Most of my family and friends love chocolate. Suzanne adores it! A couple
of our favorite stories are about chocolatiers. So when Suzanne and I found out
that a local Texas business in our area made craft chocolate from cocoa beans,
we had to check them out. Setting up a visit at the Tejas Chocolate Craftory
was quite the treat!
On the morning of our visit, we were as giddy as children waiting to open
gifts on Christmas morning. By the afternoon, we were standing out in front of the
Tejas Chocolate Craftory just outside of Tomball. As we entered, we were
welcomed with a big smile and pleasantries from co-owner Michelle. Soon the
other co-owner, Scott came out of the back and welcomed us, too!
We had many questions to ask. Having done some internet research on how
chocolate is made from cocoa beans, I was curious to discover why these Texans
would take on the challenge of such a complicated and delicate process. With
Michelle busy working on orders, Scott took over the reins and answered our
questions. His answer as to why he and Michelle decided to enter the chocolate
business was simple. No one in Texas was making chocolate from beans and he
wanted to be the first commercial business to do so! When asked about how
chocolate is made, he said it would be easier to show us the process. So, on to
our tour we went.
First, Scott scours the world for the best cacao beans he can purchase.
These raw beans are sorted by hand to eliminate any damaged or poor looking
beans. Once sorted, they are fire roasted in Scott’s custom-made roasting grill.
When the beans reach their perfection of roasting, Scott says you can smell the
aroma of chocolate brownies. That means it’s time to pull them out of the
grill. Scott uses his expertise to
determine the perfect roasting time for each batch of cacao beans he roasts.
The next step is separating the shells from the fruit or nibs, as they
are called. Scott built his own system
for the winnowing process. The beans are run through a grinder, which cracks
the outer shells, and then the nibs are separated from the shells by using a
stream of air blowing across the nibs and shells. The lighter shell pieces are
sucked away by a vacuum stream of air, while the heavier nibs fall down into a
container.
Now the roasted nibs are ready to be finely ground, refined and conched
into a liquid chocolate. This process takes up to 60 hours, depending on the
origin of the cocoa beans. The chocolate is then cooled and made into large
cake pan sized pieces. This raw chocolate is then left to age for weeks to
allow flavors to develop. Scott told us that chocolate taste better the more it
is allowed to age. Try telling Suzanne to not eat the chocolate for six more
weeks!
After aging, the chocolate is melted, tempered and molded. Scott’s
brother, Greg, worked the tempering machine and showed us the process of making
the final product. I think he has the best job of the bunch. The chocolate
smelled wonderful! After cooling, the chocolate is removed from the molds and
packaged.
My chocolate expert, Suzanne, has eaten chocolate from the best of
Belgium, France and Switzerland. She ranks our new-found Texas chocolate right
up there with the best. We are excited to have another new industry in Texas. As we have found with Texas wineries, olive
ranches and distilleries, Texans may not be the first to make something, but
before long we become one of the best! So if you like great chocolate, look up our
new friend, Tejas Chocolate. You can find them online, at the Tomball Farmers
Market, or soon you will be able to visit their new restaurant and chocolate shop
in Tomball.
Join in our fight against breast cancer. Visit Suzanne's new blog "My Equations for Life" as she reflects on life B.C. (before cancer) and A.D. (after diagnosis) and help support new early cancer detection research at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center with our Go Fund Me project below.
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