Learn about Organic Chocolate

Alex Whitmore: The chili has a good nice earthy flavor that it gives to the chocolate and then right at the end, you got to burn it. Nina Simonds: Oh, my god! That's it ? Alex Whitmore: Did you got it ? Nina Simonds: Yeah. Hi, this is Nina Simonds with Spices Of Life and today we are at a very, very special place. We are at a chocolate factory and I am here with Alex Whitmore who is one of the co-owner, correct ? Alex Whitmore: Very correct. Nina Simonds: Taza chocolate and everybody loves chocolates. So Alex, tell us about Taza, because it's very special company. Alex Whitmore: The Taza chocolate is a bean-to-bar chocolate maker. We manufacture chocolate from scratch, from the cacao bean that is. And we do this using traditional Mexican Stone Mills. So, we make a chocolate that's really, it has an intense texture and a very powerful flavor. So, this is the traditional Mexican chocolate in the Guajillo Chili variety. Nina Simonds: Oh! They are nice. Alex Whitmore: You notice when you eat the chocolate. Nina Simonds: I don't tasted the chili up. Alex Whitmore: There is what you are feel in just I second, it comes back away. Nina Simonds: So, let's show everybody how you do it ? Alex Whitmore: Yeah, let's go on a tour Nina Simonds: Okay. Alex Whitmore: We are purchasing beans at above fair trade prices that are certified organic, that are of better quality than we can ever get from a broker. We work with farmers in Mexico, The Dominican Republic and Costa Rica. They are really excited because we pay them more than anyone ever gives them. So, we always got the best beans they have to offer. Nina Simonds: So, step two. Alex Whitmore: So, this is our Barth Sirocco 200 cacao beans roaster. The beans will get dumped into the harper here, they will be emptied into the roasting bowl where there is a big jet of flame that will roast the beans by convection. You roast about forty minutes to maximum temperature of about 235 degrees Fahrenheit. When they are ready, the beans will get dumped down into the cooling trays and they will taken over to the winnowing machine, so be a winnowed. Once the beans have been roasted, we need to remove the outer shell of the bean, so we are left with the nib, which is what we grind into all of our chocolate. This is a traditional Mexican stone mill. It's called the Molino. Inside each Molino, there are two of these big mill stones. Using these mill stones, we grind the nib down into a paste. We mix that with some organic cane sugar and then we grind it again. It keeps the intensity of the flavor and the actual ingredients inside the chocolate. Once we have grind the ingredients with this mills, we simply deposit it in chocolate bars. There is no intensive processing beyond that. With a very traditional product in a very traditional process. Our chocolates available in over six hundred stores nationwide as well as our website. Nina Simonds: Now, what's the website ? Alex Whitmore: The website is tazachocolate.com , please check it out. Nina Simonds: Oh, thank you, so much. So, this has been terrific. Alex Whitmore: It was my pleasure. Thanks for coming back. Nina Simonds: Oh! Yeah, anytime. Thank you. Male Speaker: Thanks to our sponsors Legal Sea Foods. Nina Simonds: How was that? Oh!