Chocolate Tour

SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS

*Discover the intricate process that turns the cacao bean into the chocolate bar.

words by > Karen Leland

If the idea of a chocolate factory tour brings to mind images of Lucy and Ethel stuffing candy into their clothing as bonbons furiously roll by on a rapid-fire conveyer, be prepared to have your expectations thwarted on a tour of the Scharffen Berger
Chocolate Factory in Berkeley, just across the bay from San Francisco. This company’s commitment to quality shows in its small-batch production of European-style chocolate.

In business since 1997, Scharffen Berger has distinguished itself by elevating the manufacturing of chocolate to an art form. “We search the world for the best cacao beans, produce our chocolate on vintage European equipment and have developed near perfect fermentation methods,” says managing director Jim Harris with pride. “Unlike many other chocolates, where you get a single taste experience (usually sweet), our methods allow us to create a chocolate with complexity, where distinct flavors such as earthy, fruity, flavorful acidity and sweet can be tasted throughout the chocolate experience.”

Chocolate lovers seem to agree. In 2006, Scharffen Berger sold over two million pounds of chocolate in the United States. As for the factory, located in Berkeley, California, it’s open to the public, and 40,000 visitors a year come to see firsthand the process that turns raw cacao beans into award-winning bars of chocolate.

The official tour takes an hour, but it’s worth arriving early to check out the adjoining retail store, where there is something for everyone. For an exotic taste treat, try the Kumasi Sambirano, a limited-edition chocolate bar named after two regions in Ghana and Madagascar, where the beans are from. This 68% cacao bar tastes as if a cinnamon stick winked at a vanilla bean and they ended up in a chocolate bath together. The California Mission Figs (hand-dipped in 70% bittersweet chocolate), the Chocolate-Covered Cacao Nibs and the Champagne Grapes make unusual and delicious gifts. For cooks, the Baking Collection Gift Box has everything needed to make homemade chocolate treats.

The tour itself begins in a small classroom where an affable guide gives a show-and-tell complete with taste tests that explain in detail how chocolate becomes chocolate. The lecture covers everything from chocolate’s humble beginning as a pod on the Theobroma cacao tree to the process of fermentation (the beans soak for up to nine days in their own fruity pulp), and finally, about the trip the beans make to the factory, where a series of seven steps turns the rough, oval, brown-toned raw cacao beans into a finished product.

Once the tasting and talking part is over, tour participants don disposable hairnets and put on bright red plastic earmuffs in preparation for entering the working factory. Besides the free chocolate, the fun of the factory is its size. It’s small, so the equipment can be seen up close, often from just a few feet away.

Inside the factory, the air is deliciously heady with the aroma of cacao beans roasting. The first stop is the 50-year-old, German-made roaster, a huge red cone monster that roasts 500 pounds of cacao beans an hour.

Next stop, the winnower, a mint-green muncher whose job is to hull the cacao beans, extracting from them the essence of chocolate—the nibs. Moving on, the nibs are mixed in a big white vat called a mélangeur.

Here, they are heated by concrete slabs underneath and simultaneously crushed by two large granite rollers from above. This liquefies the nibs into a rich, shiny brown concoction called chocolate liquor, or mass.

Finally, the nib soup is poured into a big burnt-orange machine called a conche, where sugar and vanilla beans are added to the liquid. For 30 to 60 hours, the conche churns at what is left of the nibs with internal metal teeth making the mixture smooth and fully blended. At last, the chocolate—thick and shiny—is tempered, poured into various molds, wrapped and ready to begin its life outside the factory walls.

For those who are still hungry after the tour, Scharffen Berger‘s on-premises Café Cacao offers both casual luncheon dining and take-out. A suggestion for the lunch of chocolate champions: a Niman Ranch cheeseburger (cooked medium rare), sweet potato fries and for dessert— what else?—chocolate bread pudding. www.scharffenbergertours.com