Theo Chocolate
Theo Chocolate is a bean-to-bar chocolate maker in Seattle, Washington. Established in 2006, it is the first organic, fair trade-certified bean-to-bar chocolate maker in the United States.
Theo has sourced beans from the Congo, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Madagascar, Peru, and Venezuela. An equatorial crop, cocoa in the United States grows only in Hawaii.
The business was established in 2006 by Joe Whinney and Debra Music in the Fremont, Seattle neighborhood. The business is located in a former brewery building at 3400 Phinney Avenue.
Joe Whinney first pioneered the supply of organic cocoa beans into the United States in 1994. Traveling and working in the tropics of Central America and Africa, he fell in love with the land and the people farming there. He recognized an injustice in the way that both were being exploited and wanted to do something to make a difference.
Over the next decade, Joe worked tirelessly to champion organic cocoa beans in the U.S. and promote Fair Trade practices for the people farming those beans. He built lasting relationships and deep trust with farmer groups—all the while focused on the goal of someday making chocolate himself and sharing his passion with the world.
The chocolate process begins by sorting and roasting the beans to develop a specific flavor. Each load of roasted beans is different and needs different roasting times to achieve the correct taste for that specific batch of chocolate. After reaching their correct sweetness, the beans are milled into broken down bits; this is the foundation of the chocolate. The next step in the process is called milling. This is where the broken bits go through a series of milling that separates cocoa butter from cocoa solids. After 12 hours, mixing begins. Sugar and non-alcoholic cocoa liquor are added to the chocolate mixture and then refined to make sure it is the correct texture and taste. This mixture is then conched. Once the chocolate develops its flavor, organic ingredients such as fruit, nuts, chilies, bread, and salt are added to make specific batches of Theo Chocolate bars. Once the chocolate is fully roasted and milled, and appropriate ingredients are added, the chocolate is then molded and packaged. Liquid chocolate is poured into molds then hand-checked by factory workers before it is wrapped and shipped.
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