![]() The women start with one four-hour shift a week, and, if they prove responsible, work their way up to 20 hours or more.īolton has seen many positive changes in the women. She signed on an experienced chocolatier and had a chocolate business up and running by spring of 2013.Įast Van Roasters employs three full-time staff, and eight to twelve women in PHS’s employment program, most of them living in the Rainier. She did a brief internship with Madre Chocolate in Hawaii, then returned to Vancouver and started making small batches at home. You have to be super creative in a really tight timeline.”īolton came through on all counts. It’s very good training for any other work. “You’re asked by the director to do the impossible. “Film taught me how to balance a budget and be organised,” Bolton told me when I visited her in East Van Roasters, a charming café tucked into this socioeconomically challenged neighbourhood. They contacted Shelley Bolton, a local filmmaker and social services worker, and suggested she start a bean to bar chocolate factory and coffee roaster. PHS was trying to devise employment opportunities for women struggling with addiction living in one of their properties, the Rainier Hotel in East Vancouver. Photo: East Van RoastersĮast Van Roasters began as a social enterprise project under PHS Community Services Society. She makes her caramel from scratch and in the case of her vegan coconut-based caramels, she even makes her own coconut milk.Ĭoffee and artisan chocolate treat. Take a Fancy’s ingredients are simple, pure, local and organic whenever possible. In this way, I feel I can keep enjoying what I do and maintain control over the ingredients that I use.” “I expect to expand into more shops in the coming months, but my intention is to always remain a small company, based in the local farmer’s markets. “What a difference from commercial chocolate!”ĭ’Angelo started selling her chocolates direct to customers through farmers markets and in a few local stores before s he made the move into a commercial kitchen. “Even the initial results produced without any prior experience were phenomenal,” she said. She and a chocolate-loving friend scoured the internet for info and managed to buy the necessary equipment. Take a Fancy Bean To Bar Chocolate also developed out of a hobby.įor many years, Becks D’Angelo made chocolate confections for friends and family around the holidays.Ībout 10 years ago, she started researching the process of making bean-to-bar chocolate. He especially enjoys helping the farmers, who live in remote places in developing countries and are at the bottom of the supply chain.Īrtisan chocolate maker Becks DAngelo with cocoa trees. “One of the huge appeals of chocolate is that all through the chain of industry I can make it better for someone. In lots of industries, it’s hard to find a concrete thing you’re helping people with at any stage of the process.” “I started in journalism because I wanted to make a difference,” he said. What does he like about chocolate making, I asked? “Everything,” he said. In a separate room, heavy discs of chocolate age on a shelf. His machines are set up around the room, 65kg burlap bags of Madagascar beans piled in a corner. One of the things I did on Vancouver Island was to visit Kennedy in his chocolate factory, an outbuilding behind his house in a residential neighbourhood of Victoria. Kennedy developed a business plan and got his first bars in stores in 2014. That happy event coincided with the rise in popularity of bean to bar chocolate. He gave up a career as a travel journalist and photographer after he and his wife had twin daughters. Taylor Kennedy from Sirene Chocolate was long a chocolate hobbyist before he went pro. Sirene bars by artisan choclate maker Sirene. Here are the stories of a few pioneers in British Columbia bean to bar chocolate making. On a recent trip to British Columbia, I explored the bean to bar chocolate world by talking to chocolate makers, learning about their process, and eating chocolate. In Canada, 12-year-old Soma Chocolatemaker in Toronto is the granddaddy of this ethical artisan chocolate revolution but the bean to bar chocolate movement has moved west. Some are a bit obsessive and enjoy the challenge of maximising the flavour of each type of bean.Īll the bean to bar chocolate makers I’ve met are concerned about where the beans come from and the lives of the farmers who produce them. The bean to bar chocolate making process involves buying raw cacao beans by the bag and following all the steps – winnowing, conching, tempering – to develop these beans into delicious bars and confections. Choosing the right chocolate beans is an important part of the bean to bar chocolate making process. ![]()
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