From Bean to Bar. Filled or
flavored, dark or milk, there are few treats as
seductive or satisfying as a piece of fine chocolate
- like Gearhart’s rich pistachio toffee, or our
cocoa-dusted Maya truffle. Of course, eating a
Gearhart’s confection is the last step in a long
process. Our chocolate begins its journey in an
oddly shaped pod growing along the trunk of
a cacao tree in Venezuela, tended by the local
growers who understand it best.
There are three types of beans used to make chocolate: Criollo is the
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most flavorful but also the most fragile; Forastero is the easiest to
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grow but the least flavorful; and Trinitario is a hybrid of the two.
Libbie & Grove shopping area!
Feel free to call for information:
Our chocolatier doesn’t worry about the challenge of growing the
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Criollo bean; he’s too busy thinking about its flavors: caramel,
vanilla, toasted nuts. Its taste and distinctive reddish color call up
essences of fruit, flowers and exotic spices. It pairs beautifully with
many ingredients, including cinnamon, ginger, mint and citrus,
and our chocolatier never tires of finding new ways to use it. Only
Criollo offers the complex and nuanced flavors that you’ve come to
associate with Gearhart’s confections.
But Criollo trees are fussy. They like warm and very humid
conditions. They like the sun, but they need it filtered through
a little shade, thank you. Loose, rich soil. A short season of dry
weather followed by lots of rain. And please - hold the wind.
Still Gearhart’s has learned what El Rey’s growers in Caracas,
Venezuela, have always known: it’s all worth it. Treat these babies
right, and they will thank you later - with plenty of cocoa beans.
Cacao pods are harvested with hand tools twice a year. The pods are
oblong and range in size from 5 to 12 inches long. They are golden-
red, purple, green or brown, depending upon their variety and level
of ripeness. Their thick, grooved skin protects a pulpy mass of cacao
seeds inside. Workers scoop the seeds out and spread them in the
sun to ferment. Fermenting is a key component in developing the
chocolate’s flavor.
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