2 Day Class: Sunday, Oct. 27 & Monday, Oct. 28; 6:30-9:30 PM

Menu: The chocolate made will be dark, containing cacao beans and sugar only. The ganache for the truffles will contain dairy, however it is possible to make it non dairy if you let me know ahead of time.

Class Size: Maximum 6 students to ensure everyone receives enough attention and feedback.

Who Is This For: Anyone who wants to get started making their own bean to bar chocolate, or for those who just want to learn how chocolate is made. No experience necessary! Open to all. All techniques used will be something you can repeat at home with minimal specialized equipment, other than the wet grinder.

Take Away: 1 kilo of cacao beans (2 origins), 1 kilo worth of fresh bean to bar chocolate, bean to bar making literature & resources, and a voucher for a free 1-hour of live video chat with Geoseph

Your Instructor: Geoseph Domenichiello, master chocolatier, chocolate sommelier, bean to bar maker, and educator working in the industry for over a decade.

Class will cover:

Day 1

• Genetics & Botany (Theory & Tasting)

  • How it relates to quality. What to look and ask for for when purchasing cacao. Costs of cacao and where to purchase.

  • Tasting of various cacao types/origins

• Curing: Harvesting, Fermentation & Drying (Theory & Hands on)

  • Understanding how these processes impact the quality of your cacao

  • The cut test to analyze appearance of your cacao

• Processing: Sorting, Roasting, Winnowing, Refining (Theory, Hands On, & Tasting)

  • Each person will receive 1 kilo of cacao to sort, roast, winnow, and take home.

  • Go over various roasting techniques (but we will use convection oven method, something you can do at home)

  • We will use one referiner to create one batch of chocolate that will be divided up amongst the group (~1 kilo worth per person). We will begin the refiner on day one and let it run for 24 hours until the second class.

Day 2

• We will taste and analyze our fresh bean to bar chocolate and compare it to other bean to bar chocolate.

• Brief History of Chocolate Making

• Tempering

  • Learn about why we temper, the mechanisms behind it, and practical ways to temper your bean to bar chocolate

• Hand Rolled Truffle Making

  • Use a portion of your fresh chocolate to make a simple ganache. Learn about the science behind ganaches and troubleshooting.

• How to store and keep your chocolate