Well, it's not exactly Indiana Jones but tomorrow we're off to South America to search for more great cacao beans. This always takes us off the beaten path, which is why I use the Raiders of the Lost Ark reference, but the comparison stops (hopefully) before the point where blow darts are being launched in our direction. The two countries we're traveling to are Ecuador and Peru, both of which are known for having exceptional cacao. The problem is, they're...

We're heading to Ecuador and Peru next week for a sourcing trip, so this seems like a good time to talk about how we buy our cacao beans. You'll often see two terms describing how chocolate makers buy their beans: "Fair Trade" and "direct trade." There's a lot of confusion about what these terms mean, and for good reason - it's a bit complicated. These two buying methods may sound similar, but they're very different. Fair Trade means the producer...

We love baking at our house, and it is awesome exploring all of the different, chocolate-based recipes with our single origin chocolates! What’s better than some yummy, Black Bottom love? We made these delicious cupcakes over the weekend using our El Carmen dark chocolate and freshly ground cocoa powder. Our son helped by unwrapping our chocolate bars and then oversaw mom chop them into little, bitty bite-sized bits. After we mixed the batter and put the cupcakes in the oven...

What, exactly, is an "inclusion?" The term "inclusion" is one we hadn't heard until we started making chocolate. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines inclusion as "a relation between two classes that exists when all members of the first are also members of the second." Hmm. That one doesn't quite work, so we'll go with the OTHER M.W. definition, "something that is included." In the case of chocolate that means something added to the bar to give it a different flavor, such...

We've been looking for the perfect salt to pair with our Guatemalan Asochivite bar and we're in the process of making test batches. Right now we're working with sea salt from the Pacific coast of Guatemala. Finding exactly the right salt to complement the flavors of the Asochivite bean takes a lot of time and research but we have some very good contenders. To find the right balance of salt we do numerous test batches, adding different amounts of salt,...

Welcome to our blog! We plan to occasionally post messages here about what's happening on the farm and also ramble semi-coherently about the world of craft chocolate in general. Fall is here and we're also very excited to announce that our chocolate is now available locally at Duck Soup market! Our online store is now up as well, and you can buy not only all of our bars but also some very cool Goodnow Farms apparel. Keep in mind our...