January 2, 2008
Turning the arbitrary end-of-the-year corner is always kind of strange. I usually spend most of January trying to figure out what happened to December, the whirlwind month that it is. But this year I'm a bit more prepared for 2008, mostly because I've been plotting something special for the new year — the debut of a new chocolate at the Deli. Welcome Askinosie Chocolate!

And if the allure of this new chocolate isn't reason enough to get you out of the house and over to the Deli this month, I'll give you two choco-dates to put on your calendar. January 22nd — Chuck Siegel of Charles Chocolate will be here helping us to warm up/thaw out with his truffles, pâte de fruit and even a hot chocolate demo! And January 29th — Shawn Askinosie himself will be here to introduce his new chocolates and taste with us.

New stuff Duff is excited about: Askinosie Chocolates
It's been almost a year since Zingerman's Deli brought in a new bean-to-bar chocolate brand. The reason we don't do this very often is quite honesty because a) there aren't that many bean-to-bar brands out there and b) of the brands that do exist, only a few are really interesting or good. Culling out these few is my job — along with Ari, Grace, Reina, Mo and a bunch of other chocolate tasters. If we are able to discover a couple new chocolate brands per year, we are really thrilled. Not that we wouldn't love to find more, but that is just usually how it works out. Our recent discoveries have been Pralus (2006), Claudio Corallo (2007) and to kick off 2008 — Askinosie Chocolate.

Just like Ari doesn't believe that there is such a thing as "the best chocolate in the world," I don't believe that there is such a thing as "the perfect chocolate." Now, this doesn't mean that there isn't a chocolate that is perfect for you — it just means that there is usually always something that can be improved. This is true with Shawn Askinosie's chocolate, as with all other brands. But all in all, what Askinosie is doing is really impressive, especially considering that he's only been in the business for a couple years. Here are a few things about Askinosie Chocolate that I think are noteworthy:

#1. Askinosie is making it's own chocolate, bean-to-bar
If you've read anything about the process of making chocolate bean-to-bar, you've probably realized a couple of things. First of all, there are very few people who actually make their own chocolate from the raw material (the cacao bean) to the finished product because doing it right requires some serious equipment and know-how. Second, those people who are brave enough to make chocolate from the bean have lots and lots of opportunities to mess things up. Assuming that they receive a perfect batch of cacao from abroad (which is a really big assumption), chocolate makers still have plenty of time to ruin them over the course of the chocolate making process. Roasting, blending, mixing, refining, conching, tempering... each of the different steps in the chocolate making process is fraught with peril! The moral of the story is that to get a great chocolate bar, a lot (a LOT a LOT) of things have to go right.

With Askinosie Chocolate, this seems to be the case. Overall, his bars are quite pleasant. Without having visited the factory and seen the process with my own eyes, all I'm going on are my taste buds. From them, I do detect a slight over-roasted flavor — like toast that's been left in the toaster a tad too long — and some pretty aggressive astringency. But there is also a subtle and pleasant acidity in the San Jose Del Tambo, a nice cocoa-y finish in the Soconusco, and wonderful balance in the "Nibble Bars." Given that all Shawn's bars are single-origin (Ecuador and Mexico) these characteristics might change year-to-year, batch-to-batch. We'll see! As for mouthfeel, the bars are neither fatty nor powdery — somewhere in between.

#2. The importance of fat: Askinosie is pressing its own cocoa butter.
I don't know all the fancy terminology but from what I can gather through talking with people in the business and reading, pressing cocoa butter involves taking the 100% cacao liquor — the sticky paste resulting from grinding the nibs — and pressing it through a kind of giant sieve. This process effectively separates the two components of cacao — the solids (cocoa mass) and the fat (cocoa butter). The solids are left behind in the form of cocoa powder, which can be added to chocolate or used to make hot cocoa. The cocoa butter is left to be added to chocolate to boost the fat content (and thus mouthfeel) or sold to cosmetics companies to be used in lotions, lipsticks, etc.

Separating cacao mass from cacao butter is not something you can do without the use of machinery and many chocolate makers elect not to do it. Instead, if they want to add extra cocoa butter to their bars, or offer a hot cocoa product, they either get someone else (usually in Holland!) to press their liquor for them or they simply buy butter/powder from someone else. This is inherently problematic, because the chocolate maker is not only giving up control over this step but is in many cases buying cocoa butter/powder without really knowing the origins/quality of beans that produced them. For example, you could have a chocolate bar from Madagascar with added cocoa butter from Indonesia! Even though cocoa butter doesn't impart a lot of taste, it is still troublesome that a "single-origin" bar might actually contain cacao components from different places.

When I found out that Shawn and his team at Askinosie are actually pressing their own butter from the San Jose Del Tambo and Soconusco beans, I was pretty impressed. This means that the "cocoa butter" on the ingredient list of the bars is coming from the same beans used to make the chocolate, which is pretty cool. If anyone knows of another small-scale chocolate company who is pressing it's own cocoa butter, write me at eanderson@zingermans.com and let me know. To my knowledge, Shawn is the only one.

#3. Askinosie is profit sharing with farmers
One of Askinosie's goals as a chocolate company is to include the folks at the start of the process (i.e. the cacao farmers) in the success that comes at the end of the process. In other words, Askinosie is profit sharing (10% of net profits) with the farmers it buys from, as well as its employees. So when Askinosie Chocolate performs well financially, everyone gets to share in the fun. This approach is called "Stake in the Outcome," named for the program developed by Jack Stack.

Shawn just got back from making his first gain-sharing pay out. Here's what he wrote me:

"I am on my way back from Ecuador right now — I just made my first Stake in the Outcome distribution to the farmers in San Jose Del Tambo. All of them but 3 [farmers] attended the meeting and those absent sent a representative. That day — Wednesday — was my best day yet in the chocolate business."

You can read more about Askinosie's Stake in the Outcome mission, as well as lots of other cool stuff, on their website: www.askinosie.com. Also, Ari wrote an excellent piece on Askinosie in the January/February issue of the Zingerman's Newsletter. Pick up a copy at any of the Zingerman's businesses or check it out online!

Askinosie Chocolates: Tasting Notes
Soconusco 75%
Smells bright — like it is going to be fruity. But actually, it really isn't. When it melts and the first aroma blooms it is roasty, roasty, roasty. And quite astringent. The finish is cocoa-y.

San Jose del Tambo 70%
Very astringent right away — bit aggressive for my taste. Doesn't really mellow, but some acidity develops. Primary aroma divides between roasty and possibly citrus fruit (there is a high, oily lemon note). The finish is a bit earthy.

Soconusco Nibble
This is the Soconusco 75% with nibs. Instead of the nibs being molded in the bar, they are just one one side. These nibs are brilliant. Toasted bread with butter flavor, as opposed to the big, green ripe fruit flavor you get with some — rich, cocoa-y and extremely easy to eat. Very enjoyable. I think this is his best bar.

San Jose del Tambo Nibble
I prefer this bar to the plain San Jose del Tambo because I think the nibs provide a needed balance.

Got any questions about our chocolates or tastings? Email me (eanderson@zingermans.com) or call 734-663-JAVA anytime.

Happy New Year!
Chocolate Lady Duff