We poured our first chocolate bars into new molds we got recently. These bars are big boy size, half poundahz, 8 ounces, 226 grams made with our very own Laupahoehoe grown cacao. This means we are now officially part of the ‘tree-to-bar’ chocolate maker club. Only those who are crazy enough to sprout, plant, grow, harvest, crack, ferment, sun dry, sort, age, roast, winnow, grind, conch, temper, mold, and hand wrap chocolate bars can join. Of course the club is made up but the process has been very real.
Today I even tried hand tempering the chocolate which didn’t really work out because it was 82F and humid. Tempering chocolate is the final and probably the most complicated step to master. Well… practice makes perfect! And we got this far… so we’ll figure it out.
Today I planted several colorful ti leaf plants that I got from Dennis a while back. Since the cuttings were growing in shade they are producing green leaves. Now that they are in the sun they will start to show off their true colors.
Originally posted on 2021-07-14, part of the daily planting journal behind Ha’a Chocolate’s food forest on Hawai’i Island.