PHOTOGRAPHY & EDIT: Rebecca Goodpasture
RITUAL CHOCOLATE
with owner Anna Davies and chocolate maker John Lankford
Park City, Utah, USA
EDITOR'S NOTE
Anna and I hosted a wine and chocolate pairing in Park City, where we featured Ritual Chocolate's Mid-Mountain blend, Bourbon Barrel Aged, Fleur de Sel and Madagascar single origin. The event took place at an olive oil shop, so we included samples that complimented the chocolate's unique profiles, such as a strawberry balsamic to match the strawberry notes in the Mid-Mountain blend. The collaboration of flavor transformed the intensity and characteristics of the chocolate and the wine, and I encourage you to try your own pairings.
Our pairings were as follows:
Mid-Mountain - Pinot Noir
Bourbon Barrel Aged - Zinfandel
Fleur de Sel - Albariño
Madagascar - Barbera d'Asti
SINGLE ORIGIN:
For us, we’re really trying to provide a tasting experience with our chocolate. Our focus from the beginning has been single-origin, and so we wanted to source unique flavored cacao where you can really taste the different chocolate side by side and be like, “wow, this Madagascar chocolate is bright and fruity!” “this Ecuador chocolate is earthy,” and that’s not something that most people think about with chocolate. You do it with wine and you do it with coffee, and so that’s been something that’s really exciting to explore.
Right now, we’re sourcing beans from Belize, Peru, Madagascar, Ecuador and Mexico. And you know we try a lot of different samples from farms but we’re really looking for unique genetics, for one, and also partnering with farms long-term that we feel like have good practices, obviously sustainable, that they have the right structure.
ANNA EXPLAINS:
single origin
Single origin for us is we’re sourcing from one farm or one area. It might be more of a cooperative model, with a group of farmers where they’re all fermenting and drying beans together and all have the same genetics.
GENETICS:
We had discovered early on that there are a lot of unique genetics and it just sort of takes the time to find them. We’re willing to pay any price for those beans. We feel like if the quality is there, and the flavor is there, we want the farmers to succeed, we want the genetics to survive, and so we really try and work on having a long term relationship where it kind of works for everyone.
What’s so wonderful about making chocolate now, with this new wave of American craft makers that we’ve been a part of, is the flavors are actually quite bold. So I think what’s really sort of gotten people excited in recent years is finding these unique genetics and terroir from all different places in the world and then bringing these beans back and trying to keep all those wonderful flavors in the chocolate.
SMALL BATCHES:
The small batch thing I think, for us, was really exciting early on. Being a small craft maker, every batch is just a little bit different. We have a consistency with our product, but we love just like the subtle nuances and we’re always trying to improve. It’s very manual work, where there’s someone touching and affecting the chocolate every step of the way. I feel like that’s actually really important for us, because even when we roast, that’s the main flavor development step, we don’t just set a timer and let it roast. There’s someone there always tasting, you can smell it, you can hear it when the beans are cracking.
Every step of the way there’s that care taken to really get the quality we want and the best out of the beans.
SMALL BATCHES: Anna holds a chocolate mold, which produces three bars
AMERICAN CRAFT CHOCOLATE:
Something that is so wonderful with all the different makers, chocolate makers that are in the country now, is that a lot of people have the same source, the same origins, but everyone has a very different style. They’re using different equipment, how they roast, the amount of time they grind, if they’re adding cocoa butter if they’re adding different things. I think that’s what’s so fantastic about it is everyone kind of puts their own creative edge into it. So you can grab 5 different Madagascar bars off the shelf, and they’re probably all from the same farm but they all have a slightly different style and taste to it, so it’s everyone’s own take on that origin and those genetics. (Five bars from different producers would be a horizontal tasting, versus a vertical tasting like ours with Anne in Bordeaux.)
There’s kind of two pieces to it: it’s what the chocolate maker puts into it, and then of course these wonderful beans that we’re able to work with.
THE PROCESS:
We have our beans that we’re roasting, winnowing – so removing the shell, and then we have the roasted nibs, which is the inner part of the bean. And then we go through different steps, we grind, we roll mill, and we add the sugar and sometimes a little bit of cocoa butter, and then we add that into our conch.
Our conch has four pots and each pot can fit 250 pounds. By the end of the week, normally, we have 1000 pounds in the conch that we run over the weekend. So there’s about four batches that we do every week.
JOHN EXPLAINS:
cocoa butter
Ritual Chocolate is made with three ingredients: cacao, sugar, and cocoa butter.
As Anna explains:
We do all dark chocolate, we don’t make any milk chocolate. I think from the beginning we’ve just wanted to focus on the bean, of course, and those flavors. And I know a lot of other companies do dark and milk, but we were quite strong in that we didn’t want to be a part of the dairy industry.
We feel like the beans and the chocolate can speak for themselves.
But what is cocoa butter? According to John:
cocoa butter from nibs:
Cocoa butter is just the fat – you see in here (in the mixer) there are solid chunks and then there is a liquid. The liquid is cocoa butter (it melts during grinding, so the nibs go from a solid to a crunchy peanut butter consistency).
the cocoa butter Ritual adds to select chocolates:
Imported by the same company that imports our Ecuador and Madagascar beans, they will press the cacao and extract it from the bean itself – so they separate that into the cocoa butter and the cocoa solids, which end up becoming cocoa powder.
