Holiday Tour Day 10: A Sourdough Story and Raaka
Who run da world? Microbes!
Are you getting tired of receiving a chocolate pairing in your Inbox every single day? Or have you been devouring these stories as soon as they break out of the mold, impatient for the next day?
That, my friends, is what divides the world. Those of us who are passionate chocophiles, and the other eight people on the planet.
My aim is to convert those eight.
On the other hand, there are still millions who haven’t discovered The Cacao Muse. Feel free to wear out the label on this button here! »
Also, a reminder that The Holiday Tour is free, because the intent is to celebrate the writers of Substack. Most of the posts coming up in 2024 will need to sit behind the paywall (sadly, I need to keep feeding the rent-addiction habit of my landlords. Anyone know a landlord rehab center?).
Barring that, I’ve put together a special offering if you’d like to support the work I do here: 20% off an annual subscription now until December 25th. You’ll get not only 20% off, that will also be the last time you’ll need to pay anything to read The Cacao Muse. As in, forever. One discounted annual subscription vs having to pay every year for all of the premium sustenance. Yes, what you read here on TCM is sustenance not “content.” Can’t stand that word.
We have just fifteen days until the end of the Tour, and the end of Forever.
If you are one of the (misguided) eight, no need to be a sourpuss. The holidays are approaching, chocolate is everywhere, and… what’s that heavenly scent in the air? Is it… muffins baking? Cookies? Pasta cooking? Or is it… oh, oh, it’s BREAD! Glorious bread! Sourdough no less. Fresh, fluffy, heaven scent (I put that “c” in on purpose, obvs).
Let’s take a peek in the oven before Chapin gets back in the kitchen!
TCM Holiday Tour Day 10 pairing:
A SOURDOUGH STORY and RAAKA
This story is about the glories of fermentation. Before you get too excited and dream about your favorite cocktail or wine, I’m talking microbes. The little guys that really run the world (sorry Beyoncé).
Microbes are at the very bottom of the planet-wide food chain we’re all plugged into, regardless of what the AI tech bro lords might want you to think (even they need to eat more than carrots1 and Ramen noodles to think clearly). Microbes make bread dough rise and grapes turn into wine, help us humans digest all the crap food we put into our bodies and not die, synthesize vitamins and proteins that our genes can’t, eat oil spills, decompose dead things, recycle carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, and so on, and so on, and so on. They can live in the soil, the oceans, and the air. They’re cool with deap-sea volcanoes and totally hot on the polar ice caps. They were here first, and they’ll be here long after we’re gone (hopefully). In short, their resumé make yours look like you never graduated from kindergarten.
Oh yeah and they also ferment cacao beans. In other words, without them, ya ain’t gettin’ no choco-lah-teh. Got it?
I’d like you to meet someone who knows all about the breadmaking microbes, and has made them her daily friends.
Please welcome
and .
The Cacao Muse: We’ve been waiting for you Chapin. We know better than to disturb a baker during the holiday season, so we’re thrilled you could step away and talk to us. Let’s start with an intro to your euphoria-inducing newsletter.
Chapin Smith: I’m a sourdough baker, botanist, forager, farmer and advocate for locally grown food. Every recipe of mine is a piece of all of these elements.
As a baker of 20 years, I have so much to share with you. Sourdough isn’t “Just Bread.” It’s so much more. It can be pasta, pastries, cookies, cakes, crackers, dumplings … the list goes on. Come visit me at A Sourdough Story for all my weekly sourdough-inspired recipes, and let’s be sourdough friends!
[Chapin and Birgitte high-five it]
TCM: So, you know we have to ask. Favorite chocolate??
Chapin: Theo Chocolate is my absolute favorite chocolate. It’s all organic, Fair Trade, no GMO’s, and best of all it’s local to me here in the Seattle area. I use it in all of my chocolatey recipes and my favorite flavor from them is their seasonal Peppermint Crunch.
Birgitte: Mmm… chocolatey recipes… like this one?
Chapin: Yep.
Birgitte: Or this one?
Chapin: That too.
Birgitte: And… this… dear god. I haven’t had breakfast yet.
Birgitte: [writes note to self: Don’t ever do an interview with a baker before having breakfast. Or lunch. Or dinner.]
TCM: Great to see you do so much with chocolate! Are there any questions you’d like to ask the experts?
Chapin: As a sourdough baker, I love all things fermented. I would love to know more about the process the beans go through from the raw form to the cocoa flavor that we all love. Can you manipulate the flavor of the beans by different fermentation techniques?
Birgitte: [still drooling over stuck on the above photos]
TCM: Birgitte, you’re on the air.
Birgitte: Oh yes, sorry, the photos are just so… llamativos, as we say in Spanish. That’s a few orders of magnitude more intense than “engaging.” Chapin, excellent question. The process of making chocolate is quite complex and time-consuming. Lots of places have primers on chocolate making, but one of my favorites is the quick guide École Chocolat put together.
