The Story of “Chocolatey”
We traveled to Ghana, home of TCHO's co-founder Karl Bittong, to select just the right beans for "Chocolatey." Out of the thousands of bean lots we were offered, we chose the most perfect, intensely chocolatey (yes, that's actually an industry flavor term), with distinct hints of brown fruit.
Since flavor drives the TCHO decision matrix, we devote extreme attention to carefully time-sourcing beans — much of the flavor is in the timing of the fruit's development. Focusing on the choicest point of the Ghanaian growing cycle, we picked the most flavorful stage to gather beans.
The process of making chocolate begins with fermenting the cacao at the farm. The cacao beans, covered with the white, sweet pulp that surrounds them in the pod, are laid out on plantain leaves, then covered with more plantain leaves to hold in the heat. The sweet pulp combines with yeasts in the air to turn to alcohol, which permeates the beans and creates flavor compounds we know as chocolate. Every few days, the beans are turned.
Our team's obsession with flavor continued as we processed beans in our scrappy San Francisco lab. In the lab, we ran the first scaled-tests using our special TCHORoast process. For Chocolatey, the beans go through a lengthy roasting procedure, which requires more time and effort to execute than is normal in the industry. TCHORoasting means care, love, and, most importantly, flavor for our beans.
Once we formulated our first batch of "Chocolatey," we asked friends and family for feedback. The word quickly spread that we had some exceptional chocolate and needed tasters. Thus, our TCHO Beta Tasting program was born. For the past seven months, chocolate enthusiasts have experienced "Chocolatey" and given us their feedback, both online and in person at events.
Chief Chocolate Officer Timothy Childs and Assistant Chocolate Maker Zohara Mapes use the Beta Tasting program to test new formula directions as they tweak conching time, temperature, and origins and percentages of all of our ingredients. The work of refining a flavor is a challenging equation that can evolve exponentially over time.
With the helpful feedback from hundreds of TCHO Beta-tasters resulting in more than thirty iterations, we've now reached Beta version .99 of "Chocolatey." Once we move into our final, production packaging, we'll officially make it 1.0. From our first batch, we've improved every aspect of "Chocolatey" again and again, including the progression of taste over time (attack, sustain, and decay), the sweetness, and the mouthfeel.
We are developing our Flavor Spectrum with much care, science, and ingenuity. Timothy likens the work to building a band. We start by introducing the rhythm section with "Chocolatey," the drums, historical and deeply rich. Next, we'll bring in "Fruity" — a wickedly sassy horn player. Then "Nutty" enters, wailing on a guitar and later joined by "Citrus" to fill out the horn section. Finally, "Earthy" starts thumping in on the bass while Floral flutters in and out on vocals and keyboard.
From first sourcing to near final Beta .99 has been over a year of hard work and much love. We hope you enjoy our first chocolate, TCHO "Chocolatey."
FLAVOR NOTE
“Chocolatey” is rich, smooth, and intensely chocolatey—a perfect expression of the deep flavorful beans from Ghana. You may discern fudgy caramel notes dancing with malty, roasty and earthy undertones.
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