COCOA BUTTER: the imported solids
THE CONCH:
I think when chocolate was made in Europe a couple hundred years ago, it was more about the flavor and they were sourcing, they were thinking about single origin. And so when we were looking at our process, and what we wanted to bring in, with the equipment we were looking at, we actually looked at a lot of older European equipment.
So we have a longitudinal conch, which was made in Switzerland, it used to be used by Suchard and it’s a much slower method of conching, it takes about 72 hours. And that’s actually sort of skipping ahead a little bit, because that’s the last part in the grinding, flavor development step. But we feel like this machine, even though it’s a lot slower, it’s the best for bringing out the flavors of the beans and the chocolate and also the nice texture and melt you get. That’s just one piece of it, in that we’re looking at all the ways we can draw on the older, sort of slower European methods where they’re breaking down the process a little bit more
And I always joke, how many industries do you actually go back 100 years to try to find the best equipment?
TEXTURE:
"Being able to see texture, and to feel...for me as an artist, as a viewer, I find texture fascinating – on all things." - from our interview with London-based artist Sierra Van Leeuwen
ROASTED: toasted and ready for winnowing
ROLL MILL: after the second roll
CONCH: poured in fresh from the mill
A PEAK AT THE CHOCOLATES
MADAGASCAR:
I think the Madagascar is just such a great one for people to try, especially if they’re new to the idea of craft chocolate. We actually kind of joke that it’s the gateway chocolate. Because, you know, so many people think of dark chocolate as just sort of like a high roast, rich, kind of bitter, that’s what you sort of get on the grocery shelf. But our Madagascar bar, I mean the beans that we work with, have just got the most unique flavors: bright, fruity, citrusy. And that’s all coming from the bean, the terroir, again thinking genetics and fermentation, soil and how it’s grown. It really comes through in the chocolate and so that’s 75%, and so that means by weight 75% cocoa beans and a touch of cocoa butter and the 25% sugar. And so really simple, we’re not adding anything extra. It’s fruity, it’s a dark chocolate and it’s fruity.
PAIRING
That’s a tricky one because it is so bright, and there’s an acidity to it. I quite like pairing it with tea, actually. I think a green or an oolong, because it’s got light flavors, it’s warm so it sort of heats your mouth up a bit and so the chocolate melts beautifully.
BOURBON BARREL AGED:
We released our Bourbon Barrel Aged bar, I want to say last year, and it was one we had been thinking about forever. We love High West Distillery (also based in Park City), and they have kindly given us some of their bourbon barrels. We slowly fill them up with a blend of our cacao nibs, and then we let those nibs rest in those barrels for a few months and it imparts some of those wonderful flavors. You’re getting some of the bourbon notes, but also the charred, oaky – those lovely subtle flavors going into the nibs, and then we make chocolate with it! Right now it’s actually my favorite bar. It’s not hit-you-over-the-head bourbon, because we’re not adding extra bourbon, but it’s just got so many lovely light notes that you get from that barrel
PAIRING
It’s a wonderful one, and it’s great for pairing, it’s nice to pair with whiskey. We’ll have it with High West Bourbon, or actually their Rendevous Rye, as well. So you get a bit of bourbon notes, and a rye pop as well.
THE OAK EFFECT:
oak & acidity
The benefits of oak aging have long been utilized by winemakers and by distillers, and now, with Ritual Chocolate, by chocolatiers. Contributions are two-fold:
1. It imparts additional flavors, dependent upon the type of barrel used (old vs. new, American oak vs. European oak, large barrel vs. small barrel)
2. It allows for a slow introduction of oxygen, softening acidity and balancing flavors for a smoother taste.
In the case of the Bourbon Barrel Aged bar, the charred American oak barrels from High West impart only subtle notes of bourbon whiskey. More pronounced is the decreased level of acidity and the nuanced balance of flavors in the chocolate, quite apparent when compared to a single origin or even the Mid-Mountain blend.
FLEUR DE SEL:
The Fleur de Sel is just such a popular one, I mean people love chocolate and sea salt. The base chocolate is a 70% blend, it’s what we call our Mid-Mountain Blend, named after a trail here in Park City. A blend of all our origins, we wanted to come up with just a lovely balance of flavors that was approachable for people that are getting into craft chocolate. You know, with a lot of the origins it’s quite a strong flavor, so although we think it’s fantastic and it’s what we want people to try, I think that for a lot of people that are used to milk chocolate it takes a while for your palate to get used to it. Having a nice blend that’s 70% is still high, in general chocolate terms, but it’s still a bit lower, and I think a lot of people really like it. With the sea salt, it really has a lovely melt – Fleur de Sel is that really light, hand-harvested French sea salt that just melts beautifully. So for people that are like “ah I’m into milk! I’m not sure” we always point them to the Fleur de Sel bar, and that normally wins people over, so that’s a great one to try.
PAIRING
"Best enjoyed with your favorite pinot noir while watching the sun set."
PACKAGING:
We really wanted to incorporate the location and the mountains into the packaging because that’s really what we love and what we value so much. You might notice that when you open the packaging you can read a little bit about the farm, we have pictures of the factory, and we also wanted to be a little playful.
The colors as well, we wanted to pull different colors from Utah, so Madagascar is kind of that red rock from southern Utah and the Fleur de Sel is a nice sage green; we wanted to pull some nice muted natural colors and then we used a silver foil which ties into the silver mining in Park City.
We really wanted to be intentional with all these little details and elements. We have little trees and mountains, just geometric shapes to keep it modern but bringing mountain elements into the packaging.