Ep. 9: Home Chocolate Making

Most modern craft chocolate makers (https://damecacao.com/bar-reviews/) start off making chocolate on a small scale, in their homes. Once they decide to professionalize their making, often they move out of their homes and into a rented or purchased kitchen space. There's an order to these things. But the fact that such small-scale chocolate making is possible at all is thanks in large part to one man: John Nanci (whom you may recognize from The Internet (https://damecacao.com/chocolate-on-the-road-the-internet/) episode). John is the force behind Chocolate Alchemy, a long-running resource for people making chocolate at home. He's been the engineer of many pieces of equipment adapted specifically for making chocolate from bean to bar on a micro scale; pounds rather than tonnes. To complete that circle, he's also become a source of dozens of different cacao origins supplied to chocolate makers all around the world, such as Mackenzie Rivers, of Map Chocolate. In this episode, we talk to both John and Mackenzie about their own roles in & observations of the movement. Our story touches on the true scale of home chocolate making around the world, as well as the stages it's gone through and the growing pains of going from hobbyist to professional. But most importantly, we dive into why now is the best time to start making chocolate at home. Show notes: https://damecacao.com/chocolate-on-the-road-home-chocolate-making/ (https://damecacao.com/chocolate-on-the-road-home-chocolate-making/) Show Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chocolateontheroad/ (https://www.instagram.com/chocolateontheroad/)