Today, we took a tour of Letterpress Chocolate, one of the most visited places on our tour. You may ask, why didn't they do a tour before? We had wanted to do it for my birthday, which was five days prior.
When we walked in, three things caught my eye, as always with Letterpress. The colorful row of bars on the right wall, the group of five people seated at table, and my personal favorite, the many sayings involving chocolate. For example: "Chocolate is the answer! Who cares what the question is?" And "Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy chocolate, which is pretty much the same thing." Masks and hairnets were handed out as a precaution, but there was this one guy with an afro, so he had to have a much bigger hairnet than anyone else, and even then, it was still really tight.
The tour was divided into three sections. There would first be an explanation of Letterpress, how it came to be, and some other info, and then the second part was the actual tour of the factory, with all of the machinery and equipment. Then the third part was a giant tasting. There were 8 different samples of chocolate to taste, all different in flavor.
The first part of the tour was a bit uneventful, except when we got to drink the mucilage on cacao seeds. It tastes fruity, which I already knew, but I had never drunk just the mucilage. In the past, it had always been with the bean as well. Also, notice the word choice two lines up from this one. "Seeds" I called them. They are, by definition, seeds until the fermentation process. After that, they can no longer germinate and grow into a tree, so then, and only then, are they called beans.
This section was much more eventful. We got a chance to, for the third time in my life, taste chocolate right out of a melanger. It was a batch from Costa Rica, and as such, I expected the flavor to be more rustic, because the closer to the equator that the cacao grows, the more rustic, coffee-chocolatey the flavor gets. For example, compare the flavor of a Hawaiian bar to that of a Nicaraguan bar. The Hawaiian bar, I almost guarantee you, will taste fruitier. There were some other pieces of equipment, and a short technical discussion about roasting, but nothing else too interesting.
The final part of the tour was what I had been waiting for. The tasting. Eight samples from mostly different regions, this tasting promised to be quite the experience. It did not disappoint. There were so many different, complex flavor notes! Blackberry, caramel, mocha, fudge, coffee, and the list goes on to infinity! In the end, I got three bars. And so, another hugely successful factory tour ended.
This is me with the three bars I bought. A Mint bar, a special 10th Anniversary Bolivian 70% bar, and a Dark Milk 50% Ghana bar.
Here I am in the factory, with my hairnet, mask, and my trusty chocolate journal.
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