mapchocolate

I'm a big believer in the fork in the road, maybe because it's a place i keep visiting: the hidden confluence, the mist rising above a horizon line, the dream that gets closer as you run (and stumble) toward it. map chocolate is my fork in the road, the one i saw shimmering in the distance but wasn't quite sure what it would be when i got there. the kind that makes your stomach flip and your knees wobble when you think of it. the kind that, when you try to turn your back you can still feel it. when you close your eyes it whispers. the kind that calls your name and you answer oh heck yes without a blink.

to me real chocolate created from bean to bar is a beautiful thing. the cacao beans have endured much. they've traveled a long distance, and at first glance do not seem to have much to say for themselves. dry, mottled, a bit crinkly on the edges. some smell like very ripe bananas, others of wood smoke and molasses. out of the burlap bag they do not smell or look like or say chocolate . small dried something that might get kicked to the side of a road, yes. smooth and shiny 75% bar? um, no. that's where the bean to bar chocolate maker comes in.

i love being a bean to bar maker because it's a partnership thing. the farmer tends the cacao trees, harvests the pods, ferments and dries the beans. cacao is their life, so the good farmers treat it well; many cacao farmers are women, which is important to me. They get to take care of their family, and so do I. And as a woman and mother with a small business, creating a livelihood not only means taking care of my family, but it shows my child that our lives are exactly the ones we create.

Not that long ago the only way to make chocolate (and by this I don't mean simply buy a slab and melt it and create truffles or what have you, but actually create it from the bean) was to be a very large company in a very large factory using very large shipments of many many beans all mixed together and sourced more for cost than quality. if you wanted to do it yourself there was no way: no way to buy beans in less-than-super-sized amounts, no way to really roast or grind the cacao, because the only equipment available was factory-sized, and tens of thousands of dollars. but a few wise and persistent folks figured it out (one of whom who is my mentor), which brings me to that fork in the road.

map chocolate is me (mackenzie) and people (map= m & p). it's the farmers who grow the fair trade and direct trade cacao beans i use, the mentors on my path who gave me the first gentle and not so gentle nudges, my sister who bought me my first (yay!) melanger, my friends who have said go for it and can we have more, please. it's people who try my chocolate and let what i'm creating melt into their own story.

so for you my friend, when you see that fork in the road shimmering in the distance or hear it whispering your name, do not be afraid. be happy, eat chocolate, and feed your inner wild.