Eating enough chocolate on Valentine’s Day to make your pants’ button pop might be second nature to some, but for Hallot Parson, founder of Escazu Artisan Chocolates, it’s something he sees every day.
With about five years under its belt, Escazu was the first in the Triangle to make chocolate directly from the cocoa bean. Consequently, there are few in Raleigh who know the chocolate-making process as well as he does.
And for Parson, it all starts from the cocoa beans.
While each chocolate producer sources beans from different areas, at Escazu, Parson uses Venezuelan and Costa Rican cocoa beans. Larger producers such as Hershey’s may use cocoa beans from other areas like farms along the coast of Africa.
However, because Parson said he has rapport with the farmers in Venezuela and Costa Rica, he chooses to source from small farmers so he can help monitor quality more carefully and experiment if he wishes.
“All chocolate is different because of the beans,” Parson said. “The fact that we go to the farm, I think, is a very big deal.”
Parson said that especially for a small producer, proper sourcing of cocoa beans is very important because not all beans are created equal.
“We go through about a thousand pounds a month,” Parson said. “We work with small farmers and the beans that we use are beans that are very delicate in flavor. They are small farms and they are prized, high-quality beans and we pay a lot of money for them. Even if Hershey wanted to do that, they couldn’t because the farms are way too small.”
Cocoa beans produced by the plantations that larger chocolate producers resort to generally lack the nuances and the depth of cocoa beans sourced elsewhere, Parson said.
However, some of this may also be due to the way farmers treat and ferment the beans.
“That’s really how you can determine if the farm is handling the bean well,” Parson said. “Another reason why we use Venezuelan beans is because there is a rich, multi-generational history of working with these beans and everyone in the chocolate world knows it.”
After choosing the source of cocoa beans and separating them from loose rocks that may have fallen in with them, chocolate producers roast the beans. At Escazu, employees roast the beans over an open flame roaster from Spain.
After sorting, chocolate makers still have to remove the “husks” from the “nibs,” the edible part of the cocoa bean that gives chocolate its flavor.
Chocolate producers create a paste from the nibs. At Escazu, this is done with a large machine called a “melanger,” displayed prominently at the store.
“Our [melanger] is an antique from the ‘30s. [They are] essentially big stone wheels that crush the beans,” Parson said.
According to Parson, the type of equipment used can change the chocolate entirely. The process contains many steps and at every point there is a possibility for a different final product. This possibility allows for a bit of innovation in which Escazu introduces their aging process, Parson said.
“We like to age the chocolate for at least a month,” Parson said. “If we can get more, that’s even better. The flavor of the cocoa bean is not just chocolate [without aging]. There could be dried cherry flavors, woody flavors or even tobacco. By aging it the flavors come together to form a singular flavor, one that’s much softer.”
Parson says that Escazu’s chocolate attracts a strong crowd of regulars, and with Valentine’s Day growing closer, it’s Escazu’s busiest week of the year.
“That week is nuts,” Parson said. “It’s the time we do the most themed items … hearts and various bars with Valentine’s things on them. We try not to do anything that’s really hokey, though, because it’s a serious product but at the same time we don’t want to take it too seriously.”
On Valentine’s Day there’s no better balance for a sweetie than a serious piece of chocolate sprinkled with a bit of whimsy.
Another bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the Raleigh area is Videri Chocolate Factory, located in the Warehouse District in downtown Raleigh.
Sam Ratto, co-CEO at Videri Chocolate Factory, along with his wife and co-CEO Starr, started making chocolate years before opening up the factory.
“I don’t know the nuts and bolts or the X’s and O’s about how chocolate makes you happy,” Ratto said. “People come in here, smell the air and smile. It’s amazing.”
“All you really need to make chocolate like this is a group of intelligent people excited about learning something new,” Parson said.