Bean to Bar
You may think you know what to expect from chocolate – a cheap and cheerful sweet fix, with every mass-produced bar tasting pretty much exactly the same. The truth is, chocolate can be so much more than that.
Much like we’ve seen in the craft coffee scene, chocolate should be a celebration of the beans from which it is made. The farmers we work with are small producers, who grow cacao with care and attention to detail, using techniques passed from generation to generation. Everything from soil conditions to changes in weather can affect the taste of the finished chocolate, so no two bars are quite alike. As a result, each origin has its own individual nuances, complexities and flavours waiting to be explored.
Many of the chocolate companies you’re familiar with have chosen to sacrifice flavour in exchange for consistency and a lower market price point. Here at Bullion, we actually choose to celebrate the inconsistencies, from the terrior to the yearly harvest. Each grower has a story to tell, and we’re here to tell it - and you’re here to taste it.
Bean-to-bar is by no means a simple process, but we believe it’s more than worth it. These are the lengths we go to, to take the bean to a finished bar:
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Sorting and RoastingWhen sacks of beans arrive at our factory in Sheffield, the first step is to sort through them by hand. We’re looking for anything that doesn’t belong in a chocolate bar- string, stones, and broken beans to name a few. This is a painstaking process, but it guarantees that the beans going into our bars are top quality. Once we’ve sorted our beans, we’re ready to roast. Our roast times and temperatures are tailored to each individual origin, allowing us to bring the best possible flavour notes out of the beans, which are showcased in the bars that we produce.
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Breaking and WinnowingWhen our beans come out of the oven, we cool them down before we break them. This step cracks the beans open so we can get to the part we really want – the nibs. After this, the winnowing process uses a vacuum to remove the husk. This part of the bean wouldn’t taste so good in our bars, but it doesn’t go to waste – it is a key ingredient in our candles, helping to produce their delicious chocolatey smell. |
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Grinding and ConchingThe cacao is now ready to be transformed into chocolate. We load small batches of nibs into our stone melangeur, ready for grinding. First, the nibs are ground down until they have a silky-smooth consistency, called the cocoa liquor. At this stage we can start adding the cocoa butter and cane sugar, before leaving them to grind together for up to 72 hours. |
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Tempering and MouldingThe grinding process produces blocks of chocolate ready for tempering. At this stage, the chocolate has a crumbly consistency and can be whitish in colour. The tempering process involves heating and cooling the chocolate to change its structure, before it is poured into our iconic bullion bar moulds. This results in smooth, shiny chocolate bars with a good snap. |
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Wrapping and DeliveryWe carefully foil and wrap all of our bars by hand, ready to stacked in your local supplier or delivered to straight to your door when ordering online. |
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Using these processes, we bring out the true flavours of every bean, creating chocolate that tastes like it was always meant to. In other words, we bring out the gold in the cacao.