Lokelani Ranch Homegrown Chocolate

Description

This choco­late is our own home­made choco­late fea­tur­ing pods grown here on the home­stead. Cacao was one of the first things we plant­ed 18 years ago, and by now many of our trees are ful­ly mature and pro­duc­ing cacao pods all year long.

This choco­late is gen­er­al­ly light in col­or, most of the cacao vari­eties we grow here have white beans (instead of the more com­mon pur­ple) which yields a lighter, milder choco­late. The fla­vor does vary from batch to batch, get­ting con­sis­tent results on such a small scale is a chal­lenge! Any bar you get from us is a snap­shot of the fla­vors of the par­tic­u­lar time and place the cacao was har­vest­ed, fer­ment­ed and roast­ed. The date stamped on the wrap­per tells you when it was made.

Our choco­late mak­ing process begins with roast­ing the beans, which are then cracked and win­nowed by hand. The result­ing cacao nibs are blend­ed in the melanger with our own extract­ed cacao but­ter, organ­ic cane sug­ar, and of course Vanillery of Kauai whole vanil­la. The ingre­di­ents are stone­ground for about 12 hours, then conched for anoth­er 12 hours. Conching is the process of care­ful­ly oxi­diz­ing the choco­late to bal­ance the flavors.

You can expect a high-qual­i­ty choco­late with a nice snap and deep, earthy notes, a bit of sweet­ness and ample fruit. The cacao per­cent­age varies, but it will be between 75% and 85%. There are no dairy prod­ucts in our choco­late bars.

Each bar weighs about 1.8 ounces.