Email to a FriendChocolate Production
Chocolate comes from the cacao bean. Cacao beans grow in pods (roughly the shape
of a football) and these pods grow on the trunks and larger branches of the cacao tree. The allure of this special
fruit comes from the special environment in which the cacao tree thrives, which is a tropical (hot and humid)
climate within 20° of the equator. Our cacao beans are all harvested in Mexico.
There are 20–40 beans in each harvested cacao bean pod. These pods are harvested by hand with machetes or long-handled knives and split open, to reveal the beans and a milky pulp that surrounds them. Next, the beans are fermented for a few days, typically under the cover of banana leaves, and the beans start to develop the many distinct flavors of our chocolates. After fermentation, the beans are dried (often under the open sun), and then they are ready for transporting off the farm.
Next, the cacao beans are carefully roasted, which further brings out their characteristic flavors. Once roasted, the thin shell surrounding the bean becomes easy to remove, usually with large fans.
At this point, our chocolate production drastically diverges from that of most other commercial chocolate
purveyors. Most roasted beans are sold in bulk to be ground, pressed, filtered, alkalized, conched, tempered,
and sweetened in large factories where cocoa butter is removed and re-apportioned to the resulting commercial
chocolate. On the contrary, our roasted, shelled beans are stone-ground by a small family-run enterprise, and
we preserve the earthy textures and many more of the original complex flavors (and healthful properties) of the
cacao beans; our only added ingredients are some sugar, and optionally, either coffee beans, vanilla, or cinnamon
sticks.
Our IgnaFire eating chocolates are then hand-formed into convenient bite-sized morsels and packaged for sale. Our powdered chocolate (for IgnaFire Hots) is made by grinding the eating chocolate into a powder (and small bits), and immediately packaging it for sale.