Adventure to the Chocolate Factory

Oompa Loompa loompity doo, I've got another riddle for you... 

As part of my Food Challenge 2012, I wanted to explore the world of fair trade chocolate. (Who doesn't, really?!) Fremont, a quirky hipster neighborhood in Seattle, is home to the Theo Chocolate factory. I've been treating myself to Theo chocolates for special occasions for a few years and love it- it's super fancy stuff and incredibly high quality, and so, so delicious.


A classmate of mine in grad school started Kallari Chocolate, and I think this is the first time that the importance of fair trade chocolate really resonated with me. She was (and is) passionate about working with cacao farmers to increase their income and get a fair wage for high quality chocolate, all while preserving the environment that the beans are grown in.


It's becoming a better-known fact that large industrial food corporations like Hershey's get their chocolate from sources that use slave and child labor to farm the cocoa. In my opinion (and I hope yours), it's important to be aware of where your food comes from, and I have no desire to support child labor, human trafficking or slavery. (Plus, once you have high quality chocolate like Theo or Kallari, it's pretty clear that crappy chocolate is a waste of calories and money.)


Theo Chocolate is the first organic, fair trade, bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the United States. They source their beans from a variety of regions and roast and process them in the factory in Seattle. This means that the farmers who grow the beans get paid fairly and respectfully. Their chocolate is made with high quality ingredients, and wow! can you taste the difference.


                                        

My mom's new husband, Eric, and I are both big fans of chocolate, so we took a tour of the factory together a few weeks ago. Our peppy tour guide spent the first 15 minutes talking about the history of Theo and what it means to be fair trade, all the while dispensing samples of the chocolate (almond cherry! chai tea! orange!).

I can't remember what this machinery does but it looks really awesome, right?

Then our little group proceded to a glassed in room in the center of the factory. Unfortunately we were there on a weekend so there was no activity. Or oompa-loompas. Or chocolate rivers. He talked us through the process of roasting the beans, making them into a paste, adding cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla beans, and maybe milk, and then we wandered around. The factory smelled like roasted cocoa beans and was really warm (which makes sense, I guess).

The kitchen at Theo Chocolate. I'd LOVE to explore in here! The marble slabs on the right keep the chocolate cool as they're creating confections with it. 

Then we went to the gigantic kitchen, which was my favorite part. Theo makes a lot of chocolate-covered caramels and "confections" on-site, and it was fascinating to see the equipment. The perky tour guide kept the samples flowing. At the end, the sugar-buzzed tour group was deposited in the retail shop and collectively probably spent hundreds on quirky chocolate bars- "bread and chocolate", "ghost chile caramels" and "fig and fennel".

I also don't remember what this was used for, but there's bowl full of chocolate on it.
Tell me... why didn't I go to culinary school??

                             
Eric and I both enjoyed the tour. I actually wish that they'd gone further in depth about the politics of chocolate and what it means, financially and politically, to be a fair-trade chocolate producer, but I guess they have to reach out to a diverse audience and be somewhat accessible to someone who isn't a total foodie. I'd like to return for a tour, but on a busy weekday. I really enjoy factory tours- I like the big machines and watching the repetitive process of chocolates getting wrapped or beer bottles getting filled. I recommend the Theo tour for chocolate fans and Seattleites alike- for $6, you get a decent amount of samples and a pretty interesting, informational tour. And you'll hopefully never go back to eating crappy chocolate.

These gigantic vats are full of chocolate. They're huge- maybe 9 feet tall?