Chocolate from Bean to Bar at Makenu
It may surprise you that freshly harvested cacao beans do not smell overwhelmingly of chocolate — they must be roasted to unlock the fruity, caramelized flavor profiles we know and love. Roasting is the first step in the process of transforming simple cacao beans (actually seeds from the Theobroma cacao tree) into silky bars of tempered chocolate. Jessica Diebel and Tucker Juan, co-founders of Makenu (muh-KEN-oo) Chocolate, combined their respective backgrounds in coffee roasting and confectionery to launch a complete bean-to-bar chocolate business in Atlantic Beach. Here they take us through the steps to create a bar of Makenu chocolate.
SOURCE
Makenu sources cacao beans from sustainable organic farms in the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Guatemala, Colombia and Belize where farmers are paid fair wages, which is the crux of their mission. Multi-colored cacao pods are cracked open and fermented in wooden crates so heat and enzymes can break down the sweet-sour pulp surrounding each bean. The beans are then spread out to dry in the sun before being loaded into canvas bags and shipped.
SORT
Diebel and Juan hand sort the dried beans to remove detritus and defective beans. Polish, size and color vary according to the origins of the beans. All Makenu’s bars are single origin and each origin has a distinct color and flavor (some may be darker or redder).
ROAST
Cacao roasts at surprisingly low temperatures. Makenu’s floor roaster, a model made by Dietrich, starts at 250 degrees and drops to 120 degrees when the beans are added. The temperature builds back up slowly over 20 minutes, with the Maillard reaction kicking in around 212 degrees. “We're looking for a light to medium roast to really highlight the origin's natural flavorings and fruit notes like raspberry, or raisin or banana, versus the dark caramelized chocolate experience of a darker roast,” says Diebel.
CRACK
The roasted beans are hand cranked through the “Crankenstein” cocoa mill to expose the meaty nibs within. Makenu typically cracks the beans the day after roasting as cooled nibs are less rubbery.
WINNOW
This step of the process separates the exterior hull from the interior nib. Diebel’s father built Makenu’s winnowing apparatus based on plans by chocolate expert John Nanci of Chocolate Alchemy. The husks and powder get sucked through a PVC pipe into the back bucket, while the heavier nibs fall straight into the front funnel. The nibs are run through twice to get them as clean as possible. There is very little waste with this process, as the husk and powder residue can be steeped to make an aromatic tea that smells like brownies.
MÉLANGE
The cleaned nibs are transferred to the mélanger, a mixer that slowly heats and grinds them into a thick chocolate liquor. This step takes over 24 hours. Sugar and cocoa butter are added on day two, and the chocolate churns like a cascading waterfall for another two days. Throughout the four-day process, Diebel and Juan evaluate the particle size, melt and taste. The sugar content determines the percentage of the chocolate: the more sugar that’s added, the lower the percentage. Currently, all of Maneku’s bars are 70% dark chocolate or higher.
TEMPER AND MOLD
The finished chocolate is then tempered — the process of raising and lowering the temperature to alter the crystal formation of the chocolate — in a small tabletop machine and hand ladled into molds. There’s a lot of trial and error, heating and cooling of the chocolate to achieve the stable crystallization stage, which gives it a shiny exterior and velvety snap. A quick trip to the freezer for 10 minutes to set, and the bars are ready to eat.
Visit makenuchocolate.com or @makenuchocolate on social media to learn more about flavors and types of chocolate.
