- [Narrator] "Taste Makers" is brought to you with support from Missouri Pork Association and Global Foods Market.

(uplifting music) - Single origin bean-to-bar chocolate is just the sweet beginning of the globally impactful Askinosie story.

In this episode, we're gonna get inside the factory and get the scoop.

(uplifting music) I'm Cat Neville, and for the past two decades, I've been telling the story of local food.

In that time, American food culture has exploded in tiny towns and big cities from coast to coast.

In "Taste Makers," I explore the maker movement and take you along for the journey to meet the makers who define the flavor of American cuisine.

(uplifting music) We're about to meet the folks behind Askinosie Chocolate, and when we come back I'm gonna show you how to make a very easy spiced chocolate tart in a shortbread crust.

(playful music) - I was a criminal defense lawyer here in Missouri for about 20 years before I started the chocolate factory, which is now almost 18 years ago.

And I decided I was ready for a change in my career and I just didn't know what I was gonna do.

I had no hobbies other than preparing for the courtroom and working.

I loved that work.

I felt called to it.

So I spent about five years while I was still practicing law, trying to figure out what was next, what's my next passion, what's the next thing that I can do in my life and really feel called to that?

Eventually I started grilling as a hobby, and I got a Big Green Egg, and then I got another one, and then I started baking and making desserts and making chocolate desserts.

And I got this idea that I would make chocolate from scratch.

(playful music) Within a few months of that idea popping into my head, I was in the Amazon learning how farmers influence the flavor of chocolate by how they harvest cocoa beans.

(playful music) I came back, I started to wind down my law practice.

I bought this building and started buying equipment from around the world, and here we are.

- Fermented dried beans come to the factory from around the globe, and from there everything is done here on site by hand from roasting to packaging.

- The chocolate making process begins on the farm.

These farms are tropical.

They're 20 degrees north and south of the equator, so think hot, humid, remote.

There's a pod on these trees.

The pod is pulled off when they're ripe, and they break these pods open.

They gather the beans, and then they bring them to what's called a central fermentary.

It's the very beginning of what's called the fermentation process.

That's gonna take about four to seven days.

The beans need to reach about 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sugars are turning into alcohol, the alcohol is turning into acetic acid, and this place is where all flavor begins in chocolate.

They're gonna dry in the sun for maybe five to 10 days, depending on the humidity and the temperature and the rains and that season.

And then they're gonna be put in bags, put on a ship, and they'll make their way to our factory here.

We're one of the only chocolate makers in the United States that actually imports cocoa beans.

(mellow country music) Once the beans get here, they're going to be cleaned.

And by clean we just mean sort of shaking the beans so we can remove stones and twigs and things like that that might harm our roaster.

And once they're cleaned, they're brought across the street to our factory.

We roast the cocoa beans.

This is a place for us to actually have an influence over the flavor of the chocolate.

It's our only chance.

(machines humming) The farmers influence flavor in fermentation.

We influence flavor in roasting.

It's very, very important.

And if we don't have good beans to start with, then we're not gonna have good chocolate to end up with.

So we have perfect cocoa beans coming from these farmers, and our job is to really sort of enhance what they've done and not mess it up.

Once these beans are roasted, then we're gonna take the shell off of the bean in a winnower.

And we use that shell by the way too.

We don't throw it away.

Brewers buy it to make beer with.

We sometimes give it to farmers to use as a fertilizer and mulch.

But what remains is the inside of the cocoa bean and it's called a nib, a roasted cocoa nib.

We put them in what's called a universal refiner.

It's a big grinder.

(uplifting music) These nibs are heated and ground up over time in our factory, and what we'll do to make chocolate is add organic sugar.

Then over more time, maybe it could be eight hours, 10 hours, 16 hours, we have chocolate.

We are tempering the chocolate at this point.

We have a German tempering machine that we've had for many years.

It controls the temperature of the chocolate to a 10th of a degree.

We don't add cheaters, emulsifiers.

And so it means that the tempering process is even more delicately controlled.

What we're doing is raising the temperature of the chocolate to a melting point, and then lowering it, and then raising it again only slightly so that the chocolate can be molded into individual cavities in these molds that we have.

