Bean to Bar Chocolate Making Bootcamp

We kicked the new term off by taking our chocolate making workshops on the road.

We spent the week with the team at Cocoa Town in their factory centre in Atlanta, Georgia with cocoa farmers and aspiring chocolate makers sharing our chocolate insights in their Bean to Bar Bootcamp. 

I was asked what the best part of my job is and undeniably it’s meeting and working with people who care so passionately about their craft and their community.

The 4 day bean to bar boot camp should have been hosted 2nd April 2020 - I could have found myself stranded in a chocolate factory surrounded by beans?!?

Loved tasting the chocolate the group made - particularly Irene’s - crafted with her own outstandingly grown and fermented cacao from her farm in Nicaragua.

Enormous thanks to Andal and Balu for sharing their hospitality and their own inspiring story.

Andal is not a chocolate maker, Andal decided to create her own business from home 30 years ago offering innovative devices for the domestic market.

One of those devices was a rice grinder, prevalent in the South India region where rice is ground at home to make bread.

When the recession hit in 2008 and with lots of these devices Andal reached out to their market place to find what others were doing with the machines - discovering that some were using them as melangeurs to make chocolate the brand CocoaTown was born.

Today CocoaTown supply to chocolate makers in over 100 countries - many of whom are cocoa farmers who have the opportunity and freedom to add premium value to their own cultivations.

There are today some great equipment makers we’ve appreciated support from but I find Andal’s story so inspiring. Few people have been such a catalyst for change as the dedication and work that Andal and her husband Balu have contributed to an industry that was otherwise outdated and crying out for change.

Having the opportunity to spend time and work with Andal in her facility I could see just how many people going back to their own communities with an idea and a dream needed to hear her story, to imagine what they too could contribute with their own idea, no matter how big - always has potential!