Xocolat Noosa Chocolate Cafe

Our Cacao Story
Cacao passes through 3 sets of hands - The Farmer, The Chocolate Maker & The Chocolatier before it reaches yours!
1. Source
Our chocolate can only be as good as the quality of the cacao we source. Our Chocolate Maker spends much of his time searching for rare varieties of heritage cacao that produces the finest of flavours in some of the most remotest and beautiful places on the planet. To secure these sources he works hard to build relationships with the growers – striving to deal 100% direct.
2. Harvest
Pod colour is only a rough guide to bean ripeness. Farmers rely on experience to assess when perfect ripeness has been reached. A task not made easy by the fact that pods on the same tree do not always ripen evenly. Once harvested the pods are split open with jungle knives and carried in bags to the fermentation boxes.
Our Cacao Story
3. Fermentation
A diverse range of flavour is created through a careful fermentation process. Fresh wet beans are placed in wooden boxes, where natural yeasts combine with the fruit sugars to kick-off the ferment and begin a complex flavour development process. Balancing time and temperature, the farmer purposely moves the beans between the boxes to ensure full flavour development.
4. Drying
After the beans have completed fermentation they are slowly sun dried. The drying process further develops flavour complexity and bean quality. The way in which a farmer skilfully dries the bean is an art form in itself. Once the beans are dried they are placed in sacks and sent to our chocolate makers factory. The factory is filled with a vintage collection of chocolate making machines - each specifically chosen to perform a traditional task in the fascinating craft of chocolate making.
5. Sort
The first step for our Chocolate Maker is to hand sort the beans to ensure only the finest make it through.
Our Cacao Story
6. Roast
The cacao beans are then roasted slowly at low temperatures in our Chocolate Makers 1930’s Barth Sirocco ball roaster. Roasting further develops chocolate flavour and locks in bean personality. As a rule – the beans are roasted low and slow.
7. Crack & Winnnow
Our Chocolate Makers winnower was recovered from an abandoned chocolate factory in Latin America. Using belts, screens and blowers the 100-year old winnower breaks the bean and separates the cocoa nibs from the husk.
8. Stone Ground & Conche
The cacao nibs are then combined with organic raw sugar in a 1910 Guitard melangeur. The traditional stone melangeur gently grinds the nibs and sugar into a rich chocolate paste. The chocolate is then polished between granite stones of a vintage Carle & Montanari conche. The conche is the chocolate makers tuning fork.
9. Ready for the Chocolatier
Finally the chocolate is carefully poured into large moulds and set to rest before sending to the chocolatier to be made into delectable treats.
Our Cacao Story
10. Tempering
16 Degrees Chocolatiers then temper the chocolate. Tempering is done by melting solid chocolate to 45°C a temperature high enough that the crystals in the cacao butter break down. It is then cooled to 28°C, a temperature at which crystals will start to form again so that the chocolate can eventually resolidify. The chocolates temperature is then raised slightly to 32°C where it is very fluid and can be poured into chocolate moulds and used for other applications.
The ‘Beta 5 crystals’ (stable crystals contained in the cacao butter of chocolate) start to form when the chocolate is cooled. They provide the necessary structure for the chocolate to become shiny, smooth and ‘snap’ when broken or bitten into.
Chocolate that is not tempered or incorrectly tempered will have no shine, possibly be discoloured and lack the sharp ‘snap’ when broken.
This organic heirloom cacao is a precious and very limited resource. It is used by only a handful of chocolatiers – one of the others being the prestigious Harrods of London.