Then it's put into a cooling tunnel so it will set in the mold.

We release it and then let it sit for about 24 hours.

We package it in what's called NatureFlex.

It looks like cellophane, it isn't.

It's a 100% home compostable wood pulp fiber.

Then it goes into our brown bag with a string on top, and the string actually comes from these bags that you see in this room.

We reuse these bags and put the string on top of the chocolate bar, and then we ship that chocolate bar to about 500 stores in the United States.

(uplifting music) We are a very small company with only about 20 full-time employees, and that's the way it's been since I started the company.

(uplifting music) - Just like wine and chocolate, cocoa beans from different farms create bars that have different flavor as well as different mouthfeel.

(soft meditative music) - So right now the origin locations Askinosie's purchasing beans from would be in Ecuador, the Davao Philippines area, and then in Tanzania.

Each origin has its own profile.

So the, you know, banana and mango trees that you have in Tanzania might impact that flavor profile a little bit, or you know, there's a lot more kind of mineral content in some of the South American locations.

And then just by season, just like in wine or something, there was a lot of water last year, a lot of flooding in Tanzania.

Curious to see what happens with those beans when we get them.

Their flavor might be a little different than it would be if it was, you know, more concentrated with sun.

We might have to roast those a little different to hit the same profile.

So it's really a nuanced situation.

In some of our bars we have some pretty specific ingredients that are sometimes surprising to people.

In a lot of our milk chocolate, we use non-dairy products.

We have a coconut milk that's a vegan dairy-free milk chocolate bar, which is hard to find.

One of my favorites is the sea salt dark chocolate that we have using goat's milk.

It has a really amazing creamy, tangy kind of profile that is really unique but blends perfectly with the salt, and then the dark chocolate solids that we have in that.

I love our Powerhouse bar also, which is a blend of two origins, but it has the cocoa nibs on the back, which I love that texture.

(uplifting music) Having these amazing flavor profiles built into the bars in a clean label is a really cool combination of things to bring to life.

- At the heart of Askinosie's mission, in addition to creating bean-to-bar chocolate is creating direct trade relationships with partner farmers around the globe.

- Askinosie chocolate pioneered in the cocoa industry what's called direct trade, and we were one of the first people to make bean-to-bar chocolate in the United States.

There were about three of us that started around the same time.

Now there's probably 300 in the United States.

But I learned about direct trade coffee from great friends of ours and current customers, Intelligentsia Coffee based in Chicago.

They started direct trade in the coffee industry in the world, and they mentored me all those years ago about how we might practice that in the cocoa industry.

Fair Trade is a third party certifying model where you get to stamp on your chocolate bar that your beans are fair trade certified.

And one of the reasons I don't believe in it is because many studies have indicated that farmers don't end up with the premium that's paid by consumers at the store level or chocolate makers at the cocoa bean level.

Farmers don't get the money.

Other people along the supply chain get the money, but not the farmers.

I don't think it's fair.

So I profit share with farmers.

We've never not done that.

After the selling year, we go back to the farmers and we open our books to them, and this is key.

We translate our consolidated financial statement into their language so that the farmers can understand how we calculate the profit share.

And so number one, we pay them more money for their beans than they would otherwise receive, and we pay them more up front.

So in about 68% of the cases, we're paying farmers months and months in advance.

It would be akin to them getting a 0% interest loan on this money because it may take a year before we actually see the cocoa beans in this warehouse.

Now I'm proud to say that all of these farmer groups are their own exporter of record.

That is a big deal, because they've graduated from being able to just receive money from us to now being able to keep more money, and so they don't have to siphon it off along the supply chain to middlemen and women who might take advantage of them, and now they get to do it themselves.

That's all part of direct trade.

The other thing with direct trade is that we go there.

We go and look at the beans.

We have a relationship with the farmers.

We know who they are, we spend time with their families, and we believe that the chocolate bar that people taste is better because of the relationship that we have with people who spend so much time trying to grow and harvest quality cocoa beans.

It makes a difference in the final product.

(soft meditative music) - It's difficult when you're working across the country just to manage from you know, one location to another even in the United States.

