life changing moment for me. It spurred me on to build my first Bean-To-Bar business in Singapore after leaving my job.
I would like to hence thank CocoaTown for making such an enriching experience possible, organizing the whole course and making sure our bean-to-bar journey in India was a pleasant and insightful one.