What is Seed to Bar Chocolate?
The Carter family is committed to growing organically, stewarding land responsibly, and engaging creatively with local communities – from seed to bar.
Have you heard of “bean to bar” chocolate? This process refers to the cacao beans (also called “seeds”) themselves that are harvested out of cacao pods. Many of the organic and fair trade chocolate bars you will see advertise this, communicating the wholeness of the chocolate-making process. When we say Carters’ Chocolate is “seed to bar,” we are not referring to the stage where beans from the pod that are then made into chocolate, but the entire process, from the cacao seed planted in the soil, to the small, delicate seedling (pictured below) that grows into a great cacao tree that then bears its fruit.
What is the ‘Seed to Bar’ Process?
Frutas del Mundo, owned by Dwight Carter of Park Rapids, has devoted a good share to nursery production of many tropical fruit tree species. One of the more important of these, both for the volume and for the social impact in the communities that plant the trees, is cacao. Since it is a plant nursery, they start with seeds selected from the heartiest of cacao plants, and seed them in sand germination boxes, and then transplant them into bags to be grown out to become rootstock for grafting. To procure the budwood that is needed for grafting, a clonal garden is maintained of the best varieties of cacao. It is from this garden that a good share of the cacao pods are used to make the chocolate.
Once the pods are ripe, they are gathered and cracked open to take out the ‘baba’, the juicy fruit and seeds. The baba is placed in wooden vats that are lined with banana leaves and a 5-7 day fermentation process takes place. This requires great care and experience to be done properly. When the cacao has been properly fermented it can be carefully dried in the sun. This requires special wooden drying racks and coverings. At 5-7% moisture we finally have what is traditionally referred to as “cacao beans”. It is from these that what has been called ‘bean to bar’ chocolate is made. It is especially satisfying to be able to watch cacao from before it has sprouted to the time it becomes a tasty chocolate.
We offer 65% cacao bars now in some local stores. Soon, we will be offering 60% and the standard 70% bars.
The Carter family knows how important it is to know where food comes from and how it comes to us, and we cherish every opportunity we can to cultivate that closeness between the soil where the seed is sown, the farmer that harvests the fruit, and the friends who enjoy its final form together.
Currently, we offer chocolate at the Walker and Park Rapids Farmers’ Market in the summer, and at the Red Barn in Park Rapids, and the Green Scene Market in Walker. If you’re business is interested in offering Carters’ Chocolate, please contact us @cartersfarmpr@gmail.com.