But when you're working internationally, that's a whole nother level of management.

So both on the for-profit and not-for-profit side, we really are lucky to have awesome partners that we work with in each of these villages, each of these farming locations.

- Saraphiner is a field representative who has worked with Askinosie for years, and we had the opportunity to check in with her live from her home in Mababu, Tanzania.

Askinosie, They're very particular about which beans they use and which they don't.

So you essentially are, like, quality control for Askinosie.

You're making sure that all of their standards are being met so that when the farmers are growing the product, they're delivering something that is top-notch.

- I make sure this relationship in business and in community programs, they are well done as the way they're supposed to.

I take a very serious care and making sure that the cocoa beans are well treated till to United States for Askinosie.

- A lot of people are farming cocoa beans in your town.

How has, or has the cocoa bean production changed since Askinosie became involved?

- This is very touching thing I can explain, and I wish every people around world to understand this.

Askinosie has changed the life of Mababu people.

Farmers had their visions of greatness, so Shawn's was there to support them to achieve their visions.

So this business has not just turned to be a business, but a relationship and partnership has become more stronger.

The life of community in Mababu in general, it has changed completely since Askinosie has been involved.

The whole community of Mababu has benefit from Askinosie.

- You're the field representative, but you're also a program manager.

So explain to me what are the programs that Askinosie is coordinating with you for the town?

- Askinosie is buying cocoa beans, first of all, is buying cocoa beans from farmers in a very good price, which is above the standard of the government which they want.

He usually come every trip to share the profit share with farmers.

So he is sharing, again, the profit with farmers, which also helps farmers to uplift their life, but also support the clubs, the programs that we are running here.

We are doing education of supplies, hygienes, and we are trying to help the student to meet their goals and visions.

We are supporting them, we are helping them, we are educating them in schools.

- You can see the direct impact that buying a simple product like a chocolate bar can have on the lives of hundreds, thousands of people.

I mean, that's really powerful.

Thank you very much, Saraphiner, for taking the time and thank you for the work that you're doing to have a positive impact on your community.

It really matters.

- Awesome, I appreciate, thank you very much.

It's been my great honor to talk to you, Cat.

Can you imagine this is because of Askinosie.

I'm talking to Cat.

It's another impact.

- (laughs) It is another impact, and I'm talking to you.

Thank you so much, Saraphiner, I appreciate you.

Bye-Bye.

- Bye.

(forklift rumbling) - There's a lot that really goes into what makes great chocolate or a great cocoa bean, and of course we want all of our beans to be grown organically.

They never use pesticides and chemicals.

None of the places where I buy beans, which is Tanzania, Philippines, and Ecuador, none of them have ever used what we would refer to as child labor or the use of enslaved children.

There's a reason why the chocolate bar at your convenience store cash register counter is the same size as mine but costs 25% what mine does.

So what makes a great cocoa bean is treating people fairly, being a partner with them, and being their friend.

And we have an entire business model built around the way we treat cocoa farmers.

- The faces you see on the Askinosie chocolate bars are all our farmers.

That's their bar, that's their work, that's their chocolate.

And I think it's another way to connect us from consumer to farmer.

When you can shorten the distance between the consumer and the product that they're eating or that they're consuming, I feel like that is really when you can make those connections the most meaningful.

(mellow relaxing music) I also believe that in our communities, there are so many unmet needs locally and internationally.

So again, we're making these impacts across the board, but there are very similar problems down the street from us right here.

Chocolate University is a international business immersion program that we run in the Springfield, Missouri area covering really all of southwest Missouri.

So students that are in high school are able to join Shawn every other year on a cocoa buying trip.

The students have these aha moments, these light bulbs go off in front of your eyes, because they understand the difference between just international trade usually and how most chocolate is traded, and then how this process works.

Chocolate University also has a few other programs focused on younger students.

So if we don't make amazing chocolate, we won't be able to support those programs, and it's all very intrinsic.

So we feel really lucky to have a lot of support from our community here.

(mellow relaxing music) - One of the hallmarks of our company, and one of the things that I say all the time is it's not about the chocolate, it's about the chocolate.

