What does coffee and chocolate have in common?
An afternoon at the Wellington Chocolate Factory
On a recent sojourn down to the nation’s Capital (where I missed a Welly Substack meet up with Substack Founder Hamish McKenzie by 1 day! gaaaaaah), my wife and I headed to the Wellington Chocolate Factory to make some chocolate and learn a bit more about the magic bean we all love.( :| )
As I came to find out, coffee and chocolate have a lot in common!
Just like coffee, cacao beans take on the characteristics of the environment they are grown. And like coffee, different origins are known for certain flavours and characteristics. For example, a single origin cacao from the Dominican Republic is known for it’s fruitiness, and feature flavours of ripe bananas, citrus and prunes. If you have a single-origin chocolate bar from there, that’s what you’ll taste - just like something has been added to it but it’s all from the terroir.
Google: was is terroir? The combination of factors including soil, climate, and sunlight that gives wine grapes [coffee and chocolate] their distinctive character.
Cacao is grown on a tree, in massive pods which hold around 20-60 cocoa beans. Once picked, the beans are separated from the pulp in the pod, left to ferment and then are dried in the sun. This journey is pretty similar to the one that coffee takes.
Once they’re processed, they shipped around the world to chocolate makers, like the Wellington Chocolate Factory, who de-husk them, roast them up, grind them down for at least 72 hours and then add the final ingredients to turn it into the chocolate we know and love.
The coffee parallels don’t end there! The husk of the cocoa bean that is discarded can be used to make cocoa husk tea - similar to the cascara tea you can make from the dried skins of coffee beans.
Making your own chocolate at the Wellington Chocolate Factory
During the 90 minute session, you get the chance to make and take home 3 bars with your own personalised flavours.
There’s over 20 different things you can add - including ground coffee, dried apricot, almonds, lavender, coconut, dried banana and so much more.
After you spend what seems like an age tempering your chocolate (cooling it down to a specific temperature so it is shiny and snaps, rather than being dull and mushy), you make your creations. I made:
Dried apricot and dried pineapple
Lavender, rose petals and dried cranberries
Ground coffee, marshmallow and coconut
Once you’ve licked the spoon, your precious bars hang out in the fridge for 20 minutes while you get an amazing hot chocolate, and spend some time learning about the chocolate making process.
Once they’re set, you wrap em and spend the rest of the day trying to resist the urge to eat them all at once.
Next time you’re in Wellington, book yourself in and try this for yourself. It’s a really awesome way to spend a few hours.
Sorry to have missed you in Wellington for the meetup!! I've always wanted to do the Wellington Chocolate make-your-own-bar, it looks really fun.