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Ritual Chocolate Madagascar and Costa Rica bars awarded at the 2013 Good Food Awards

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Good Food Awards Gold Seal 2013

Ritual Chocolate Good Food AwardsWe’re happy to announce that our Madagascar and Costa Rica chocolate bars are gold winners of the 2013 Good Food Awards. The awards ceremony was held at the iconic Ferry Building in San Francisco on Friday, January 18 2013. The Good Food Awards recognizes artisan food products that are exceptional in taste and socially and environmentally responsible. The awards ceremony was followed by an open table reception at the Ferry Building where award winning products were available for sample and company owners were accessible to the public.

Robbie and Anna of Ritual Chocolate

Robbie and Anna of Ritual Chocolate

About the Good Food Awards Chocolate Category
“A growing number of American chocolate makers are working closely with cacao farmers around the world and creating a transcontinental food community that is raising the bar on quality while stimulating farming economies around the globe. Eligible entrants craft Good Chocolate from beans or liquor using no artificial ingredients or genetically modified soy lecithin, and make efforts to know their cacao farmers, understand their supply chains and source sustainably grown cacao beans.”

Sponsors
“The Good Food Awards would not be possible without the generous support of its many partners. We would like to specially thank Founding Partner Whole Foods Market, as well as Good Food Awards Lead Sponsors Williams-Sonoma and the San Francisco Ferry Building. The generous support of Bi-Rite Market, the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, New Resource Bank, HUB Bay Area, CUESA, Dominic Phillips Event Marketing and Veritable Vegetable is also critical to the success of the Good Food Awards.”

Good Food Awards Marketplace

Good Food Awards Marketplace

Food for thought

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“…Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye, and ear,—both what they half create,
And what perceive; well pleased to recognise
In nature and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being…”

William Wordsworth
“Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey,
On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, 13 July 1798″

Aging Chocolate

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The effects of aging dark chocolate is not a particularly well-researched subject, but its effects are noticeable enough that it is a common practice with our chocolate production. Considering the way we roast, mill and conche our chocolate, it tends to have a harsh, unbalanced flavor when it is emptied from the conche. We have found that the first three weeks is the most essential period for flavor development during the aging process, but some chocolate may need more time.

Like the skin of a grape used to make wine, the cotyledon (nib) of a cacao bean is rich with polyphenols known as tannins. The tannin content of a dried cocoa bean can range from 6-9% of the total weight of the bean. A high concentration of tannins will have an astringent, drying effect in your mouth (think walnut and grape skin). As tannins age, their effect is reduced. However, tannins are not necessarily a bad thing for flavor; in fact they are a very good thing, they just need to be balanced. With just the right amount of tannin, the tasting experience can be greatly improved, as it encourages your taste buds to explore the layers of embedded flavor. And as a bonus, the high tannin concentration of chocolate is the source of all of the healthy polyphenols, epicatechins, catechins, anthocyanins and leucoanthocyanins.

When we empty a batch of liquid chocolate from the conche we pour it into several square containers where it will eventually solidify. The solid blocks of chocolate are then placed on our aging rack, where they’ll rest until we think they’re ready. There really isn’t much to it.

Additional notes on aging:
Not all chocolate ages alike as different cacao has varying tannin concentrations and processing requirements. Our Madagascar chocolate, for example, needs much less time than our Costa Rican chocolate.

Let us do the aging. The problem with aging one of our chocolate bars at home is that you risk losing the temper of the chocolate and/or absorbing odors from the environment in which it is stored (the kitchen, laundry room, or that tasty yet stinky cheese in your fridge). We age our chocolate in an out-of-temper state that is safe from any odor contaminants. After aging is complete, we temper and mold it and the clock begins ticking. If stored in a cool, dry area between 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit, the chocolate should keep well for 12-18 months.

<— Refining and Conching — Process Page — Tempering (coming soon) —>

Chocolate Advocate Top 10 for 2011-2012

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Chocolate Advocate Top 10

The Chocolate Advocate aka 20°N & 20°S released their 2011-2012 top 10 list of chocolate bars, and we’re one of them!

Excerpt:  “3. Ritual Chocolate Costa Rica 75%

A new bean-to-bar producer on the American chocolate scene. They sent me a sample of their 2009 vintage cacao bar. A big bold bar of chocolate with some floral flavors and an amazing aroma and flavor of Blackstrap molasses.

Very cool bar of chocolate and cool people behind the company. Passionate and talented. You will be hearing more and more about them as they progress with their range of bars.“

Read full article here: 20°N & 20°S Presents: The Top 10 List for 2011-2012

After being on the market (officially) since July, 2011, we’re happy to make another Top Ten list for our Costa Rica 75 bar. Despite just having a single bar we’ve been very happy with the reception. And we’re proud to announce the release of our second product, and long awaited, Madagascar 75 chocolate bar by mid May. We’ve been perfecting our approach to these new beans for several months now. After many, many test batches, some of which were failures, we’re finally landing at a point with the Madagascar beans that we think will bring a breath of fresh air to this popular origin.

Thank you for all of the support and we can’t wait to share our latest work with you.

Robbie and Anna
Ritual Chocolate

Boulder or Denver?

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Are we based in Boulder or Denver? Is it possible to say “both”? Where are we? Who am I? What are we doing here?

Well for now, we’ll just try to answer one of those questions. This is how it goes: We currently live in Boulder, which is where we began making chocolate, but we’ve been making our chocolate in Denver since January 2011. Robbie moved from Utah to Boulder in 2003 and has lived there ever since. Anna has lived in Boulder off-and-on for many years, dating all the way back to high school. So at the moment, Boulder is home.

But change is upon us. The commute to and from Denver is soul sucking and spirit crushing, therefore it’s time to move to Denver. We’re looking forward to the change but we’ll sure miss some of our friends, local hangouts and the car-less accessibility to the outdoors.

We’re also very excited to adapt to a new environment and new city. Living close to the chocolate factory means more time making chocolate and perfecting our craft and less time commuting. We’re already building meaningful relationships with a few businesses in Denver and we can’t wait to see how they evolve.

Now you no longer have to lay there at night wondering, “Is Ritual Chocolate from Boulder or Denver?”.

So for the record: Ritual Chocolate is based in Denver, Colorado (until further notice)
(But we still love Boulder too)

Chocolate Making Lecture at Innisfree Cafe

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When:
Friday, October 28 · 7:00pm – 9:00pm

Where:
Innisfree Poetry Bookstore & Cafe
1203 13th Street
Boulder, Colorado

What:
Join Anna and Robbie of Ritual Chocolate at Innisfree Poetry Bookstore and Cafe on the Hill for a discussion about what it takes to make great chocolate from the bean to the bar. We’ll be speaking about the history of cacao, cacao farms and farmers, social and environmental issues, and what it takes for us to craft fine chocolate.
During the talk we’ll be open to questions. We’ll also bring along samples of our chocolate for you to have a taste of what we’re talking about.

Please join us! We look forward to seeing you there!

View invitation and RSVP at the Facebook Event Page