When we're talking about fifth graders in Springfield, Missouri that we're working with, or we're talking about young women that we provide feminine hygiene products for or children that we're feeding in a kindergarten class in the Philippines, that's not about chocolate.

It has absolutely nothing to do with chocolate.

It has to do with mutuality and kinship.

Those are the the character traits of who we are as people.

That's our aspiration is to be a person of kinship with another, to have a shared being with another.

On the other hand, when I'm talking about having a new roaster in the house, delicately controlling the temperature of the chocolate without adding cheater emulsifiers, this is about the chocolate.

It's about the quality of the chocolate.

(uplifting music) I don't want people to try the chocolate because they think that the story is cool.

Because if I focused on that, then eventually I would lose sight of the quality and you'd be trying this chocolate that would taste like a two by four.

In the beginning, we would enter competitions around the world, and when there are only three people in the United States, you're gonna win something.

Now there's 300 in the United States, we're still winning.

And so I want both things to exist at the same time.

I want it to be everything about the chocolate and I want it to be nothing about the chocolate.

Who we are and what we produce is inseparable.

We can't separate that from what we make and what we do and how we treat people.

- So when you have really high-quality chocolate and you want to bake with it, of course you wanna make sure that you are putting it in the spotlight and making those flavors shine.

So I'm gonna show you how to make a very easy shortbread crust chocolate tart.

And we're gonna start with the crust.

This is just classic shortbread.

We have some flour, just one cup.

Now I'm adding in a quarter cup of confectioners' sugar, a little bit of salt, teaspoon of vanilla, and then a stick of butter.

And you want this to be very cold and cut into cubes.

Now you're just going to work all of this together with your hands until it forms a dough.

So now I just have a tiny bit of flour.

I'm gonna roll this guy out.

(playful music) It is gonna go into a tart pan with a bottom that pops out.

This is an extremely forgiving crust.

You just kind of press it in and then take the top off.

And then wherever you have blank spots, that's what all this extra is for.

Just fill it in.

Now the filling that we're going to use is just gonna be ganache, essentially.

It's not going to be cooked.

So you want to make sure that you don't have any holes in the crust.

Now I'm going to put this in a 350 degree oven for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Once it starts turning golden, it's done.

(playful music) My tart shell is nice and cool.

The next step is making the ganache.

And so I'm just gonna chop up the chocolate relatively finely and put it into the bowl.

I'm going to scald some heavy cream.

I have cayenne pepper, about half a teaspoon, and a teaspoon of cinnamon.

About a quarter teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of vanilla, and then I have cardamom.

The aroma of cardamom is wonderful, and if you use the whole pods, you're gonna get a lot more.

So I'm gonna bring this to the boil, and then I'm gonna simmer it for a few minutes so that all of those flavors really go all the way through the cream.

(playful music) All right, feeling pretty good about this.

I'm gonna go ahead and turn off the heat.

Obviously we had those whole cardamom pods, so I'm just gonna strain the cream.

This is gonna sit for a good five minutes or so to allow the chocolate to melt.

(playful music) Okay, now I'm gonna pour this into my shortbread crust.

Now just kinda shake it to even it out.

So this is going to have to set up for roughly two hours until it's solidified.

And so that's why I made a magic of television version last night.

In every episode, I pair my dishes with wines that are made with either American hybrid or native grapes.

And so we are going to pair this with a Norton.

And Norton is a native grape.

It is the state grape of Missouri.

And it is incredibly deep and dark and rich, which is a perfect pair with the chocolate.

If you're looking for any information on the wine or a recipe, all you have to do is go to the website.

(mellow jazz music) When I have dessert, I like for it to be complex, not just sweet.

And this hits all of the right spots for me.

The beautiful, slightly tender, really buttery shortbread, married with this deep, dark, rich, spiced chocolate.

And paired with the Norton, doesn't get much better than this.

Thank you so much for joining me, and I'll see you next time.

(mellow jazz music) (uplifting music) Connect with us online at wearetastemakers.com or through social media on these handles.

(uplifting music) (uplifting music continues) - [Narrator] "Taste Makers" is brought to you with support from Missouri Pork Association and Global Foods Market.

(uplifting music) (upbeat music)