On the fermentation question—the same little guys that make your dough rise, kickstart the process of making chocolate. In sourdough starter, the microorganisms eat up the sugars that are in the flour, and produce CO2—yes, gas. Let’s not go there. Anyway, that gas gets trapped in the dough and makes little bubbles—there’s your wonderful fluffy airy bread texture we all love.
In chocolate, microbes aid the process of fermentation of fresh cacao beans encased in all that slimy gooey fragrant cacao pulp. No fermentation, no chocolate. Wanna slide down the rabbit hole? Let me bring in Mackenzie Rivers, a real-life craft chocolate maker and the author of The Next Batch right here on Substack. Mackenzie, the floor is yours.
Mackenzie: Yes, fermentation techniques radically affect the flavor outcome. Flavor is created during ferment (both good and not so good). In an unfortunate result of climate change, fermentation managers are seeing changes (loss) in the types of microbes needed, and are increasingly having to adapt and adjust longtime protocols.
Mama Earth: You humans are so screwed. Once the microbes go… it’s Game Over. Not even the reptilians will survive.
Mackenzie: One reason industrial chocolate pretty much tastes the same, has much to do with low quality fermentation that creates fairly poor flavor… leading to the dominance of the milk chocolate/high sugar/flavorings/low cacao percentage [combination] used to enhance flavor. In single origin chocolate, the quality of the fermentation is critical.
Birgitte: Let’s also talk about roasting. Ever heard of virgin chocolate?
Reader: You didn’t tell me this post would be NSFW.
Birgitte: Haha not what you’re thinking! That’s a term some chocolate companies use. You might have seen “virgin” or “raw” chocolate on their labels. The claim is that their beans are not roasted and their chocolate is therefore raw. Of course, you literally cannot make chocolate without heat. Technically speaking, “raw” chocolate would be unroasted, unfermented cacao beans—even fermentation can build up some serious heat, around 120˚F.
Choosing a chocolate for you, Chapin, was an obvious choice. Raaka is my favorite unroasted chocolate—and yes they’re on the Slave-free Chocolate List! They also don’t use the misnomer raw, and take the time to explain why. And, as luck would have it, Raaka is also the only chocolate brand in my portfolio that I did a baking-related photoshoot on! Ready?
[laughs nervously]
Birgitte: This is Raaka Bananas Foster. I was really excited when I got this bar because I got to do my very first flambé! Bananas Foster is basically caramelized bananas—cooked with walnuts in rum and butter. We had the rum, we had the butter, and we had macadamia nuts, so I went with those.
Only trouble was, I couldn’t light the darned thing on fire. I tried everything. Matches, gas lighters, blowtorches, ancient incantations… the sorry mess on my stove just would not light. I even put extra rum in it, thinking, well it’s alcohol, the more the merrier more flammable, no? I’m sure it’s some stupidly obvious thing that you’ll mention immediately, Chapin—would you please let me know in the comments? I can’t live like this, not knowing.
Here’s another shot of the same failed experiment:
When you’re all done laughing—trust me I would too—let’s dig in, shall we? (My concoction actually was pretty good…)
Chocolate: Bananas Foster Unroasted Dark Chocolate
Percentage: 66%
Origin: Kokoa Kamili, Tanzania
Ingredients: Organic cacao beans, organic cane sugar, organic cacao butter, organic banana, organic vanilla bean
Price: $6.00
Tasting Notes: This is a soft, quiet bar that sneaks upon you with its light banana flavor. The lack of roasting makes it super creamy. We also detect a touch of vanilla and a little rum, and close with tangy, orange notes that linger on.
TCM: We’ve got just a few more minutes. What is the one thing you’d change about the chocolate business?
Chapin: I’m an avid proponent of all things local and keeping our food as close to farm to table as possible. I would love to see more organic options for our chocolate and let the consumer know that Hershey’s is not real chocolate.
Birgitte: Amen to that. Thank you Chapin, it’s been such a pleasure. Umm, do you have any of those medieval French cookies left…?
Remember: Microbes run da world. Sourdough and chocolate both need them. You need sourdough and chocolate. Therefore, you need microbes more than they need you. Be good to them. Also be good to your friends and share this post with them.
COMING UP! DAY 11 of the TCM HOLIDAY TOUR
We’re almost halfway through the Holiday Tour—and we’ve got bucketloads more head-spinning chocolates and fantastic writers coming your way. Here’s what’s quietly rising on the countertop now:
Real talk about the business we’re all in—publishing.
Writing is like food—people will always need to eat, and people will always want (need) to write. And read. And be read.
~ Did someone say bread?
~ No, I said be read. As in–
~ I love bread!
~ We just did the story about bread. Well, sourdough. But yes there’s bread.
~ I want bread! Sourdough too!
Sigh. Can someone please close the door to the kitchen…?
Guess what (actually, who) this refers to. If you know, you are a true geek. I mean that in the best way. I realize I need to include myself in that category since I wrote the reference. Maybe chocolate-covered carrots though?
Drooling 😋
The images... make me so hungry!!!! Hail chocolate!!!!